Despite getting a much-ballyhooed $7-million in start-up costs from the Alberta Government in 2023, a year later Cenovus Energy Inc. pulled the plug on its study of the potential for so-called small modular reactors to generate power to wring oil from Alberta’s oilsands. To the company’s credit, it only spent $555,000 of the public’s money […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
The ink’s barely dry on the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission report and it may be in trouble
The final recommendations of Alberta’s Electoral Boundaries Commission released yesterday are probably about the best that could be expected given the ridiculous limitation that only two additional seats could be added to the Legislature’s current 87 despite the province’s burgeoning population. After all, the commissioners had to draw the lines somewhere, and the way they […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Coalition of First Nations and farmers demands environmental assessment of oilsands carbon capture scheme
With the deadline for the Alberta-Canada memorandum of understanding on pipelines fast approaching – on April Fool’s Day a week from today – a newly formed coalition of First Nations, farmers and other rural residents is demanding a comprehensive environmental assessment on a proposed pipeline that would carry liquified carbon waste from the oilsands south […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
You did taw a puddy tat! But what it was made of is officially now debatable
Fairness requires that I inform readers that Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government has now come up with official talking points about that controversial golden puddy tat, said to have been bestowed upon Premier Danielle Smith by a member of the Saudi Arabian royal family. Alert readers will recall that during Question Period in the Alberta […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
With the cat out of the bag, Danielle Smith’s alleged gifts from foreign governments prompt sharp questions
As was famously said by the renowned expert on domestic safety and social order, Tweety Bird: “I tawt I taw a puddy tat!” And this is not just any puddy tat, as it turns out. It is a politically significant puddy tat made out of gold! I speak of the graven image of a feline […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith sure doesn’t look like a suitable person to be privy to Canadian state secrets
When Premier Danielle Smith revealed Wednesday during Question Period in the Alberta Legislature that she is seeking national security clearance from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, she put Canada’s spy agency in a potentially difficult spot. Jousting with Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi about the danger of foreign interference in the separation referendum she is determined […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP to rural municipalities: Forget about ever collecting those unpaid O&G property taxes
Monday’s report of the Alberta Government’s so-called Property Tax Accountability Strategy Working Group had lots of big ideas about how to recover unpaid taxes “from companies that are still operating and reducing future unpaid taxes.” Seventeen recommendations in all, according to the government’s news release, which also quoted Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams piously explaining […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
No Order of Canada for Cherry? That’s the pits, sour grapes Conservatives insist
Tout le monde MAGA Alberta, apparently anxious to quit Canada as quickly as possible and maybe even join the gong show south of the 49th Parallel, is all of a sudden, speaking of gongs, in a swivet because Don Cherry doesn’t have an Order of Canada! Go figure! Is it just me, or is this […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
$90M for private schools is terrible public policy, but it makes political sense for the UCP
Critics say the United Conservative Government’s plan to fund private-school construction projects to the tune of $90 million over three years makes no sense. Alas, the scheme announced by Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides at the end of last week to “create 6,000 new student spaces at independent schools,” as the government’s news release tendentiously put […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Despite the misgivings of many progressives, Mark Carney, sworn in as PM a year ago today, is undeniably a political success
Mark Carney was sworn in as prime minister of Canada a year ago today, and surely even his opponents must admit he’s enjoyed considerable success in his first year on the job. Many progressive Canadians with deep misgivings about the direction in which Mr. Carney is taking the country are nevertheless watching with a certain […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
New Democrats feel the Carney burn as Nunavut MP Lori Idlout crosses floor to Liberals
Like their Conservative counterparts who have already felt the Carney burn three times, federal New Democrats will be none too happy about the not-completely-unexpected news late yesterday that Nunavut MP Lori Idlout has crossed the floor to join the Liberal Government as it creeps toward a post-election majority. When I predicted in yesterday’s post that […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Avi Lewis pulls ahead in fund-raising and the vibe as end of federal NDP leadership race nears
Online voting started yesterday in the NDP leadership contest, which from the start has appeared to be a two-horse race between Avi Lewis and Heather McPherson. The auguries suggest Mr. Lewis is now in the lead and pulling farther ahead. Mr. Lewis is the scion of the Lewis political family, which has been prominent in […]