As is typical of the man, Jason Kenney’s cabinet shuffle yesterday, while clearly necessary, was delivered in a slippery manner. Leastways, the usual cheerful statement alerting the media that a big upcoming announcement was in the offing appeared in no one’s email inbox before the minimalist news release announcing the shuffle to “fill vacancies left […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Verna Yiu, fired in April as Alberta Health Services CEO, named University of Alberta provost and academic vice-president
When governments fire high-profile officials, they like them to stay fired. This is particularly true of governments like the UCP under Jason Kenney that have an obvious vindictive streak.
Posted inAlberta Politics
What’s with Danielle Smith’s nutty, sophomoric campaign to lead Alberta’s UCP? Maybe she’s just bored!
Whatever she’s up to now, it’s scary to wonder if Danielle Smith was nursing the same plans back in 2012 when she seemed to be on the verge of winning the top political job in Confederation’s richest province.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Thomas Dang, cleared of criminal offence in whistleblowing case, applies for readmission to NDP Caucus
Meanwhile, the RCMP fraud investigation into the 2017 “Kamikaze campaign” to bring down UCP leadership candidate Brian Jean and elect Jason Kenney as leader of the then-new party is said to be continuing.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Launching UCP leadership bid, Brian Jean promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, Alberta style
Aside from its American undertones – all pretty normal in conservative Alberta circles nowadays – Brian Jean’s long-awaited UCP leadership campaign-launch speech was about what you’d expect.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Rebecca Schulz vows to change the United Conservative Party’s nasty tone, but not necessarily its right-wing agenda
The first-term Calgary MLA is said to have the support of former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall and former interim federal Conservative leader Rona Ambrose.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta pulls plug on efforts to control COVID-19; Rajan Sawhney quits cabinet, joins race to replace Jason Kenney
The pandemic may not be over but no one can argue it’s not now officially over in Alberta. Leadership candidate Rajan Sawhney, meanwhile, vows to be an alternative to “more of the same” at the head of the UCP.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta’s UCP government may be in transition, but its hostile communications style is unchanged
There may have been a half-hour wait for the ambulance to arrive after three dogs mauled an elderly Calgary woman, but that was someone else’s fault, says the health minister’s press secretary.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta progressives whipsaw themselves from hope to despair – but less may have changed than it appears
So what is this, already? The spring of hope or the winter of despair? Two months ago, tout le monde progressive Alberta was high on the certainty that the next provincial election would be the NDP’s with a snap of the fingers. A few good polls will do that to people. But as awful as […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Awkward family portraits: Travis Toews and his supporters try to give an impression of unity and inevitability
If Rachel Notley’s NDP hopes to form the next government of Alberta, they’re going to have to come up with something better to campaign on than a pledge to open the Sky Palace to the public!
Posted inAlberta Politics
What do you do about a problem like Shane Getson, the UCP MLA whose Facebook post appeared to call for the PM to be lynched?
For his part, the UCP MLA claims he didn’t know that the poster he published on his Facebook page was a reference to the TV series Yellowstone, or that it implied a suggestion the PM be lynched.
Posted inAlberta Politics
For a high-profile minister, UCP’s first official leadership candidate, Travis Toews, has flown under the radar
Despite his high-profile job as Alberta’s finance minister and soaring political ambitions, Travis Toews has kept a remarkably low profile. Just look at the uninformative media coverage of the announcement when Mr. Toews, Alberta’s minister of finance until yesterday, became the first candidate formally to throw his cowboy hat in the ring to replace the […]