There were exactly zero policy surprises at Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s afternoon COVID-19 news conference yesterday. As predicted by everyone everywhere, Mr. Kenney pulled the plug immediately on the province’s vaccine passport – which was euphemistically known as the “Restrictions Exemption Program,” so he could deny ever having implemented such a thing. By the time […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
‘It’s time for this lawlessness to end’ – Rachel Notley rips Jason Kenney’s inaction on illegal border blockade
The 10-day blockade of the main border crossing between Alberta and the United States had damaged the provincial economy to the tune of about half a billion dollars by yesterday. Yet Jason Kenney – the self-described premier of jobs, economy, pipelines – has done nothing about the illegal blockade on the highway just north of […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Right-wing U.S. paw prints are all over Ottawa occupation and other convoy disruptions
Where are Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party now that evidence is accumulating the disruptive and threatening “Freedom Convoy” occupation of Ottawa is being funded and supported by far-right activists in the United States? Mr. Kenney and his crowd, after all, were the guys who demanded a “public inquiry” into alleged foreign […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
$9.8M lawsuit targets Ottawa occupation leaders; GoFundMe cuts off $10M fund; Tamara Lich quits Maverick Party board
Ottawa lawyer Paul Champ filed a statement of claim in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice yesterday seeking $4.8 million in damages for “private nuisance” and $5 million in punitive damages for the beleaguered residents of the national capital’s downtown core from the outlaw truckers occupying the city. The $9.8-million class action lawsuit focuses on […]
Posted inBestsellers
Avenue of Champions by Metis author Conor Kerr returns to top of Alberta independent bookshops’ fiction bestseller list
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. Readers will notice that Mr. Kerr’s An Explosion of Feathers […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Emboldened by Erin O’Toole’s fate in Ottawa, UCP anti-vaxx faction eyes Jason Kenney
Emboldened by the success of the social conservative coup plotters who overthrew Conservative Party of Canada leader Erin O’Toole in Ottawa Wednesday, the same anti-vaccine faction of Alberta’s United Conservative Party is now eyeing Premier Jason Kenney. Not that Mr. Kenney is a moderate. Far from it. But he is politically wounded, unpopular with voters, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Five environmental groups file statement of claim in defamation suit against Jason Kenney
After giving Jason Kenney more than two months to apologize for or retract his claims they spread false information about Alberta’s fossil fuel industry, five environmental groups followed through yesterday on their threat to sue Alberta’s premier and the provincial government for defamation. In a statement of claim filed with Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Larivee, nurse and former NDP cabinet minister, announces plan to return to public life
After all the grim, disturbing and strangely familiar Groundhog Day news yesterday, it was nice to learn this morning of a positive development in Alberta politics – the return of Danielle Larivee to public life. Ms. Larivee, a public health nurse and capable former NDP cabinet minister, said in a news release she intends to […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Occupation of Canada’s national capital by a lawless mob must end forthwith
Am I the only Canadian outside Ottawa who thinks this bullshit in our national capital has gone on long enough? Am I the only Canadian who recognizes that the mob now occupying the area around Parliament Hill does not have the interests of Canadians or Canadian democracy at heart? Am I the only one who […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Convoys, COVID and Conservative discord dominate Jason Kenney’s return from Washington governors’ clambake
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, back from an ill-timed and seemingly mostly fruitless trip to Washington D.C., pleaded for federal Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole’s political life yesterday at a typical Alberta Government news conference about nothing in particular. “I would just say this to my friends in the federal Conservative party, I don’t think in […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
A not-so-bold prediction: that $9.5-million GoFundMe pot will be a tempting target for Ottawa civil lawyers
The mysteriously sourced “Freedom Convoy 2022” account on the GoFundMe crowd-funding site sat at more than $9.5 million yesterday. Its fund-raising goal, which has been repeatedly ratcheted up over the past two weeks, is now $10-million. Meanwhile, as the occupation of their city by far-right “freedom convoy” anti-vaccine-mandate protesters continues into its fourth full day […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Did Jason Kenney’s support for Ottawa anti-vaxx-mandate convoy protest encourage copycat Coutts blockade he now condemns?
It would be ironic if Premier Jason Kenney’s baseless claim a week ago that Ottawa’s vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers had led to empty shelves in Alberta grocery stores ended up causing real shortages. Mr. Kenney’s tweets of photos of empty grocery shelves and his tendentious assertions that “with a quarantine rule for unvaccinated truckers, […]