The Omicron surge is hitting everywhere in Canada, with Alberta reporting 872 new cases of the aggressive new variant of the COVID-19 virus over the weekend, bringing the total number of reported cases yesterday to 1,045. If patterns observed elsewhere in the world are repeated here, though, this province could have well over 16,000 Omicron […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Chaotic implementation of free rapid COVID test distribution shows a government that can’t plan, or doesn’t
If the announcement last week of plans to distribute a half million free rapid COVID-19 tests to Albertans starting on Friday was supposed to give the Kenney Government a boost, the chaotic implementation may have had the opposite effect. If anything has become clear about Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party Government over the past […]
Posted inBestsellers
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good returns to top of independent bookshops’ Alberta 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, Dec. 12, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. I will restrict my comments today to the observation that […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
N.W.T. drops Alberta school curriculum, adopts B.C.’s – a powerful symbol of what’s gone awry under Jason Kenney
The news release from the Northwest Territories Government doesn’t even mention Alberta, but just the same it’s a powerful symbol of what’s gone awry in the province to the south under the United Conservative Party Government of Premier Jason Kenney. The release published yesterday in Yellowknife said that the N.W.T.’s education minister, R.J. Simpson, and […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Unvaccinated Albertans are now welcome at family gatherings, so brace yourselves for the Best Christmas Ever!
Never mind the Omicron variant, Alberta, it looks like we’re going to have the Best Christmas Ever. So brace yourselves. With unvaccinated Albertans now welcome at family gatherings, this could turn out to be a repeat of the Best Summer Ever. Premier Jason Kenney didn’t actually use those words at his hastily organized news conference […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Ominous Omicron variant, prime minister Justin Trudeau, and rival Brian Jean all throw sand in Jason Kenney’s gears
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney hardly seemed to know what to do yesterday. As a result, he did nothing. Mr. Kenney was scheduled to make a big announcement about health care – widely assumed based on hints dropped by the premier himself to be a relaxation of holiday restrictions just in time for a fourth wave […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Kenney Government backs off plan to immediately implement widely condemned K-6 curriculum draft
Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange yesterday executed a reluctant partial climbdown from Alberta’s controversial draft kindergarten-to-Grade-6 curriculum, announcing the Kenney Government will delay implementation of changes to how four subjects are taught in elementary schools. Educators mostly cautiously praised the announcement as a step in the right direction. Or, as Alberta Teachers Association President Jason […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Kenney rival Brian Jean wins UCP nomination in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche; hastily announces vote result himself
With Brian Jean as the United Conservative Party’s candidate in the still unscheduled by-election in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, there will be no one running who supports Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. In addition to Mr. Jean, who makes no bones about the fact he intends to try to replace Mr. Kenney as UCP leader, voters […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Brian Jean says he’s won UCP nomination vote for Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche by-election
So far we only have Brian Jean’s word for it, but the former Wildrose Party leader and Jason Kenney’s principal rival in the 2017 race to lead the United Conservative Party in 2017, says he has won the UCP nomination contest for the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche by-election. In a statement published on Facebook early […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Why the UCP won’t use Bill 81’s nomination-stacking provisions to mess with the NDP
There’s been some online chatter since the passage of Bill 81 about the possibility the United Conservative Party might use the Election Statutes Amendment Act, 2021, to seed the NDP with lunatic candidates who could destroy the Opposition party or secret neoliberals who would switch their allegiance once elected. Since the act legalizes the for-all-practical-purposes […]
Posted inBestsellers
State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny leads Alberta independent bookshops’ 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, Dec. 5, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. Since former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s fictional arrival (if […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Despite a few dissenting voices, unsettling new nomination-stacking law shows Jason Kenney firmly in control of party and caucus
Presumably the risk remains small that deep-pocketed United Conservative Party activists will ever buy party memberships in the names of hundreds of random Albertans, funnel the funds to the party, and use the new “members’” stolen identities to vote for nomination candidates who meet the approval of the party’s leader. More likely, the UCP Cabinet […]