If Leela Aheer hopes to continue her career in Alberta provincial politics, she’ll probably need to find a new political party. Well, sure, the United Conservative Party MLA who lately has become a frequent and vocal critic of Premier Jason Kenney could theoretically still win the United Conservative Party nomination in her Chestermere-Strathmore riding just […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Here’s what happened when a courageous medical officer of health was fired by Alberta Conservatives
The sudden firing of a medical officer of health was a shocking development in Alberta politics. On Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2002, the medical officer of health for the Palliser Health Authority in southeastern Alberta was informed he’d been terminated for speaking out on the harmful health impacts of burning fossil fuels and expressing his support […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Impact of UCP’s brutal post-secondary funding cuts sparks fear in University of Lethbridge’s Music Department
Faculty and students in the University of Lethbridge Music Department are fearful of the impact of a “drastic restructuring” of academic programs brought about by the Kenney Government’s brutal funding cuts to Alberta’s public post-secondary institutions in last February’s provincial budget. In a letter to published Saturday on the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra’s Facebook page, U […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
There are several reasons for Jason Kenney’s enthusiasm for ‘small modular reactors’ – none of them are particularly good
Small nuclear reactors don’t make any more economic sense now than they did back in the summer of 2020 when Alberta Premier Jason Kenney took to the Internet to tout the supposed benefits of the largely undeveloped technology being promoted by Canada’s nuclear industry. Now that Mr. Kenney has taken to Twitter again to claim […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Don’t worry about mandatory vaccinations coming to Alberta – if they do, we’ll call them something different
“Alberta’s Legislature removed the power of mandatory vaccination from the Public Health Act last year and will not revisit that decision, period,” Premier Jason Kenney tweeted yesterday. Just in case any Albertans were in doubt about what he really meant, about an hour later Brock Harrison, Mr. Kenney’s communications director, tweeted the same sentiment. “Not […]
Posted inBestsellers
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig tops Independent bookshops’ Alberta Fiction Bestseller List for week ended Jan. 2
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. 2, 2022. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. ALBERTA FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. The Midnight Library – Matt Haig […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
If only Alberta had an institution that could support students forced to learn at home – like it did until 2020
With this pandemic disrupting education in Alberta, if only we’d had an institution that could have supported students forced to learn at home, help their parents, and provide digital curriculum resources province-wide! We did, of course. Before it was closed by the United Conservative Party, it was known as the Alberta Distance Learning Centre. The […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Private Edmonton university sees the first faculty strike in Alberta history – it likely won’t be the last
With labour disputes looming at three Alberta public universities, it came as a surprise when the faculty association at a small private university in Edmonton became the first in the province’s history to walk off the job in a legal strike. But at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, some of the 82 full-time professors, librarians, lab […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney holds a news conference about nothing – the rest of us are just going to have to suck it up!
Jason Kenney held a news conference about nothing yesterday. Alberta’s premier said he’s “very determined” there will be no additional delays and schools will reopen as planned on Monday, the continued rapid spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 notwithstanding. It doesn’t sound as if much has been done to make schools safer, so teachers […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Don’t imagine UCP’s Eastern Slopes coal mining plans have gone away – Jason Kenney still has his eyes on that prize
The plan to approve coal developments on the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains is another thing that remains on the United Conservative Party’s agenda – if not for 2022, at least for some point in the future after the 2023 election is out of the way. This is another tidbit that can be prised […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Spinning delay as a favour to teachers and a response to COVID, Kenney indicates he’ll press on with controversial curriculum
The way Jason Kenney told the story, Alberta parents and teachers would like his United Conservative Party government to “go a bit slower” rolling out the new primary school curriculum it introduced in late March to widespread opposition. To those who have been following the controversy created by the curriculum dreamed up by Alberta’s premier, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
A New Year’s message from the author: Please consider signing up for my weekly email roundup of posts
As regular readers of AlbertaPolitics.ca know, there are a lot of posts on this blog, generally divided into three general topic areas: Alberta politics, Canadian politics, and geopolitics. It’s my blog, and I always said that I’d write about topics that interested me, and I wouldn’t necessarily write about topics on which other people are […]