VANCOUVER – No sooner were Alberta separatists celebrating provincial Justice Minister Mickey Amery’s secession-friendly Bill 14 for ending the court challenge that sought to block the Alberta Prosperity Project’s separation petition question than the Alberta Court of King’s Bench threw a spanner into the works. Mr. Justice Colin Feasby issued a decision Thursday that the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP trots out woke-gun-grab hysteria in hopes of keeping its MAGAfied far-right critics on a leash
WHITEHORSE, Yukon – After that putative pipeline deal with the feds riled up the substantial posse of Alberta separatists at the United Conservative Party’s annual general meeting last weekend far more than the premier obviously expected, it’s hardly surprising Danielle Smith looked south for an inspiration about how to get the party’s lunatic fringe to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Chief Electoral Officer declares Forever Canadian petition a verified success – so what happens next?
Thanks to the success of former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian petition campaign, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith now finds herself on the proverbial horns of a very real dilemma. Alberta Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure announced yesterday that sufficient signatures have been verified for the requirements of the Citizen Initiative Act to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
The Frankenparty stitched together by Jason Kenney spawns a separatist monster in its ranks
The Frankenparty stitched together in 2017 by Jason Kenney from the Wildrose Party and the Progressive Conservatives has spawned a monster. Hard-line Alberta separatists who were tolerated by Mr. Kenney and have for months been coddled by Premier Danielle Smith as a weapon against Justin Trudeau last night chose half or nearly half the new […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Expect an Alberta election call shortly, before anyone realizes that pipeline to Prince Rupert is unlikely ever to be built
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith must have experienced a strong feeling of déjà vu yesterday as she announced her grand pipeline bargain with Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney – after all, she’s switched teams and crossed the floor before. Unlike the last time, in December 2014, yesterday’s announcement wasn’t technically a parliamentary floor crossing, but as […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith doesn’t need a pipeline to Prince Rupert – she just needs Mark Carney to promise she can have one
Danielle Smith doesn’t need a pipeline to Prince Rupert, she just needs Mark Carney to promise she can have one, with sketchy details to follow. Then, just like that, Alberta’s premier could call an early election and get her United Conservative Party re-elected based in her success pushing Canada’s new Liberal prime minister around with […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Five more UCP MLAs’ names added to Elections Alberta’s growing recall list
As Elections Alberta approved five more recall petitions yesterday, bringing the number of United Conservative Party MLAs facing at least a theoretical threat of losing their jobs to 14, provincial government cabinet ministers kept repeating their dubious mantra that their party’s Recall Act was never intended to be used this way. Perhaps we can give […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta’s growing list of MLA recall petitions is a grassroots phenomenon that’s turning into a grassfire!
Knowing that he’s almost certainly destined for the long jump, metaphorically speaking, it must be mildly satisfying for Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure to have to keep approving those MLA recall-petition applications. Nine applicants have now been given the stamp of approval by Mr. McClure’s office to start collecting signatures to remove their MLAs. Six […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Cringe as they may be, don’t assume Canada’s radical far right is going to fail, warns high-profile social media commentator
On her Instagram account, Rachel Gilmore describes herself as “your least favourite person’s least favourite journalist.” Judging from the reactions her aggressively progressive commentary gets on the various social media platforms she uses, this is pretty much nails it. If anyone knows how to make insecure incel brains explode or get those corporate bankrolled “weirdo […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta moves to make quackery great again while protecting egregiously unprofessional behaviour
Rest assured, Alberta’s Bill 13, the so-called Regulated Professions Neutrality Act, has little to do with protecting freedom of expression. Despite Premier Danielle Smith’s claim during a news conference announcing the legislation yesterday that “professionals should never fear losing their licence or career because of a social media post, an interview, or a personal opinion […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith dared Eastern Slopes coal mine opponents to start a citizen initiative petition – so Corb Lund did
Albertan country music icon Corb Lund showed up in Edmonton yesterday to drop off a citizen initiative application at the offices of Elections Alberta for a referendum petition seeking permanent protection of the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains from coal mining. In other words, a situation much like what we had from 1976, when […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith has a plan: Alberta will destroy health care in order to save it!
Apparently, Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party have decided they’re going to have to destroy health care in order to save it. That’s about the most positive spin that can be put on Ms. Smith’s plan, revealed by The Globe and Mail yesterday morning, to allow doctors to set up a private stream for […]