It is an actual fact that Alberta MP David Yurdiga launched a petition yesterday calling on the House of Commons to stop using the term “assault rifle” to describe assault rifles. Mr. Yurdiga is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada, naturally. He was elected to the House of Commons in 2014 and has […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
No fiscal reckoning for health care – just yet, anyway – Alberta premier tells largely news-free news conference
O Budget, where is thy fiscal sting? O Premier, where is thy fiscal victory? From 2016, when he first cast his eyes on Alberta provincial politics, until a few weeks ago when his polls slipped into the basement, the words “fiscal discipline” and “fiscal reckoning” were often on Premier Jason Kenney’s lips. The first was […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Casino capitalism comes to newspapers and it sure looks like the dealin’s done!
Newspapering was a great career, fun and pretty well paid too, once upon a time. I’m pretty sure, though, that the whole daily newspaper thing is really closing in on the end of the line now. Evidence? The day before yesterday, the Tyee reported that both the Torstar Corp. and Postmedia Inc. newspaper chains knew […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Ty Lund, 23-year PC MLA and holder of four cabinet portfolios, dead at 82
Ty Lund, one of the hardy perennials of the Progressive Conservative Dynasty who served six terms as MLA for Rocky Mountain House, has died at 82. Mr. Lund was born in the west-central Alberta town about 50 kilometres west of Red Deer on the last day of March in 1938, near where his family had […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
University of Alberta faces more than half of budget’s brutal post-secondary cuts – so why does UCP have it in for U of A?
University of Alberta President William Flanagan’s mildly worded protest Friday that nearly half of the massive $126-million cut to post-secondary education in Alberta will be borne by the University of Alberta is certain to fall on deaf ears within Premier Jason Kenney’s governing United Conservative Party. “In Budget 2021, the University of Alberta’s provincial grant […]
Posted inBestsellers
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig tops Alberta independent bookshops’ fiction bestseller list for week ended Feb. 21
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books in Edmonton and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. ALBERTA FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. The Midnight Library – Matt Haig […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta Budget 2021 hot take: Sweeter language, same old ‘fiscal reckoning,’ and no path to balance
When Finance Minister Travis Toews got up on his hind legs in the Alberta Legislature to read his 2021 Budget Speech Thursday afternoon, there wasn’t as much tough talk about the coming “fiscal reckoning” as Albertans are accustomed to. Instead of the kind of language the United Conservative Party used to love using to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Was Travis Toews’s decision not to buy new boots in 2019 the start of the UCP’s run of bad fortune? Just askin’
While nervously awaiting Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews’s budget tomorrow, let’s spare a thought for the uniquely Canadian tradition of finance ministers buying new shoes to wear on Budget Day. According to the Wikipedia, Walter Edward Harris, who served a spell as finance minister in Louis St. Laurent’s Liberal cabinet, was likely the first to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Unsustainable Alberta: Don’t expect the UCP to pay any attention to the Business Council of Alberta in tomorrow’s budget
It’s Alberta Budget Day tomorrow. Finance Minister Travis Toews will table a budget at an afternoon pop-up meeting of the Legislature. Then United Conservative Party MLAs will run like hell for their ridings and hunker down until the Legislature’s business resumes on March 8. Whatever Mr. Toews has to say, there’s not much danger he […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Advice for Jason Kenney: If you’re going to sup with the Devil, you need a longer spoon
Jason Kenney didn’t actually say there were very fine people at Saturday’s tiki-torch parade at the Alberta Legislature, but his half-hearted condemnation of the racist overtones of the tawdry “one-voice walk for freedom” surely came from the same place. It took Alberta’s United Conservative Party premier almost 48 hours to condemn the march, which was […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Brian Brennan, 77, elegant wordsmith, musician, courageous trade unionist
Brian Brennan, elegant wordsmith, storyteller, professional musician and brave leader of the strike at the Calgary Herald in 1999 and 2000, died yesterday. He was 77. For many years at the Herald, Brian specialized in writing obituaries, each a polished gem of a few hundred words. Often they celebrated the lives of remarkable people whose […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Despite giving UCP a hard time, Critical Infrastructure Defence Act no threat to defiant pastor and his COVID-sceptical flock
Small groups of supporters of James Coates, the temporarily jailed pastor of an Edmonton-area church who has been defiantly refusing to obey Alberta’s COVID-19 restrictions, protested in front of the Edmonton Remand Centre Thursday and yesterday. They rallied outside that monumental piece of critical Alberta infrastructure demanding the GraceLife Church’s pastor be freed. Pastor Coates […]