Nothing much has changed since the last time Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government trotted out its “patient-focused funding” scheme for hospitals. It’s still a bad policy that will force hospitals to game the system, increase bureaucracy, and hurt patients while delivering few benefits. Naturally, this is not what the UCP claimed yesterday in an announcement […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Former cabinet minister Rebecca Schulz quietly resigned her seat in the Legislature two weeks ago
According to the website of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Calgary-Shaw MLA Rebecca Schulz gave up her seat on May 15. That’s not a surprise, but it’s odd. It’s no surprise because when the former minister in cabinets formed by United Conservative Party premiers Jason Kenney and Danielle Smith announced her resignation as Alberta’s environment […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Who will be demonized by Conservatives as Alberta’s official Bond villain now that Steven Guilbeault is quitting?
Who will be demonized by Alberta Conservatives as this province’s official Bond villain now that Steven Guilbeault has announced he’s quitting politics? Mr. Guilbeault made his announcement yesterday. It wasn’t exactly a bombshell. It’s been expected for a while. A lifelong environmental activist, he obviously sees Prime Minister Mark Carney’s volte-face on the environmental policies […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Prime minister’s Wexit warning prompts western whinging by Calgary Conservative MP with ties to Oklahoma
When Prime Minister Mark Carney called Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s relentless campaign to ensure there’s some form of separation referendum on a provincial ballot next fall “a dangerous bluff” and “not helpful” yesterday, City News in Ottawa sent a reporter to find a Conservative MP who would complain about it. To many of us, Mr. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith vows to do everything humanly possible to keep Alberta in Canada – over and over and over again
The lady doth protest too much, methinks. In addition to blaming everyone but herself for the national unity crisis she’s been trying for months to foment, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith used a news conference in Calgary yesterday to insist repeatedly that no one’s more loyal to Canada than she is and for sure she’ll be […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith promotes delusional history of U.S. and Canadian constitutions to push separation referendum
In Danielle Smith’s Alberta, if the facts don’t support your argument, you can make up new facts. Alberta’s premier demonstrated this capacity yesterday evening in her delusional 15-minute televised address to the province wherein she set out to explain the differences between the Canadian and United States constitutions in order to justify holding a referendum […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP plan to railroad a separation referendum onto this fall’s ballot goes off the rails
The United Conservative Party’s effort to railroad a separation referendum onto a ballot this fall and blame it on the people who signed the pro-Canada Forever Canadian petition was unfolding according to plan in a Legislature committee meeting yesterday afternoon when Opposition House Leader Christina Gray raised a point of privilege. Ms. Gray, who is […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith expected to try to force Albertans to endure a separation referendum – and blame someone else for it
Thanks to her sneaky separatist manoeuvring, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith seems to have wedged herself between the proverbial rock and metaphorical hard place. If she doesn’t do what the Alberta separatists in her United Conservative Party demand and call a referendum using the wording on their Citizen Initiative petition – “Do you agree that the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
The Wrath of Jeff: Prominent Alberta separatist advocates internal UCP coup to oust Danielle Smith
Happy Victoria Day! Over the weekend leading up to our national celebration of Victorian rectitude, imperialism and class inequality, prominent Alberta separatist Jeffrey Rath took to the Internet appearing to advocate an internal United Conservative Party coup to remove Premier Danielle Smith. Her sin, in Mr. Rath’s obvious estimation, is that she’s been working too […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Despite political differences, Mark Carney and Danielle Smith have more objectives in common than they don’t
There’s no need to make the explanation of the carbon pricing, carbon capture and bitumen pipeline deal announced Friday in Calgary by the federal and Alberta governments too complicated. It’s actually pretty simple. After all, notwithstanding their political differences, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Danielle Smith have more objectives in common right now than […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith and the UCP can’t be very happy with Alberta’s chief electoral officer
Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party can’t be too happy today with Elections Alberta and its boss, Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure. On Wednesday, Court of King’s Bench Justice Shaina Leonard ruled that Mr. McClure made an error in law when he approved a Citizen Initiative petition collected by a group seeking a referendum […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
If Danielle Smith were smart, she’d treat court ruling quashing separatist petition as a political get-out-of-jail-free card
If Alberta Premier Danielle Smith were smart, she’d treat yesterday’s Court of King’s Bench ruling quashing Elections Alberta’s approval of the Stay Free Alberta/Alberta Prosperity Project petition for a separation referendum as a political get-out-of-jail-free card. After all, she could probably persuade her party’s separatist base the appeals were going to take forever, and in […]