Now that a tentative agreement in the national strike by 3,200 CN yard workers and train crew members has been reached in collective bargaining as God and the Canada Industrial Relations Board both intended, you’d think the Conservative politicians who were screeching for Ottawa to intervene and order the strikers back to work would be […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta union leaders summoned to provocative weekend ‘consultation’ by Kenney Government
Alberta union leaders have been summoned to a “labour relations consultation” next weekend in Edmonton at which they will be informed how Premier Jason Kenney’s government plans to “protect workers from being forced to fund political parties and causes.” The announcement of the one-hour meetings came in an email from Deputy Labour Minister Shawn McLeod […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Booing Alberta’s premier at public events like Sunday’s Grey Cup — let’s make it a Battle of Alberta thing!
Is the United Conservative Party’s honeymoon over? God knows, it ought to be. Sadly, though, it’s probably not. Yet. Just the same, it was mildly encouraging to hear a few boos for Alberta Premier Jason Kenney in a recording of the the opening ceremony of Sunday’s Grey Cup game — in Calgary, of all places. […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
What media mostly misses about the national rail strike by CN train crews and yard workers
Here in Alberta, what news coverage there has been about the strike for safer working conditions by Canadian National Railway train crews and rail yard workers has focused on the increasingly agitated calls by Conservative politicians for punitive back-to-work legislation. There is very little reporting on the issues behind the strike by 3,000 conductors, trainpersons […]
Posted inBestsellers
Author-illustrator Mike Boldt’s Bad Dog tops Audreys Books’ Edmonton Bestseller List for week ended Nov. 17
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton during the week ended Nov. 17, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Bad Dog – Mike Boldt * 2. Feral – Nicole Luiken * 3. The Saga of […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP to give Alberta government ‘a giant enema,’ minister of ‘red tape reduction’ proclaims
Grant Hunter, associate minister in charge of Alberta’s ministry of “red tape reduction,” got up on his hind legs in the Legislature Wednesday evening and proclaimed that the intention of the United Conservative Party majority is “to give this government a giant enema.” I wish I could tell you I was making this up. Unfortunately, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Being kicked out of the Legislature means never having to say you’re sorry
Apparently, being kicked out of the Alberta Legislature means never having to say you’re sorry! Judging by the smile on her face yesterday morning as a crowd of more than 800 Registered Nurses furious at the prospect of having their pay cut substantially by Premier Jason Kenney’s hard-right government roared its approval, being exiled from […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
From the first nail in the Velvet Coffin to the death of Star Metro — the decline of Alberta’s newspapers
The bad news was delivered on social media yesterday by employees of Star Metro newspapers in cities outside Ontario. Whatever was behind the Toronto Star’s decision in April 2018 to hire real journalists and publish free print newspapers in five major cities across Canada, including Calgary and Edmonton, apparently it didn’t go according to plan. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
If you’re shocked by the firing of Alberta’s Election Commissioner, you shouldn’t be
If you’re shocked that Jason Kenney’s Government has effectively just fired the guy who’s been investigating the sleazy Kamikaze Campaign that preceded the premier’s choice as leader of the United Conservative Party in 2017, you really haven’t been paying attention. Alberta’s best-known political commentator is so shocked… How shocked is he? … Yesterday Don Braid, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Excellent question: If a referendum’s good enough for the CPP, why not for the teachers’ pension fund?
“Jason Kenney says he will use a referendum to determine if Albertans want their Canada Pension Plan shifted to AIMCo,” Jonathan Teghtmeyer, Associate Communications Coordinator of the Alberta Teachers Association, observed before asking a perfectly reasonable question on social media yesterday. So, Mr. Teghtmeyer tweeted, “why won’t he allow teachers to vote on whether they […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Uh oh! Those perfidious Swedes have clearly joined the anti-Alberta energy ‘misinformation campaign of defamation’!
Why, those perfidious Swedes! First they sent their sneaky little agent Greta Thunberg in a sailboat to Alberta’s shores to stir up our young people — and that’s no mean feat when you consider that we don’t have any shores here in Alberta! Which, as we keep telling the rest of Canada, is a problem […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Fifty-four forty or what? Is this Wexitopia’s last territorial demand in British Columbia?
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any nuttier out here in Wexitopia, former Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith took to the Twittersphere to promote a territorial corridor from Alberta to the B.C. Coast. I know what you’re thinking, but as regular readers of this blog well understand, I never make stuff up about Alberta. […]