Posted inAlberta Politics

Federal election results show why abandoning ‘social license’ was a dumb idea for Alberta’s oilpatch

Seeking “social license” for Alberta’s fossil fuel industry was said by the NDP government of former premier Rachel Notley to be a way to win approval for more pipeline capacity to Canada’s ocean ports. This was true enough as far as it went, and the idea getting such approval required environment-friendly compromises like carbon taxes […]

Posted inBestsellers

Red Deer-raised author Anar Ali’s Night of Power tops Audreys Books Edmonton Fiction Bestsellers List

Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton during the week ended Oct. 20, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Night of Power – Anar Ali * 2. Girl, Woman, Other – Bernardine Evaristo 3. The […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Alberta is Alberta again! The poor little rich kid of Confederation brings down a budget

Happy St. Crispin’s Day! Appropriately enough, it’s time for those of us who live here in Wild Rose Country to cry, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!” Alberta is Alberta again! Yesterday’s vicious austerity budget proves it. Alberta’s once again the poor little rich kid of Confederation, crying poverty, throwing its weight […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Budget Day reminder: Facts about Alberta public employees don’t support propaganda saying they’re too numerous or paid too much

Alberta’s a high-wage province! Who knew? Maybe the question ought to be … Who didn’t? At any rate, the Kenney Government’s “blue-ribbon” panel on Alberta’s finances, chaired by former Saskatchewan finance minister Janice MacKinnon and instructed not even to look at the revenue side of the province’s so-called public spending problem, ignored that inconvenient question. […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Kenney to Trudeau: Adopt Andrew Scheer’s energy platform or Alberta will hold a meaningless equalization referendum!

If you concluded as New Brunswick’s Conservative premier just did that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s somewhat reduced victory in Monday’s federal election indicates a certain level of support for carbon taxes and like policies in Canada, the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan beg to differ. Blaine Higgs told reporters in Fredericton yesterday that he’s now […]

Posted inCanadian Politics

What a strange, strange night it’s been: Andrew Scheer snatches defeat from the jaws of victory!

Well! There’s certainly no shortage of safe Conservative seats in Alberta Jason Kenney could use to saddle up and ride back to Ottawa to save conservatism after Andrew Scheer’s disastrous impersonation of the Conservative Party of Canada’s leader ended in ignominy last night. It takes a special talent to snatch defeat from the jaws of […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

N.B.’s Blaine Higgs showed the proper path to power after a close vote, but don’t expect Albertans to believe it

If the Conservatives led by Andrew Scheer should win the most seats in the House of Commons tonight but Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refuses to hand over power on the perfectly reasonable Parliamentary grounds he thinks he can command the confidence of the House, much of Alberta will go over the edge. The almighty […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Massive Edmonton rally greets eco-activist Greta Thunberg; tiny truck counter-protest ignored by all but media

It would have been a remarkable accomplishment for any group to summon a throng the size of the multitude that enthusiastically greeted 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg in Edmonton yesterday afternoon. To do it on three days’ notice in the capital city of Canada’s fossil fuel heartland where everyone supposedly holds the same rosy […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Gretamania strikes Alberta! Be afraid! Be very afraid!

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Gretamania appears to have struck Alberta! Yesterday, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, who is apparently the environmental movement’s answer to St. Joan of Arc with a planetary mass following to suit, was spotted in Calgary. This wasn’t like your usual Alberta Elvis sighting, either. There was an actual photograph taken and circulated […]

Posted inCanadian Politics

Green Party candidate drops out in Edmonton Strathcona, urges supporters to switch to NDP

Michael Kalmanovitch, the Green Party of Canada Candidate in the tight Edmonton-Strathcona race, told an all-candidates’ forum at the riding’s King’s University College yesterday that he is dropping out and asking his supporters to vote strategically for the NDP’s Heather McPherson. “Based on polling projections, it has become clear that success is unlikely under our […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Doug O’Halloran, 66, Alberta union leader for more than 30 years, never shied from tough fights for his members

Doug O’Halloran, a pillar of the labour movement in Alberta and one of Canada’s last old-style union leaders, died peacefully yesterday. Mr. O’Halloran, who was 66, succumbed to cancer after a long illness. “It is fitting that he chose to leave us on Thanksgiving, a day for celebrating the two things he valued most: family […]