No political party can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like the NDP! And, as we watched in horror Saturday night, no Canadian New Democratic Party does it with the flair of the British Columbia NDP. It’ll be a week before we’ll know who really won a majority in the Legislature in Victoria – […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Grant Notley left a greater mark on Alberta than his position as leader and sole MLA of a small party would suggest
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the death in an airplane crash of Grant Notley, a man who left a greater mark on Alberta than his position as the leader of a small political party with only one seat in the Legislature would suggest he should have. Nowadays when Mr. Notley is mentioned, it’s usually […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Calgary Cancer Centre to open on Oct. 28; Alberta premier promises miraculous ‘future without cancer’
There were seven uninformative canned quotes in the Alberta Government’s news release yesterday announcing the imminent opening of the Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Calgary on Oct. 28, an unusual number by any reckoning. Of course, not one of them said anything about the role of Sarah Hoffman, the NDP minister of health […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Everybody understands the point of the UCP’s ‘Scrap the Cap’ ads is to use taxpayer money to campaign against the Liberals
Surely everybody understands that the point of the United Conservative Party Government’s $7-million “Scrap the Cap” scare campaign announced yesterday is to use Alberta taxpayers’ money to campaign against the Trudeau Liberals in the lead-up to the yet-to-be-called next federal election? Why do you think the gloomy grey videos of an unhappy family wheeling backwards […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
No pharmacare, please, we’re Alberta Conservatives! … and if there’s no grift, there’ll be no gift!
Alberta still won’t join the federal pharmacare program. Never mind Health Minister Adriana LaGrange’s explanation in her press release Friday – “the federal government has yet to share its vision for the future of national pharmacare,” yadda, yadda. That’s just a way to stall things until Pierre Poilievre can get himself elected prime minister and […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Green Line Revisionist History: It’s Hard to Fix When Hick from Sticks Nixes Klicks of Clacks on Cowtown Tracks!
I did something old-timey with my hotel breakfast today: I read a newspaper, an actual newspaper, the Friday edition of the Calgary Sun. For a guy who got his start in the newspaper business in 1972, and loved the things from the get-go, I’ve barely touched one for 20 years. So it was interesting to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Devin Dreeshen reaffirms previously unaffirmed and formerly affirmed Calgary Green Line
CALGARY – In what had to be a humiliating climbdown, Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen issued a joint statement this morning with Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek explaining that the Green Line LRT project is back on again, sort of. On Sept. 2, the feckless thirtysomething MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake wrote a rude letter to Mayor […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Jennifer Johnson, the deplorable poop-cookie lady, is welcomed back into the bosom of the UCP
CALGARY – If the United Conservative Party Caucus in the Alberta Legislature were cookie dough, I suppose the addition of Jennifer Johnson wouldn’t significantly change the flavour of the cookies that came out of the oven, if you know what I mean. As predicted more than once in this space, Ms. Johnson, the “Independent” MLA […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
What happens to the controversial ‘Alberta Recovery Model’ now that its architect and chief advocate is said to be out?
What will happen to the “Alberta Recovery Model” now that the chief advocate of the province’s much-criticized abstinence-only approach to addiction treatment in Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party Government is leaving his job? That’s the question policy wonks are sure to be asking today in the wake of the report that Marshall Smith, 53, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith’s promised ‘new day for health care in Alberta’ is here – and, yikes, is it ever awful!
When she opened her news conference on Nov. 8 last year, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith began: “Welcome to a new day for health care in Alberta!” Did she get that right, or what? It’s a new day alright, although not the better one the premier promised when she announced the United Conservative Party’s plan to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
How is it possible Alberta can’t find a distributor to ship flu and COVID vaccines to family docs?
How is it possible Alberta’s Health Department “has not been successful in contracting a distributor to ship vaccines to community medical and nurse practitioner clinics,” as a memorandum leaked to the CBC informed family doctors and nurse practitioners? “As a result, a vendor for vaccine distribution will not be in place by October 15 for […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
When we see red tape in Alberta, we cut it, right? Fuhgeddaboudit! No booze in Alberta grocery stores!
When it comes to wrecking public health care and undermining public education, Alberta’s United Conservative Party is prepared to act boldly in pursuit of its ideological goals. But what about when it comes to something really important, like retail liquor sales? Fuhgeddaboudit! Yesterday, the UCP published a news release stating: “After a comprehensive review, the […]