If a tree falls in the forest and Jason Kenney isn’t there to hear it, is it still the sound of European environmentalists and the Rockefellers plotting against Alberta’s ethical oil industry? Is it still Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s fault? Your blogger only spent three days on B.C.’s misty and preternaturally warm coast last week […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
30 years after the tragedy at l’École Polytechnique, politicians and media are making things worse
Today is the 30th anniversary of the terrible massacre of 14 young women students at l’École Polytechnique de Montréal, apparently shot down for the imagined crime of daring study to be engineers. One would have thought three decades ago as the raw horror of that story unfolded through the evening that by now things would […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
What’s with the United Conservative Party’s emerging fury at nurses, of all people?
What’s with the sudden hate on for nurses by United Conservative Party supporters? It comes from somewhere. Your average UCP internet troll doesn’t just come up with this stuff on his – or occasionally her – own. The traditional Conservative approach to attacking nurses and other predominantly public and female employee groups for their opposition […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Groundhog Day on Black Friday! With 5,000 job cuts planned, perpetual chaos returns to health care in Alberta
With yesterday’s announcement the Alberta Government intends to wipe out close to 5,000 jobs in public health care by 2023, and another 2,500 or so in other parts of the public service, perpetual chaos has returned to health care in Alberta. Get used to it. It won’t be getting better any time soon. Does anyone […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Hey Canada! Alberta here: Get off our lawn! And would you mow it, please?
Watch out, Rest of Canada! Jason Kenney, our leader here in Alberta, has mastered the art of sucking and blowing at the same time! You’re in for it now! This is the New Alberta, and you’re going to need to get the hell out of our way! We’ll be taking over our share of the […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
No way Conservatives will admit they look foolish for calls to legislate CN strikers back to work
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 […]