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. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
It turns out the UCP’s dream of grabbing the Canada Pension Plan won’t be as easy as it would like you to believe
How much of the United Conservative Party’s radical project to transform Alberta into a dystopic firewalled statelet, most of the details of which were revealed by Premier Jason Kenney for the first time at Preston Manning’s Red Deer clambake on Saturday, was predicated on a Conservative victory in last month’s federal election? A lot, by […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Will the UCP’s scheme to restrict reproductive rights play in Ponoka? Maybe not …
Bill 207, which if it was honestly titled would have been called an Act to Restrict Reproductive and Other Rights in Alberta, does not seem to be playing particularly well, even in Ponoka. Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party stirred up a hornet’s nest with this sneaky bill — disingenuously entitled the Conscience Rights (Health Care […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Preston Manning, the bad penny of Canadian politics, turns up again on Alberta’s sovereignty-association panel
Preston Manning is the bad penny of Canadian politics. So no one should be surprised he’s turned up again! Good rarely results from Mr. Manning’s interventions in politics, which never seem to end, so don’t expect positive results from his appointment by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to what might accurately be called the Firewall Commission […]
Posted inBestsellers
Above the Star and Below the Moon, both by Alexis Marie Chute, are No. 1 & 2 on Edmonton Bestseller List for week ended Nov. 3
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton during the week ended Nov. 3, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Above the Star – Alexis Marie Chute * 2. Below the Moon – Alexis Marie Chute […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
First reading of Bill 207 reveals zero UCP votes for women’s reproductive rights
Here are two important statistics about the United Conservative Party’s Bill 207, the Conscience Rights (Health Care Providers) Protection Act, which was introduced in the Alberta Legislature yesterday … Just a minute, you say, Bill 207 is a private member’s bill, brought forward by Peace River UCP MLA Dan Williams, not a government bill! How […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
The ‘most pro-life Legislature in decades’ gets ready to make its first move to restrict reproductive rights
Does anyone recall when Cameron Wilson, political action director of the “Wilberforce Project,” previously known as Pro-Life Alberta, bragged that “if the UCP wins the upcoming election, then we will have the most pro-life Legislature in decades, and maybe ever”? That was only in February this year, a century or two ago in political time, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Now for something completely different: Podcast bloviations from Yours Truly and friends
I’m busier than that proverbial one-armed paperhanger right now, so it’s possible that production of posts on this blog is going to fall for the next couple of weeks from the daily commentary I prefer. Tonight, I thought I’d resort to an updated version of a favorite bloviators’ trick from the Golden Age of Newspapering, […]