Preachers of many faiths wonder if anyone in their congregations ever pays attention to what they have to say. That complaint was common in clerical circles long before everybody had a direct line to the Internet, instead of God, right in their pocket or purse. Could social media be about to force churchgoers to start […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Justice Minister needs to ask for RCMP investigation of Election Commissioner’s concerns, and quickly
Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley needs to ask the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate concerns raised by Alberta Election Commissioner Lorne Gibson that someone is trying to interfere with his office’s inquiry into alleged irregularities in the 2017 United Conservative Party leadership race. Mr. Gibson expressed his alarm in a Jan. 24 letter to participants […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP leader’s tweet fumbles response to Islamophobic group’s harassment of worshipers at Edmonton mosque
Perhaps United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney needs to engage someone new to compose his tweets for him. Mr. Kenney is a bright guy, so I’m assuming for reasons that will soon become apparent he doesn’t come up with his own contributions to Twitter, the antisocial medium. Last fall, when several members of an Islamophobic […]
Posted inBestsellers
Poetry by Smokii Sumac, two-spirited member of Ktunaxa Nation in B.C., tops Audreys Books Edmonton Fiction Bestseller List
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Jan. 20, 2019. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. you are enough: love poems for the end of the world – Smokii […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell keeps the pot boiling under Jason Kenney and his questionable housing expense claims
Just when you thought it was about to fade away over the coming weekend, the saga of Jason Kenney’s dubious House of Commons housing expense claims got a new lease on life yesterday thanks to a Liberal Member of Parliament from Ontario. Jennifer O’Connell, MP for Pickering-Uxbridge, breathed new life into the story with a […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Jason Kenney then and Now: UCP critics face abuse now, unlike a certain critic of PC housing allowances back in 1992
Public anger at politicians who bill taxpayers for their living expenses when in reality they live close to their work is nothing new in Alberta. Abusive attacks on their critics, up to and including death threats, are new. Back in April 1992, Progressive Conservative municipal affairs minster Dick Fowler, who was then the MLA for […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
The best solution to gun violence actually possible in Canada in 2019 is an outright ban on handguns
Scream as they might about the idea of a ban on handgun ownership by Canadians, it is interesting to note that the tactics used by advocates of wide-open ownership of firearms against the so-called long-gun registry combined with the legislative strategy pursued by their allies in the Conservative federal government during its decade in power […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Jason Kenney’s domestic arrangements: A wonkish look at how MPs identify their primary and secondary residences
Members of the Canadian Parliament like Jason Kenney in the days he was MP for Calgary Midnapore are permitted to charge expenses for a secondary residence, either in the National Capital Region or within 100 kilometres of the riding they represent. To avail themselves of this benefit, MPs like Mr. Kenney, who is now leader […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Duffy 2.0? Ottawa lawyer’s allegations about then-MP Jason Kenney’s expenses sets off Internet tempest
Allegations about United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney’s Calgary domestic and travel arrangements during the years he was the Conservative MP for Calgary Midnapore circulating on social media over the weekend had turned into a full-blown Internet tempest by last night. Parliamentary expenditure reports and flight records as well as Calgary land titles unearthed by […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Will Canadian Taxpayers Federation credibility suffer from fine for failing to register as third-party election advertiser?
The $6,000 administrative penalty levied against the Canadian Taxpayers Federation for failing to register as a third-party advertiser under Alberta’s election financing law is a long-overdue official recognition of the true role the self-described “tax watchdog” plays in Canadian politics. The CTF has been disproportionately influential in Canadian political discourse for many years, mainly because […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Derek Fildebrandt and that rule of law thing: it’s for pipeline protesters, not law-abiding gun owners …
It shouldn’t be a surprise, I suppose, that Derek Fildebrandt has publicly gone all Charlton Heston on us. I speak, of course, of the recently rebranded Freedom Conservative Party leader’s Hestonesque Twitter outburst yesterday in response to talk the federal Liberal government might actually make an election issue out of banning handguns. The handgun ban […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Former UCP MLA warns more scandals are coming for party as election nears … but don’t count on it unravelling fast enough!
It would be a huge mistake to count on the United Conservative Party unravelling fast enough to blow its big lead in public opinion polls by the time the next Alberta provincial election is upon us, which will be almost before we know it. It is a virtual certainty that even most conservatives who for one […]