In what was probably the first speech of the 2019 Alberta provincial election campaign, if not quite officially, Premier Rachel Notley was comfortable, confident, funny, hopeful, energized, charismatic, fiery and, yes, inspiring. She sounded, in other words, like a winner. By any measure, it was a terrific speech. And the racket from the packed ballroom […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Former NDP leader Brian Mason says farewell with words of wisdom and warning
Former Alberta New Democratic Party leader Brian Mason has been a gale force presence in Alberta politics for so long it’s hard to imagine the place without him. Yet there he was yesterday at lunchtime, on stage in the ballroom of Edmonton’s Westin Hotel, saying farewell to politics, the NDP he led in the provincial […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Backstory from 2014 explains why Alberta car dealers might want to unseat the NDP
Many Albertans were shocked to learn last week that Opposition Leader Jason Kenney had promised an auto dealers association pouring money into a political action committee supporting his United Conservative Party that if elected he would hand enforcement of vehicle sale consumer protection back to the dealers. Twenty-six Alberta car and truck dealerships are reported […]
Posted inBestsellers
Eye of the Beholder, a mystery by Edmonton author Janice MacDonald, tops Audreys Edmonton fiction bestseller list
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Oct. 21, 2018. he lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS Eye of the Beholder – Janice MacDonald * Trickster Drift – Eden Robinson French […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Rachel Notley’s pension announcement yesterday was an ironic coda to Alison Redford’s 2014 war on unions
When Premier Rachel Notley announced to the annual general meeting of the United Nurses of Alberta yesterday morning her government would keep a promise made to working Albertans 26 years ago by a Conservative government, it offered an ironic coda to one of the issues that contributed to the downfall of the Conservative Dynasty in […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
NDP official demands ‘substantive penalties’ for ‘severe and wilful violations’ of election finance law by auto dealers’ PAC
Shaping Alberta’s Future, the Political Action Committee set up to help elect a United Conservative Party government led by Jason Kenney, is operating in open defiance of Alberta’s election financing laws, the Alberta NDP’s provincial secretary says in a letter to the Election Commissioner of Alberta. NDP Povincial Secretary Roari Richardson requested Lorne Gibson immediately […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Wondering about Jason Kenney: Would you buy a used truck from this man?
So, who’re ya gonna believe? Jason Kenney? Or Alberta’s used car dealers? I’m sure readers will agree that this is a very tough question. Nevertheless, with the publication of third-quarter political donor data by Elections Alberta, the attention of the public has fallen on the significant fund-raising effort for the United Conservative Party that has […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta Party and Freedom Conservative Party leaders form weekend blips on provincial political radar
Here comes the leader of the One True Conservative Party! Here comes the leader of the other One True Conservative Party! Actually, there are three One True Conservative parties in Alberta nowadays. Maybe more if you don’t blink. But there are three that have the potential to play a consequential role in the next general […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta honour for k.d. lang shows times are changing, but prompts memories of past Tory embarrassments
The elevation of Alberta-born chanteuse k.d. lang to the Alberta Order of Excellence last week is both a positive sign of change in Alberta and a timely reminder there’s nothing new about bozo eruptions from the back forty of the province’s conservative movement. Ms. lang, now 56, was born in Edmonton and raised in the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Message to my American Cousins: It’s mellow up here; there is no communist revolution yet; no one wants to take Manhattan
Dear American Cousins, literal and metaphorical: The day before yesterday, medical and recreational cannabis became legal in Canada. The Canada correspondent for the New York Times reported excitedly that we Canadians were calling this C-Day. We were? Beats the hell outta me where she got that idea. I’m pretty sure none of us actual C-dawgs […]
Posted inBestsellers
Made in Alberta – the Ray Martin Story by Ray Martin and John Ashton tops Edmonton bestsellers non-fiction list
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Oct. 14, 2018. The lists are compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. French Exit – Patrick DeWitt 2. Orange Shirt Day (children’s) – Phyllis Webstad […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Highly concentrated ownership of Canadian fossil fuel sector leaves little incentive for change, study indicates
Highly concentrated corporate ownership of Canada’s energy sector and lack of government influence means there’s very little incentive for the fossil fuel industry to pay attention to the dangers of global climate change or worry about the communities and workers that depend on it. That’s the tough message behind a new study – Who Owns […]