Happy Labour Day! Overall union membership may be shrinking, but the number of workers who wish they had a union and would vote to join one if they could appears to on the rise. This tells an interesting story about the state of affairs in North America as the last long weekend of the summer […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Who said we wanted rule of law? Hysteria over court’s TMX ruling engulfs Alberta politics and media
Funny, isn’t it? Less than six months ago, tout le monde political Alberta was demanding harsh application of “the rule of law.” This was nearly universally interpreted to mean that no legal challenge or protest against the construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project could or would be tolerated. The government of British Columbia’s […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Donald Trump’s claims about the Canadian trade bargaining team have, for once, a ring of truth!
Yes, Donald Trump is a liar and a braggart, but the American President’s boast yesterday morning that cowed Canadian trade negotiators have all but folded and any new trade deal they sign will be totally on U.S. terms has a ring of truth. Given his track record, it’s certainly not impossible to conclude Mr. Trump […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Calculating the winners and losers in yesterday’s Trans Mountain Pipeline debacle
No doubt they were chuckling discreetly at Kinder Morgan headquarters in Houston yesterday as they counted up their additional spare change. They had, after all, just managed to sell off the Trans Mountain Pipeline to the Liberal government led by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, backstopped by Premier Rachel Notley’s Alberta New Democrats, at the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Advice on dealing with the Trump Administration for Chrystia Freeland: don’t give away the store
WASHINGTON, D.C. – I see Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, is also in town tonight, so if I happen to see meet her strolling on the National Mall or enjoying a beer at Kramer’s Books, I’ll say hi for you-all. I’ll also have some advice for her, worth what she paid for it, that […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
NDP will need to choose carefully as Linda Duncan decides not to seek re-election as Edmonton Strathcona MP
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Not to be negative, but the federal New Democrats might want to hold off scheduling the nomination to choose Linda Duncan’s successor until just after next spring’s provincial election. Then again – given the fraught relationship these days between the federal NDP and the Alberta branch of Canada’s social democratic party – […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
The Day We Burned Ole DC Down? It was today, actually … 204 years ago
WASHINGTON, D.C. The Day We Burned Ole DC Down? It was today, actually. But if this was big news 204 years ago, when the fire was actually lit by the Royal Marines and sundry British Army regiments – revenge for the Americans burning down York, now part of Toronto, as a matter of fact – […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Notice to readers: AlbertaPolitics.ca is closed … sort of
Notice to readers: I expect to be on the road for a few days and so AlbertaPolitics.ca is officially closed for vacation. Which, as regular readers of this blog will understand, doesn’t necessarily mean there will be no posts whatsoever. There may well be a few – mood and WiFi permitting – although it’s certainly […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Hard to believe it’s been seven years: Looking back to 2011, and Election Eve 2008, with happy memories of Layton, Jack
Don’t mourn! Organize! — Joe Hill, Swedish-American union organizer As happens each year at this time, I’m rendered almost speechless by the loss of Jack Layton, seven years ago today. The piece below, with my own fond memory of Mr. Layton, was published on this date in 2011, just hours after we had heard the […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Conservatives defend racist heckler who tried to sandbag the prime minister … so how’s that working out for them?
Hmmmmmmm … Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives appear to have picked defending a racist heckler who tried to sandbag Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a string of tendentious questions about immigration and refugees as the hill they want to die on! I wonder how this will work out for them? Not well, I imagine. The Conservatives apparently […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Guy Kerr can’t be blamed for the Alberta WCB’s troubles, but his resignation is an opportunity to get it back on track
Guy Kerr cannot be blamed for the tragic wrong turn the Alberta Workers Compensation Board took nearly 30 years ago under the Conservative governments of premiers Don Getty and Ralph Klein. Under those premiers, Alberta’s effective workers’ compensation system was subverted and undermined. The victims have been injured workers. By the time Mr. Kerr was […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
U.S. and Canadian right-wing politicians march in lockstep as they dismiss facts as conspiracy, disagreement as criminality
Apparently infected by the decline of political discourse in the United States, the Canadian right is increasingly moving toward defining the use of facts that run counter to its narrative as conspiracy and policy disagreement criminality. If you doubt this, consider recent Tweets by the likes of Calgary Conservative MP Michelle Rempel, who accused the […]