Posted inCanadian Politics

So sorry to see you go so soon, Manning Centre … here’s your hat

Shed a tear for the Calgary-based Manning Centre, which Postmedia’s Cowtown website of record sadly reported yesterday is “stepping back from its advocacy work.” Since polishing up Tiny Tories to make them acceptable for election door-knocking and serving as a launch pad for development-industry-financed attacks on Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi is about all the Manning […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Freedom Conservative Party’s Derek Fildebrandt demonstrates his talent for getting up his opponents’ noses

Derek Fildebrandt, the self-described “Alberta redneck” who now leads the minuscule Freedom Conservative Party, has a talent for getting up his opponents’ noses. This has served the university-educated Ottawa native extremely well in his tireless quest to earn himself a place in the headlines, and it worked for him again last week when he provoked […]

Posted inCanadian Politics

Saskatchewan, Ontario have no constitutional case against Ottawa’s carbon tax, only a political strategy

By vowing to go to court to fight the federal government’s carbon tax, Saskatchewan and now Ontario are rejecting the most cost effective way to reduce carbon pollution, the Pembina Institute complained yesterday. “It is deeply irresponsible of the Saskatchewan and Ontario governments to reject carbon pricing,” said Isabelle Turcotte, interim federal policy director of […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Fildebrandt Agonistes: Hell hath no fury like a ‘Liberty Conservative’ scorned

Hell hath no fury like a “Liberty Conservative” scorned! Derek Fildebrandt, the former Wildrose Party and United Conservative Party finance critic scorned by UCP Leader Jason Kenney after a series of unfortunate events turned him into him the Lemony Snicket of the Alberta conservative movement, has joined the Freedom Conservative Party. The tiny right-wing splinter […]

Posted inBestsellers

This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt spends another week atop Audreys Books’ Edmonton fiction bestseller list

Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended July 15, 2018, compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. This Wound is a World – Billy-Ray Belcourt * + 2. Full Disclosure – Beverley McLachlin […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Prab Gill saga seems to have legs, so UCP Leader Jason Kenney attacks environmentalist Tzeporah Berman …

Astonishingly, the Prab Gill saga appears to have legs. Yesterday, the Star Metro arm of the Toronto Star’s effort to create a national footprint, informed Alberta readers there’s no way the United Conservative Party will be revealing the contents of its insider investigation of ballot stuffing and snatching by Mr. Gill, who is the MLA […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

By-elections conveniently over, United Conservative Party pushes out MLA accused of ballot stuffing at nomination meeting

With many Albertans apparently in a mood to take Jason Kenney’s claim at face value his year-old United Conservative Party is renewed, reformed and ready to govern, you can’t be too careful about evidence that the same-old-same-old Tory entitlement continues to lurk on the Opposition benches of the Legislature. Not that it sounds as if […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

UCP by-elections wins in central and northern Alberta are no surprise, but offer little cause for optimism to NDP

It’s Friday the 13th, and after two by-elections yesterday in central and northern Alberta, supporters of the province’s NDP government are awaking to a new reality that’s pretty much the same as the old reality. That is, rural Central Alberta is deeply Conservative country pretty well no matter what, and no matter how bad the […]