While much of the world looked on in dismay as the results of the Brexit votes rolled in two years ago last month, Jason Kenney Tweeted his congratulations to the people of Britain for “choosing hope over fear by embracing a confident, sovereign future, open to the world.” How’s that looking for them now? With […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP rural crime proposal sure sounds like a call to bring deadly U.S.-style ‘stand-your-ground’ laws to Canada
I’m sure the United Conservative Party will say I’m wrong, so can somebody please explain to me how the UCP’s rural crime “task force” proposal to let rural property owners defend themselves and their property with firearms is not the same as the “stand-your-ground” laws in the United States that encourage gun owners to respond […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Stephen Harper’s Paris speech to Mojahedin-e Khalq: No laws were broken; appropriate interests were served; get over it!
Many readers would be offended if someone were to suggest the Roman Catholic Church was a former terrorist organization with cult-like attributes. Still, wouldn’t terrorism be a fair description of the Inquisition, the brutal effort to root out heresy carried out from the 12th to the early 19th centuries by what was effectively a non-state […]
Posted inBestsellers
This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt remains at top of 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 2, 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. Believing is not the Same […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Brian Mason, who kept NDP flame alight in Alberta’s Legislature for a decade, to take his leave from politics
Brian Mason, who as party leader kept the NDP flame burning brightly in the Alberta Legislature from 2004 to 2014 even when the caucus was small enough to truly meet in a phone booth, announced yesterday he is about to pull the plug on a 29-year political career that has been a success by any […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Independence Day: An excellent moment for Canadians to recommit ourselves to being different from the United States
Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day in the Great Republic immediately to our south. Normally, as befits our national character, we Canadians celebrate this occasion with restrained fondness for our American cousins, coming as it does just three days after la fête du Canada. On the 242nd observance of this occasion, however, owing […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
No need to make this stuff up: Celebrate Canada Day 2018 by driving the secret highways of Alberta!
Happy Canada Day! Why not celebrate by driving on Alberta’s secret highways? Frankly, I don’t know how the Beaverton stays in business with the brutal competition they’re facing nowadays from Wild Rose Country. There’s an expression we’ve all heard: “You can’t make this stuff up!” In Alberta, you don’t need to. The ambitious folks vying […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Do we need a Canadian version of the Logan Act to put a stop to dangerous freelance diplomacy?
Most observers of Canada-U.S. politics and the two countries’ unexpectedly fraught trade relationship would agree former prime minister Stephen Harper’s no-longer-secret visit to the White House on Tuesday is unlikely to do much good and has the potential to do harm. What Mr. Harper, now just another private citizen in law if not in political […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
As reproductive rights wither in the United States, a UCP candidate’s abortion-restricting strategy for Canada is revealed
“On abortion, we’re never going to see a black and white, yes or no question. My job as your MP is to fight for incremental changes. … It’s called the foot-in-the-door tactic.” — Joseph Schow On a day when there’s serious talk in the United States that women’s right to reproductive freedom may not just […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Effort by religious schools to halt enforcement of Alberta’s GSA protection law tossed out by Medicine Hat judge
An effort by the so-called Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms to get a court injunction to halt enforcement of the Alberta law that prevents schools from informing parents when students join gay-straight alliances fell short in a written ruling of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in Medicine Hat yesterday. While the Calgary-based JCCF acting […]
Posted inBestsellers
This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt from the Driftpile Cree Nation tops Audreys Books’ Edmonton Bestseller List
Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended June 24, 2018, compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. Last week’s fiction bestseller, missed during a short vacation by your blogger, was The Home for Wayward parrots by Darusha […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
It’s not equalization! It’s the taxes, stupid! They’re almost too low to keep the lights on and something’s gotta give
It’s not equalization. It’s the taxes, stupid! That is to say, Alberta’s taxes are too low to run the place over the long term and something’s gotta give. The great thing about Alberta’s never-ending tantrum about equalization and how the province of Quebec taxes and spends, at least from the perspective of the modern conservative […]