Posted inAlberta Politics

Conservative antics let PM Justin Trudeau off the hook for India debacle and show why Andrew Scheer is not fit to govern

PHOTOS: What Canadians will soon see in their minds when they think of Conservative Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer (Photo: Andrew Scheer’s Flickr stream). Below: The actual grown up Mr. Scheer (Photo: Andre Forget, Andrew Scheer’s Flickr stream), Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper (Photo: Wikimedia Commons), and federal NDP Leader […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, a New Democrat, delivers a traditional Progressive Conservative budget

PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, Below: A slimmed-down Jason Kenney, leader of the United Conservative Party, and Stephen Mandel, Leader of the Alberta Party, at the Legislature for Mr. Ceci’s Budget Speech yesterday. Despite the predictably apocalyptic tone of Opposition political spokespeople and the unenthusiastic analysis by mainstream media commentators, if you ask me […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

‘Daydreaming in Technicolor’ … the Alberta Party and Derek Fildebrandt present alternative budgets

PHOTOS: The Alberta Legislature gets the Technicolor treatment with publication of two Opposition “alternative budgets.” There was nothing from the United Conservative Opposition, of course. Below: Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel and a costumed Derek Fildebrandt, the Independent “Liberty Conservative,” late of the UPC and Wildrose Party (Photo: Derek Fildebrandt Facebook page). Today is Budget […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

If you’re an Albertan who demands low taxes, balanced budgets, and pipelines to B.C., expect to be told to look in the mirror

PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, a New Democrat. Below: Former Wildrose leader and United Conservative Party leadership contender Brian Jean, now retired from politics, and B.C. based environmentalist Tzeporah Berman, very much not retired from activism. By way of setting the stage for Thursday’s budget speech, Finance Minister Joe Ceci yesterday told the media […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Support in Alberta is overwhelming for ending public support of elite private schools, new poll shows

PHOTOS: Private schoolboys. In Alberta, our taxpayers subsidize ’em! (Photo: Bundesarchiv.de.) Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney, and Progress Alberta Executive Director Duncan Kinney. Now that’s interesting! According to a new poll, the idea of ending funding for elite private schools enjoys more support in Alberta than does the idea […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Your Weekend BS: The straight poop on profanity in politics and the state of public discourse in Alberta

PHOTOS: Alberta politicians Deron Bilous, Jason Kenney, Derek Fildebrandt and Thomas Lukaszuk, all from the author’s vast collection of snapshots. Trigger warning! This dispatch from the Annals of Political Discourse in Alberta contains words unsuitable for sensitive and young readers. For a more fulsome discussion of why they are included anyway, read this chapter from […]

Posted inBestsellers

Welcome to the Anthropocene, Alice Major’s collection of poetry, tops Audreys Books’ fiction bestsellers this week

Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended March 11, 2018, compiled by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. EDMONTON FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Welcome to the Anthropocene – Alice Major * + 2. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows – […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Climate change, climate denial and climate ironies in the wake of Alberta Legislature’s pipeline demand vote

PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. Below: Soon-to-retire Alberta Liberal MLA and former party leader David Swann, Shannon Daub of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and United Conservative Party MLAs Grant Hunter, Drew Barnes and Rick Strankman. Happy Ides of March. On Tuesday, the Alberta Legislature passed a motion declaring the support of everyone there […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Who saw Donald Trump coming? Not Simon Reisman, that’s for sure, but maybe Ed Broadbent and John Turner

PHOTOS: Simon Reisman’s business card. Below: Mr. Reisman, chief Canadian negotiator of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in a screenshot of a blurry CBC archival broadcast; a recent shot of Brian Mulroney (Photo: Mike Feraco); Toronto Star political columnist Thomas Walkom; and lobbyist Robin Sears. Circa 1986, I recognized Simon Reisman one afternoon on a […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Rachel Notley and Jason Kenney find common ground, sort of … on dubious pipeline posturing

PHOTOS: Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain Pipeline. (Photo: Handout from Kinder Morgan Canada.) Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney, U of A economist Andrew Leach, and British Columbia Premier John Horgan. I guess we can understand why Jason Kenney acts like Alberta has all the powers of a sovereign nation. After all, […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Unity at all costs? Ontario PC choice of Doug Ford as leader shows need for principled conservative division

PHOTOS: Doug Ford in 2014 (Photo: Bruce Reeve, Creative Commons). Below: Toronto’s calamitous mayor Rob Ford, who died in 2016; second-place Ontario PC candidate Christine Elliott, who has not yet conceded the victory to Doug Ford; Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney; and U.S. President Donald Trump. (Photos: All from the Wikimedia Commons but for the […]