Posted inAlberta Politics

David Khan elected to lead Alberta Liberals 100 years less a day after party’s last election victory

PHOTOS: New Alberta Liberal Leader David Khan, at left, in a hopelessly self-referential photo with your blogger. (Photo: Dave Cournoyer.) Below: Liberal leadership candidate Kerry Cundal, leadership dropout Nolan Crouse and would-be centre uniter Stephen Mandel. CALGARY Members of the Alberta Liberal Party elected David Khan to what has to be among the toughest political […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

If failure to appear at Pride goeth before a fall, what will Jason Kenney do?

PHOTOS: Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney, back in 2010 when he was a Calgary MP, taking part in the Calgary Stampede Parade. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons.) Will he show up for the Edmonton Pride Parade next Saturday as well? Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, flanked by Education Minister David Eggen and Economic Development and Trade Minister […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Report questioning tidewater premium for Alberta petroleum undermines a powerful narrative … expect fireworks

PHOTOS: No Smoking … no kidding! An oil tanker sits in a Spanish port. B.C. environmentalists don’t want to see scenes like this on their coast. (Photo: Wikipedia Commons) A lot of Albertans believe they’re going to have to. Below: Report Author David Hughes and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. Whether or not it is actually […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Genial and in control, Alberta premier fields questions about B.C. politics with aplomb at hospital announcement

PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Health Minister and Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman announce a new hospital on Edmonton’s south side. Alberta Health services CEO Verna Yiu is visible on the right. Below: Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason, controversial B.C. environmentalist Tzeporah Berman and some of the crowd at the hospital announcement. We may have been […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

How but as a leadership campaign brochure are we to interpret Derek Fildebrandt’s paean to ‘Max’ Bernier?

PHOTOS: Derek Fildebrandt, the Alberta Wildrose Party’s finance critic and, possibly, third unofficial candidate to enter the non-race to lead the still-nonexistent United Conservative Party. Below: Maxime Bernier (Photo: CBC), who is apparently Mr. Fildebrandt’s ideological hero, and British Columbia NDP Leader John Horgan, who seems very close to grasping the first-ministerial brass ring in […]

Posted inAlberta Politics, Canadian Politics

Corporate media have reached consensus about Andrew Scheer: He’s Stephen Harper with a human face!

PHOTOS: Andrew Scheer, demonstrating his vaunted smile. (Photo: Rabble.ca.) This fills corporate media with hope. It shouldn’t. In Canada, with or without a smile, social conservatism is ballot-box poison. Below: former prime minister Stephen Harper, who really doesn’t have a very nice smile at all. Below him, former PM Joe Clark and serving PM Justin […]

Posted inAlberta Politics, Canadian Politics

ANDREW WHO? Oh, wait! I grabbed the wrong picture from the file cabinet!

PHOTOS: Andrew Scheer … I mean Joe Clark, a then-almost-unknown MP from Alberta, celebrates his victory in the Tory party leadership contest with his wife, Maureen McTeer, on Feb. 22, 1976. (Photo: Toronto Public Library.) The real Andrew Scheer, seen below, an almost-unknown MP from Saskatchewan, was doing the same thing this evening after a […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Media readers deserve the whole story about the sources reporters quote in public policy stories

PHOTOS: The question isn’t just whether Alberta’s students are getting the information they need, but whether media is giving the rest of us all the facts we require when we read news stories about education policy. Below: Former Edmonton Public Schools curriculum director Stuart Wachowicz, a frequent source used in columns by Edmonton Journal writer […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Wildrosers and Progressive Conservatives act as if fighting the NDP’s workplace fairness law is their hill to die on

PHOTOS: Edmonton labour lawyer Andrew Sims and Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray at yesterday’s technical briefing on the NDP Government’s new labour legislation. (Photo: CBC) Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, and Alberta Liberal interim Leader David Swann and Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark, both of whom supported introduction of the bill despite opposition on first […]

Posted inAlberta Politics, Canadian Politics

‘Foreign influence’ had nothing to do with Tory Joan Crockatt’s Calgary Centre election defeat in 2015

PHOTOS: Joan Crockatt, during her brief spell as Conservative Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre. Below: Liberal Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr, who beat Ms. Crockatt in 2015; environmentalist Chris Turner who ran against her for the Greens in 2012 and did very well; and environmentalist Harvey Locke, who ran against her for the Liberals […]