Posted inAlberta Politics, St. Albert

MacKay, Hughes and Russell ID’d as St. Albert city council members who made statements criticized by Cuff Report

PHOTOS: St. Albert City Council, all smiles, back in the day a bit. From left to right, Bob Russell, Sheena Hughes, Tim Osborne, Nolan Crouse, Wes Brodhead, Cam MacKay and Cathy Heron. Below: Consultant George Cuff, author of the municipal inspection report, and informal shots of Councillors Russell, MacKay and Hughes at Mr. MacKay’s mayoral […]

Posted inAlberta Politics, Canadian Politics, Media

Sic transit gloria mundi … Globe and Mail, a ‘writers’ newspaper’ no more or a national one either, cans two great columnists

PHOTOS: This was the way into the Globe and Mail back when it was located at the unfashionable west end of Toronto’s Front Street. The door was moved. Apparently the “writers’ newspaper” behind it didn’t come with it. Below: Fired Globe columnists Tabatha Southey and Leah McLaren (Photos: Twitter). Many of Tabatha Southey’s columns made […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Alberta premier’s quietly capable chief of staff, John Heaney, returns to his family and law practice in B.C.

PHOTOS: John Heaney last spring at the Alberta Legislature. Below: Mr. Heaney’s predecessor as Premier Rachel Notley’s chief of staff, Brian Topp, and his successor, Nathan Rotman (Photo: Twitter). The departure of the low-key and highly capable John Heaney as Premier Rachel Notley’s chief of staff will not necessarily become a problem for Alberta’s New […]

Posted inAlberta Politics, St. Albert

Tales from the Council Crypt: Unnamed councillors ID’d in four statements criticized in St. Albert inspection report

PHOTOS: Councillor Bob Russell, at a recent picnic held to support the candidacy of Councillor Cam MacKay, who is running for mayor of St. Albert. Below: Councillor MacKay and Councillor Sheena Hughes, at the same event, and George Cuff, author of the “inspection report” on the work of St. Albert’s city government that was released […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

St. Albert inspection report points fingers at outrageous behaviour by some councillors, but fails to name names

PHOTOS: Consultant George Cuff, author of the City of St. Albert “inspection report,” at St. Albert City Hall after yesterday afternoon’s special council meeting. In the background, portraits of earlier, perhaps less fractious, St. Albert city councils. Below: Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Shaye Anderson and St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse. ST. ALBERT, Alberta Despite a […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

What does climate change mean for Alberta’s growing dependence on a pipeline to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries?

PHOTOS: U.S. Climate Change Denier in Chief Donald J. Trump. (Photo: White House.) A woman is rescued from her Houston area home (Photo: U.S. Department of Defense.) “Wow – Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood!” So said an apparently astonished Donald J. Trump, First Tweeter of the United States and […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Time for a changeup? UCP Caucus’s money troubles are funny and ironic, but not enough to win an election for the NDP

PHOTOS: NDP Health Minister Sarah Hoffman. Is she the best person to hold Alberta’s finance portfolio as Alberta’s 2019 election edges nearer? Below: Finance Minister Joe Ceci and Jason Kenney, the conservative politician most likely to lead the United Conservative Party into the next provincial election. The pecuniary difficulties faced by the new United Conservative […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Jim Dinning 6.0: how Jason Kenney is repeating the same failed Tory strategy, and expecting different results

PHOTOS: Singer k.d. lang (handout photo, via CBC). Below: Jim Dinning 1.0 and Jim Dinning 6.0. Is it just me, or is it mildly surprising that Jason Kenney turned down k.d. lang’s offer of free tickets to Calgary Pride on Sept. 3 and 4? Mr. Kenney, of course, is the former Ottawa insider, Harper Government […]

Posted inAlberta Politics, Canadian Politics

Hard to believe it’s been 6 years: Looking back to 2011, and Election Eve 2008, with happy memories of Layton, Jack

PHOTOS: NDP Leader Jack Layton, looking fragile and using a crutch, in Edmonton in April 2011. Below: Mr. Layton that day, again, and some of the mourners in front of the Alberta Legislature on Aug. 24, 2011. Don’t mourn! Organize!
        — Joe Hill, Swedish-American union organizer As happens each year at this time, I’m […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Breakup on the right? Naw, Canadian conservative politicians’ long romance with the Rebel isn’t over

PHOTOS: Wildrose-UCP MLA Drew Barnes, who still stands with and by Rebel Media, at a protest on the steps of the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton in December 2015. Below: Federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer (Photo: Marcos Oliveira, Wikimedia Commons), UCP leadership candidates Jason Kenney and Brian Jean, and Alberta NDP House Leader Brian Mason. With […]