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 […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Don’t look for dramatic change to Alberta labour laws in revisions NDP will likely introduce this week

PHOTOS: Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray (Photo: Chris Schwarz, Government of Alberta). Below: Labour Lawyer Andrew Sims and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley (Photo: Dave Cournoyer, Wikimedia Commons.) Alberta’s New Democratic Party Government is expected to introduce changes to the province’s main labour relations laws this week, quite possibly on Wednesday. Naturally enough, right-wing politicians and […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Tories, Wildrosers agree to call new entity United Conservative Party … without ever speaking the initials aloud

PHOTOS: Wildrose Leader Brian Jean and Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney pose uncomfortably in this Wildrose Party photo. Below: A CBC shot by Terry Reith may have captured the real mood better. Below that: Twitterist Edwin Mundt’s take on the You See Pee. Question: What happens when Alberta Can’t Wait? Answer: UCP! Seriously, United Conservative […]

Posted inAlberta Politics, Geopolitics

Madmen in the White House … this time it’s a thing, not just a ‘strategy’

PHOTOS: U.S. President Richard Nixon pointing the way to the exit for Donald Trump’s benefit. Below: Mr. Nixon about to board the helicopter that would take him away from Washington for the last time in an official capacity; a recent photo of President Trump; the sinister Dr. Henry Kissinger, then and now.  Richard Nixon wasn’t […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Rachel Notley’s tough talk on pipelines evokes the Peter Lougheed Era of energy policy confrontation

PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley at yesterday’s news conference in Edmonton. (Photo: Chris Schwarz, Government of Alberta) Below: Earth scientist David Hughes (Post Carbon Institute photo), B.C. Premier Christy Clark (B.C. Government photo), and B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan. Using language that, intentionally or not, evoked the Peter Lougheed Era of Tory energy policy confrontation […]