PHOTOS: Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman. Below: Former Alberta Health Services CEO Vickie Kaminski and current CEO Verna Yiu. Alberta’s health care community was abuzz this morning with word Alberta Health Services has renewed its contract with Dynalife Diagnostic Laboratory Services for five years. As of lunch hour, the province-wide public health care provider had […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
News you may have missed: pollster says Alberta NDP could win an election held tomorrow!
PHOTOS: Albertans scour the Alberta media for information about provincial politics, but they’re all getting exactly the same story. Actual politically engaged Albertans may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Alberta Opposition Leader Brian Jean and PC leadership candidate Jason Kenney. From the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, it seemed […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Part II: If there’s no Russian threat in the Baltics, why is Canada so enthusiastic about a new Cold War there?
PHOTOS: The memorial to the Soviet soldiers who died conquering the city of Berlin in 1945, the last time a major world power seriously underestimated and misjudged the Russians. Below: NATO’s top soldier, Czech General Petr Pavel and the U.S. Army’s commander in Europe, Lieutenant-General Ben Hodges. They said what they said. Bottom: a detail […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Part I: What will NATO get up to in the north now that the chill is off between Russia and Turkey in the south?
PHOTOS: NATO pilots salute back in the day, when you could make a case there was actually a reason for the military alliance to exist. Below: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. MUNICH, Germany Relations between Russia and Turkey have warmed noticeably since the deep chill that began between the two […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Unsatisfying report on leak of former PC leadership candidate’s phone bill fails to answer the questions everyone’s asking
PHOTOS: Thomas Lukaszuk in his political heyday during the summer of 2012, telling a scrum of reporters about his bid to run for the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party. Below: Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner Jill Clayton, former PC premier Alison Redford, and premier pro tempore Dave Hancock, who temporarily replaced Ms. Redford. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
A dispatch from the road: Enron and the power boys played Ralph Klein’s government for suckers
PHOTOS: With the revelations about how Enron and like companies got what they wanted from Ralph Klein’s government, are we seeing the sunset of Alberta’s disastrous experiment with electricity “deregulation”? Below: The old Kleinster himself and Enron’s logo as pricey corporate art. The release over the weekend by Alberta’s NDP government of an exchange of […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
AlbertaPolitics.ca is taking a short break, with possible interruptions, staring now
PHOTO: Don’t be fooled. The plan is for this blog to be closed for the virtual equivalent of overnight, not forever. AlbertaPolitics.ca will be back soon. There hasn’t been a dull moment in Alberta politics for about four years now. Which makes it hard to believe that, before 2011, when Alison Redford stumbled confidently onto […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Jason Kenney on the road: time theft, corporate gifts and the mysterious absence of ‘Porky the Waster Hater’
PHOTOS: The Jason Kenney shotgun-marriage campaign’s convenient and colourful motorhome, with Mr. Kenney, exiting, in the foreground. Who owns it? Who is paying for it? Below: A billboard advertising Mr. Kenney’s campaign near Grande Prairie. Same question. Photos grabbed from Mr. Kenney’s supporters’ social media sites. Go away. Don’t bother us. That was the message […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Wildrose blames NDP for a sensible labour relations practice implemented in 2013 by Alison Redford’s Tories
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Alison Redford was welcomed to the annual convention of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees by AUPE President Guy Smith in October 2012. And what does the Wildrose Party make of that? Below: Former Tory Premier Ralph Klein with his pal, former AUPE president Dan MacLennan; Wildrose labour critic Grant Hunter (Airdrie […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Mel Hurtig, a great Canadian – and, full of beans, as we used to say
PHOTOS: Mel Hurtig with his Canadian Encyclopedia, without which, once upon a time, no respectable Canadian home was considered complete. I am grateful to Mr. Hurtig for one thing not mentioned in the short commentary below, and that is my accidental introduction to Alex Waterhouse-Hayward’s constantly engaging blog on photography and many other topics, A […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Ottawa’s ethics commissioner should review MP Jason Kenney’s activities and ethics as Alberta PC candidate
PHOTOS: Freshly made up, MP Jason Kenney arrives at his news conference yesterday on the grounds of Alberta’s Legislature, where he one day hopes to have a legal parking spot. (Screenshot of CBC video.) Below: Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson, plus proof that not all provincial political Dodge Ram tours end well. The question also […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
One year ago, Stephen Harper, master of all he surveyed, called an election – what could possibly go wrong?
PHOTOS: Then prime minister Stephen Harper with his strategic brain trust, back when they still seemed like the masters of Canada’s political universe and would seem so for a few more weeks. (Source unknown.) Below: Screen shots of Mr. Harper’s Aug. 2, 2015, news conference announcing the call of the Oct. 19 federal general election […]