In early February, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith publicly urged Alberta’s auditor general to get cracking with his just-started investigation into allegations of dodgy contracts being forced on Alberta Health Services by officials with connections to her government and even her office. “We need to get to the bottom of this issue quickly to identify any […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Want an explanation for the UCP’s health care shell game? Follow the money
There was another big health care announcement by the Alberta Government yesterday, the second in as many days, this one about the further deconstruction of Alberta Health Services and the shuffling of important health care activities among newly created bureaucracies like a pea under some walnut shells. Where’s cancer care gone? What about organ transplants […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith’s ‘patient-focused’ funding scheme means hospitals will need to game the system
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith claimed yesterday a new “patient-focused funding model” planned for Alberta hospitals “will increase transparency, lower wait times and attract more surgeons – helping deliver better health care for all Albertans, when and where they need it.” But what will really happen when the United Conservative Party Government puts Ms. Smith’s new […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
What you said on social media will probably haunt you forever: so maybe you should forget about running for Parliament!
If vetting federal political candidates was as strict in 2004 as it needs to be today, would Pierre Poilievre have made the cut as a candidate? I wonder. Since candidate vetting by national political parties is as rigorous as it is in this age of social media, where any injudicious thing we say is likely […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
This just in from Alberta: ‘Vote like we tell you, or we’ll bust up your country!’
Something new is happening in the 2025 federal election campaign now under way. After a couple of years of polls suggesting that a Conservative victory was a deadbolt cinch and Pierre Poilievre would soon be prime minister, no sooner did Justin Trudeau quit as PM than public opinion began to turn back toward the Liberals […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Publicly shamed, Alberta drops plan to deny free popsicles, juice boxes and water to kids recovering from cancer treatments
How big a role did the colourful image of popsicles play in the Alberta Government’s decision yesterday to drop the appalling Alberta Health Services policy of not providing frozen treats, juice boxes, water and snacks to kids recovering from cancer treatments? Never mind the letterhead on the memo or the excuses we’re hearing now, it’s […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to rename Canada geese American geese
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature will rename Canada geese as American geese with the publication of the next edition of its widely respected list of scientific animal names. The fourth edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature published in 1999 lists the familiar large species of North American goose with a black head, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
AHS tells court it wants to revise filing to fire former CEO for something it didn’t know about when it fired her
The latest twist in the Alberta Government’s legal campaign against former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos’s wrongful dismissal lawsuit is a new court filing that claims the fired executive forwarded confidential emails to herself thereby breaching her employment contract. AHS, The Canadian Press reported yesterday, “is looking to amend its statement of defence in […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith tries to turn tables on critics with diatribe defending plan to meet far-right Florida bloviator today
Under fierce attack for asking Trump Administration officials pause their tariff war on Canada until a friendlier Conservative government could be elected in Ottawa and anticipating more of the same when she waltzes off to Florida today to sit down with an unsavoury far-right bloviator, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith responded with a diatribe in the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Startling increases in outsourced surgical costs tend to corroborate claims of contract irregularities made by fired AHS CEO: Parkland study
Analysis of public data showing startling increases in the cost of outsourced surgical procedures in Alberta that cannot be explained by inflation or input costs seem to corroborate claims of contract irregularities made by fired Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos, says a new report on for-profit surgical costs. The report, Operation Profit: Private Surgical […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
No surprise, Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi announces he will run for Mark Carney’s Liberals on April 28
No surprise, Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi confirmed Sunday he will be running as a Liberal in the April 28 federal election. A former Liberal cabinet minister, Mr. Sohi will run in the new Edmonton Southeast riding, which includes some of the territory he represented as MP for Edmonton Mill Woods from 2015 to 2019 and […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Did Danielle Smith just admit she was helping the Trump Administration try to influence the Canadian election?
In order to get Pierre Poilievre and his Conservatives elected as prime minister and government of Canada, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told an interviewer from pro-MAGA Breitbart News in a March 8 podcast, she’s asked officials of the Trump Administration to “put things on pause” until the election if over. This admission resurfaced on the […]