Everybody who’s been paying attention to what Alberta Danielle Smith has been saying and doing for years understands that her government’s new policy of forcing Albertans to pay for COVID-19 immunization has precious little to do with saving the $135 million worth of unused doses she claims was “flushed down the drain last year.” Ms. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
In classic Friday afternoon bad-news dump, UCP moves to make COVID vaccines expensive and hard to find
In a classic Friday afternoon bad-news dump, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party Government announced a scheme to make seniors pay “the full costs” for restricted supplies of COVID-19 vaccines. When the UCP’s RFK-Jr.-inspired policy is implemented in mid-August, it will be easier to get ripped on legal marijuana in this province than it […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
94.5% of 39,000 unionized Alberta teachers vote to strike if bargaining reaches impasse
There’s no way to suggest a 94.5-per-cent strike vote by nearly 39,000 Alberta teachers doesn’t represent a pretty solid negotiating mandate for their union. Alberta Teachers Association President Jason Schilling announced the results of the vote, which took place between Thursday and Sunday, in an online news conference yesterday, after which the ATA published a […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
What next? UCP takes to reading Yours Truly in The Tyee, quoting lefty bloggers in press release
In Ontario last week on union business, your blogger was startled to discover the United Conservative Party had quoted his recent post commenting on recent polling results by Janet Brown Opinion Research that suggest NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has been seriously underperforming. “We can’t expect Mr. Nenshi to ship out,” I had concluded in that […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith has news for the people of Canada: you have ‘the lowest living standards in the world’
I’ve been writing these little meditations on the state of politics in Alberta now longer than it takes an infant to grow old enough to vote and in that time I have had many opportunities to observe certain failings in the quality of political discourse here. Still, I must say I felt a little frisson […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
A timely reminder on this historic day: The hammer of D-Day crushed Hitler on the anvil of Russia
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. – It’s now been 81 years since our magnificent Canadian soldiers stormed ashore at Juno Beach in Normandy to play their part the grim and deadly task of sweeping Hitler and his odious empire out of Europe. The landings on June 6, 1944, by 156,000 Canadian, British, U.S. and other Allied soldiers […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Mark Carney’s energy superpower talk may not frighten the UCP, but it ought to frighten Pierre Poilievre
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. – The bosses of 38 Canadian oil and gas corporations signed a letter of congratulations to Prime Minister Mark Carney after his April 28 election victory and pitched their favourite policy options to him, we were informed yesterday by The Canadian Press. Those policies, no one will be shocked to hear, would […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi is seriously underperforming and people are starting to notice
It is to be hoped that Premier Danielle Smith’s continuing strong polling numbers will catch the attention of someone in Alberta’s New Democratic Party Opposition, preferably somebody to whom Leader Naheed Nenshi will pay attention. The former Calgary mayor who cruised to victory as previous NDP leader Rachel Notley’s replacement a year ago this June […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Annals of the Law: Auditor general asks appeal court not to permit cross-examination of former AHS CEO about info she’s given his office
One doesn’t need to work very hard to read between the lines of Alberta Auditor General Doug Wylie’s filing Tuesday to the Alberta Court of Appeal, which argued that the court should deny the Alberta government the right to cross-examine former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos about what records and other information she has […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
The King’s reading of the Throne Speech: Sounds like the grownups are in charge again
Say what you will about the King’s reading of the Throne Speech in the Senate chamber in Ottawa yesterday, his measured tones did manage to leave the impression that grownups are in charge in Ottawa once again. The mere appearance of King Charles III – by the grace of God, King of Canada, as we […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Bedevilled by scandal and measles, UCP tries to gin up a moral panic about racy picture books in school libraries
There’s never a bad time for a scandal-ridden right-wing government like Alberta’s United Conservative Party to try to gin up a moral panic over books with dirty pictures in school libraries. But with the province’s auditor general asking for and receiving permission from the Alberta Court of Appeal to act as an intervenor in the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Naheed Nenshi, NDP leader, to get chance to win seat in Alberta Legislature on June 23
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has finally called a by-election in Edmonton Strathcona, four months after NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi was acclaimed as the Opposition party’s candidate in the riding long held former premier Rachel Notley. The premier also called by-elections to fill two other seats, Edmonton-Ellerslie, where former MLA Rod Loyola resigned to run for […]