Alberta Premier Danielle Smith yesterday announced a raft of referendum questions for Oct. 19 demanding provincial intrusion into federal jurisdiction, cutting services to new Canadians and other anti-immigrant measures, and seeking significant changes to the Canadian constitution. There will be five wordy policy referenda focusing on immigration and clearly designed to appeal to the United […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta Conservatives fume as Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux jumps ship for the Liberals
As everybody in Canada surely knows by now, Alberta Member of Parliament Matt Jeneroux has crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals, who whether you like it or not appear still to be the Natural Governing Party of Canada. Mr. Jeneroux made the announcement in a letter […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Ric McIver states unequivocally he is not a supporter of Alberta separatism
Ric McIver, Speaker of the Alberta Legislature, has stated categorically he is not a supporter of Alberta separating from Canada. In an emailed response to questions sent to United Conservative Party MLAs whose names appeared on a list of supposed separation sympathizers cooked up by the Republican Party of Alberta and published last spring on […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
The new country Alberta’s separatist minority is dreaming of would never be a real democracy
One unacknowledged assumption is most certainly shared by the would-be leaders of a “free” Alberta: The new country they hope to create could not function as a democracy. Indeed, from the perspective of the many aspiring Fathers of Deconfederation (and that of Premier Danielle Smith among the vanishingly small number of their maternal counterparts) the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Whatever became of those ‘triage liaison’ docs who were supposed to ease the crisis in Alberta’s big-city Emergency Rooms?
Whatever became of those elusive “triage liaison” docs who were supposed to be a Band-Aid on the crisis in Alberta’s big-city Emergency Rooms while the United Conservative Party Government figured out how to solve a problem that’s the result of nearly 40 years of Conservative policy negligence? They seem to have completely disappeared … without […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Should I stay or should I go? ♪♫ Now Alberta separatists are upset that us woke folk might want to leave!
A recent Angus Reid Institute poll that suggests three quarters of the significant majority of Albertans who want no part of Alberta separation would leave the province if Alberta separated from Canada appears to have thrown separatist supporters into hysterics. This is really weird. After all, these are by and large the same MAGA tough […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Apparently the UCP is OK with 18 of its MLAs being publicly identified as separatists
It would appear that the United Conservative Party Caucus is OK with having 18 of its members, including eight cabinet ministers, publicly identified as supporters of Alberta independence from Canada, as long as they preserve a few tatters of deniability. The 18 MLAs appear on a list of separation sympathizers named publicly by the so-called […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP reported planning to vote on publicly acknowledging separatist program – but not until after separation referendum!
A headline in Friday’s Calgary Herald asks: “Is the UCP still a pro-Canada party?” That’s one of those questions that, if you have to ask it, you already know the answer. Maybe you don’t want to believe that you know it. But you do. And, yes Alberta, the United Conservative Party is a separatist party. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
OK, Stephen Harper didn’t sign the separation petition, but he needs to say and do more
It’s all very well that Stephen Harper has assured Canadians he didn’t sign Alberta’s separation referendum petition, but that’s not good enough. It was, as the CBC’s online wordsmith put it, merely a quip. Nevertheless, if you listened carefully, the former Conservative prime minister could be heard to say at a collegial televised fireside chat […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Nate Horner publishes perennial Alberta poverty plea, warns of ‘tough choices’
The poor little rich kid of Confederation is pleading poverty again. But take note, it’s not Alberta’s fault! (It’s never Alberta’s fault.) In an announcement yesterday that the next Alberta Budget will drop on Feb. 26, Finance Minister Nate Horner trotted out several traditional Alberta excuses about why we’re going to have to make some […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta’s two-tier health care bill is designed to kill public health care – a new report shows how
Despite its name, Alberta’s Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025, is not health care legislation. The purpose of the law that was granted Royal Assent on Dec. 11 last year is to destroy public health care as we know it, not just in Alberta but throughout Canada, by legislating two-tier health care. It may well succeed […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Pierre Poilievre set out to channel Mark Carney in Calgary speech, partly succeeding
Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre tried hard to channel Prime Minister Mark Carney in Calgary Friday evening, partly succeeding. If the notion he’s paid attention to Canada’s changing political climate and altered course enough to fool inattentive voters without sacrificing supporters’ “conservative principles” was Mr. Poilievre’s pitch to party activists to let him […]