PHOTOS: Alberta Education Minister David Eggen. Below: Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean and film director and former American evangelical Frank Schaeffer (Salon photo). Controversy in Alberta over the provincial government’s decision to withdraw funding and accreditation from a private Christian school association that oversaw about a third of the province’s home-schooled children offers a chance […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
The question must be asked: Was Brad Wall’s party being paid to undermine Alberta’s NDP?
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, not looking quite like himself, were still smiling and standing side by side at the start of the July 2015 premiers’ meeting in St. John’s. A week later? Now? Not so much. Below: Mr. Wall as we’ve come to know him (Photo: Daniel Paquet), interfering […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Database shows how schools, cities, charities, plus media and Alberta firms bankroll Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party
PHOTOS: Premier Brad Wall, whose Saskatchewan Party has been receiving donations from such taxpayer-supported institutions as municipalities, a health region, public libraries, school boards, universities, colleges, a Crown corporation and registered charities. (Photo: Daniel Paquet) Below: Progress Alberta Executive Director Duncan Kinney; blogger and non-New Democrat Dave Cournoyer; and former Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Clown costumes verboten today in Fort Mac schools … but are Canadians safe when costumed mimes can walk our streets?
PHOTOS: Mump and Smoot, Edmonton’s clowns of horror. They’re not welcome in Fort McMurray’s public schools today. Below: Something new to worry about … the New York subway’s Mime of Horror! Another photo of Mump and Smoot, from their Facebook page just like the one above, no doubt reacting the way I do to the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Brian Jean goes full Trump for the Wildrose masses: Total disaster! We need to Make Alberta Great Again! Believe me!
PHOTOS: I tell you, it’s a total disaster! Believe me! Brian Jean speaks with members after his Trump-like Friday evening speech at the Wildrose Party’s 2016 AGM in Red Deer (CBC photo). Below: Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose former speech-writers may soon be able to find productive work in Alberta; Jason Kenney, the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Location of immigration office in Vegreville steeped in Mulroney Era pork barrel politics, and never made sense
PHOTOS: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s soon-to-be-moved national case-processing centre in Vegreville, Alberta. Below: Mulroney Era deputy prime minister Don Mazankowski, the man who pushed for the centre to be located in his riding; Vegreville’s famed giant Ukrainian egg; and Vegreville Mayor Myron Hayduk. News Ottawa is at long last going to move Immigration, Refugees […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Never mind the evidence! Full speed ahead! An expert unpacks Alberta’s unending experiment in health care staffing
PHOTOS: Nursing professional responsibility advisor Joshua Bergman addresses UNA’s annual general meeting in Edmonton Wednesday (Dave Cournoyer photo). Below: Conservative premier Ralph Klein, whose government began the province’s long experiment in health care staffing mixes as part of an ideologically motivated attack on social programs. For nigh on 20 years, health care workers in Alberta […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
This shouldn’t be a surprise: Trudeaumania 2.0 fails to deliver in Medicine Hat
PHOTOS: Trudeaumania 1.0, the real thing, in 1968. Below: Trudeaumania 2.0, not nearly as effective, in Medicine Hat, Alberta, on Oct. 13, 2016. Below: Conservative by-election winner Glen Motz, Rudyard Kipling, poet of empire and saviour of the Hat part of the Hat, and unsuccessful Liberal challenger Stan Sakamoto. Well, it’s obviously going to take […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Pigs will fly before the fantasy that Ottawa’s carbon tax ‘invades provincial jurisdiction’ will ever persuade a court
PHOTOS: Who says Jason Kenney is full of baloney? These guys do! And they’re the Fathers of Confederation! Below: PC leadership candidate Mr. Kenney; federal Liberal Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr, MP for Calgary Centre; and Brian Jean, leader of the Wildrose Opposition in the Alberta Legislature (Wildrose.ca photo). Ottawa’s carbon tax is “is an […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Schiaparelli lander missing; ground control still in contact with Postmedia; prognosis grim for both
PHOTOS: An artist’s impression of the Schiaparelli Mars Lander descending gently toward the Martian surface. Schiaparelli’s actual Mars landings may not have unfolded exactly as illustrated by the European Space Agency. Below: The evocative cover of today’s National Post. About 178 million kilometres from us yesterday, give or take, Europe’s Schiaparelli spacecraft went missing and […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta right now: The state of the province, its parties, and its oil after 1 year without Stephen Harper
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley addresses supporters for her “state of the province” speech in Calgary’s Jack Singer Concert Hall yesterday. (Photo from the Premier of Alberta’s Flickr account.) Below: Would-be Progressive Conservative leader Jason Kenney and current Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean. It was so busy in political Alberta yesterday those folks who were […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Just say no to term limits! They’re fundamentally undemocratic and that’s why the right likes them
PHOTOS: Given the alternatives, most of the world would be delighted if this scene could be repeated, don’t you think? Probably most Americans would be too. Below: Four-time presidential winner Franklin D. Roosevelt and other presidents who contemplated third terms, but were thwarted for on reason or another, Ulysses S. Grant, Woodrow Wilson and Grover […]