Alberta Premier Jim Prentice, at right, prepares to deliver his solemn message to the people of Alberta this evening, while his voice coach from Navigator Inc. looks on. Actual PC politicians and their advisors may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Departing Tory MLA Naresh Bhardwaj (Edmonton Sun photo), NDP Leader Rachel Notley and one […]
When is a reorganization not a reorganization? When it’s at Alberta Health Services
PHOTOS: The scene in a typical rural Alberta hospital. (Actual rural Alberta health care facilities may not appear exactly as illustrated.) More health care decisions will be made locally when Alberta Health Services switches from zones to districts on July 1, or so they say. Below: Ambulance services, however, will be centralized even more. Below […]
Alison Redford returns and tells us to look in the mirror for the reasons for her fall
PHOTOS: Alison Redford leaves Government House on March 13, 2014, supposedly with a “work plan” she must fulfill to keep her job. A week later, she had been fired. Below: Ms. Redford speaks with the media on the night she was chosen as Progressive Conservative Party leader in October 2011; she meets the press again […]
Forget tough talk on public sector salaries for now, another legislative pillar of the Redford Government topples
PHOTO: Alberta Premier Jim Prentice, flanked by Finance Minister Robin Campbell and Labour Minister Ric McIver, lays out the reasons he’d dumping the Redford Government’s Bill 45 at a news conference in Government House yesterday. Below: Thomas Lukaszuk and Dave Hancock. Flanked by Finance Minister Robin Campbell and Labour Minister Ric McIver, Alberta Premier Jim […]
Passage of Bill 10 is not likely to be the end of the story for school gay-straight alliances
The surprising turnaround by the Prentice Government on gay-straight alliances in publicly funded schools is certainly a victory for common sense and the common decency of most Albertans. But the government’s unexpected decision to permit the passage on March 10 of legislation requiring all schools to let GSAs operate on school property if students felt […]
Call the cops and clear the air: the PC Party cannot investigate accusations of criminality against its own member
PHOTOS: It’s time to pick up the phone and call in the cops. Below: Former Prentice cabinet member Naresh Bhardwaj, former Alberta premier Alison Redford, former Calgary Police chief Rick Hanson. Sorry, but it’s time to call in the police to investigate the bribery accusations against an MLA who was until last Friday a junior […]
Guest Post: 44 years and counting … Alvin Finkel asks, Can Alberta’s Tories be stopped?
ILLUSTRATIONS: Election time in Alberta. Actual Progressive Conservative strategists and Alberta voters may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Retired Athabasca University history professor Alvin Finkel. A few months ago, I offered Alvin Finkel and a few other folks I respect the opportunity to write guest posts from time to time on what was then […]
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander delivers a troubling speech on Ukraine
PHOTOS: Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander begins his address to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress in Toronto on Feb. 22 (Screenshot from Youtube video). Below: Andriy Parubiy, deputy chairperson of the Ukrainian parliament, meets Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson in Ottawa; retired Canadian diplomats Paul Heinbecker and Jeremy Kinsman. One of the principal talking […]
Will it take a miracle to elect New Democrat Marie Renaud as St. Albert’s MLA? Maybe, but you just never can tell …
PHOTOS: NDP candidate Marie Renaud at yesterday’s St. Albert constituency association meeting. Below: Constituency association president Andrew Traynor and St. Albert Progressive Conservative MLA Stephen Khan. ST. ALBERT, Alberta Miracles do happen, or something close to them, Marie Renaud said Saturday at a remarkably well-attended Alberta New Democratic Party meeting in St. Albert’s community recreation […]
Prentice had little choice but to skid cabinet member accused of bribery for now
PHOTOS: Edmonton-Ellerslie MLA Naresh Bhardwaj has left the Prentice cabinet while the party investigates accusations he offered a $10,000 bribe to a challenger for his riding’s PC nomination. Below: NDP Leader Rachel Notley and departing Wildrose MLA Shayne Saskiw. Under the circumstances, Premier Jim Prentice had little choice Friday but to ask Naresh Bhardwaj, associate […]
Unite-the-left pot starts to boil in Alberta, whether progressive parties like it or not
PHOTOS: Edmonton-Centre Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman holds up a mirror to the Progressive Conservative Party’s cracked austerity policies at a recent demonstration. Yesterday she announced she’d be running for three parties at the same time. BELOW: Brian Singh of 1abvote.ca, Calgary Centre Conservative MP Joan Crockatt and her federal Liberal challenger, Kent Hehr. Efforts to […]
Why Taber smells like agricultural products and Ottawa smells like roses
PHOTOS: Helloo, Farm Boy! Welcome to Taber, Alberta, sin city of the southern plains, a place obviously badly in need of correction (1988 photo by Harry Palmer found on the Internet). Below: the Taber sugar beet refinery; a truck selling Taber corn. Taber gets the ridicule and Ottawa gets the glory. What’s with that? To […]