Looking relaxed and confident, Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi ripped into Premier Danielle Smith’s flirtation with separatism yesterday at the Opposition party’s annual convention. “Alberta’s New Democrats will always, always, always stand with the millions and millions of Canadians who believe in a stronger, more unified country,” he told the more than 1,000 party members […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Mark Carney shows grace and calculation with decision to call quick by-election for Pierre Poilievre
Prime Minister Mark Carney showed both grace and calculation in his decision to call a by-election as soon as possible so that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, deprived of his seat in the House of Commons by the unexpected good sense of voters in his former Carleton riding, can remain leader of the Opposition and a […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith tries to turn up the heat on Ottawa while MAGA Canada suffers mass psychotic breakdown on X
Unsure whom to blame for Monday’s federal election loss by Pierre Poilievre and his Trumpified Conservative Party of Canada, the online Canadian MAGAsphere seemed headed for a full meltdown, klaxons blaring, for a while yesterday. A mass psychotic breakdown on the hellsite previously known Twitter saw conservatives not only screeching at their long list of […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Jagmeet Singh’s federal NDP has just suffered a catastrophe; let’s talk about Naheed Nenshi’s Alberta New Democrats
Happy May Day, the day of the worker just about everywhere in the world except North America. Once upon a time, Canadians used to think of the New Democratic Party as the party of the workers. Not so much anymore, though, as the results of Monday’s election powerfully illustrate. The Conservative Party of Canada has […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Danielle Smith: The people have spoken and I refuse to acknowledge what they said!
In a spasm of Trump-like rancour in the wake of the Liberal victory in Monday’s federal election, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith doubled down yesterday on her pre-election threats to national unity with a graceless and resentful response to the vote result. Supposedly commencing with a note of congratulation to Prime Minister Mark Carney for his […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Election Night 2025 hot take: There was something to disappoint almost everyone!
It’s not quite midnight here in Alberta on election night and at this hour it looks as if there’s something to disappoint almost everyone. “LIBERALS SET TO RETURN TO POWER,” The Globe and Mail proclaims, but not with a majority or all that comfortable a lead – 165 to 147 for the Conservatives with 93 […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta Government scramble to stop leaks about dodgy health care contracts takes on a distinct Watergate vibe
The Alberta Government’s frenetic and seemingly panicky scramble to cover up leaks about the continuing dodgy health care contracts scandal is taking on a distinct Watergate vibe. Watergate, of course, is the name of the hotel and office complex in Washington D.C. where an interrupted break-in by Republican Party operatives 1972 led to the scandal […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Don’t talk to auditor general about dodgy contracts until you’ve talked to our lawyer: government email to AHS staff
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 […]