While Alberta Premier Danielle Smith fulminates about Alberta Health Services’ enforcement of public health measures during the pandemic, the Alberta Court of King’s Bench has upheld $80,000 in fines against an Edmonton church and one of its pastors for refusing entry to an AHS public health inspector six times in March and June 2021. In […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Vaccine-skeptical slate sympathetic to Danielle Smith’s public health views captures all 9 contested positions on UCP board
If the UCP stays low in the polls, don’t bet against the possibility the Smith Government will find an excuse to ignore Alberta’s fixed-election date law and delay the next general election.
Posted inAlberta Politics
A tale of two speeches: Rachel Notley and Danielle Smith mark informal start of campaign leading to 2023 election
Meanwhile, outside the Legislature Building in downtown Edmonton yesterday, thousands of Alberta schoolteachers and their supporters protested the education policies of the UCP.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith announces absurdly large cabinet that keeps friends close, some enemies closer, and includes few women
To borrow an American political metaphor, faced with risk of draining the swamp to get rid of the alligators, Premier Danielle Smith decided to flood it to keep them happy.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Today’s cabinet choices should cast more light on Premier Danielle Smith’s 2023 election strategy
Given the way Alberta’s electoral districts are divvied up, Premier Danielle Smith thinks she doesn’t need very many of Alberta’s urban voters to win, and she’ll do what she needs to do to win.
Posted inAlberta Politics
A big apology by Danielle Smith and a bad poll for the UCP make it look like her government’s already on the ropes
Don’t rule out a counter-coup by the Conservative establishment if it starts to look as if Danielle Smith will make it possible for the NDP to bury the Conservative movement in Alberta for a generation.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Former Edmonton PC MLA, set to serve two years of house arrest, once promised to donate entire salary for scholarships
Jason Kenney also once said he’d donate his pension to charity if he was still being paid a public salary when his superannuation kicked in. But he’ll start collecting his pension the day after he stops being paid as an MLA.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Support for Freedom Convoy in Alberta was an inch wide and an inch deep, research for inquiry suggests
Research by U of A Professor Jared Wesley for the Public Order Emergency Commission shows just how tepid support for the Convoy protesters and their goals was here in Alberta.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Does being premier of Alberta mean never having to say you’re sorry? Let Danielle Smith explain …
Criticism of Premier Danielle Smith for calling vaccine refuseniks “the most discriminated-against group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime” was hot enough to reheat the Lake of Fire!
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith’s first news conference as premier: Sovereignty, health care changes, succour for the Great Unvaxxed!
The new UCP leader’s notorious Sovereignty Act will respect the rule of law and all Supreme Court decisions. Plus, it’ll still give Alberta new tools to fiercely defend its jurisdiction. So which is it?
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith v. Rachel Notley: One remarkable political comeback sets the stage for another
In 2010, I predicted that Danielle Smith was one of two talented young women politicians who had an opportunity “to remake Alberta’s political history.” The other was Rachel Notley.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Voters in Calgary-Elbow have every right to be furious with their treatment by the United Conservative Party
It took premier designate Danielle Smith less than 24 hours to change her story about why there will be no by-election in a Calgary riding that has already been without an MLA for two months.