The Alberta Legislature got back to business yesterday, with a desperate United Conservative Party Government mired in a dodgy contracts scandal of its own creation flailing about for ways to deny, distract and deflect criticism, commentary, and questions. Luckily for the government, in addition to having no elected leader in the Legislature, the Opposition NDP […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Make no mistake, the UCP’s planned ‘compassionate intervention centres’ will be jails
Make no mistake, the two “compassionate intervention centres” planned by Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government will be jails. At a fancy televised news conference in Calgary yesterday with a large cast of supporters, Premier Danielle Smith and Mental Health and Addiction Minister Dan Williams – both of whom are under a dark political cloud as […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Impact of those dodgy contracts allegations continues to spread – so, did anyone ever call the cops?
Did anyone ever call the cops? What are the Mounties doing, if anything? In Paragraph 60 of her statement of claim for her $1.7-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit, former Alberta Health Services Chief Executive Officer Athana Mentzelopoulos said the agency’s board advised her in mid-December that her internal investigation and external forensic audit of possible conflicts […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Still struggling to control damage from Dodgy Contracts Scandal, Danielle Smith claims AHS conspired to block UCP private surgery scheme
Finally responding in person to Athana Mentzelopoulos’s $1.7-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit, Premier Danielle Smith stood up at a government news conference in Calgary yesterday and spent part of the tightly controlled half-hour event publicly attacking her former Alberta Health Services CEO for the way she did her job before the government fired her on Jan. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Two cheers for Don Getty, who gave Alberta the Family Day long weekend in February
Happy Family Day! The winters around here are long. T.S. Eliot may have reckoned April was the cruellest month, but anyone from Alberta knows it’s February, season of the original fake news: “Spring is coming!” Given what the Internet had turned into even before Elon Musk bought Twitter and made fake news great again, we […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Crack appears in UCP’s solid front as cabinet member calls for Adriana LaGrange to be sacked as health minister
For the first time since Danielle Smith became premier of Alberta in the fall of 2022, a rift in United Conservative Party cabinet ranks appeared in public view yesterday over whether or not Adriana LaGrange should be removed as health minister to control the damage from the festering Dodgy Contracts Scandal. In a memorandum to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
If the UCP hopes to turn the page on the Dodgy Contracts Scandal, someone’s going to have to fall on their sword
If Danielle Smith hopes to turn the page on the Dodgy Contracts Scandal that’s been dogging her since the former CEO of Alberta Health Services challenged the United Conservative Party Government’s narrative about the circumstances that led to her dismissal on Jan. 8, Alberta’s premier is going to have to act fast. Athana Mentzelopoulos says […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Athana Mentzelopoulos files her $1.7-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit and the stuff starts really hitting the fan
Fired Alberta Health Services Chief Executive Officer Athana Mentzelopoulos’s lawyers have filed her $1.7-million lawsuit alleging she was fired “capriciously, arbitrarily, and in bad faith because she was actually carrying out her duties for AHS” and now the stuff is really starting to hit the fan. Some of Ms. Mentzelopoulos’s accusations are incendiary. She names […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP Attacks! Any old port in a storm when all the media wants to talk about is the Dodgy Contracts Scandal
Desperate to distract from the attention being paid to allegations of dodgy contracts pushed by government insiders, Alberta’s United Conservative Government attacked the Canadian Union of Public Employees yesterday, accusing its Ontario-based national office of “attacking” public sector bargaining. In a joint statement laden with falsehoods published on the official Alberta Government website, Finance Minister […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Where the hell is our head of state?
Where the hell is our head of state? I speak, of course, of His Majesty, Charles the Third, by the Grace of God King of Canada and His other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth. One would think, wouldn’t one, that in a grave national crisis, a real head of state would speak up […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
In truculent statement, Danielle Smith denies any responsibility for misconduct at Alberta Health Services by government staff
In a truculent and defensive statement in response to last week’s bombshell allegations provincial officials improperly pressured Alberta Health Services to sign bad deals with private contractors, a stormy Danielle Smith took to social media yesterday to channel Richard Nixon and declare herself not to be a crook. “As Premier, I was not involved in […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Athana Mentzelopoulos’s bombshell allegations about sketchy deals at AHS pushed by officials and political staffers set off huge storm
It will be hard for Alberta’s United Conservative Party to shake off former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos’s bombshell allegation she was fired for launching an investigation of sketchy procurement deals and private surgical contracts pushed by influential staffers in Premier Danielle Smith’s government. Ms. Mentzelopoulos’s claims are included in a long letter to […]