Alberta premier Danielle Smith, defiant and unrepentant, continues to slough off criticism of the report on Alberta’s COVID-19 response produced by her government’s a handpicked panel of vaccine skeptical and conspiracy-theory-influenced contributors. “This is the kind of approach you should always expect from me,” she told a reporter at a news conference yesterday on another […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Promise made, promise kept: Thanks to the UCP, Alberta workers now face a significant ‘Alberta Disadvantage’
As far as wages go, Alberta workers now face a significant “Alberta Disadvantage,” says a report published yesterday on the continuing suppression of wages and salaries in the Western Canadian province. Not long ago the highest-wage province in Canada, with wages 17 per cent above the national average, payroll data for hourly employees shows Alberta […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Its addled report assailed by expert critics, UCP COVID ‘task force’ quickly descends into a task farce
As predicted on Friday, it didn’t take long for the debunking of the conspiracy-theory-riddled final report of the United Conservative Party Government’s so-called task force on Alberta’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic to begin in earnest. It started yesterday morning with a blast from Alberta Medical Association President Shelley Duggan, who assailed the document as […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
The Jasper fire funding flip-flop: The UCP is prepared to let families go homeless to pursue its vendetta against Ottawa
It sure looks as if Alberta’s United Conservative Government is prepared to let more than 600 families whose homes were destroyed by last July’s wildfire go homeless if that’s what it takes to pursue its political vendetta against the Liberal federal government in Ottawa. According to The Canadian Press, this was the view of the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta government ‘task force’ report on response to COVID-19 calls for vaccine use to be halted, pumps quack cures and conspiracy theories
Hours after U.S. government health agencies’ websites began to go dark as part of President Donald Trump’s opening attack on public health in the United States, the Alberta government yesterday quietly published a conspiracy-theory-promoting report on the province’s response to COVID-19 that calls for use of COVID vaccines to be halted and accuses media of […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith undermined Canada’s bargaining position in face of Trump tariffs, says former chief trade negotiator
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s refusal to sign the joint statement in which all other provincial and territorial premiers agreed to a co-ordinated response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canadian exports significantly undermined Canada’s bargaining position, Canada’s former chief trade negotiator says. Steve Verheul delivered that judgment during a 2025 financial outlook panel […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Dig, baby, dig! Energy Minister Brian Jean lifts ban on coal exploration on the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies
In a Jan. 15 letter to the Chairman of the Alberta Energy Regulator, Environment Minister Brian Jean lifted the ban on coal exploration on the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains that was put in place after intense public pressure on Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party Government in February 2021. Hard to say whether the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Canada could be in stronger position than U.S. if trade war breaks out: economist Paul Krugman
Canada may find itself in a stronger position than the United States if a trade war breaks out between the two countries. Don’t take my word for that. That’s Paul Krugman speaking. You know, the distinguished professor of economics, winner of a Nobel prize in that field* and for almost 24 years until late last […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Media matters: If Justin Trudeau’s vacation itinerary was so vitally important, why isn’t Danielle Smith’s?
Do you remember the furor the National Post and all its little local Postlets ginned up about Justin Trudeau’s Christmas holiday in British Columbia? Hard to believe that was just three weeks ago! It feels like a year. The brouhaha has already almost completely disappeared down Postmedia’s capacious Memory Hole! “The office of the prime […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
If Danielle Smith intends to defy a national consensus on how to respond to Donald Trump’s tariffs, she should call an election
If Alberta Premier Danielle Smith intends to defy an all-party, all-province, national consensus on how to respond to Donald Trump’s tariff threats, she should call a provincial election and get a mandate to do so. After all, notwithstanding the disproportionate number of MAGA ideologues and Alberta separatists in her United Conservative Party caucus and cabinet, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith’s ‘Pillow Talk’: All we are asking, is give oil a chance!
In what must be one of the more bizarre settings for an official news conference in Canadian political history, a cranky Alberta Premier Danielle Smith held forth on her meeting with Donald Trump from what appeared to be her hotel bed yesterday. Only John and Yoko did it better! But all they wanted was for […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Danielle Smith races to the side of the biggest right-wing celebrity of them all, Donald Trump, conducts ‘diplomacy’
There being no Canadian version of the Logan Act, there’s little that could be done about Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s mortifying pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to pose for a selfie with Donald Trump and, or so she claims, “engage in constructive dialogue and diplomacy with the incoming administration.” Her race to the tacky Florida resort to […]