Alberta Premier Danielle Smith vowed Saturday to take measures to ensure masking mandates for children in Alberta’s kindergarten-to-Grade-12 classes can no longer be imposed. “Our government will not permit any further masking mandates of children in Alberta’s K-12 education system,” her edict published on the government’s website read. With Halloween right around the corner, this […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Judge says order to dump school masks contravened Public Health Act, a reminder of how bad the Kenney Government was
Justice Grant Dunlop’s declaration that the UCP Government acted “unreasonably” is a useful reminder of the sins of now-departed premier Jason Kenney.
Posted inAlberta Politics
Signals unintelligence: Danielle Smith’s latest fumbles suggest her government struggles with ineptitude
Nathan Cooper, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, announced yesterday he has received notice the Legislature will be prorogued on Sunday and a new session will begin with a Speech from the Throne on Tuesday, Nov. 29.
Posted inAlberta Politics
St. Albert city administration wants to cut $500,000 from public library – and add $480,000 for 2 new senior administrators
Within three years, the city’s senior bureaucrats hope to have permanently cut 33% – $1.5 million – a year from the library’s budget!
Posted inAlberta Politics
While Alberta premier fulminates against public health enforcement, court upholds fines against pastor and church
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.