Ted Byfield, publisher of the influential Alberta Report Magazine and similar hard right spinoffs, died Thursday at 93. Edward Bartlett Byfield was born in Toronto on Bastille Day, 1928. He was talented rhetorician and prominent influencer of the Harper-Manning-Kenney Axis of Paleoconservatism – and by inevitable extension, of Canadian journalism. He probably would not have […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Kenney Government orders Alberta Health Services to drop its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for employees
Alberta Health Services has been ordered by the Kenney Government to drop its policy of requiring health care workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19. “At the direction of Alberta’s government, Alberta Health Services will provide all unimmunized physicians and staff the option of temporary frequent COVID-19 testing to ensure the anticipated demand on the health-care […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Adhere to the letter and spirit of guidelines to slow Omicron COVID infections? Not Alberta’s UCP!
“I appeal to all Albertans to reduce their number of contacts by half over the coming weeks, follow the guidelines already in place, and get the vaccine booster as soon as they are eligible,” said Jason Kenney, premier of Alberta and leader of the governing United Conservative Party, way back on Tuesday. Mr. Kenney was […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
No more dancing or snooker, but bars can remain open and unvaccinated Albertans are still welcome at house parties
Premier Jason Kenney was back on camera yesterday afternoon to plead with Albertans to hasten to get their third shot of COVID-19 vaccine to blunt the fifth wave of the disease now barrelling into Alberta. If we don’t, he grimly told a news conference theoretically called to announce that any Albertan over 18 may now […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Omicron is surging in Alberta – is Jason Kenney flirting with Great Barringtonism again?
The Omicron surge is hitting everywhere in Canada, with Alberta reporting 872 new cases of the aggressive new variant of the COVID-19 virus over the weekend, bringing the total number of reported cases yesterday to 1,045. If patterns observed elsewhere in the world are repeated here, though, this province could have well over 16,000 Omicron […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Chaotic implementation of free rapid COVID test distribution shows a government that can’t plan, or doesn’t
If the announcement last week of plans to distribute a half million free rapid COVID-19 tests to Albertans starting on Friday was supposed to give the Kenney Government a boost, the chaotic implementation may have had the opposite effect. If anything has become clear about Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party Government over the past […]
Posted inBestsellers
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good returns to top of independent bookshops’ Alberta fiction bestseller list
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. I will restrict my comments today to the observation that […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
N.W.T. drops Alberta school curriculum, adopts B.C.’s – a powerful symbol of what’s gone awry under Jason Kenney
The news release from the Northwest Territories Government doesn’t even mention Alberta, but just the same it’s a powerful symbol of what’s gone awry in the province to the south under the United Conservative Party Government of Premier Jason Kenney. The release published yesterday in Yellowknife said that the N.W.T.’s education minister, R.J. Simpson, and […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Unvaccinated Albertans are now welcome at family gatherings, so brace yourselves for the Best Christmas Ever!
Never mind the Omicron variant, Alberta, it looks like we’re going to have the Best Christmas Ever. So brace yourselves. With unvaccinated Albertans now welcome at family gatherings, this could turn out to be a repeat of the Best Summer Ever. Premier Jason Kenney didn’t actually use those words at his hastily organized news conference […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Ominous Omicron variant, prime minister Justin Trudeau, and rival Brian Jean all throw sand in Jason Kenney’s gears
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney hardly seemed to know what to do yesterday. As a result, he did nothing. Mr. Kenney was scheduled to make a big announcement about health care – widely assumed based on hints dropped by the premier himself to be a relaxation of holiday restrictions just in time for a fourth wave […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Kenney Government backs off plan to immediately implement widely condemned K-6 curriculum draft
Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange yesterday executed a reluctant partial climbdown from Alberta’s controversial draft kindergarten-to-Grade-6 curriculum, announcing the Kenney Government will delay implementation of changes to how four subjects are taught in elementary schools. Educators mostly cautiously praised the announcement as a step in the right direction. Or, as Alberta Teachers Association President Jason […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Kenney rival Brian Jean wins UCP nomination in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche; hastily announces vote result himself
With Brian Jean as the United Conservative Party’s candidate in the still unscheduled by-election in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, there will be no one running who supports Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. In addition to Mr. Jean, who makes no bones about the fact he intends to try to replace Mr. Kenney as UCP leader, voters […]