Facing mounting public anger over a truckload of scandals and bungles, Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party Government has doubled-down on its favourite fight-back strategy: rancorous attacks on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Yesterday’s daily COVID-19 briefing was only the latest example of the how the UCP strategic brain trust thinks they can change the channel […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Energy in Depth’s report to the ‘anti-Alberta’ campaigns inquiry is slick, expensive, tendentious, and unpersuasive
There’s nothing outright bonkers about the report by Energy in Depth, the U.S. fossil fuel advocacy organization paid $64,000 by the “Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns” to come up with justification for the conspiracy theories pushed by the United Conservative Party Government during and after the 2019 election campaign. Sure, Foreign Funding Targeting Canada’s […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Digging into the ‘Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns’ Inquiry’s probe of the plot to replace capitalism with a dystopic ecotopia
Now that people are sitting down and actually reading the papers commissioned by Alberta’s so-called Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns, they’re finding paranoia and poppycock aplenty. It begs a question, though. What was Inquiry Commissioner Steve Allan up to when he reached out and paid significant sums from the public purse for these papers? […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
How much of the pipe that was supposedly ready to build Keystone XL is fit only for scrap?
Alberta is unlikely to recoup much of its $1.5-billion loss on the Keystone XL Pipeline by selling off unused pipe now that the Biden Administration has pulled the plug on the megaproject. At any rate, it’s hard to believe much of the pipe will be good for anything but scrap after sitting outdoors exposed to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
NDP to ask UCP cabinet to release risk analysis and full documentation of Premier Jason Kenney’s $7.5-billion Keystone XL deal
Opposition NDP members plan to make an emergency motion on Tuesday at a meeting of the Legislature’s Public Accounts Committee calling for full-disclosure of Premier Jason Kenney’s $7.5-billion Keystone XL Pipeline deal last March. Technically, the motion will urge the United Conservative Party Cabinet to waive its privilege and release the full risk analysis, along […]
Posted inBestsellers
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy tops Alberta independent bookshops’ 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, Jan. 17, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books in Edmonton and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. ALBERTA FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney tells Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make the U.S. pay off his gambling debts
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney wants the United States government to pay off his gambling debts! I kid you not. In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent yesterday and published this morning on social media, Mr. Kenney demanded the Canadian Government press the new U.S. Administration of President Joseph R. Biden to pay the […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
NDP leads UCP in 2020 fund-raising totals, significantly in the fourth quarter and marginally over the year
Alberta’s Opposition New Democratic Party noticeably out-raised the United Conservative Party in the fourth quarter of 2020, $2.3 million to $1.9 million, according to figures released yesterday by Elections Alberta. This left the NDP slightly ahead in donations for the full year as well, $5.06 million compared with $5.05 million. It’s easy to read too […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
When U.S. President Joe Biden killed KXL yesterday, Jason Kenney lost the largest cash bet in Canadian history
U.S. President Joseph R. Biden’s swift action yesterday to revoke the permit to build the Keystone XL Pipeline has exposed Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to the world as a hopeless prat. Mr. Kenney gave away $1.5 billion on a dumb bet that he’d look like a hero if Donald Trump were re-elected president of the […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
The Conservative Party of Canada’s malaise with its loony right runs deeper than Derek Sloan
If Erin O’Toole were serious about making the Conservative Party of Canada a less congenial place for the far right, he would have kicked out Derek Sloan weeks ago for his odious xenophobia, homophobia and racist online commentary. Mr. O’Toole was picked to replace the desperately awful Andrew Scheer last summer after the debacle of […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta response to uproar over coal mining on pristine Eastern Slopes doesn’t really change very much
Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage said yesterday coal leases from the Kenney Government’s controversial December 2020 auction have been cancelled, but this does not mean as some news media reported that the province has reversed its plan to expand coal mining on the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains. To say it was unpopular to […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Canada and Alberta can manage the transition away from fossil fuels, says economist Jim Stanford in new study
The decline of Canada’s fossil fuel industry is inevitable, and unlikely to be the disaster Conservatives like Alberta Premier Jason Kenney have been predicting, a study released this morning by the Vancouver-based Centre for Future Work concludes. But we need to recognize reality and get cracking to make the transition a success, says Canadian economist […]