Posted inAlberta Politics

Weekend Roundup: Vaccine passport’s new QR code won’t work; Mandel quits AHS board; pipeline association folds tent

Astonishingly given its record, Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government has actually upgraded its easy-to-forge vaccine passport in jig time! There’s only one problem. It doesn’t work.  But don’t worry, we’re told by our dependably undependable government, it’ll work “soon.” Two weeks ago, “Jobs, Economy and Innovation” Minister Doug Schweitzer promised Albertans they would have what […]

Posted inBestsellers

Indian Horse by the late Richard Wagamese is Alberta independent bookshops’ fiction bestseller for week ended Sept. 26

Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. ALBERTA FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Indian Horse – Richard Wagamese (Douglas […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Alberta premier’s rambling, uninformative news conference fails to live up to billing

All direct employees of the Alberta Government will now be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or provide regular negative test results, Premier Jason Kenney announced yesterday. Umm… That’s it.  Of course, that’s not just it. As the fourth wave of COVID-19 has grown more severe in Alberta, with startling daily death tolls and […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Teachers overwhelmingly reject Alberta’s draft K-6 curriculum, but that’s unlikely to change Jason Kenney’s mind

It won’t come as a shock to anyone in Alberta that the Kenney Government’s draft Kindergarten-to-Grade-6 curriculum is a dangerous and ideologically motivated dud, or that most professional teachers despise it.  Still, kudos to the Alberta Teachers Association for actually going to the trouble of commissioning an exhaustive professional review of the thing, conducting an […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

As volcano spews lava from Spanish island into Atlantic, huge bozo eruption reported in Alberta city north of Calgary

Lava flowing from a volcanic eruption in Spain’s Canary Islands reached the Atlantic Ocean yesterday, raising fears among scientists who study geophysical and geochemical phenomena of dangerous explosions and toxic gases. Meanwhile, in the Canadian province of Alberta, political scientists were tracking a major bozo eruption in the small city of Airdrie, a bedroom community […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Conservative MLA, notorious for ‘Cheezies’ remark, righteously scorched by indignant Edmonton physicians

It’s a wonder Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s inbox didn’t spontaneously combust yesterday when the letter from the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association landed in it.  Signed by EZMSA President Erika MacIntyre, Vice-President Cheryl Mack, and 10 other physicians, the letter was intended to take UCP MLA Shane Getson to task for a couple of Facebook […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Jason Kenney says it ain’t so, but with Alberta’s high COVID-19 rates, a hard lockdown seems inevitable soon

Brace yourselves, Alberta, for a hard, circuit-breaker lockdown to rein in the province’s surging, out-of-control COVID-19 infection rate. We can be reasonably certain this is coming soon to Alberta’s error-riddled pandemic response because Jason Kenney informed us yesterday there’s no way it’s going to happen. The Alberta premier had taken to the airwaves to respond […]

Posted inBestsellers

Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You returns to top of 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, Sept. 19, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. Some thoughts for today: “To love one’s self is the […]

Posted inCanadian Politics

It’s good the Two Michaels are on their way home – but let’s not forget they weren’t the only hostages

Surely most Canadians rejoiced last night when they learned the Two Michaels were on their way home from their long imprisonment in China.  It’s equally certain that some very well-placed officials in the Canadian government rejoiced to know Meng Wanzhou was gone from Canada, heading home to China almost the instant a judge in Vancouver […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Napoleon’s advice to the Alberta NDP: ‘Never interfere with your enemy when he’s busy destroying himself’

VICTORIA – At least some in the Alberta NDP must have been offering up discreet prayers of thanks last night. Premier Jason Kenney, threatened with a vote of confidence yesterday by his rebellious United Conservative Caucus members, bluffed the lot of them into silence. The gathered MLAs, so the stories go, folded like a canvas […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Alberta Health Minister shuffled to Labour; Labour Minister shuffled to Health … premier says he won’t quit

VICTORIA – Say what you will about Jason Kenney, he never fails to disappoint. When the buzz hit social media yesterday morning that Alberta’s premier would attempt to shore up his shaky perch atop Alberta’s government with a post-federal-election cabinet shuffle, the assumption was natural that he was about to make Health Minister Tyler Shandro […]

Posted inCanadian Politics

It’s Election Day in Canada: If you work, even if you don’t have a union, you’re entitled to three consecutive paid hours to vote

The Canada Elections Act entitles all eligible voters to sufficient time to vote on Election Day.  This applies to employees without a union as well as unionized workers. Now, presumably most readers of this blog already know this stuff, but I thought I’d throw it in as a public service, this being a blog that […]