With nurses planning to spend much of the day marching on information pickets at health care worksites throughout Alberta to protest the Kenney Government’s effort to cut back their wages and gut their collective agreement, Finance Minister Travis Toews issued a statement yesterday morning that appeared to double down on the government’s strategy. It’s hard […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
The door remains open a crack for Canada to act in the interests of its citizens, including the ones jailed in China
Canada ignored the lifeline China threw us last spring, when a Chinese court adjourned the trial of Michael Spavor without a verdict. The implication at the time was clear: Let Meng Wanzhou go and we’ll give Mr. Spavor and Michael Kovrig back. Pleading not very persuasively that our hands were tied by the rule of […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Where did CTV’s story attacking physician Joe Vipond, advocate for stricter COVID-19 testing and tracing, come from?
Between 2005 and 2011, CTV Television Inc. donated nearly $10,000 to the Alberta Conservatives. This interesting information can be found on Elections Alberta’s website using the provincial election agency’s contributor-search tool. It was entirely legal. It took place back in the days when the Progressive Conservatives were in power and political donations in Alberta operated […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Promise provincial cops won’t cost more than Mounties will be hard to keep – so what’s Jason Kenney really up to?
On Friday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney promised that Alberta municipalities policed by the Mounties won’t have to pay any more for a provincial force than they do now. “We’re going to guarantee them that this model would not cost them one cent more,” the premier told a news conference on another topic. Not that Mr. […]
Posted inBestsellers
Five Little Indians and Braiding Sweetgrass lead independent bookshops’ bestseller lists for third week
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Aug. 1, 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. Five Little Indians – Michelle Good […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
No surprise: Alberta health minister takes the bait with belligerent response to federal minister’s rebuke
Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro and other United Conservative Party officials reacted with predictable belligerence yesterday to federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu’s letter chiding them for abandoning such public health measures as COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and mandatory isolation. In a nine-part Tweetstorm, Mr. Shandro accused the federal Liberals of treating Alberta as their favourite […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu waves a red flag in front of her irascible Alberta counterpart, Tyler Shandro
Obviously, federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu didn’t expect to get a serious answer from Tyler Shandro, her Alberta counterpart, when she wrote the irascible minister to warn him the Kenney Government’s “unnecessary and risky gamble” to drop COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and mandatory isolation will put children at risk. In her letter to Mr. Shandro, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
If the Alberta Party wants to get to the end of the rainbow, Brian Jean is probably not the man to take it there
Can it really be true Brian Jean, who once thought he had a pretty good chance of occupying the Alberta premier’s office as leader of the Wildrose Party, is quietly negotiating to lead the Alberta Party? With John F. Kennedy’s caveat that where there’s smoke, there’s usually a smoke-making machine, that’s the grist the Alberta […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Unifor uses Stephen Harper, Jason Kenney to target ‘the new 2021 O’Toole’
With election fever running high throughout the land, Unifor’s new third-party political advertisement started showing up on social media yesterday and it was too good not to share in the final hours of this August long weekend. It’s an attack ad that mimics the cliches of automotive advertising, and Erin O’Toole, the latest hapless leader […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
More bad news for UCP as poll by Leger shows NDP leading in Edmonton, Calgary and even rural Alberta
Another poll by a respectable pollster suggests that if an Alberta provincial election were held today Rachel Notley’s New Democratic Party would triumph handily over Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party. This is starting to look like a trend. Such an election won’t be held today, of course, so everyone can stop hyperventilating. Still, if I […]
Posted inBestsellers
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, still lead independent bookshops’ bestseller lists
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, July 25, 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. Five Little Indians – Michelle Good […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Health minister makes sure we understand chief medical officer of health came up with harshly criticized COVID-19 plan
According to Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro, speaking at a news conference on another topic yesterday, Wednesday’s decision for Alberta to become the only jurisdiction on the planet to start treating COVID-19 as if it were the common cold was Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw’s idea. Facing reporters more interested in the government’s […]