Premier Jason Kenney’s cabinet shuffle yesterday had very little to do with supporting Alberta’s economic recovery and renewal, despite what the government would have you believe. This is not to say the claim in the official press release that “Alberta’s government is focused on Alberta’s Recovery Plan, a plan to build, diversify the economy and […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
PM Justin Trudeau, boyish, beardless and in campaign mode, shows up to bestow $1.5B on Calgary Green Line LRT
Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, boyish and freshly beardless as if a summer election is blowin’ in the wind, showed up in Alberta yesterday to bestow $1.5 billion in federal cash on Calgary’s Green Line LRT, a mega-project unpopular with many of the well-heeled donors who support Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party. Mr. Kenney, […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
In what looks like a classic case of bargaining in bad faith, UCP Government demands additional 3% pay cut from more than 30,000 nurses
Alberta Health Services returned to the bargaining table with Alberta’s more than 30,000 public sector registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses yesterday for the first time since March 2020 with a new demand for a 3-per-cent across-the-board rollback in wages. That’s on top of the more than 100 rollbacks to its collective agreement with United […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
There’s schadenfreude and irony aplenty in UCP outrage at anti-vaxxers’ Canada Day invective in Calgary
Most reasonable people would agree that getting up close and personal while shouting at a politician enjoying the sunshine with their spouse and young children on a national holiday is not an appropriate way to protest a government policy with which you disagree. Admit it, though, there was just a just a tiny tingle of […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Something is dragging the federal Conservatives down in Alberta – is it Jason Kenney?
It sure looks as if Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s abysmal performance is not merely threatening the survival of his United Conservative Party Government, but is dragging down the federal Conservatives in Alberta as well. Alberta’s Conservatives are too strong and too entrenched even for Premier Kenney to destroy them completely. Still, a poll published on […]
Posted inBestsellers
Sing, Unburied, Sing by American author Jesmyn Ward 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, June 27, 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. Sing, Unburied, Sing – Jesmyn Ward […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
While Jason Kenney promises the best summer ever, it’s hard to shake the feeling of apocalyptic foreboding this Canada Day
ST. ALBERT, ALBERTA – It’s Canada Day. The pickup trucks with their maple leaf flags may or may not be screeching around Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue tonight, laying rubber in celebration of the provincial government’s edict the masks must come off, Delta variant or not. But while Premier Jason Kenney insists the summer of 2021 is […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
O tempora! O mores! Isn’t it time for Alberta to publish just a single, ungendered, annual Top Ten list of baby names?
It’s been a long run of bad news for Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government, so it must have seemed like a nice change of pace for those who toil in the government’s communications brain trust to have the chance to write up an upbeat news release about last year’s most popular baby names. Nate Glubish, […]
Posted inGeopolitics
Why post-Brexit, post-Imperial Britain should build Yachty McYachtface, and build it now!
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s big idea to spend hundreds of millions of pounds building a new royal yacht to serve as a floating trade show venue is an excellent project for the new post-Brexit “Global Britain.” It would be an utter waste of money, of course, and not even the Royal Family wants anything to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Definitive answers about AIMCo’s investment strategy weren’t forthcoming at Heritage Savings Trust Fund Committee meeting
If anyone expected definitive answers about the Alberta Investment Management Corp.’s underperformance compared to that of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board at Friday’s meeting of the Legislature’s Standing Committee on the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, they were disappointed. Unlike the previous 26 of the committee’s quarterly meetings over the past seven years, AIMCo, […]
Posted inBestsellers
Sufferance by Thomas King tops Alberta Independent bookshops’ fiction bestseller list for week ended June 20
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, June 20, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. Unsurprisingly, given the tragic revelations of the past few weeks […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP plan to grab CPP contributions for underperforming AIMCo would be ‘worst investment decision in Alberta’s history’
With representatives of the Alberta Investment Management Corp. scheduled to appear before the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund Committee today to explain their recent laggard performance, the NDP Opposition reminded Albertans about Premier Jason Kenney’s scheme to snatch their retirement savings from the Canada Pension Plan and hand them over to the provincial Crown corporation. […]