Acting like someone with a serious chance of returning to the Premier’s Office in 2023, Alberta New Democratic Party Leader Rachel Notley received a 98.2-per-cent approval vote in the Opposition party’s leadership review Sunday. The former Alberta premier set out a hopeful vision of how her next government would “transform Alberta into the greatest powerhouse […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Two defiant UCP ministers tell Jason Kenney to apologize for breaking COVID-19 restrictions at Sky Palace patio party
The good ship United Conservative Party, the vessel carrying Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s ambitions, sprang a couple more leaks yesterday. This time it was two female members of the UCP cabinet who dared to criticize the boozy pandemic patio party last Tuesday on the roof of Edmonton’s notorious Sky Palace, during which a paparazzo in […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Jason Kenney’s chuckleheaded response to Sky Palace patio party uproar reanimates rebellion in UCP Caucus ranks
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s pandemic patio party at the Sky Palace and his chuckleheaded response to the inevitable criticism of it seems to have loosed the spirit of rebellion again in some of the Wildrosy corners of his United Conservative Party Caucus. Responding to constituents who mistook her in photos snapped by a mystery paparazzo […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Richard Van Camp’s Moccasin Square Gardens tops Alberta independent bookshops’ bestseller list for week ended May 30
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, May 30, 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. Moccasin Square Gardens – Richard Van […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Chief medical officer of health, left to fend for herself, refuses to criticize premier’s rule-breaking pandemic patio party
It’s time for Premier Jason Kenney to acknowledge his mistake at that Sky Palace patio party and move on, you say? Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw certainly seemed to think so yesterday, although she wouldn’t quite admit she thought Mr. Kenney had done anything wrong in her evasive responses to reporters’ questions during […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Anonymous shutterbug snaps Jason Kenney and cabinet insiders breaking pandemic rules at boozy Sky Palace patio table
When Jason Kenney was busted yesterday for breaking his own pandemic rules the night before with a group of United Conservative Party cabinet heavyweights and a couple of guests during a boozy rooftop dinner at the notorious Sky Palace in Edmonton, one wag commented that these are tough times for Alberta’s premier. “I don’t think […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Jason Kenney decries ‘cancel culture’ in lengthy monologue defending John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first PM
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s cranky lecture about “cancel culture” yesterday notwithstanding, no one is proposing that John A. Macdonald’s name be erased from the pages of Canadian history or we cease to study his role as Canada’s first prime minister. On the contrary, if we truly want to progress as a country, we need to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
No press release, but Kenney Government quietly moves to help Alberta’s friends in the Saudi Arabian government
The Kenney Government has quietly moved to ensure that Alberta’s friends and business partners in the government of Saudi Arabia are free from the complications of inconvenient foreign land ownership rules. Now, many readers are doubtless thinking, “Say what?” After all, isn’t the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia the land of “dictator oil,” regularly reviled by […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
The appalling discovery in Kamloops is irrefutable evidence of a crime against humanity
The appalling discovery of the bodies of 215 Indigenous children hidden in unmarked graves at the site of the Residential School in Kamloops, B.C., is irrefutable evidence of a crime against humanity. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Band confirmed Thursday that ground-penetrating radar had detected the remains of the children on the grounds of the former […]
Posted inBestsellers
The clocks are striking thirteen and there’s something in the air – Albertans seem to be reading George Orwell’s 1984 again
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, May 23, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. As I’ve said in this space before, there’s something refreshing […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
The Gaslighters: Premier Kenney gins up an unlikely ‘strange alliance’ of anti-vaxxers and advocates of cautious reopening
It would be hard to find a purer example of gaslighting than Premier Jason Kenney’s straight-faced claim during yesterday’s COVID-19 news conference that the New Democratic Party Opposition and other advocates of a more cautious approach to reopening Alberta have formed a “strange alliance” with anti-vaxxers to undermine public confidence in vaccines. Gaslighting, an increasingly […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Kenney rolls the dice on COVID-19: We’re going to have the best summer you can imagine even if it kills us
Only pure political calculation can be driving Premier Jason Kenney’s COVID-19 reopening strategy now. Science? Prudence? Caution? Second vaccine doses? Forget about ’em. We’re going to have the best little ole summer you can imagine even if it kills us. And it just might. Premier Kenney and his two sidekicks at yesterday morning’s news conference […]