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. […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Christian Champion, Jason Kenney’s favourite curriculum advisor, risks becoming the UCP’s Tzeporah Berman
Jason Kenney did not seem pleased when the first reporter to ask a question at his June 18 news conference on his COVID-19 reopening plans raised the topic of offensive commentary about residential schools by the Alberta premier’s favourite curriculum advisor, Christian P. Champion. Dr. Champion, a PhD historian who worked as Mr. Kenney’s political […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta ‘public inquiry’ saga takes another confusing turn – but whatever’s going on, it’s a secret
Has Steve Allan finally gotten around to starting work looking into whether that supposed environmental conspiracy that became an issue during the 2019 Alberta election campaign is an actual thing? Or what? Late last week, Albertans learned the forensic accountant from Calgary who leads the so-called Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns had notified 40 […]
Posted inBestsellers
Brother by David Chariandy tops Alberta independent bookshops’ fiction bestseller list for week ended June 13
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 13, 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. Brother – David Chariandy (McClelland & […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Mission accomplished? Jason Kenney rolls the dice again on a swift reopening
Never mind the obvious risk or his expensive and expansive record of bad bets, Jason Kenney rolled the dice again yesterday on Alberta’s pandemic reopening. Delta variant or no variant, Alberta will be pulling the plug on almost all COVID-19 restrictions on July 1, Mr. Kenney confirmed yesterday – you can’t really call it an […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Lotto Vaxx to include Mexican vacation prizes as bid to woo vaccine-hesitant UCP supporters nears peak irony
If “the Open for Summer Lottery is a once-in-a-lifetime response to a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic,” as Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro put it in a news release about vacation package prizes for Albertans willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, what does that make Premier Jason Kenney’s $1.3-billion giveaway to TC Energy? It’s rude of me to […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Never mind the evidence, Jason Kenney insists he never called for a niqab ban in his Ottawa days
“I’ve always said that Canada is a country that protects and respects religious freedom and pluralism, and the government has no business regulating what people wear…” — Jason Kenney, yesterday. “Whaaat?” — Everybody else, also yesterday. Is Jason Kenney’s constant gaslighting getting worse? Or were we just not paying sufficient attention when the man was […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Lotto Vaxx: Can the Kenney Government give away cash money without seriously messing up?
As a purely cynical effort to distract voters from the many failings of the Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government, it would be hard to top the decision announced yesterday to give away the first of three $1-million vaccination lottery prizes on the day the province drops most of its COVID-19 restrictions. Better, the Kenney Government’s […]