Posted inAlberta Politics

How the Kenney Government could push us back into another wave of COVID in the name of reopening

Will the Kenney Government lose interest in its vaccination campaign the instant Premier Jason Kenney’s arbitrary 70-per-cent vaccination threshold for allowing the Calgary Stampede to open is met? If past behaviour is a guide, this seems quite possible. Once Alberta has hit a first-dose vaccination rate of 70 per cent – we were at 67.8 […]

Posted inBestsellers

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good is Alberta Independent Bookshops’ fiction bestseller for week ended June 6

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 6, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. Michelle Good, author of the bestselling fiction title this week, […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

About that cash lottery idea for Albertans who sign up to get their COVID-19 jabs – cognitive dissonance, anyone?

It sort of makes sense that a fellow who gambled away $1.3 billion of other people’s money on the U.S. presidential horserace last summer would like the idea of a lottery to get vaccine skeptical Albertans to roll up their sleeves for a COVID-19 jab in sufficient numbers to justify opening the Calgary Stampede next […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Keystone XL, the pipeline that just keeps dying, officially pronounced dead

Keystone XL, the pipeline that just keeps dying over and over again, was officially pronounced dead yesterday. After TC Energy Corp. issued a statement saying it was walking away for good from the project that has obviously been doomed for months, the U.S. business press declared the pipedream of successive Alberta and Canadian governments deader […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Worst news conference ever? Jason Kenney apologizes for Sky Palace patio party, touts silly equalization referendum

The rebellion that now has United Conservative Party Premier Jason Kenney looking as if his career is on the ropes is strongly reminiscent of the circumstances that brought Progressive Conservative Party premier Alison Redford’s political career to an end in 2014. Ironically, both feature the “Sky Palace” as a powerful symbol of a premier’s arrogance, […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Buoyed by overwhelming leadership approval vote, Rachel Notley sketches outline of Alberta NDP’s 2023 campaign

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 […]