Stephen Harper, the former Canadian Conservative Prime Minister, plans to team up with a protégé of Carl Icahn, the notorious vulture capitalist and destroyer of American jobs. Mr. Harper and Courtney Mather will launch an “activist fund,” Bloomberg News reported, based on information from an unidentified person said to have knowledge of the matter. Bloomberg […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta signs on to federal child care deal its premier once mocked as ‘9-to-5, urban, government and union-run institutional daycare’
Premier Jason Kenney didn’t look all that cheerful at yesterday’s announcement Alberta had finally signed on to participate in the Trudeau Government’s national $10-a-day-child-care program. While the premier fidgeted in the background, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the other federal Liberal politicians at the morning news conference in Edmonton seemed genuinely delighted that $3.8 billion […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Rest in Peace, ‘Grassroots Guarantee’ – Jason Kenney’s famous promise is gone with the wind
You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but, as Abraham Lincoln is reputed to have observed, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Back in the summer of 2017, when he stood up in the parking lot of […]
Posted inBestsellers
Joshua Whitehead’s Jonny Appleseed is back atop independent booksellers’ fiction bestseller list for week ended Nov. 7
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Nov. 7, 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. Jonny Appleseed – Joshua Whitehead (Arsenal […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Brian Jean, the Bonnie Prince Charlie of the Alberta conservative movement, takes up residence in Jason Kenney’s head
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney insists his former leadership rival Brian Jean’s planned palace coup to snatch away the crown of the United Conservative Party isn’t about to distract him from his duty to restore Alberta’s swagger. But despite tweeting his agreement Wednesday with a fatuous National Post article claiming “Alberta’s swagger is back,” Mr. Kenney […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
In Flanders Fields? It’s time to encourage another generation of school kids to read some better poems from the Great War
A civilization that forgets its poetry is barely worthy of the name. Like fiction and unlike non-fiction, poetry is how a culture’s most profound truths are told. Unlike fiction, poetry does this vital work with great economy of words. That is why all great civilizations honour their great poets. Those that forget their poetry – […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
That office drinking scandal? Just never mind! Jason Kenney launches job program update in Calgary pub
No wonder they call it the Liquor Cabinet! You’d think it might have occurred to someone in the United Conservative Party strategic brain trust to factor former agriculture minister Devin Dreeshen’s very recent, very public troubles with office drinking into the equation when they decided to hold a news conference about a part-time employment wage […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Edmonton officials want another $3-million sole-source advertising deal with Postmedia – they should do better
With the implication there’s no alternative solution, Edmonton’s city administration has asked City Council’s Executive Committee to ratify a $3-million sole-source contract with Postmedia tomorrow to provide print and digital advertising to the city for another three years. After all, says the administration’s report, we’ve been putting ads in the Edmonton Journal for 20 years, […]
Posted inBestsellers
Edmonton author Theresa Shea’s The Shade Tree tops Alberta independent bookshops’ bestseller list for week ended Oct. 31
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Oct. 31, 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. The Shade Tree – Theresa Shea […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
No one expected Devin Dreeshen to quit Jason Kenney’s cabinet – so what happened between Monday and Friday this week?
Almost no one expected Devin Dreeshen to resign from Jason Kenney’s cabinet Friday morning. The thirtysomething minister of agriculture may have been mired in a messy scandal stemming from allegations made in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit by a former United Conservative Party political staffer, and facing public accusations of drunken and bullying behaviour in his […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
UCP bill will allow big money and dark money back into election financing, restrict free speech rights, NDP Opposition says
Alberta’s United Conservative Party introduced new election financing legislation yesterday that appears likely to allow big money and dark money to start flowing back into provincial politics as well as restricting the free speech rights of groups that disagree with the government. So it seems on brand for the UCP to headline its press release […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
On Alberta’s anti-equalization referendum, BQ’s Blanchet tells UCP’s Kenney: Bring it on!
As the folk wisdom goes, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. Jason Kenney got his wish yesterday when Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet told him, in effect, to bring it on. “Let’s open the constitution,” Mr. Blanchet said with a gallic shrug and a sly momentary smile at a news […]