Posted inAlberta Politics

Its addled report assailed by expert critics, UCP COVID ‘task force’ quickly descends into a task farce

As predicted on Friday, it didn’t take long for the debunking of the conspiracy-theory-riddled final report of the United Conservative Party Government’s so-called task force on Alberta’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic to begin in earnest.  It started yesterday morning with a blast from Alberta Medical Association President Shelley Duggan, who assailed the document as […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

The Jasper fire funding flip-flop: The UCP is prepared to let families go homeless to pursue its vendetta against Ottawa

It sure looks as if Alberta’s United Conservative Government is prepared to let more than 600 families whose homes were destroyed by last July’s wildfire go homeless if that’s what it takes to pursue its political vendetta against the Liberal federal government in Ottawa. According to The Canadian Press, this was the view of the […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Alberta government ‘task force’ report on response to COVID-19 calls for vaccine use to be halted, pumps quack cures and conspiracy theories

Hours after U.S. government health agencies’ websites began to go dark as part of President Donald Trump’s opening attack on public health in the United States, the Alberta government yesterday quietly published a conspiracy-theory-promoting report on the province’s response to COVID-19 that calls for use of COVID vaccines to be halted and accuses media of […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Danielle Smith undermined Canada’s bargaining position in face of Trump tariffs, says former chief trade negotiator

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s refusal to sign the joint statement in which all other provincial and territorial premiers agreed to a co-ordinated response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canadian exports significantly undermined Canada’s bargaining position, Canada’s former chief trade negotiator says.  Steve Verheul delivered that judgment during a 2025 financial outlook panel […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Dig, baby, dig! Energy Minister Brian Jean lifts ban on coal exploration on the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies 

In a Jan. 15 letter to the Chairman of the Alberta Energy Regulator, Environment Minister Brian Jean lifted the ban on coal exploration on the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains that was put in place after intense public pressure on Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party Government in February 2021.  Hard to say whether the […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Media matters: If Justin Trudeau’s vacation itinerary was so vitally important, why isn’t Danielle Smith’s?

Do you remember the furor the National Post and all its little local Postlets ginned up about Justin Trudeau’s Christmas holiday in British Columbia?  Hard to believe that was just three weeks ago! It feels like a year. The brouhaha has already almost completely disappeared down Postmedia’s capacious Memory Hole! “The office of the prime […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

If Danielle Smith intends to defy a national consensus on how to respond to Donald Trump’s tariffs, she should call an election

If Alberta Premier Danielle Smith intends to defy an all-party, all-province, national consensus on how to respond to Donald Trump’s tariff threats, she should call a provincial election and get a mandate to do so. After all, notwithstanding the disproportionate number of MAGA ideologues and Alberta separatists in her United Conservative Party caucus and cabinet, […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Danielle Smith races to the side of the biggest right-wing celebrity of them all, Donald Trump, conducts ‘diplomacy’

There being no Canadian version of the Logan Act, there’s little that could be done about Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s mortifying pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to pose for a selfie with Donald Trump and, or so she claims, “engage in constructive dialogue and diplomacy with the incoming administration.” Her race to the tacky Florida resort to […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

No joke! We counted: Alberta Health Services has had 12 chief executive officers since 2008!

Message to Alberta Health Services’ new interim chief executive officer and to whomever follows him as CEO: “Don’t let the revolving door hit you on the way out!” How many chief executive officers has AHS had since premier Ed Stelmach’s Progressive Conservative Government promised in 2008 to create “a 21st century health care system” and […]