Posted inAlberta Politics

The Annals of Alberta poetry: The United Conservative Party sends us a Kenney Valentine

I choo-choo-chooose To get a fair deal for you — Actual United Conservative Party Valentine’s Day Twitter meme  Keystone is dead The billions are lost I blame Joe Biden But I’ll probably get tossed — Response by @DaveCournoyer  The ocean is blue The sky is the same Steve Allan’s still lookin’ for someone to blame  […]

Posted inBestsellers

Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi is Alberta independent bookshops’ fiction bestseller for week ended Feb. 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, Feb. 7, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books in Edmonton and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. ALBERTA FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. Butter Honey Pig Bread – Francesca […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Mayor in the heart of the oilsands dares Jason Kenney to fire him in fight over deteriorating ambulance service

In case you missed it, while Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was trying to pretend the embarrassing rebellion of two COVID-skeptical MLAs in southern Alberta wasn’t happening, another political rebellion against his policies was coming to a boil in the heart of the oilsands.  On Tuesday, defiant members of the council of the Regional Municipality of […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Jason Kenney chooses the cake department to unexpectedly announce one-time pandemic ‘bonus’ for front-line workers

Was Jason Kenney channelling Marie Antoinette when he appeared in front of an Edmonton grocery store’s cake counter yesterday to announce a one-time $1,200 pandemic payment to front-line workers? Many of the front-line workers risking COVID-19 to deliver us services from health care to retail confections may be badly paid, but they’ll have a little […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Defying Jason Kenney’s pleas to take COVID-19 seriously, two UCP MLAs join ‘End the Lockdowns National Caucus’

Two MLAs from Premier Jason Kenney’s government caucus have joined a national coalition of elected and former politicians dedicated to the proposition restrictions on social and commercial activities intended to slow the spread of COVID-19 must end. Needless to say, centrifugal force is not a good look for a United Conservative Party that’s starting to […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

In dizzying turnaround, Alberta abandons plan to drop Lougheed-era coal policy … for now

In what appears to be a tire-screeching reversal, Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage yesterday announced full restoration of the Coal Policy established by premier Peter Lougheed’s government back in 1976. “An important part of being a responsible government is to admit when you’ve made a mistake, and to fix it, and that’s what we are […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

UCP prioritizes businesses that run care homes over workers fighting COVID-19 on the front lines inside them

It’s very hard to resist the temptation to juxtapose the Kenney Government’s response to the plight of underpaid front-line health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and the troubles faced by well-heeled owners of private continuing care facilities.  When it comes to the former, Premier Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party Government seem determined […]

Posted inBestsellers

How to Pronounce Knife, Braiding Sweetgrass are Alberta independent bookshops’ fiction and non-fiction bestsellers

Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books in Edmonton and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. ALBERTA FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. How to Pronounce Knife – Souvankham […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Time for your depressing weekly Alberta pandemic update: Got whiplash yet?

Watching the Kenney Government respond to COVID-19 could give you whiplash. Back on Jan. 26, Health Minister Tyler Shandro was warning us that the arrival of more infectious COVID-19 variants risked pushing our health-care system to the brink.  By Jan. 29, Premier Jason Kenney was saying that might be true, but we’d be easing restrictions […]

Posted inCanadian Politics

We’ve had almost 70 years to fix the problems with Line 5 and very little has happened – what now?

Doesn’t Michigan understand that letting jurisdictions along the route of a Canadian pipeline carry the risk of what’s inside the pipe while only the province at the start of the line gets to pocket the benefits is a fundamental principle of Confederation?  Surely we established that much during the debate over expanding the Trans Mountain […]

Posted inCanadian Politics

Canada’s lack of vaccine capacity really is a scandal, but there’s no way Conservatives are actually serious about fixing it

The fact Canada lacks capacity to manufacture its own coronavirus vaccine should be a scandal.  But there’s a certain irony in Conservative leaders like Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Alberta’s Jason Kenney jumping on this bandwagon now that its potential to be used against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government in Ottawa has […]