Tzeporah Berman, the high-profile Vancouver environmentalist, on Friday lauded the oil-sector provisions of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s COVID-19 bailout package as a sensible way to begin winding down the Canadian fossil fuel industry. “This bailout announcement is a major turning point for oil and gas politics in Canada,” Ms. Berman said in a news release […]
Posted inBestsellers
Calgary author Vivek Shraya tops independent bookshops’ Alberta Fiction Bestseller list with The Subtweet
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, April 12, 2020. 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. The […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Justin Trudeau needs to do something bold to fix the long-term-care disaster: here’s a suggestion
Surging deaths in Canadian long-term care facilities have blown Canada’s COVID-19 death projections to smithereens. Last night, the CBC reported the number of deaths from COVID-19 is already double what Ottawa thought it would be only a week ago. “As more deaths are reported and counted over the next day, the toll could double even […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Alberta spends up to $20K touting medical mask giveaway on Facebook to build social license for pipelines
The Alberta Government spent between $14,000 and $20,000 on Facebook advertisements promoting Premier Jason Kenney’s announcement Alberta would donate 750,000 N95 medical masks and other personal protective equipment to Ontario, Quebec and B.C., political blogger Dave Cournoyer revealed in a tweet yesterday afternoon. The heaviest promotion was in Ontario, Mr. Cournoyer discovered when he peeked […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
That goofy letter from Kingston to Jason Kenney — promise made, promise kept, or what?
Now, about that goofy letter from Kingston, the one wherein the generous author or authors sent Alberta Premier Jason Kenney $1,000 to help out the Alberta treasury, I have a contrarian point of view. To wit: My opinion is that it’s totally legit, the real McCoy, it actually happened, the cheque came in a proper […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Pay and benefits for long term care workers must be protected — and not just during the COVID-19 crisis
It should be obvious by now that if a society wants to keep long-term care for the frail and elderly from turning into a deadly nightmare during pandemics, it must ensure privately run long-term-care centres provide their employees with the same wages, benefits and working conditions as those who work for the public health care […]
Posted inCanadian Politics
Canada’s universal single-payer health care system is our best vaccination against the neoliberal virus
Who would have thought a decade ago, or even six months back, that Canada’s chances of surviving as a unified country would be better than those of the United States? The thought the mighty United States of America — e pluribus unum, and all that — could be on the cusp of an existential crisis […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Jason Kenney offers medical equipment to Ontario, Quebec and B.C.; pitches national solidarity on resource development
One hates to play the skunk at a garden party, but somebody needs to ask the question a lot of Albertans must be thinking. To wit, if less than a week ago we barely had enough N95 medical masks for Alberta’s hard-pressed nurses, doctors and other front-line health care workers to work for the next […]
Posted inBestsellers
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel tops Alberta independent bookstores’ fiction bestseller list
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, April 5, 2020. 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. The […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Docs fight Alberta pay cuts in court, seeking $250 million, while battling COVID-19 on the front lines of health care
Yesterday morning, Christine Molnar, president of the Alberta Medical Association, announced that the province’s doctors are launching a constitutional challenge and seeking $250 million in compensation from the United Conservative Party Government for the way it tore up their contract two months ago. Yesterday afternoon, Health Minister Tyler Shandro showed up at Chief Medical Officer […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Rachel Notley and the NDP can thank their lucky stars they didn’t eke out a victory last April
I don’t imagine running Alberta is much fun right now. I’m afraid, though, I can’t summon up much sympathy for Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party. Be careful what you wish for, goes the ancient proverb, you just might get it. From the UCP’s perspective, this isn’t the way things were supposed to work […]
Posted inAlberta Politics
Jason Kenney lays out the bad news on COVID-19 capably enough, then wanders into the economic weeds
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney actually sounded pretty good on TV last night as he laid out the hard facts about COVID-19, what it’ll probably do, and what might do if too many of us act like jackasses and don’t stay close to home for the next couple of months. Mr. Kenney certainly sounded yesterday like […]