A typical Canadian reads the news from the Ottawa Press Gallery while Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney sends another email in the background. Below: Wildrose Party House Leader Rob Anderson; former federal PC leaders Joe Clark and Peter MacKay discuss the interesting pod marked “Return to Preston Manning” they
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David Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Alberta Silly Season starts with fallout from Jason Kenney’s A-Bomb blast
Federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, centre, with Public Safety Minister Victor Toews, left, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, right, get ready to assure members of their party’s Alberta caucus they’ll be protected from a*****e visitors from their home province. Actual federal Tory ministers may not appear exactly as
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Sun News Network’s vulgar response reveals CBSC as toothless, demonstrates need for meaningful rules
This Sun News Network truck has now moved on, obviously the result of your blogger’s bullying. Below: Ezra Levant assails the CSBC. Below that: Ezra Levant comments on the passing of NDP leader Jack Layton. Below that: Well, actually, it’s pretty hard to go any lower than that. Radio and
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Pesky people’s politics plague premier’s petroleum pipeline plans
The Gardner Canal, a Pacific Ocean inlet near Kitimat, B.C., planned terminus of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. What’s in the project for British Columbians? Not much, and they know it. Below: B.C. Premier Christy Clark, Alberta Premier Alison Redford. Premier Alison Redford’s biggest problem with Alberta’s leaky pipeline file
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Two additional reasons morale is better at Alberta Health Services: Liepert & Duckett are gone
Dr. Stephen Duckett, right, doesn’t mince words while talking to Doug Knight, then the President of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, in September 2009, Below: former Health Minister Ron Liepert. Morale among doctors, nurses and other medical staff is dramatically better than it was two years ago at Alberta
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Turn and face the change – Alberta Diary will soon have a new look
Coming soon to a political website near you: Alberta Diary’s new look. Below: Author David Climenhaga. (Alberta bloggers may not be exactly as illustrated … any more.) Alberta Diary started out as a personal project mainly about the city of St. Albert, Alberta, where I reside. Somewhere along the way
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Wedge politics, not religious freedom, behind Danielle Smith’s refusal to apologize
Police officers walk in Saturday’s Pride Parade. Below: Danielle Smith, Alan Hunsperger. Since she won’t apologize for remarks made by one of her candidates during the recent election campaign that many Albertans thought were offensive and anti-gay, Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith found herself trapped this week between a rock
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Broadcast council’s ruling on Ezra Levant ‘tirade’ a victory for civility in Canadian political discourse
Sun News Network commentator Ezra Levant Today’s ruling by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council that the Sun News Network breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Code of Ethics in a December 2011 broadcast of Ezra Levant’s commentary program is a victory for civility in Canadian political discourse. As a result
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Rumble on the right: Conservative candidates stampede into Calgary Centre
Astonished Calgarians watch as the Calgary Centre Conservative candidates ride into Cowtown. Acutal candidates may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Joan Crockatt, Rod Love, John Mar. By the time the dust settles, at least a dozen candidates are likely to contest the Conservative Party nomination for the federal riding
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: It’s not necessarily the European economy running out of runway, it’s neo-Cons like Stephen Harper
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warns his countrymen about the fate awaiting Europe if it doesn’t crush unions and eliminate defined-benefit pension plans. Canadian Conservatives may not appear exactly as illustrated, but pretty close. Below: Francoise Hollande, John Maynard Keynes and Thomas Mulcair. With the anticipated triumph of France’s Socialists
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Alison Redford AWOL? Not so says the Premier’s Office
Members of the premier’s communications team in action … not really! Professional government communicators may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: More scenes from Saturday’s Pride Parade. The statement in this morning’s Alberta Diary post that Alberta Premier Alison Redford was absent without leave from yesterday’s Edmonton Pride Parade has
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Alison Redford opens Edmonton Pride Festival – but goes AWOL from parade
Your blogger, with Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman. Where were the PCs? Below: Some of the throng in Churchill Square, NDP MLAs David Eggen, Rachel Notley and Deron Bilous, Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman. Edmonton’s Pride Parade yesterday can only be described as a massive success, proof of the assertion real
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Harper Conservative response to NDP seems delusional – and apparently ineffective
The Conservative Party’s Parliamentary brain trust figures out how to respond to Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair during Question Period. Below: Nik Nanos. No one should be particularly shocked that yelps of protest by western premiers and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in Ottawa have failed to dent support for the
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Come 2015, don’t expect the Harper Tories to do aught but rag on our Maple Leaf Flag
Canada’s Maple Leaf Flag. Below: Lester B. Pearson, the prime minister whose vision gave us the flag; Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the father of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Harper Conservatives wrap themselves in the Maple Leaf Flag, but don’t expect them to be waving it on Feb. 15,
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Pride Festival’s political participants a positive sign of the times
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith is imagined being welcomed to Saturday’s Edmonton Pride Festival as Premier Alison Redford and Deputy Premier Tom Lukaszuk, at left, look on. In the event, Alberta political leaders may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: former politician Doug Elniski, cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead and so-con MP
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: The Harper Phenomenon is explained to Perfesser Dave
Perfesser Dave, left, with W. L. “Willy” Mackenzie King, centre, and Pat, right. Some Canadian prime ministers are exactly as illustrated. Below: Several shots of Willy and Pat. Some stories are just too complicated for ordinary bloggers to explain. That’s when we turn to the expert knowledge offered by Perfesser
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Lee Richardson: Alberta Ambassador to the Mulcair Government? Or what?
Alberta Premier Alison Redford speaks with Principal Secretary Lee Richardson while Chief of Staff Farouk Adatia looks on. Alberta officials, elected and not so elected, may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Mr. Richardson and Mr. Adatia. So what exactly is a principal secretary, anyway? And why does Alberta Premier
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Cuts to Canadian archives suit the Harper Tories in more ways than one
Members of the Harper Government’s Special Archival Team get ready to head out and deal with important historical documents. Federal officials may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Dr. Daniel Caron, the Archivist of Canada, and Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin. OTTAWA Last Thursday, the Archivist of Canada got
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Casseroles Night in Canada: Working its way into our consciousness with no media help
A scene from the casseroles video by Montreal videographer Jeremie Battaglia that has gone viral worldwide, telling the story of Quebec’s dignified and powerful protest as the Western Canadian media refuses to do. It is still largely unmentioned and unseen here in the West. If tonight is “Casseroles Night in
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: ToastMedia News announces cuts, dropped editions: welcome to the world of zombie newspapers
PostMedia CEO Paul Godfrey holds a translation of his memorandum to the chain’s newspaper staff yesterday. Warning, senior Canadian newspaper executives may not appear exactly as illustrated, or as below. Welcome to the world of zombie newspapers, the era of the living journalistic dead. Last week it was the New
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