It must have been the final political straw for Bill Morneau. After taking some of the heat off the prime minister in the ‘We charity’ imbroglio, the former finance minister is still being criticized for his naiveté. Not only is he being pilloried by the opposition in parliament and ridiculed
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Politics and its Discontents: I’m Sure It’s All Just A Big Misunderstanding
The Keilbergers probably just really like Bill Morneau. But you be the judge: Recommend this Post
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Andrew Scheer And My Wonderful Humiliation Party
In my last post I looked at how Andrew Scheer is cracking up with less than a month to go before he is given the bum's rush as Con leader.And how desperate he is to try to force Justin Trudeau to resign before he does.But if you thought that was just another sign
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: How do we pay the mortgage?
It would have helped last week if finance minister Bill Morneau had paid some attention to the deficit side of our financial snapshot. The problem is that to many Canadians the figures he was discussing were unfathomable. The average citizen does not think of money in billions and trillions. Reality
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: And a sneer from Scheer.
It was difficult to assess all sides of the discussion last week to the finance minister’s snapshot of Canada’s financial position. To be fair, minister Morneau is not a dynamic speaker. You needed time as he droned on to grasp the dimension of the how far this pandemic has taken
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On double insecurity
Shorter Bill Morneau on what his government expects of workers generally: Nobody has a right to expect secure, long-term employment. Shorter Bill Morneau on benefits for workers affected by COVID-19, as his government eliminates direct income support while maintaining only a wage subsidy: Nobody has a right to support in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hot potatoes: Federal Conservatives prudently drop talk of bringing down the Liberal government just yet
It was faintly amusing yesterday to watch the haste with which the Conservative Opposition backed away from the idea of trying to bring down the Liberal government in Ottawa over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s now rescinded plan to have a charity with ties to his family administer a $900-million summer
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 52: Jobs, economy and pipelines? COVID-19 pushes small business to the brink.
Justin Archer joins Dave Cournoyer and Adam Rozenhart on this remotely recorded episode of the Daveberta Podcast to discuss the federal government’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, how our political leaders are responding to the pandemic and crashing oil prices. We also discussed the Alberta government’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tyler Shandro’s epic meltdown reopens the debate about his Venetian blind trust
Health Minister Tyler Shandro’s epic meltdown in front of his neighbour’s home last weekend allows an important debate to be reopened about the appearance of conflict of interest in political families and the weakness of Alberta’s conflict-of-interest legislation with regard to politicians. The United Conservative Party successfully shut down discussion
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Bill Morneau’s COVID-19 response: This economic and health crisis is no time for timidity or hesitation
According to Bill Morneau, “as Minister of Finance, my only job is to make sure that Canadians can keep food in the fridge.” That’s actually a rare useful thought for a federal finance minister to keep front of mind in calamitous circumstances like the present ones. Economist Jim Stanford (Photo:
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Appointment of conservative economist Jack Mintz to head Jason Kenney’s latest economic panel is not a good augury for Alberta
Come into my office, Alberta, and sit down. I’m sorry to have to tell you that your prognosis is not good. I’m not talking about coronavirus. That will be painful, but you’re strong and young and I’m confident you could survive coronavirus … Alberta Premier Jason Kenney (Photo: David J.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Juxtaposition
The effect of the perpetual fear of falling downwards on ideology: As far as there are forces at play that push job losers to the right of the ideological spectrum, these forces appear trumped by other pressures that pull job losers to the left. Indeed, while we do observe many
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What should we make of the post-election Edmonton Journal editorial urging the UCP to keep the carbon tax?
I suppose we should never attribute to mischief what can be explained by incompetence, but what else are we to make of the Edmonton Journal’s earnest editorial yesterday urging Alberta Premier Jason Kenney not to pull the plug on the carbon tax? “Killing the provincial carbon tax is one political
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Liberal Budget and the Monstrous Con Fascists
For a while it looked like it would be like any other Budget Day in Canada. With the finance minister Bill Morneau posing proudly with his billion dollar baby.And when I skimmed through the budget document later on it seemed like a pretty good one.But Andrew Scheer was furious because the Liberals on
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: I Just Read The Entire 2019 Budget So You Don’t Have To
Holy hell, my eyeballs are burning, and my brain feels overextended – and not in the smart way, but in a leaky way. Let me get this out of the way first. If you are looking for a non-partisan analysis of the 2019 Budget, this isn’t the place to be
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Competing with Donald Trump?
It is unlikely that Canadians had any idea just how much American president Donald Trump would cost them. Our great-great grand children will be paying off Canada’s national debt. And if anyone could explain what good it will do, we would be rushing out to ring all the church bells
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nothing new under the Prairie sun as Alberta Conservatives ratchet up their faux outrage about equalization and Quebec
Jason Kenney, leader of Alberta’s Opposition United Conservative Party, calls the Trudeau Government’s renewal of Canada’s current equalization formula for an additional five years “a slap in the face to Alberta.” “It means we will continue to be forced, even when times are bad in Alberta, forced to subsidize public
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Donald Trump’s trade war, the Ontario Election, the Trudeau government’s pipeline and more
Photo: Donald Trump with United States Secretary of Commerce Kim Kardashian (kidding). There was no shortage of political news to talk about this week on the Ryan Jespersen Show. On Friday morning I joined political analyst John Brennan, Global News provincial affairs reporter Tom Vernon and Ryan Jespersen to talk about
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: We bought a pipeline! How the federal government’s purchase of the Trans Mountain Pipeline impacts the key players in this never-ending dispute
We own a pipeline! Well, not yet. Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced yesterday that the federal government plans to purchase the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline from Kinder Morgan Inc. by August 2018 if another investor cannot be found. The federal government has committed to help the Texas-based corporation find a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Trudeau Liberals call the opposition’s bluff and ‘nationalize’ (sort of, maybe) the Trans Mountain Pipeline
OK, so Ottawa’s going to buy the Trans Mountain Pipeline for $4.5 billion and run it as a Crown corporation. That’s a good start. (Caveats to follow.) Theoretically, it could ensure transparency and accountability, even responsibility, to a business in which the private sector adamantly refuses to deliver any such
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