PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci, a New Democrat. Below: Former Wildrose leader and United Conservative Party leadership contender Brian Jean, now retired from politics, and B.C. based environmentalist Tzeporah Berman, very much not retired from activism. By way of setting the stage for Thursday’s budget speech, Finance Minister Joe
Continue readingTag: Bitumen Sands
Alberta Politics: Brace for it: Alberta is about to endure weeks of vicious climate-change-induced political weather!
PHOTOS: Environment Minister Shannon Phillips at a related announcement last fall. As you can see, some of the same supporters were with her yesterday, as shown below by the Government of Alberta photo taken at the notorious Sky Palace in Edmonton, whi…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Meditations on booms, busts, oil prices, sales taxes, Albertans and their governments
PHOTOS: Alberta in the spring of 2014. Actual Alberta drilling operations may not have appeared exactly as illustrated. Below: Conservative premiers Peter Lougheed and Ralph Klein. If God gives us another oil boom like the one us Albertans are all pray…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s climate-change strategy: Rachel Notley builds a coalition of big business, environmentalists and civil society
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley with leaders of the remarkable coalition on climate change her NDP government has built (Government of Alberta Photo). Below: Brian Jean, Alberta’s complaint-of-the-day Opposition leader; Gary Doer, three-term ND…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s official: the Harper Government’s approach to petro-diplomacy was a spectacular flop
PHOTOS: The White House, home of the Most Powerful Person, etc. Below: Stephen Harper, one of the architects of Canada’s Bitumen bullying export policy, the fruits of which are now apparent; Barack Obama, President of the United States. The office of the President of the United States may not be
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Climate change divestment movement gains ground in church – but not in Canadian media or political circles
Ho-hum… Some typical Canadian reporters, hard at work … Actual Canadian newsrooms may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Is he more influential than we imagined in Alberta? CALGARY When retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited Alberta’s Tarpatch capital of Fort McMurray last month and called
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Don’t let any ‘celebrities’ tell you different, we’ve got friends of science here in Alberta
Don’t worry: you have absolutely nothing to do with the apocalypse. You might as well mine more bitumen while you wait for it. Below: Barry Cooper; another version of the Friends of Science billboard; yet another great billboard supporting democracy and the people. Billboard photos found on the Internet. Alberta’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Right-wing Rage Machine readies the Full Neil Young Treatment for Archbishop Desmond Tutu
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu will now be subjected to the full Neil Young Treatment for speaking out against overdevelopment of Alberta’s Bitumen Sands. (CBC Photo.) Below: Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Ric McIver; Mr. Young, back in the days when Albertans were still allowed to love him. Retired South African
Continue readingAlberta Diary: What happens now that we know there really is a cancer cluster in Fort Chip? Nothing?
Greenpeace Canada info-graphic showing connections among the far-right Conservative Party of Canada activists behind the so-called Ethical Oil Institute. Below: Dr. James Talbot; Dr. John O’Connor; Ezra Levant. Alberta’s chief medical officer has now confirmed that statistics released a couple of weeks ago indicate there really is a cancer cluster
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The ‘Petroleum Party’ in full cry about Neil Young: what are they afraid of? Not what Northwestern Alberta doctors fear
Neil Young: Giving as good as he’s been getting during an all-out attack by the Petroleum Party. Below: Dr. John O’Connor, vilified by the hirelings, toadies and pet legislators of the petroleum industry; Edmonton Journal reporter Sheila Pratt. Here in Alberta, the Petroleum Party dominates everything – the federal government,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: With free expression under assault in Alberta, where’s ‘free speech advocate’ Ezra Levant?
So-called free-speech advocate and celebrity commentator Ezra Levant. Below: Free-speech opponent Alison Redford, Canada’s answer to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, shown below her; that Voltaire guy; nearly forgotten Tory political strategist Stephen Carter. Where’s Ezra Levant now that we need him? Mr. Levant, after all, is frequently billed as Canada’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: In four letters, Brian Jean, the Crossword King of Parliament Hill, has Q-U-I-T
How Brian Jean may have started to see himself after whiling away too many hours on Parliament Hill over the decade. Amateur psychologizing by blog authors is unlikely to resemble the actual mental state of real Parliamentarians. Below: The real Mr. Jean, who announced yesterday he is quitting his job
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