When we heard Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner say yesterday he’s encouraged to hear that the federal government will ask the Government of Canada’s chief actuary to determine how much cash Alberta would actually get if it were to pull out of the Canada Pension Plan, we could predict with
Continue readingTag: Canadian Politics
Alberta Politics: Continuing CPP uproar means Danielle Smith and the UCP are getting what they want: the grownups are paying attention!
Like any teenager acting out, Danielle Smith must be delighted to have the entire country in a swivet about her government’s preposterous claim that even though Alberta has only about 16 per cent of Canada’s population less Quebec, which has its own pension plan, the country owes it 53 per
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Congratulations on your appointment, Mr. Dinning, your pension ‘consultation’ has a few flaws: CPP public affairs leader
Michel Leduc, the Canada Pension Plan’s head of public affairs and communications, recently demonstrated how to swiftly and skilfully eviscerate a goat, metaphorically speaking. Canada Pension Plan public affairs and communications chief Michel Leduc (Photo: Linked-In). I speak of Mr. Leduc’s Oct. 17 letter to Jim Dinning, the old Tory
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre joins Alberta pension plan uproar, proffers weak endorsement of Canada Pension Plan
In an obvious effort to inoculate himself against being identified as an enemy of the Canada Pension Plan, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday inserted himself into the open-letter uproar over the Alberta Government’s plan to force the province’s citizens out of the CPP with a statement of his own.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will Danielle Smith’s pension scheme drive a wedge right into the heart of Conservative support?
In the past few hours, a lot of metaphorical ink has been spilled on the duelling open letters about the Alberta Government’s scheme to pull the province’s still-skeptical population out of the Canada Pension Plan, the first from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday and the response from Alberta Premier
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Manitobans elect an NDP government; the province’s Conservatives richly deserve their defeat
At the risk of being negative about a positive story, I cannot recall a Canadian election in which the governing party more richly deserved to lose than did the Manitoba Conservatives last night. Manitoba Progressive Conservative Leader Heather Stefanson (Photo: CBC). Provincial politics in other provinces are a black hole
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If you don’t know basic facts about who was fighting whom in World War II, you’re not fit to hold public office
If the embarrassing events in Canada’s House of Commons last Friday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address to MPs and Senators illustrate anything, it ought to be the value of teaching history – and remembering your history lessons. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Photo: Justin Trudeau/Flickr). Key takeaways from everyone’s modern
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: The CPC Went Full SoCon
The brief summary of yesterday’s policy votes at the CPC 2023 convention was published by CBC. Go there first, and read it – but I really think they missed more than a few things, so this is going to be a bit more of a deep dive into the policies
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s hard to take Danielle Smith’s hysterical outburst at federal environment minister very seriously
Apparently Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is determined to make the flagging Trudeau Liberals look like the grownups in the room! Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault (Photo: UN Biodiversity, Creative Commons). What other explanation is there for Ms. Smith’s childish official outburst yesterday assailing federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault for his
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Speaking the fascist’s language: Pierre Poilievre’s perfidious rhetorical appeal for working class votes
Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre at an anti-carbon tax rally in Nova Scotia, June 29, 2023. Photo courtesy of Pierre Poilievre/Twitter. Pierre Poilievre has risen to the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada by lauding himself as a defender of the average Canadian. This supposed protector of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Environment minister in government that won’t approve geothermal projects visits new geothermal project in Germany
Alberta’s environment minister, Rebecca Schulz, is in Germany today, getting set to celebrate the opening of a large geothermal electricity-generating project that uses technology designed by a Calgary company. Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). At the same time, back home in Wild Rose Country, geothermal projects
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s next for Rachel Notley? Is there a path to the PMO for Alberta’s former NDP premier?
So what’s next for Rachel Notley? Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). The buzz grows louder by the day that sooner than later Ms. Notley is going to move on from her present role as Alberta’s Opposition leader. Gossips are hinting at sometime early in the new
Continue reading52 Ideas: Canada’s and Alberta’s Economic Future depends on our transition to Green Energy by 2035
“He also shared a few bold predictions. Investors, he said, would have to spend $400 billion to realize the Liberal plan, but there would be a net benefit to Canadians of $29 billion by 2050. He also put out on social media a claim by the Canadian Climate Institute that
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With freeze on renewables and vow to ignore federal net-zero rules, Alberta’s on its way to being a three-alarm international dumpster fire!
Whether or not Premier Danielle Smith and her enabler and office manager Rob Anderson carefully planned their freeze on renewable electricity generation last week or just came up with it on a whim, it’s now turning into a three-alarm international dumpster fire. Deputy Premier Nathan Neudorf (Photo: Linked-In). On Wednesday
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canada is facing a grave crisis, and it needs courageous leaders, but brutal street-clearing operations won’t help
There’s no question Canada is facing a grave social crisis on multiple fronts. Howard Anglin (Photo: Twitter/Howard Anglin). The homeless crisis, the housing crisis, the deadly drug poisoning crisis, and the crisis of our overburdened health care system are all real, and they share a common cause. Forty years of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta medical clinic’s ‘membership’ billing scheme won’t hurt a bid by PM to attack Pierre Poilievre through Danielle Smith
There must have been a moment of pure delight in the Prime Minister’s Office in Ottawa when the story broke about Dr. Sally Talbot-Jones’s plan to get her patients to pay thousands of dollars a year to become “members” of her Calgary medical practice. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Alberta Newsroom/Flickr).
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Canadian Politics on Twitter
It’s been weird over in twitterland regarding Canadian politics as of late. The amount of furor and nasty partisan attacks going both ways seem to have intensified – people are doubling and tripling down on their hills to die on. I’m not sure as to exactly why, but here’s an
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Mission Impossible, Conservative style: Making the B.C. port strike settlement look like a disaster for Justin Trudeau
Good morning, Mr. Poilievre, your mission, should you choose to accept it … Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Photo: Justin Trudeau/Flickr). … is to make the settlement of the Vancouver port strike yesterday after less than two weeks look like a disaster for Justin Trudeau. This will not be easy. Indeed,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Stephen Harper – he haunts us still!
Stephen Harper is having a bit of a moment lately, thanks to his instantly notorious selfie last week with Hungarian neofascist Viktor Orbán, which both of them proudly tweeted about. Justin Trudeau – the anti-Harper (Photo: Justin Trudeau/Flickr). Mr. Harper is the former Conservative prime minister of Canada who is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Compare and contrast: Convoy occupations and border blockades versus B.C. port strike
It was almost two weeks after the trucks rolled into Ottawa and blockaded the Canada-U.S. border at Coutts, Alta., before the leaders of the Conservative Party of Canada began to admit there might be a wee problem with the convoyers’ illegal activities. Candice Bergen, then the interim leader of the
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