Keystone XL, the pipeline that just keeps dying over and over again, was officially pronounced dead yesterday. After TC Energy Corp. issued a statement saying it was walking away for good from the project that has obviously been doomed for months, the U.S. business press declared the pipedream of successive
Continue readingTag: Derek Fildebrandt
Alberta Politics: If he loves his country as he says, Jason Kenney needs to dump rebel MLA for peddling dangerous separatist twaddle
Jason Kenney can mildly admonish Drew Barnes for spouting separatist twaddle if he wishes, but the Alberta premier’s protestations of Canadian patriotism won’t be very persuasive if he lets the Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA remain in his United Conservative Party Caucus. I know, Mr. Kenney has a problem with the loony
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Distinction Rebellion? There are plenty of reasons breaking up is hard to do, so don’t expect the UCP to do it
Is a rebellion brewing in Southern Alberta against Alberta Premier Jason Kenney among the United Conservative Party’s old Wildrose crowd? Is there a Prairie fire smouldering in the heart Wild Rose Country that might turn into another “upstart conservative party”? Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, as he looked in 2017 as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s statement on Ottawa’s gun ban illustrates how little the rule of law really matters to Conservatives
Jason Kenney marked May 1 with a message to the Conservative base complaining about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decisive move in the wake of the murderous shooting rampage in Portapique, Nova Scotia, to ban 1,500 makes of military-style rifles. While a significant majority of Canadians breathed a sigh of relief
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Should we welcome Michelle Rempel Garner home with a festive serving of Oklahoma’s official state meal?
Did you know Oklahoma has an official state meal? The State Legislature in Oklahoma City designated the repast as an official state symbol in 1988. And, I must say, it sounds delicious: fried okra, squash, cornbread, barbecued pork, biscuits, sausage and gravy, grits, corn, black-eyed peas, chicken-fried steak, strawberries and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Ted Morton, worst premier Alberta never had, has had another big idea, this time about a sales tax
From time to time it’s worth reminding ourselves that Ted Morton is the worst premier Alberta never had. That’s because now and then Dr. Morton, now 71, pops up like the proverbial bad penny with some scheme so ridiculous we need to give our heads a shake and recall this
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 48: An urban agenda in Alberta. Municipally Speaking with Mack Male
More than half of Albertans live in Calgary and Edmonton, so why does it feel like the provincial government rarely takes big city issues seriously? Mack Male joins Dave Cournoyer on this episode of the Daveberta Podcast to discuss the state of local media in Edmonton, Municipal Affairs Minister Kaycee
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Inside Jason Kenney’s troll factory: the UCP propaganda ecosystem goes after Alberta’s registered nurses
The president of the Alberta Federation of Labour called out the Canadian Taxpayers Federation yesterday for the partisan role it plays supporting of the Kenney Government’s contract demands in negotiations with the union that represents the province’s front-line registered nurses. Calling the CTF “a secretive anti-union lobby group,” Gil McGowan
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former Speaker Bob Wanner’s portrait, unveiled yesterday, adds a 21st Century touch to a gloomy 19th Century collection
It’s not just Alberta’s premiers who get their portraits hung in the dingy halls of the provincial Legislature Building in Edmonton, but the Assembly’s Speakers too. Let it be said here first that the portrait of Bob Wanner, the most recent Speaker to depart that role, unveiled at the Legislature
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Things just keeping getting weirder in Alberta as Jason Kenney sings the Moody Blues!
If a tree falls in the forest and Jason Kenney isn’t there to hear it, is it still the sound of European environmentalists and the Rockefellers plotting against Alberta’s ethical oil industry? Is it still Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s fault? Your blogger only spent three days on B.C.’s misty and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nathan Cooper chosen as Legislative Speaker – so how about those early mornings?
Now that Nathan Cooper has been chosen as Speaker of the Alberta Legislature, I wonder if the business of the Assembly will be getting under way at a more civilized hour, say 10 a.m., suitable for bankers, gentlemen of leisure, and elected Conservatives? Mr. Cooper, United Conservative Party MLA for
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It takes all kinds to make a cabinet, not necessarily good news when Jason Kenney’s making the picks
Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party cabinet contains a guy who once went down south to campaign for Donald Trump, a woman who opposes school gay-straight alliances and wrote a university president attacking a professor’s critical commentary on Catholic education, a man who fired a single mom he employed after
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 34: When you play the Game of Thrones… Alberta election edition.
In this episode Dave and Ryan discuss the huge turnout at the advance polls, some of the key races to watch on election night, and recap of the final days of the campaign. We also dive into the mailbag to answer some great questions from our listeners. And because we couldn’t help ourselves,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley and Jason Kenney escape relatively unscathed in Alberta election leaders’ debate
Last night’s Alberta election leaders’ debate was an unedifying experience, as these things often are. If anyone except hard-core political junkies kept their hands off the remote, I’d be surprised. Debate stuck to talking points we’ve heard before, the broadcast aired at a weird hour when many viewers were still
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 32: GSAs, GSAs, GSAs. Week 2 of Alberta’s Election.
Alberta’s provincial election is 16 days away and for the duration of the campaign, we are going to be recording a new episode of the Daveberta Podcast each week. In this episode Dave and Ryan talk about the United Conservative Party reopening the Gay-Straight Alliance debate, the transphobic comments that
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jeff Callaway bids to derail Kamikaze Campaign finance probe – why won’t he wait, like Trump?
Despite obviously having been tempted to shut down the “Russian collusion” investigation when he saw friends and supporters charged with lying to the FBI, aides to U.S. President Donald Trump managed to persuade him to hold his fire. How? Although many of us wondered about this during Special Counsel Robert
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Prodigal Roughneck returns – Bernard the Roughneck throws his hardhat into the ring for FCP in Grande Prairie
The good news for Alberta’s Freedom Conservative Party is that it’s recruited a national figure as one of its candidates. The bad news for the FCP may be the national figure in question is Neal Bernard Hancock, better known as “Bernard the Roughneck.” A three-paragraph news story on Mr. Hancock’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Rachel Notley accepts nomination; accuses Jason Kenney of coolly lying about ‘Kamikaze Campaign’
Based on what we’ve learned in the past 24 hours, it’s hard to dispute Premier Rachel Notley’s blunt assessment at her nomination meeting in the Edmonton-Strathcona riding yesterday that Opposition Leader Jason Kenney has been coolly lying about the role of his 2017 leadership campaign in the so-called “Kamikaze Mission”
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This is serious now: the Mounties have entered the Kamikaze Campaign investigation
Some days Alberta politics are like that fine old Johnny Nash song: “I can see clearly now the rain is gone …” A lot has happened since 3 o’clock yesterday morning when the CBC broke the story the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had taken over the investigation by the Office
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Beware the Ides of March: Brian Jean, Jason Kenney, Joe Anglin and the annals of Alberta conservatism
I suppose today, the day before the date in 44 BC made famous by the demise of Julius Caesar, would be an appropriate moment to remind all potential victims of political plots … beware the Ides of March! It says something for both the ruthlessness and absent likeability of United
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