PHOTOS: Former Morinville mayor Lisa Holmes. Below: Doug Griffiths, Thomas Lukaszuk, Stephen Khan and Chima Nkemdirim. These photos were chosen completely arbitrarily, mainly because they came from the author’s own collection and hadn’t been used a bunch of times before. If it weren’t for the takeover of the once-rather-liberal Alberta
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daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Will the Alberta Together takeover turn the Alberta Party into PC 2.0?
Photo: Alberta Party leader Greg Clark on the campaign trail in Calgary-Elbow in 2014. Source: Twitter. In the latest shakeup in Alberta politics, Greg Clark announced last Friday that he would resign as leader of the Alberta Party at the party’s upcoming annual general meeting on November 18, 2017. Clark
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: July 6 is Jason Kenney Day in Alberta Politics
Conservative Member of Parliament Jason Kenney is expected to announce his candidacy for the leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta tomorrow, July 6, in Calgary, deliver a speech in Grande Prairie that evening and then trave…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Alberta can’t afford to ignore the Provincial Sales Tax
“Rat-free, PST-free and Liberal-free” has been a Conservative mantra in Alberta since the reign of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. But is this trifecta now in jeopardy? The decline of government revenues caused by the drop in the price of oil has once again sparked… Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Election Alert! PCs set March 15 nomination deadline!
The Progressive Conservatives gave hints today that they could be preparing for a Spring 2015 provincial election. Reported by the Calgary Herald and confirmed by sources close to this blogger, the PC Party has set a deadline for candidates to be nominated… Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Could the Wildrose collapse mean an early 2015 election?
TweetThis week’s defection of nine Wildrose MLAs to the Progressive Conservative Caucus has drastically impacted Alberta’s electoral map. The governing PCs now hold 72 of 87 electoral constituencies with the remaining opposition consisting of 5 Wildrose MLAs, 5 Liberal MLAs, 4 New Democrats and 1 Independent MLA. The mass-floor crossing could
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: A timeline of Alberta’s Gay-Straight Alliance debate
TweetIt is sometimes amazing how quickly one political issue can transform and dominate the debate. This week’s raging debate about allowing Gay-Straight Alliances (GSA) in Alberta schools has twisted and turned so many times, it has become difficult to figure out who is in and out of the closet on this
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Tories impose a strict policy of de-Redfordization
TweetThe strength of any long-ruling political party is the ability to reinvent itself under new leaders and changing circumstances. After 43-years in power, Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Association has successfully rebranded itself under five leaders, in many cases by attacking the political record of its previous leadership. Alberta’s seventh PC Party Premier, Jim Prentice, set about this
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Jim Prentice appoints another Pipeline Focused Cabinet
TweetAs he prepared to be sworn-in as the 16th Premier of Alberta at Government House today, Jim Prentice aimed to project the image of a leader who is in command and in control of the situation. And today’s tightly controlled cabinet shuffle achieved that goal. Unlike previous cabinet shuffles, the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Wild Rose Country no more? What are we gonna call this place if the Alberta Party starts soaring in the polls?
Alberta Minister of Licence Plates Doug Griffiths poses with some of the versions of Alberta’s plates considered by provincial officials before they settled on the three finalists unveiled yesterday. Below: Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA Mike Allen, centre, examines a licence-plate-making facility on a recent government trip to Minnesota. Below that:
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Tracking Alberta MLA endorsements in the PC Leadership race
Tweet In party leadership races, endorsements by sitting MLAs can be a double-edged sword. Endorsements can lend credibility to candidates and individual MLAs own local political networks to the campaign. Large numbers of endorsements can also signal to rank and file party members where their party’s establishment is lining up. But MLA
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Will Alison Redford fire Thomas Lukaszuk? She needs to, but don’t count on it happening!
Alberta Labour Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, at right with Premier Alison Redford, argues with Deputy Premier Dave Hancock, in white suit and goofy glasses, about whether or not to appeal the court injunction against the use of Bill 46. Finance Minister Doug Horner is on the far left. Actual Alberta cabinet
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta politics 2013: Big City Mayors
TweetA generational shift in Edmonton Framed as a lacklustre and uneventful campaign, local media and many mainstream pundits missed one of the most important stories of this year’s mayoral election in Edmonton. The city’s crusty local establishment has lamented for years about the constant stream of locally-raised young talent choosing
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta politics this week
TweetA new provincial cabinet was sworn-in this morning, one a week after the cabinet shuffle was announced. The original announcement, made by press release at the unusual time of 4:45pm on Friday, December 6, was typical of a tactic used by government when it wants a story to be underreported.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Redford’s Christmas cabinet shuffle
TweetAs reported yesterday on this blog, rumours that Ms. Redford would shuffle her cabinet before the Christmas break began to intensify this week. Today, those rumours proved to be true. Built around the government’s “Building Alberta” slogan, today’s Government of Alberta press release boasts a new cabinet that will focus on
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: A Christmas cabinet shuffle in Alberta?
TweetWith the Legislative Assembly’s fall sitting coming to an end, can some Progressive Conservative MLAs expect an early Christmas present from their leader, Premier Alison Redford? Nearly half-way through the PC Party’s twelfth term in office and fresh from a leadership review victory, it is expected that Ms. Redford could choose
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Trouble with Hubris: Doug Griffiths’ Bill 28 goes into Freefall
Like Icarus, strapping on wings of feathers and wax, Municipal Affairs Minister Griffiths attempted to glide Bill 28 Modernizing Regional Governance Act through the Legislature. It sparked an uproar among municipal officials and disintegrated under the Oppositions’ scrutiny. Griffiths and the Premier responded to the crash and burn with a
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Lukaszuk, Griffiths are prime targets for opposition parties
TweetDeputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk allegedly threatened to fight Official Opposition leader Danielle Smith during a heated Question Period on the afternoon of November 5. Observers say that Mr. Lukaszuk made a threatening gesture to the opposition leader to “bring it on” after responding to criticism about a ruling from the Office of
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Hope and Debt
TweetThe political battle between the Wildrose opposition and long-governing Progressive Conservatives continued today as the Legislative Assembly resumed for the fall sitting. Debt was the biggest issue of the day. Wildrose leader Danielle Smith jumped at the opportunity to make light of comments Premier Alison Redford made that compared the government’s
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Wildrose can grow from Tory seeds of doubt
TweetDo you drain a Lake of Fire or do you dam it? Whatever it takes, Wildrose Party activists are expected to moderate the tone of their policies at their weekend policy convention in the booming central Alberta city of Red Deer. A delicate and sometimes shaky coalition of libertarians and
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