TweetThe Government of Alberta re-announced plans last week to open new trade offices in Chicago and Singapore, and yet to be announced locations in India, Brazil, and California. The Alberta Government is currently operating trade offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul, London, Munich, Mexico City, and Washington D.C. The re-announcement opening the [...]
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How Albertans should see Progressive Conservative and Wildrose policies and procedures. Below: The clever Wildrose Facebook attack on PC Premier Alison Redford’s faintly unsavoury taxpayer-funded mail out, which makes it look a little worse than it really is. Am I the only one who sees irony in the leader of Alberta’s ultra-conservative Wildrose Party working up a full head of steam because the merely very conservative government of Premier Alison Redford plans to mail a colourful budget brochure to every household in the province – at taxpayer expense, of course? After all, the Wildrose Party of Danielle Smith is effectively (Read more…) TweetWhile too much media attention was focused this week on the fate of a statue of a hockey player who left Edmonton twenty-five years ago for sunny southern California (and piles of money), City Council desperately tried to draw up a Plan B (or Plan C) to fund the proposed downtown arena. The unrealistic Plan A, a [...] TweetOn April 23, 2012, Alberta’s most hotly contested election in decades culminated with the re-election of the twelfth consecutive Progressive Conservative majority government since 1971. Despite holding the large majority elected MLAs, the popular vote showed Albertans were closely divided between Alison Redford‘s Tories who finished with 44% compared to an impressive 34% showing for [...] TweetFacing internal strife after a rough spring of budget cuts and deflating bitumen bubbles, Premier Alison Redford is desperately searching for political wins that will win-over Albertans in advance of the Progressive Conservatives mandatory leadership review in November. When the Premier and her entourage hit the road for their summer Winnebago tour, they will avoid talk of unpopular cuts [...] TweetFacing internal strife after a rough spring of budget cuts and deflating bitumen bubbles, Premier Alison Redford is desperately searching for political wins that will win-over Albertans in advance of the Progressive Conservatives mandatory leadership review in November. When the Premier and her entourage hit the road for their summer Winnebago tour, they will avoid talk of unpopular cuts [...] TweetThe strange comedy of errors that has become Edmonton’s Downtown Arena project continued this week as City Council scrambled to fill a $100 million gap in a funding plan they approved months ago. Despite repeated claims by Mayor Stephen Mandel that provincial government money would fill the $100 million gap, anyone who has paid any attention [...] Finance Minister Doug Horner preps Albertans for yesterday’s budget. Actual Alberta finance ministers may not appear exactly as illustrated – but that’s the trick, isn’t it? Below: The real Doug Horner. All in all, I guess, you could make a good case this was a pretty lousy budget. It’s deeply confusing, as without any doubt the Alberta government intended, and there are a couple of real disasters lurking in its pages – got kids in post-secondary education, anyone? But in the aftermath of the Alberta Budget Speech read this afternoon by Progressive Conservative Finance Minister Doug Horner, who was wearing . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: Close enough for government work: Alberta Tories manage to hold their centre-right turf TweetRumours swirled through the halls of the Legislative for weeks. Whispers and warnings of cuts and rollbacks not seen since Ralph Klein and Jim Dinning unleashed a scorched earth policy on the provincial budget in the mid-1990s. Back in debt. Broken promises. Bankrupt budgets. The end was nigh. And today, the budget was tabled and [...] TweetAfter a three-month break, Members of Alberta’s Legislative Assembly will gather today in Edmonton to start the spring sitting. The commencement of this year’s first sitting will be unusual in that it will lack the traditional pomp and circumstance that comes with a Speech from the Throne. Lieutenant Governor Donald Ethell will not be invited [...] The trading pit: Is this what Alberta Education Minister Jeff Johnson sees when he thinks of the Alberta Teachers Association? Actual Alberta schoolteachers may not be exactly as illustrated. Then again, these days … Below: Mr. Johnson and ATA President Carol Henderson. OK, Alberta Education Minister Jeff Johnson’s bizarre attempt to bluff the province’s 35,000 unionized schoolteachers into signing a contract has failed. Now what? One week ago, Mr. Johnson mailed the president of the Alberta Teachers Association and the Chair of the Alberta School Boards Association a rambling letter setting out the government’s latest bargaining demands in what’s turned . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: Education minister’s bluff called by apoplectic schoolteachers! Now what? Razzle-dazzle, sis-boom-bah, balanced budgets, rah-rah-rah! Danielle Smith and the Wild Rosehip Tea Party yell squad cheers for Alison Redford’s Tory team’s worst plays on the field. The actual Alberta opposition may not be quite as illustrated. Below: Ms. Redford and B.C. Premier Christie Clark. Why are these two premiers smiling? British Columbia and Alberta, Canada’s two westernmost provinces, have lots in common. Both have economies that rely heavily on volatile natural resources, well-educated, diverse and generally socially progressive populations, and Westminster-style parliamentary legislatures in beautiful old buildings. Both are also governed by irresponsible neoconservative coalitions with misleading names that . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: A Tale of Two Provinces: B.C. NDP and Wild Rosehip Tea Party show why opposition matters 
 Adrian Dix, Alberta, Alberta Economy, Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics, Alison Redford, b.c. ndp, B.C. Politics, Balanced Budgets, Brian Mason, British Columbia, Christy Clark, Danielle Smith, Doug Horner, Fort McMurray Public School District, Four-Day School Week, Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, Ralph Klein, Wildrose Party TweetFree from the tight leash of party discipline, three former Finance Ministers are giving plenty of advice to Premier Alison Redford and Finance Minister Doug Horner. Ted Morton, the former two-term Tory MLA from Foothills-Rockyview and two-time Tory leadership candidate who served as Finance Minister from 2010 to 2011, penned an opinion-editiorial in Wednesday’s Calgary [...] Alberta’s perpetually mismanaged boom-and-bust economy makes homelessness worse, as hopeful immigrants flock here in hopes of a better life, and find nowhere to live. At least this guy has warm boots. Below: Dr. Stan Houston and Dr. Mat Rose. Welcome to Alberta, the Richest Place on Earth, where body lice are showing up on residents of homeless shelters, an affliction normally associated with Third World refugee camps. Earlier this week, University of Alberta infectious diseases specialist Dr. Stan Houston warned colleagues in an email of “a very powerful health indicator of the kind of poverty we are seeing (and creating) . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: Edmonton’s homeless shelters home to body lice, ‘refugee-camp-like conditions’
Alberta Economy, Alberta Health Services, Alberta Politics, Alison Redford, Body Lice, Boyle McCauley Health Clinic, Danielle Smith, Doug Horner, Ed Stelmach, Edmonton Homeless Commission, Homelessness, Homeward Trust Edmonton, Mat Rose, progressive conservative party, Stan Houston, Wildrose Party Some of the members of Alberta’s Treasury Board are pictured above. While not exactly as illustrated, they are all suspects in the leakage of budget details, in the office, with an email to the Calgary Herald. Below: Columnist Don Braid, detective Sherlock Holmes and Treasury Board President Doug Horner. It’s a whodunit, a little like the one about the dog that didn’t bark. Why didn’t the Calgary Herald create a huge front-page brouhaha when its columnist Don Braid ferreted out some pretty startling facts about Alberta’s March 7 budget? Certainly, that’s what most newspapers would have done if their trusted . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: Who leaked Alberta’s budget details? And who plugged the leak?
Alberta Economic Summit, Alberta Economy, Alberta Legislature, Alberta Politics, Alison Redford, Cal Dallas, Calgary Herald, David Dorward, Don Braid, Donna Kennedy-Glans, Doug Griffiths, Doug Horner, Jeff Johnson, Jonathan Denis, Kyle Fawcett, Len Webber, media, Mike Allen, Ric McIver, robin campbell, Treasury Board, Wayne Drysdale The Alberta Progressive Conservative position on negotiations with the doctors explained. Yes, we’re just as confused as you are. Below: AMA President Michael Giuffre. Premier Alison Redford. Every day, it just gets weirder and weirder. The day before yesterday, we’re told, Alberta Premier Alison Redford waded into her health minister’s already strangely muddled negotiations with the province’s physicians to state that the only way the docs will get a raise is if the province goes back to charging health care premiums. What’s more, she said in an impromptu news conference in Calgary, there’s no way that’s ever going to happen. . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: Redford to docs: There’s no raise, and you’re not getting it! Who’s in change here? Progressive Conservative MLAs get ready to supervise the work of an Alberta Health Services medical team while Alberta voters look on. Health officials, physicians and electors may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: AMA President Dr. Michael Giuffre; a space invader Is the increasingly bitter fight between Alberta’s government and the province’s physicians just about money? It’s said here it’s more about who gets to control the health care system. If you need evidence for this assertion, look no further than the fact just two and a half months ago Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne said . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: Is Premier Alison Redford’s bitter fight with the docs about money, or control?
Alberta Economy, Alberta Health Services, Alberta Medical Association, Alberta Politics, Alison Redford, Dave Cournoyer, Doug Horner, Ed Stelmach, Fred Horne, Health Care, Health Care Funding, Health Insurance, Michael Giuffre, Progressive Conservatives, Public Health Insurance, Steve West, Stockwell Day, Tom Fuller, Wildrose Party, www.budgetchoice.ca Premier Alison Redford eyeballs an uninvited visitor to the province’s economic summit. Without the password, you’re not getting in. Below, Premier Redford and Deputy Premier Tom Lukaszuk present their bona fides at the door. Actual Alberta politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below them: The premier’s communications director, Stefan Baranski. In just 10 days, “Alberta’s leading thinkers, key industry, non-profit and academic leaders, Members of the Legislative Assembly and passionate citizens will gather together for a spirited discussion on Alberta’s future.” You’re not invited. The government announced yesterday in a terse yet effusive press release that the economic . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: ‘Leading thinkers’ to set Alberta’s new economic course lickety-split – and you’re not invited If Doug Horner can’t get Alberta’s finances under control, he can always look forward to a long career as a Ricky Gervais impersonator. Alberta is facing a bit of a budget crisis, with a deficit which, on a per capita basis, could be as big as Ontario’s. This has forced Alison Redford into making some tough choices…or, in the more likely event, building up debt. To help with these decisions, Redford has launched a Your Choice website, letting average Albertans consider the same trade-offs government is facing. It’s actually a really neat form of citizen engagement, and is the ultimate . . . → Read More: Calgary Grit: You Be The Finance Minister Perfesser Dave with Gene Zwozdesky, a.k.a. Mr. Speaker, the Speaker of the Alberta Legislature, with that rara avis, a recent Alberta Throne Speech. But not the one for March 5, 2013. Quick quiz: Why is that? Below: Alberta Premier Alison Redford in a screen grab from last week’s “State of the Province” address. If you’re wondering why on March 5 Alberta’s MLAs are not returning to a new session of the provincial Legislature, there is an explanation. We have lately been informed by House Speaker Gene Zwozdesky – who should know, after all – that Alberta’s MLAs . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: Great Plains Politics 101: Why everything new in Alberta’s Legislature must be old again Alberta Premier Alison Redford beseeches the Almighty for higher petroleum prices as Wildrose Finance Critic Rob Anderson looks on. Actual Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Social democratic men of God J.S. Woodsworth (Methodist), Tommy Douglas (Baptist) and Stanley Knowles (United). So what’s with the Redford Government’s receding horizon on tough decisions, d’ya think? You bet they’re going to make some tough decisions. That’s for sure! The premier said so in her pretentiously titled State of the Province Address Thursday night. Again and again. So just you wait. Heck, the finance minister was saying it for . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: Postponing the Day of Reckoning, Alberta-style
Alberta Economy, Alberta Politics, Alison Redford, armageddon, Bill Blaikie, bitumen, Budget Deficits, CCF, Doug Horner, End Times, j.s. woodsworth, NDP, oil prices, Progressive Conservatives, Stanley Knowles, State of the Province, Strait of Hormuz, Tommy Douglas, Wildrose Party, William Irvine TweetShort on specifics, Premier Alison Redford‘s much-hyped televised address may have ended up leaving more question unanswered. 1) Referring to a “bitumen bubble”, the Premier announced that the provincial government’s revenue shortfall is now projected to be six billion, up from the three billion budget deficit recently projected by Finance Minister Doug Horner. This is a result of lower than [...] They kissed us once. Will they kiss us again? Alas, in Alberta right now, there’s no way to be cert- cert- certain. Alison Redford chats with a typical Alberta voter last spring – although, Alberta politicians and their supporters may not turn out to be exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Ms. Redford, Finance Minister Doug Horner. Here in 14 words is the conundrum that faces the Progressive Conservative government of Alberta Premier Alison Redford: you can be progressive, or you can be conservative, but you can’t be both. So which is it? The problem that confronts Ms. Redford’s PCs . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: The Redford Tories’ conundrum: Progressive reason versus Conservative passion TweetThe low price of oil and natural gas and an election promise of “no new taxes, no service cuts” has put Alberta’s Tories in an unenviable political bind and set the tone for this year’s provincial budget debate. This week, Lee Richardson, Principal Secretary to Premier Alison Redford, released a trial balloon suggesting the government [...] TweetWildrose Official Opposition leader Danielle Smith re-injected herself into the latest round of news coverage about how to fund the Katz Group’s on-again, off-again arena north of Edmonton’s downtown. At a press conference this afternoon, Ms. Smith proposed that the provincial government should examine using the “KENO gambling model” to generate revenue for the proposed [...] |
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