“Unaffordable blackout regulations”? Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). It wasn’t exactly a surprise that Alberta’s United Conservative Party started September by issuing a wildly misleading statement calling the federal Government’s proposed 2035 net-zero electricity generation regulations “unaffordable blackout regulations.” This kind of nonsense is the UCP’s schtick, after
Continue readingTag: John Carpay
Alberta Politics: Meanwhile, across the continent in Maine, citizens are fighting to create a publicly owned, not-for-profit state electrical utility
In case you missed it, Enmax Energy Corp., the public utility owned by the City of Calgary, has poured millions of dollars into a campaign to persuade voters in the U.S. state of Maine not to vote to create a publicly owned utility to take over generation and distribution of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP’s ‘Alberta is Calling signing bonus’ is mostly fluff, little substance, and likely to stir resentment
The United Conservative Party’s big “economic diversification” announcement yesterday, delivered by Premier Danielle Smith in what looked like a tire-repair shop, sounded like an uninspiring revival of former premier Jason Kenney’s “Alberta is Calling” subway advertising campaign in Toronto last fall. Jason Kenney during his lame “Alberta is Calling” News
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Social-conservative activist John Carpay reported by legal advocacy group he heads to have been charged with obstruction of justice
Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms President John Carpay has been charged with obstruction of justice by Winnipeg Police and was arrested after turning himself in to Calgary Police Friday, the social conservative legal advocacy organization said in a statement yesterday. A scene snapped by an anonymous shutterbug of Jason Kenney’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The silence of Premier Jason Kenney, out of sight since Aug. 9, keeps Alberta’s rumour mill churning
Now and again, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un or some other foreign dictator disappears for a spell and international media spins up a whirlwind of wild speculation. Academic experts think the leader’s dead, or maybe just in “a vegetative state.” Experts theorize he’s hiding out from a coup attempt, or
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Annals of Justice: Manitoba Justice Minister asks the province’s Law Society to investigate all 10 ‘Justice Centre’ lawyers
Responding to the revelation last week that the founder and president of the so-called Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms hired a private eye to follow the chief justice of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, supposedly to see if he broke any COVID-19 restrictions, the province’s Justice Minister has called
Continue readingAlberta Politics: In hot water for hiring private eye to shadow judge, social conservative litigator John Carpay exits, stage right
“Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me …”* Cock-a-doodle do! Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal (Photo: Manitoba Courts). As a matter of fact, that was almost exactly how long it took for the board of directors of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What possessed a prominent social conservative lawyer to hire a private investigator to follow a judge around?
What were John Carpay and the so-called Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms he heads trying to achieve when they hired a private detective to snoop on the chief justice of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench? The JCCF founder and president admitted yesterday it was his organization that hired the
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: What Albertans Can Learn From the Attack on the Capitol
Federal Judge Damon Keith said democracy dies in the dark, but as we’ve learned over the last four years, it can also die in broad daylight if it is abused by power-mad leaders like Donald Trump and, it should be noted, equally determined leaders like Jason Kenney. Trump tried to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Political New Year’s fireworks go off as Alberta learns Tracy Allard, minister responsible for vaccine rollout, is just back from Hawaiian vacation
Happy New Year, Alberta! And welcome to the first United Conservative Party Government scandal of 2021: Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard has been caught vacationing in Hawaii, mid-pandemic. Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf shows a copy of today’s edition of his local newspaper in a video posted to Facebook this morning
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Calgary judge makes short work of bid for injunction to block COVID-19 restrictions
A Calgary superior court judge yesterday made short work of the bid by the so-called Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms to get an emergency injunction blocking public health restrictions on activities likely to exacerbate the spread of COVID-19 during the holiday season. In a hearing that could be watched online,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: New Zealand eyes reopening borders a crack while Calgary crowd protests ‘draconian’ COVID-19 restrictions
After being declared COVID-19 free last June, New Zealand is ever-so-cautiously moving toward reopening its watery borders to some international travel. With Australia, that is. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (Photo: NewZild, Creative Commons). Australia hasn’t done quite as well countering the coronavirus as New Zealand has, but it’s
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: GSAs in Alberta (Even Doug Ford Does It Better)
It started when the Kenney government introduced Bill 8, the Education Amendment Act which they said would provide “the strongest statutory protections” for gay-straight alliances (GSAs) in the country. It ended with a news release issued by Education Minister LaGrange late Friday afternoon on “the protections for students under the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Were Mark Smith’s comments on gay love a Lake of Fire moment for the UCP, or just another insignificant bozo eruption?
With the revelation United Conservative Party candidate Mark Smith holds the offensive view gay love can never be real love, and equates LGBTQ people with pedophiles, it appeared that Alberta’s United Conservative Party was finally having its own genuine Lake of Fire moment. But was it? It certainly looked like
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP leader’s tweet fumbles response to Islamophobic group’s harassment of worshipers at Edmonton mosque
Perhaps United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney needs to engage someone new to compose his tweets for him. Mr. Kenney is a bright guy, so I’m assuming for reasons that will soon become apparent he doesn’t come up with his own contributions to Twitter, the antisocial medium. Last fall, when
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why is the UCP keeping the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties on life support?
Inquiring minds want to know: Why is Opposition Leader Jason Kenney keeping the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose Parties around? Media generally refer to Mr. Kenney as the United Conservative Party leader. But in reality, he’s the leader of the United Conservative Party, the Progressive Conservative Party and the Wildrose Party,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Criticism of John Carpay, who compared pride flags to swastikas, called the work of a ‘left wing mob’
According to an increasingly influential segment of the United Conservative Party’s social conservative base, Albertans who have taken to social media to assail an ally of party leader Jason Kenney for the bigotry evident in his comparison of the pride flag to the Nazi swastika are nothing more than “the
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 23: Special guest Kristin Raworth
Kristin Raworth joined Dave and Ryan on the podcast this week as we discussed women in politics and how Alberta’s political parties are addressing harassment and sexual violence. We also delved into the latest political news about Alberta’s new municipal election finance legislation, Robyn Luff and the plight of disgruntled backbenchers, the fallout from John Carpay’s most-recent
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Why Carpay’s Comment About the Rainbow Flag Matters
“History can familiarize, and it can warn.” – Timothy Snyder On Thursday Mr and Ms Soapbox attended Rachel Notley’s Octoberfest in November event. In her speech, Premier Notley mentioned that Jason Kenney, the leader of the UCP, is still supporting John Carpay, who in a speech at a conference organized
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Lake of Fire Update: Stuff is still hitting the fan, and it may not be lava!
Well a certain kind of stuff has certainly hit the fan since it was reported here and elsewhere that John Carpay, the well-known social conservative warrior, had dipped his toe into Alberta’s always-dangerous Lake of Fire. Since the story broke over the long weekend, Mr. Carpay and his old comrade
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