Have Albertans grown so inured to Conservative “bozo eruptions” they no longer have much impact? To put that another way, have we grown so accustomed to the Lake of Fire that we imagine we can bathe in it comfortably without putting on an asbestos swimsuit? That’s likely at least part
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Alberta Politics: Religious schools defy David Eggen; John Carpay hangs in; and Jason Kenney isn’t the Decider after all!
NDP Education Minister David Eggen’s warning yesterday he could defund 28 religious private schools if they won’t obey the law and implement diversity policies and UCP Leader Jason Kenney’s refusal to expel a high-profile social conservative party member who compared pride flags with Nazi swastikas seem like separate stories. They
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
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Considering Carpay’s Folly: Why can’t Alberta Conservatives stay away from the Lake of Fire?
Why can’t Alberta conservatives learn to stay away from the Lake of Fire? This is a question for the ages. Latest to bathe in the scalding waves of the fiery lake is social conservative litigator and Jason Kenney confidante John Carpay. Mr. Carpay was a principal player in the unsuccessful
Continue readingAlberta Politics: How far is the United Conservative Party prepared to go to be tolerant of intolerance? Quite far, apparently
MLA Richard Gotfried defeated candidate Cindy Ross last night for the United Conservative Party nomination in the Calgary-Fish Creek Riding. Mr. Gotfried, narrowly elected as a Progressive Conservative candidate in a tight three-way race in the May 2015 Alberta election, has detractors within the UCP. Still, his victory has to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Grande Prairie Hospital saga: PC political motives, terrible planning, and past ministerial meddling haunt project
The battle between Alberta government officials and a Calgary construction company over long delays building a new hospital in Grande Prairie that boiled over this week is more than a mere political he-said/she-said story. There’s a backstory that started the late days of Alberta’s 44-year Tory Dynasty – partly acknowledged
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Didn’t care or didn’t know? UCP MLAs endorse author of offensive social media posts for nomination
Well, that certainly didn’t take long! Mere hours after AlbertaPolitics.ca published its semi-satirical, semi-serious “Jimmy the Geek” Vegas odds piece about the potential for bozo eruptions among the current members of the United Conservative Party Legislative Caucus than, well, some of the bozos erupted. Yesterday’s AlbertaPolitics.ca post assigned Rick Strankman,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: No Progressives Allowed! No entry without secret decoder! UCP serves up private Pride pancakes only today
While thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, were taking part in Pride events throughout Edmonton today, Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party held a private, conservatives-only “Pride Breakfast” a few blocks from the route of the parade along fashionable Whyte Avenue on the city’s south side. This reflects the unique problem Mr.
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Mr Kenney Runs Away
The last two weeks have been particularly tiring for Mr Kenney, the leader of the UCP, he spent most of it running away. Mr Kenney hightailed it out of the Legislature, not once but six times, to avoid debating Bill 9 which would create protective bubble zones around abortion clinics
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Admirably true to their Iron Age code, UCP delegates defy their leaders and the zeitgeist
Modern Conservatives indeed! The Wildrose Party base – by which I mean the United Conservative Party base, they are the same people – is a wild horse that cannot be ridden safely or broken easily for reasons of mere political expedience. This is partly because it contains many people of
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: UCP draws huge crowds, huge controversy to its first policy convention
(Photo credit: @Alberta_UCP on Twitter) With more than 2,500 party members in attendance, this weekend’s United Conservative Party founding convention was one of the biggest political events in Alberta’s recent memory. It was a big show of force for the official opposition party, which continues to dominate in the polls
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As the year runs out, here are AlbertaPolitics.ca’s Top Ten developing Alberta political news stories of 2017
PHOTOS: As time runs out on 2017, here are AlbertaPolitics.ca’s Top Ten developing new stories for the year. Below: Opposition UCP Leader Jason Kenney, NDP Premier Rachel Notley, serial conservative screw-up Derek Fildebrandt and Labour Minister Christina Gray. It’s easy to pick list of news stories that caused a big
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Abandon hope, all UCP who enter here? Ted Byfield may have opened the gates to Lake of Fire 2.0
PHOTOS: Social conservative publisher and ideologue Ted Byfield (Photo: Screenshot of Youtube Video). Below: United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney, NDP Education Minister David Eggen, and Calgary-West UCP MLA Mike Ellis (Photo: Screenshot of CBC broadcast). It’s fair to suggest Ted Byfield always dreamed of being able to direct Alberta’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: No redemption for the Wildrose, outed in a Lake of Fire five years ago today, and it’s Eastertime too
PHOTOS: Rev. Allan Hunsperger, whose beliefs about the eternal fate of people who live a gay lifestyle contributed mightily to the downfall of the Wildrose Party. (Wildrose Party photo, circa 2012.) Below: Then Wildrose leader Danielle Smith; Jason Kenney, leader of the Progressive Conservatives today; and former PC premier Alison
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Bozo-Eruption Alert: Wildrose campus club email declares “Feminism is Cancer”
“Feminism is Cancer” was the subject line of an email sent out by the Wildrose Party campus club at the University of Calgary promoting the showing of the film “Red Pill.” The Wildrose club planned to screen the film, which online reviews describe as exploring Men’s Rights issues, on the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: That Totally Weird Anti-Carbon Tax Rally
While I am in the mood to dispense political advice, my next pro tip goes out to Wildrose leader Brian Jean, who was a featured speaker at Ezra Levant’s totally weird anti-carbon tax rally. Mr. Jean and Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA… Continue Reading →
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: For Wildrose, “Mr. Wynne” Facebook comment was last straw for Derek Fildebrandt
A statement released late on Friday night announced that Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean had suspended Strathmore-Brooks MLA Derek Fildebrandt from the Official Opposition Caucus. As AlbertaPolitics.ca author David Climenhaga wrote on Friday night:
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Opposition parties gear up for a spring by-election in Calgary-Greenway
Greens first to name a candidate in Calgary-Greenway by-election Alberta’s opposition parties are preparing for a spring by-election in Calgary-Greenway. The east Calgary constituency was represented by Progressive Conservative MLA Manmeet Bhullar …
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Are the wheels falling off the Wildrose bus?
TweetA short few months ago, it almost felt inevitable that the Wildrose Party would sweep into a majority government at the next election. They were up in the polls and the long-time governing Progressive Conservatives looked corrupt, broken and battered. But over the past few weeks, it appears the Official Opposition
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Ric McIver tosses the PC Party’s ‘Lake of Fire’ trump card
TweetThe day after it was revealed that Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Ric McIver attended and endorsed the March for Jesus, a group which has posted hateful homophobic rants on its website, Mr. McIver was nowhere to be found. As a proud supporter of the March for Jesus and its organizers at the extreme religious Calgary
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