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
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Alberta Politics: Get used to it, Alberta, the world is learning how to talk about climate change
Remember the anger in Alberta in 2016 when some observers connected the dots between the fire that spring in Fort McMurray and the phenomenon known as global warming? Such statements were denounced as outrageous. Also insensitive — and, without doubt, a few of the comments on social media were. But
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The best solution to gun violence actually possible in Canada in 2019 is an outright ban on handguns
Scream as they might about the idea of a ban on handgun ownership by Canadians, it is interesting to note that the tactics used by advocates of wide-open ownership of firearms against the so-called long-gun registry combined with the legislative strategy pursued by their allies in the Conservative federal government
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Derek Fildebrandt and that rule of law thing: it’s for pipeline protesters, not law-abiding gun owners …
It shouldn’t surprise us, I suppose, that Derek Fildebrandt has publicly gone all Charlton Heston on us. I speak, of course, of the recently rebranded Freedom Conservative Party leader’s Hestonesque Twitter outburst yesterday in response to talk the federal Liberal government might actually make an election issue out of banning
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP rural crime proposal sure sounds like a call to bring deadly U.S.-style ‘stand-your-ground’ laws to Canada
I’m sure the United Conservative Party will say I’m wrong, so can somebody please explain to me how the UCP’s rural crime “task force” proposal to let rural property owners defend themselves and their property with firearms is not the same as the stand-your-ground” laws in the United States that
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘NRA Strategy’ to block connection of climate change dots won’t work when the climate disaster’s in B.C.
As fear rises in British Columbia this week along with the province’s record floodwaters, the likelihood B.C. voters will connect the dots between man-made climate change and “natural” catastrophes is rising too. Politically speaking, this is not exactly good news for the determined advocates in Alberta and Ottawa of aggressive
Continue readingMontreal Simon: President Chicken and the Gun Control Kids
He talked up a storm after the Stoneman Douglas high school massacre. He talked about raising the age you can buy certain weapons. He said he wasn't afraid of the NRA.But sadly Donald Trump WAS afraid of the NRA, and he folded like a cheap suit. On Sunday night, Trump unveiled
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Day the NRA Killer Crazies Struck Back
At the CNN town hall the other night, Emma Gonzalez and other Parkland Massacre survivors were able to put the NRA's representative Dana Loesch on the spot.Or tame the beast into submission.But yesterday the NRA struck back with it's hideous leader Wayne LaPierre roaring like a maniac. The head of the National
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump and the Parkland Massacre
It was just a horrible coincidence, albeit a bloody one.But only hours after I ran this post with the picture of Donald Trump brandishing an AR 15 rifle. The same weapon was used to slaughter a large number of high school students in Florida. A heavily armed young man barged into his
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The NRA Warns the Media: Stop Making Fun of Trump Or Else
Donald Trump's spy chiefs are telling him the Russians are already meddling in the midterm elections. Robert Mueller and his FBI posse could come down on him at any moment.His White House is being accused of covering up cases of domestic abuse even as his lawyer is now claiming he used his
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Save the USA Mock the NRA
It's now been more than a week since the massacre in Las Vegas, and as you can imagine the NRA and their friends in Congress are feeling slightly beleaguered. And have been keeping a very low profile.It's just not that easy to explain how a guy with 42 guns could kill
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This is not just what terrorism looks like; it’s what a failed state looks like
PHOTOS: Is Old Glory, as the American flag was once known, now the banner of a failed state? Below: Donald Trump, president of the United States, divider, deceiver and denier in chief, incompetent and seemingly powerless to change anything (Photo: Flickr, Gage Skidmore.) “AT LEAST 58 DEAD AND 500 HURT
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump’s Merry Gun Christmas
It's going to a bleak holiday season for millions of Americans who still can't quite believe that Donald Trump is their president.Just like we Canadians can't believe that's really Santa.But of course Trump supporters will be celebrating, and so will the National Rifle Association.Because they're hoping that he will be bringing
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Appalling gun lobby press release begs Canadians not to blame the gun used in massacre
PHOTOS: Retired Quebec Liberal Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette (Alchetron.com), whose Senate bill would make a sensible model for government gun-control legislation. Below: Conservative British Columbia MP Bob Zimmer, an advocate of lifting all Canadi…
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The NFA is right about one thing: it’s time to talk about guns and mental health
The National Firearms Association’s logo and slogan. What do you think their message is? Below: NFL President Sheldon Clare and the organization’s Executive VP, Shawn Bevins. All photos grabbed from the NFA’s public Facebook page. Enough time has passed since the shocking murders of three Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Dumber than a bag of Anders: Have gun-slingin’ Cowtown MP’s pistol-packin’ pals shot their patron in both feet?
The offending photo of MP Rob Anders and would-be MP Melissa Mathieson, which first turned up on a National Firearms Association Facebook page, then a political blog, then the mainstream media and has now entered the annals of idiocy. Below: the offending target; an example of a target Mr. Anders
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Terror of terrorism and the Second Amendment: Whatever became of the indomitable American spirit?
The indomitable American spirit personified above. Whatever became of it? Below: Bogie as Philip Marlowe, with gun; the leader of another English-speaking country refusing to knuckle under to the Luftwaffe, also with gun. We have learned, courtesy the news media, that membership in the National Rifle Association has surged past
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Freedom from gun terror: why understanding American history can help keep Canadians sane
An American militia in 1773 … before they were well regulated and illustrating why they needed to be. Most militia units, said Gen. George Washington, were “totally unacquainted with every kind of military skill.” Below: President Washington; President Thomas Jefferson. One of the effects of the horrific tragedy at Sandy
Continue readingRedBedHead: Is Gun Control Debate Missing The Point?
The brutal and tragic killing of 12 people in a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado has raised the thorny issue of gun control in an election year. Not surprisingly both Obama and Romney, fearful of being targeted the politically powerful National Rifle Association have dodged the issue and stated that
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