Another United Conservative Party candidate has been sent packing for being neither “forthright” nor “forthcoming” with party Leader Jason Kenney. Leastways, that’s the UCP’s story, and they’re stickin’ to it. Randy Kerr, recently chosen as UCP candidate in the Calgary-Beddington riding and a prominent figure in the party’s rapidly metastasizing
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Alberta Politics: In cutting oil production, Rachel Notley gives a bravura performance – but will it play in Ponoka?
As expected, Premier Rachel Notley announced tonight that her government will order an oil production cut of 325,000 barrels a day, 8.7 per cent of the province’s production, to squeeze some of the air out of the bitumen price differential that has bedevilled Alberta for several years. The short-term production
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Big Oil wants a milk break … and supply management’s foes are all over the media – except when they’re not
On Tuesday, the president of Cenovus Energy Inc., one of the Big Five players in the Alberta oilsands, called for temporary production cuts across the Canadian oil sector to push the sinking price of oil back up again. It’s all about supply and demand, as the well-educated readers of this blog
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservatives would have fought harder to protect Canadian dairy farmers? Don’t believe it!
A lot of Canada’s Conservatives were wearing long faces yesterday about the impact of the freshly inked United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on this country’s dairy industry. As political sins go, this small hypocrisy is a minor one. Why not let the sitting government take the rap for a treaty with our
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Donald Trump’s claims about the Canadian trade bargaining team have, for once, a ring of truth!
Yes, Donald Trump is a liar and a braggart, but the American President’s boast yesterday morning that cowed Canadian trade negotiators have all but folded and any new trade deal they sign will be totally on U.S. terms has a ring of truth. Given his track record, it’s certainly not
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Oliver Moore reports on Greyhound’s elimination of most of its Western Canadian bus service. Emily Riddle offers a reminder that the lack of transportation puts Indigenous women and other marginalized people at risk. And Simon Enoch highlights the obvious need for Saskatchewan to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – James Galbraith reminds us of the danger extreme inequality poses to any social bonds – and the need for political action to counteract the current momentum toward further concentration of wealth: Controlling inequality—like controlling blood pressure—is good for your economic health. Economies with
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – PressProgress highlights the Canada Revenue Agency’s long-overdue estimate of the public costs of offshore tax evasion, as well as other new data on the money being withheld through corporate tax non-compliance: On Thursday, Canada’s tax collection agency published its first ever estimate of
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Episode 13: Doug Ford’s big win, Andrew Scheer’s deal with the Cheese Mafia, and more.
In this episode of the Daveberta Podcast, Dave Cournoyer and Ryan Hastman discuss Doug Ford’s win in Ontario’s election, the NDP’s mid-campaign surge, and the Green Party’s surprising growth across Canada. We also tackle Andrew Scheer’s deal with the Cheese Mafia and his purging of Maxime Bernier from the Conservative
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer boots Maxime Bernier, self-appointed chief party ideologue, from Opposition front bench
It’s hard not to feel some sympathy for federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, what with right-wing purists jumping all over him for canning Maxime Bernier from the Opposition party’s front bench. In addition to being the normally ineffectual Mr. Scheer’s chief rival for the hearts and minds of the country’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Make American Dairy Farms Great Again! Adopt supply management
PHOTOS: Dairy cows in a mass milking machine at a U.S. farm, a pretty well run one from the look of this photo from the Wikipedia. Below: Not what dairy farming looks like any more; U.S. President Donald Trump, hero to the Globe and Mail editorial board, giving Canada, or
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Where’s the beef? Alberta’s cattle industry is only getting what it ordered from Earls
PHOTOS: Where’s the beef? Not in Alberta, if this province’s beef industry can do anything about it. One thing this story has nothing to do with is small-time ranchers like the guy on the steer or independent restaurants like the one run by the mom…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Never mind the ‘Fuddites,’ Alberta needs Bill 6, although Bill 6 needs fixes
PHOTOS: NDP Labour Minister Lori Sigurdson chats with anti-Bill-6 protesters in front of the Legislature on Friday. Below: The crowd of protesters at its zenith and members of the Legislative Press Gallery interviewing a turkey, not for the first time,…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fate of Canadian Wheat Board a disturbing harbinger for Canada’s dairy, poultry and egg farmers
PHOTOS: Tractors in the streets of Ottawa on Tuesday, their drivers protesting the Harper Conservatives’ barely concealed plans to destroy the supply-management agricultural sector. (Grabbed from @amkfoote on Twitter.) Below: Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and CCPA economist Bruce Campbell. GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alberta With the farmer-owned Canadian
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, taking a look at the voter pools the NDP will be looking to win over in order to come out ahead in if this fall’s federal election turns into a two-party race. And I’ll note that while Alberta may serve as the most recent precedent, similar patterns can be
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Government by sneak: the preferred Harper Conservative response to thorny issues and hard-fought elections
PHOTOS: Poultry farmers not exactly like these, and dairy farmers as seen below, are facing sneaky attacks by the Harper Government. And speaking of the chickens coming home to roost, below them is a screen shot of former Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro. VICTORIA, B.C. Same sex marriage advocates and
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Liberals One-on-One
The moderator failed to ask the tough questions, such as “Mr. Bertschi, why on earth are you wearing that scarf?“ My mind has been on the Ontario Liberal leadership race the past few months, so I’ll admit to not having paid close attention to the federal contest. Not wanting to
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Pure milk or pure ideology? Alberta MP attacks supply management
Milking it for all that it’s worth – not how it’s done any more. Below: Edmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber. ST. ALBERT, Alberta Brent Rathgeber, Member of Parliament for Edmonton St. Albert, has launched a third “attack” on the policies of the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. But
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: Liberals mustn’t have any sacred cows, dairy or otherwise
I confess to knowing practically nothing about supply management. I know that people that support it say it’s necessary to keep Canadian farmers competitive and alive, and those that oppose it say it forces Canadians to massively overpay for milk, cheese and other products compared to people in other countries.
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Issue Management
I spy with my little eye, someone running for leadership In her Star column today, Chantal Hebert supposes that the Quebec Nation resolution might resurface as a divisive issue during the Liberal Leadership race, as it did in 2006. While I don’t think there’s any appetite to revisit that specific
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