To hear Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner tell it Monday, you’d almost think there’s been no inflation in Alberta since the pandemic.  Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Guy Smith in a typical pose (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Well, Mr. Horner is a scion of Alberta’s enduring and (mostly) Conservative Horner political clan who says he “had the opportunity to buy my grandfather’s ranch,” so perhaps he didn’t notice it quite the way the rest of us have.  It’s also true that the United Conservative Party has had an active policy of wage suppression, and not just in the ..read more

It must seem unfair to the United Conservative Party base that flat-earth researchers consistently get the short end of the stick when it comes to federal research funds while the spherical-earth crowd so obviously favoured by Ottawa gets all the dough!  CBC Power & Politics host David Cochrane (Photo: BroadcastDialogue.com). As Premier Danielle Smith told CBC Power & Politics host David Cochrane last week, “I have been given enough indication that the federal government uses its power through researchers to only fund certain types of opinion, certain types of researchers, and I ..read more

Alberta’s hill to die on? Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault (Photo: Government of Canada). According to Premier Danielle Smith it’s our God-given right to gas-generated electricity, diesel-powered buses, and gas-heated homes. You want our forced-air gas furnaces, our diesel buses, Guilbeault? Come and take ’em! This is Wild Rose Country and no eastern bastard environment minister is gonna stuff a heat-pump down our provincial basement staircase!  … Does this sound stupid to you, dear readers? It sure sounds stupid to me. But that appeared to be the key message of Premier Smi ..read more

Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government tabled legislation yesterday to establish its previously announced Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence, which appears to be the drug-treatment equivalent of the UCP’s notorious Alberta Energy War Room.  Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence CEO designate Kym Kaufmann (Photo: Kym Kaufmann/Eden Health Services). According to the press release published by the province yesterday afternoon, Bill 17, the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence Act, 2024, will establish CORE as a Crown corporation “to inform best practices in mental health and ..read more

You might be tempted to think Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was on the right track with her obvious discomfort at the thought of her predecessor’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act being used to prosecute the so-called anti-carbon-tax protesters impeding traffic alomg the Trans-Canada Highway west of Calgary. A few of the protesters at the Cochrane truck stop (Photo: Twitter). But we all know Ms. Smith would advocate using the problematic legislation in the blink of an eye if it were climate change activists or First Nations rights protesters who were slowing traffic on a highway on which ..read more

Let’s imagine a scenario that even a year ago would have seemed all but impossible but is now within the realm of possibility.  Participants in a pre-pandemic pro-Wexit demonstration at the Alberta Legislature in December 2020 (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). First, let’s assume that the NDP Government of British Columbia is re-elected in the provincial general election that is scheduled to take place on Oct. 19 this year.  Recent polling suggests that Premier David Eby’s New Democrats will be re-elected with a comfortable majority. This is not a sure thing, of course. The B.C. NDP has ..read more

Does anyone remember Premier Danielle Smith’s handpicked administrator of Alberta Health Services confidently predicting that wait times for surgeries in this province were about to fall and fall dramatically?  NDP Opposition Health Critic Luanne Metz (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Reduced surgical wait times would be the biggest single mark of success for the health care system under the United Conservative Party, Dr. John Cowell said in February 2023 when he gave his interim report as Alberta Health Services’ interim administrator.  “It is my hope, and I actually believe, that we w ..read more

The United Conservative Party Government wants the restructured Alberta Heath Services (AHS) to be known as Alberta Health & Hospitality Services (AHHS), AlbertaPolitics.ca has learned.  An architect’s rendering of the planned Ralph Klein Centre of Excellence in Alternative Medicine to be located in Red Deer on the site of the city’s former hospital. (Image: Cundall Engineering, U.K.*). In addition, the province is said to be looking at a strategic partnership with a U.S. motel chain to open facilities that can be used to provide continuing-care services in communities throughout Alb ..read more

Happy Easter, everyone! Canadian Navy cooks prepare deviled eggs – make of that what you will – for Easter (Photo: Twitter/Veterans Affairs Canada). Given the nature of the occasion – the most solemn in the liturgical calendar – it’s not really a season associated with rip-roaring fun and overindulgence like some other Christian feast days, most notably Christmas.  Let’s face it, folks, spin it any way you want, but state-sanctioned torture and murder of political and religious dissidents is never going to come across as a really cheerful topic.  What’s more, Easter moves around, so ..read more

Former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi may have started his campaign to lead Alberta’s NDP with harsh words about Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party, but he adopted a softer tone last night for his first campaign meeting with Edmonton New Democrats.  Mr. Nenshi showed up for the supper-hour event looking like he’d already had a long day (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Mr. Nenshi repeated his signature shot at the United Conservative Party from his March 11 leadership campaign launch – “this government is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, they’re not only incompetent, they’re da ..read more