Jan 20 2023 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Preston Manning’s name has been in the wind for days as the front-runner to chair Premier Danielle Smith’s promised COVID-19 response panel. It’s official now. Manning is in and it’s a good gig — he’ll be paid $253,000 for his toils. This came out in a government news release Thursday afternoon. There was no news […]
Jan 16 2023 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — The federal plan to “transition” jobs and regional economies in the fight against climate change is more vast and all-embracing than suspected by even the most suspicious sovereignty fan in Premier Danielle Smith’s office. “When I saw the memo, I felt a pit in my stomach,” Smith said Monday morning. “It’s worse than I feared.” […]
Jan 8 2023 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is either clueless about what’s going in Alberta, or cares nothing for the truth. That’s the unpleasant choice in his inflammatory remarks about provincial action on climate change. “One of the challenges is there is a political class in Alberta that has decided that anything to do with climate change is […]
Dec 29 2022 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — At the start of 2022, hardly a soul in this province imagined Danielle Smith would be premier at the end of 2022. Did she think so? “Certainly not,” Smith said in a year-end interview. “I thought I was going to be on radio for another 10 years, and the former premier would be a three-term […]
Dec 5 2022 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Alberta is engulfed in a heart-wrenching crisis of children’s health that even makes official cruelty unavoidable. Mortally ill children are being moved from the hospice where they were lovingly cared for in their dying, into the Alberta Children’s Hospital itself, along with their care teams. Respite care, which helps families whose kids have severe disabilities, […]
Dec 2 2022 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Before you start a war, best remember that the other side has an army, too. Premier Danielle Smith might also ask herself — are my foot soldiers willing to fight? The people with the most to lose from the sovereignty act are the very ones Smith would force to comply with her anti-Ottawa actions — […]
Nov 30 2022 — Don Braid — National Post — There it is in writing, finally, the promised bill that lifted Danielle Smith to the premier’s office, the one that empowers Alberta to defy federal laws. This is the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act. It makes the Saskatchewan First Act, the prairie comparable, look tame and tepid. The bill was contentious before it […]
Nov 29 2022 — Don Braid — National Post — Smith has to convince Albertans and Canadians that the province can be much tougher on Ottawa without threatening the national fabric or risk losing investment. On Tuesday, after months of bluster and controversy, Albertans and Canadians will finally get to see what Premier Danielle Smith’s Sovereignty Act actually says and does. The full title is […]
Nov 10 2022 — Don Braid — National Post — Danielle Dollars are on the way — cash for most households in amounts yet untold. Inflation is a huge problem for many Albertans. For a new premier whose government is running a financial surplus and a political deficit, it’s also an opportunity. “We can certainly balance the province’s books as well as help Albertans cope […]
Nov 8 2022 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Premier Danielle Smith has to win the byelection in Brooks-Medicine Hat on Tuesday or risk losing the UCP leadership and premiership. Yes, it’s that big a deal. Nobody should bet even a loonie on her losing, of course, but until the votes are counted you never quite know what the voters are up to. On […]
Nov 2 2022 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Premier Danielle Smith calls “absolutely false” any suggestion that she was involved in the plot to entrap ex-Mayor Naheed Nenshi with a promise of Russian money. “The story’s bizarre,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “I’ve read about some of the names. None of those people worked in my campaign. I have no idea what […]
Nov 1 2022 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — A Canadaland article alleges that an entrapment plan took shape around 2018 in an attempt to foment a scandal that would lead to the removal of the mayor. Former mayor Naheed Nenshi wants Calgary police and the RCMP to investigate an alleged attempt by conservative political operatives to lure him into accepting illegal Russian money. […]
Oct 29 2022 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Premier Danielle Smith is ready to dole out pre-election prizes to the city, but her refusal to call a byelection in Calgary-Elbow leaves a sour taste of machiavellian manoeuvring. Smith couldn’t run in Elbow for a very good reason. She’d lose. The voting record over several elections shows the riding likes conservatives well enough, as […]
Oct 7 2022 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — “I’m back,” declared Danielle Smith, and she certainly is, after climbing out of one of the deepest pits an Alberta politician has ever dug for herself. Smith was in political exile for years after she crossed the aisle with most of her Wildrose caucus to join Premier Jim Prentice and the Progressive Conservatives in 2014. […]
Oct 4 2022 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Welcome, Premier Danielle Smith. The new provincial leader introduced herself to reporters in a long Zoom session Monday, speaking not just to her party but to her caucus and the public beyond. Of course, she hasn’t won yet. The UCP leadership votes will be counted Thursday. But Smith has so convinced the province of her […]