While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Rick Bell.
Crackle! Sizzle! Roar! Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas is on fire. "A permit is not a free pass to keep people awake for 11 nights because someone powerful demands it. "Rick, you spoke up for years. You were told to call 311. You were told to wait while people with money, access and powerful friends expected city hall to look the other way.
Well, we now know how many Dani Dollars Albertans are getting. Albertans 18 and older who've filed their taxes and have a household income of $225,000 a year or less will score a tax-free $100. Just so you know, the Alberta government considers a household to be a single person or two people who are married or in a common-law...
Step right up. Read all about it. Here it comes. Dani Dollars. Yes, Dani Dollars will be rolled out Wednesday by Premier Danielle Smith and her UCP government. Of course, Dani Dollars isn't the official name of Smith's doling out the dough, just like Ralphbucks wasn't the official name when money was headed your way back in the day.
It's not even close. It's not even close to being close. We wait for them to make a move, do something, try to win the hearts and minds of the undecided, answer the actual questions on people's minds. Heaven knows the separatists have the attention of Canada now. Newshounds can tell you how every single day story-hungry editors want the...
The poll numbers sting. The numbers should sting, if you are for Alberta splitting from Canada. Article content It appears, in this early snapshot in time, the Alberta separatists are spinning their wheels.
The latest. The freshest numbers. Let's go straight to the math of the Postmedia-Leger poll on the October referendum question. The envelope please. Alberta should remain a province of Canada. 68 per cent. The government of Alberta should commence the legal process required to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada. 24 per cent.
To start the week, in this column space, you would have read how Alberta Premier Danielle Smith gave us a ballpark price tag for Alberta leaving Canada and becoming its own country. It was a ballpark number. Around $400 billion in start-up costs for an independent Alberta. $25 billion to $50 billion in yearly costs.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith drops a political bomb, a financial bomb, a bomb dropped on the separatist assumptions of way more gain than pain by Alberta leaving Canada and striking out on its own. Almost $400 billion in start-up costs to set up an independent Alberta. Roughly $80,000 for every Albertan. Somewhere between $25 billion and $50 billion in yearly...
The horror! The horror! Before the night is over, one side will paint a horrifying picture of an independent Alberta and the other side will speak of shameless fear mongering. The man was ready. He had what he believed was his ace in the hole. He was just waiting for the chance to use it. It didn’t take long.
You had to know this was coming. It didn’t take long. Not long at all, as in minutes. One big name in the Alberta independence movement is vein-popping pissed off. Jeff Rath has become to the go-to guy when newshounds want to take the temperature of the Alberta separatists. Right now, Rath’s political thermometer indicates a heat wave.
Surprise! We’ve got the Danielle Smith two-step. If your head is hurting by the time you read this column it’s not because you ate ice cream too fast. The early verdict is in on Thursday night. A lot of folks are confused. Some don’t even know how to react.
What is Premier Danielle Smith going to do? How is the Smith government going to get out of this jam? At this point you’re no doubt asking: What are you talking about? Read this column carefully. Don’t rush to a conclusion. Follow the stickhandling around the political land mines. The referendum question may not be what you think it is...
Premier Danielle Smith is confident. On the pipeline deal with Mark Carney she believes she speaks for most Albertans
A deal between Premier Smith and Prime Minister Carney. Very soon. Book your seat
Oh, goody. We now find out there WILL BE a meeting scheduled between Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney bright and early Friday morning in Ottawa. The news comes to your scribbler Wednesday afternoon.
Carney says he's meeting Danielle Smith in Ottawa this week but doesn't tell Smith
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith faces heat Tuesday from some folks who likely voted for her and the UCP in the last provincial election. Heat from those who may support Smith and like a lot of what she’s doing but think the deal she inked with Prime Minister Mark Carney to get a pipeline to the west coast is not worth...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks out on this day. Article content But the premier is not on about budgets or pipelines or the place of Alberta in Canada. Smith is talking about Don Cherry, the man also known by his nickname, Grapes. For years, for far too many years, Don Cherry has been snubbed by the establishment types in this...
Danielle Smith isn’t blinking on her immigration stand. And she is not prepared to let things slide when utter and vile crap comes of the mouths of her political opponents.
Premier Danielle Smith is no dummy. She is well aware the pipeline deal she made with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday would not be an easy sell but sell it she must. There are UCP voters and UCP members motivated enough to spend a couple of days at a political gabfest in Edmonton who have had it with Canada...
The political temperature in Ottawa appears to be hot. A pipeline that doesn’t even exist and isn’t even close to existing and politicians and insiders in Liberal Ottawa are all over the map on this one. A pipeline Alberta wants, a pipeline Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wants — some in the nation’s capital can’t stomach the thought, including people who...
'We believe the government of British Columbia has to agree,' says Prime Minister Mark Carney, of a new pipeline to the northwest B.C. coast. Pierre Poilievre was ready. The Conservative leader was ready to rumble. Article content On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in Calgary. As reported in this column this past Saturday morning, Carney and Premier Danielle...
'Keep going. Keep going. Don't give up." That's what Pierre Poilievre says Canadians are telling him. He smiles. Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader, was asked how he feels. After all, conservatives had so much hope. Finally, they could see the defeat of the Liberals.
No more playing nice. For Premier Danielle Smith, it is time. Time to light a fire under Prime Minister Mark Carney. Time to cut through his weasel words. The clock is ticking on Carney, the master of talking out of both sides of his mouth. On Tuesday, in Calgary, Smith will roll out what she calls her Alberta Next panel...
Will a pipeline be considered as one of the projects Prime Minister wants fast-tracked? 'It depends,' says Carney.
You didn’t really think it would be that easy to get rid of him. No, Trudeau lives on. The spirit of the former Liberal prime minister is alive. The phase out the oilsands prime minister, the I listen to my green guru Steven Guilbeault and can’t see that he is a walking disaster prime minister, the I screwed up so...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith plays ball with Carney unless or until he screws over Alberta
Over to you, Mr. Carney! “I haven’t witnessed independence sentiment being as high as it right now. Really, the ball is in Carney’s court,” says Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, in an interview with Postmedia. “I’m watching it. I’m taking it seriously. I think he’s watching it. I think he’s taking it seriously.
Truth be told this is not a column where the headline is shouting outrage, where Alberta against Ottawa sounds like an old-school wrestling cage match. You know the headline. DANIELLE SMITH SLAMS MARK CARNEY. Alberta premier says Prime Minister Carney is just another Justin Trudeau.
In a five-page letter, Premier Smith makes her big push to Prime Minister Carney for a west coast pipeline and dumping all Liberal anti-oil policies, in advance of possible June 2 fireworks when Carney and the premiers meet
The question. A simple question. Easy to answer if you’re not playing games. Easy to answer if your words have any meaning. Prime Minister Mark Carney will roll out his plans for the country Tuesday. King Charles III will read the script. Ottawa insiders expect it to be mostly high-minded words. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she will be listening...
'So far I'm not seeing anything to suggest there's been a true change of heart,' says Premier Danielle Smith, of Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberal government
What does Alberta Premier Danielle Smith want? What does Smith want right now? What does she want from Prime Minister Mark Carney? Article content Smith presented Carney with nine demands. She wants Carney to roll back the harmful Liberal laws and regulations attacking Alberta and Alberta’s oilpatch.
'If she doesn't come over to our side, well, there's going to be a problem,' says Mitch Sylvestre, leading the charge on Alberta independence and warning Premier Danielle Smith
Carney Liberals once again want to link Pierre Poilievre to Donald Trump, this time with dirty tricks of their own
'It's like saying you'll win an Olympic swimming medal with an anvil tied around your foot,' says Alberta Premier Smith, on how Canada will never be an energy superpower with anti-oilpatch laws
'I resile to no one in terms of my understanding of the West,' says Liberal Leader Mark Carney, leading people to rush for the closest dictionary.
The idea of Alberta leaving Canada is increasingly not being written off as raving lunacy
Well, no doubt about it. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is on the political warpath, with the federal election campaign expected to kick off Sunday. The premier already has a lot of demands for the new prime minister after the dust settles, either the Liberal Mark Carney or the Conservative Pierre Poilievre.
This is going to be a brawl. This is going to be a brutal battle. It will get ugly. There is too much at stake and too much bad blood for it to be anything but a political street fight.
'It absolutely is real, as real as the earth going around the sun,' says ThinkHQ pollster Marc Henry, of a polling trend showing a Mark Carney Liberal party could beat the Conservatives
We’re getting it. We’re finally getting it. Getting some of our hard-earned cash back, putting some of our dough back in our pockets. This Thursday, the UCP government led by Premier Danielle Smith will give Albertans the income tax cut they promised in their kickoff to the last election campaign two years back, vowing to make life a little more...
People I run into here in Alberta are thinking about it and talking about it. Some in quiet voices, others more openly. Few want to contemplate the possibility for very long. It is that bad. Their tone of voice is one of disbelief, usually followed by a prediction. If it happens, many Albertans will blow a gasket.
Poll shows Mark Carney-led Liberals are neck-and-neck with Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives. Other polls show Liberals gaining. Now Canada is really broken
'As premier, I was not involved in any wrongdoing,' says Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, responding to allegations of political interference in the health care system
We have questions. We have no answers. It is said we will hear from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Next Saturday. On her radio show. That’s Feb. 15. This column is being written Feb.7.
Canadians get 30 more days without tariffs from President Trump because people like Premier Danielle Smith and not Justin Trudeau won the day
'I think Eastern Canada has to be very, very careful what they wish for,' says Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, on using oil as a weapon in a trade war with Trump
Albertans aren’t traitors. We’re just pissed off. It confirms what people in Alberta have been saying for way too long.
Just when you think President Donald Trump is going one way, he’s going another.
'When I'm defending Alberta, I will never back down,' says Alberta Premier Danielle Smith
We know Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is not backing down. She is not blinking. Far from it.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith sure stirred up the hornet’s nest and upset the apple cart.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith draws a line in the sand, won't join Team Canada and sell out the province's oilpatch.
You want to crank up talk of Alberta splitting from Canada, folks looking at all the options beyond staying put and playing the patsy.
You’ve got to admit, it is bigger news than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau going down to Florida.
Conservative party Leader Pierre Poilievre is not a man known to pull his punches. So when it comes to the latest obscenity from the theatre of the absurd also known as the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, why would he hold back? Especially now, when the country needs strong leadership and is left with Trudeau instead. On Friday...
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau facing off for all the world to see. Oh, the chattering classes this side of the border are wringing their hands over Trump being a big bad meanie with our Justin.
Just say it ain’t so, prime minister. Just say it ain’t so. They say politics makes strange bedfellows. Still, the very thought of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Bloc Quebecois head honcho Yves-Francois Blanchet sleeping together politically makes a lot of stomachs turn in Alberta and hopefully causes all kinds of indigestion throughout much of Canada.