Aug 8 2019 — Chris Varcoe — Calgary Herald — Many of Canada’s largest petroleum producers are pumping out higher second-quarter profits and improved cash flow levels, yet more money isn’t coursing through the veins of the entire oilpatch. Canada’s oilfield service firms witnessed a significant drop in activity during the first six months of 2019, and are tempering expectations for the back half of […]
Jul 19 2019 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — In another world, at another time, a government would be in deep trouble over current voting and financing scandals. The UCP leadership vote, allegedly involving bogus email addresses, is being investigated by the RCMP, with a special prosecutor from Ontario appointed. The Mounties have interviewed five UCP cabinet ministers. One leadership candidate, Jeff Callaway, has […]
Jul 17 2019 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Alberta’s politics are carved in stone right now. It seems that the UCP dynasty, like the Sphinx, won’t begin to erode for a couple of millennia. That’s the prevailing thought, especially among conservatives. They earnestly believe that with a stark right-left choice the NDP will now start to fade and lose most of its 25 […]
Jul 17 2019 — Licia Corbella — Calgary Herald — A while back I spent a day hanging out in the chuckwagon barns at the Calgary Stampede. It was an eye-opening experience. As the driver and crew of each team started harnessing each of their four horses that would pull their chuckwagon and prepared to saddle up their two outrider horses, a racket ensued — […]
Jul 12 2019 — Calgary Herald — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested during an Alberta appearance Friday that politics are getting in the way of infrastructure needs for conservative premiers across the country. During a stop at Edmonton’s Trans Mountain pipeline terminal, Trudeau commended the collaboration of Calgary and Edmonton mayors Naheed Nenshi and Don Iveson with his federal government on major […]
Jul 4 2019 — Licia Corbella — Calgary Herald — Why did Prime Minister Justin Trudeau order his revenue minister to stop the Canada Revenue Agency from auditing politically active charities? Was it to protect his best friend and former principal secretary, Gerald Butts? Those are just two of the many questions asked by Vivian Krause during a sold out Calgary Chamber of Commerce luncheon […]
Jun 19 2019 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Tuesday’s Trans Mountain pipeline approval was no whoop-de-do moment. There won’t be a Raptors-style victory parade in downtown Calgary. As Premier Jason Kenney said, the real test is construction — not the courtroom stop-and-start kind, but continuous physical progress of the pipe to Burnaby. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said several times that construction will start […]
Jun 12 2019 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, bent on re-election, is already playing a divisive, dangerous game with the country he claims to lead. On Tuesday, six premiers including Jason Kenney sent him a letter warning that Bill C-69 in its original form, as well as Bill C-48, will damage the economy from coast to coast. On Bill […]
May 25 2019 — Bill Kaufmann — Calgary Herald — Weeks after Jason Kenney used Calgary’s skyline as a backdrop during his election campaign to highlight the city’s empty office space, federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer will use the same view to offer hope in filling them. On Saturday morning, Scheer will meet with reporters on Scotsman Hill overlooking the city’s downtown to detail his […]
May 15 2019 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Take a wary look at British Columbia; a shaky NDP government, supported by three Greens, fiercely hostile to the Trans Mountain pipeline. Now, imagine the same dynamic in Ottawa after the fall federal election. Try not to pass out. It’s by no means unthinkable that the Liberals will be reduced to a minority. To stay […]
May 2 2019 — Calgary Herald — Premier Jason Kenney and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened Thursday for their first face-to-face meeting since the Alberta election, saying they are looking for points of agreement. The meeting comes on the heels of an election that featured the new premier deploying heated rhetoric against Ottawa, and particularly Trudeau, almost daily. Kenney, who also made […]
Apr 18 2019 — Licia Corbella — Calgary Herald — Tuesday’s election win that gave Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party a majority government holds many lessons for those who engage in the politics of fear and smear. Not only does it not always work, it can backfire big time. The Alberta NDP ran a disgraceful, cynical campaign of attempted character assassination against United Conservative Party […]
Apr 17 2019 — Licia Corbella — Calgary Herald — The metaphor of a marathon doesn’t begin to describe the journey Jason Kenney embarked upon to become Alberta’s 18th premier with a resounding majority government, making the Alberta NDP the only one-term government in the province’s 114-year history. Even an Ironman metaphor doesn’t adequately symbolize the onerous odyssey that Kenney has undertaken to ensure Premier […]
Apr 17 2019 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — They arrived on a wind of change in 2015, only to be blown out of office four years later by an even more powerful gale. Rachel Notley’s New Democrats, with all their dreams and hopes and agonies, succumbed exactly as UCP Leader Jason Kenney said they would, overwhelmed by a united conservative bloc that is […]
Apr 15 2019 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — This election campaign comes to no gentle end. Rather, it slams into the finish line, brakes screeching, as hot and emotional as ever. On Sunday, Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel charged that phony robocalls were going out with a voice that sounds like his, saying that he wants people to vote for UCP Leader Jason […]