Tag Archives: Alison Redford

Roundup: Farewell, Peter Lougheed

Posted on by

Former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed passed away last night at age 84, in the hospital that bears his name. Lougheed started the reign of the Progressive Conservatives in the province, which has kept on for more than 40 years. He was one of the premiers at the centre of the patriation of the constitution, and fought for provincial rights. Here are some statements from Stephen Harper, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, and his ultimate political successor, premier Alison Redford.

Looking ahead to the return of Parliament next week, there will be another budget bill this autumn that promises to be pretty contentious as well.

Here is a good summary of the whole issue between the House of Commons and the Auditor General on that Access to Information issue.

Continue reading →

Roundup: The “fair share” debate

Posted on by

It was the first day of the Council of the Federation meeting yesterday, and it was largely devoted to First Nations issues, and how they want to be included in the “fair share” debate around natural resource development, since much of the development is on their territory, as will pipelines cross it, and they are soon to be an emerging labour force in this country. Meanwhile, with regards to the ongoing Northern Gateway debate, Adam Goldenberg lays out the ultimatum game for the two premiers, while Andrew Coyne calls it out as extortion.

Here’s a look at what some of Alison Redford’s ‘national energy strategy’ entails, and it looks to mostly be about oil pipelines, as opposed to a more diversified energy economy across the country.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Redford vs Clark

Posted on by

The brewing battle between premiers Christy Clark and Alison Redford went up a notch yesterday as Clark fired back at Redford’s suggestion that her demands for a portion of the royalties meant rewriting Confederation. Clark, not unsurprisingly, called Reford’s comments “silly” and unreasonable to suggested that she was trying to destroy Confederation. Clark’s point is that BC is taking a disproportionate share of the risk with regards to the length of the pipeline and the marine consequences, but isn’t guaranteed an adequate proportion of the revenues. She also steadfastly says that she is neither supporting nor objecting to the pipeline at this point considering that the environmental review process remains incomplete. On a side note, here’s a look at how the upcoming elections in BC and Quebec may play out at the Council of the Federation Meeting that starts today.

The head of Peter Penashue’s campaign says he’s sorry for exceeding the limits and for his lax bookkeeping. Well, so long as he’s sorry, that makes everything better, right? (Todd Russell, the former MP, who lost by a mere 79 votes, doesn’t plan to challenge the results given the recommendations, for the record). Meanwhile, Elections Canada was not interested in offering Dean Del Mastro “immunity” in exchange for more information about the funding irregularities.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Prepping the First Ministers’ meeting

Posted on by

In the lead up to Wednesday’s Council of the Federation meeting in Halifax, the premier of Nova Scotia discusses how he finds the federal government’s aloofness to be “troubling.” Meanwhile, environmentalists are hoping to engage the premiers at said meeting, given that the proposed national energy strategy will be one of the key topics discussed. A new Senate report will add fuel to the fire on the need for such a strategy.

In a not unrelated matter, it seems that BC Premier Christy Clark is starting to talk tougher on the Northern Gateway Pipeline, and sent out two of her ministers to outline her concerns. It seems like this is reverberating enough that Joe Oliver is starting to moderate his own tone a little. Alberta Premier Alison Redford, however, is none too happy with the objections.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Not exactly ‘off-the-shelf’

Posted on by

So those army trucks that got cancelled at the last minute? It seems their costs escalated when DND kept adding in new capabilities to the “off-the-shelf” models, and the price tag went up. Just like with those Chinook helicopters, if you recall. But no, our procurement system isn’t broken.

Shawn Atleo has been re-elected as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He won on the third ballot, but the fact that nearly a third of the chiefs voted against him, he has some work ahead.

Aww, Julian Fantino thinks it’s “unfair” that the Toronto Star dares to go to Afghanistan and dares to print that our aid efforts haven’t lived up to expectations, because apparently that doesn’t fit his party’s narrative.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Etobicoke Centre appeal today

Posted on by

Are you ready? The Supreme Court hears the Etobicoke Centre appeal today. This is going to be one to watch, considering how much attention is being focused on the way Elections Canada runs elections, and their training and operations are as much under the microscope here as any particular voter impropriety.

There is talk that the new seat redistribution in BC and in New Brunswick will disproportionately be beneficial to the Conservatives, in large part because new ridings in BC are going to the lower mainland suburbs, while in New Brunswick, Dieppe moves into a new riding, but on balance there shouldn’t be any loss of seats to Liberals or NDP even if the vote spread changes. I’m a bit torn on this assumption that these new ridings in the suburbs of BC will automatically go Conservative. Given that much of the redistribution has reduced the influence of rural ridings (which were over-represented to begin with), and that rural ridings were far more likely to vote Conservative than anything else, one could argue that it makes the ridings more volatile – especially as the “rurban” phenomenon of small urban area at the narrow end of a large rural riding is being blunted in a lot of places. This will create more representative urban and suburban ridings that might actually see their issues addressed rather than swamped by rural concerns. This could put those ridings into play far more, now that the more conservative rural population can’t be relied upon to carry the votes.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Stampede Triumphalism

Posted on by

With it being Stampede time in Calgary, Stephen Harper has made a triumphant “homecoming speech” to the crowd there about how he wants to transform Canada to be one of the “next generation of economic powers,” and that even though all of his changes aren’t popular they are necessary. Note that he again takes credit for Paul Martin’s achievements and for resource prices. Also in attendance were Alison Redford and Danielle Smith, and Redford got more applause than Smith, even though that federal Conservatives tend to be more in the Wildrose Party camp.

As is typical at this time of year, journalists seem mystified that the Liberals are showing the flag in the heart of “enemy territory” – as if there are no Liberals in Alberta, which is not true. Bob Rae says that looking at the elections of Naheed Nenshi and Alison Redford shows that there is an appetite for centrist, progressive politics in places like Calgary – though traditionally this has been harder to achieve at the federal level, as Calgarians tend to vote increasingly conservative the higher level one goes. And add the obligatory Justin Trudeau leadership speculation as he works – and woos – the crowds there.

If you do plan on attending Stampede, here is some expert advice from stylists on how to dress without looking like a complete bumpkin.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Prepare for marathon voting

Posted on by

And so begins the week where it all happens. All of those marathon votes, as many as the Speaker is determined to allow (the number of which we should know by around noon today).

Another leaking pipeline in Alberta has premier Alison Redford in damage control mode, professing confidence in the measures in place to deal with leaks as they happen, but critics say that there is too much industry self-reporting that needs to be addressed.

Preston Manning calls Thomas Mulcair a hypocrite for not making his “polluter pay” and internalising environmental cost ideas apply to Quebec’s hydro sector, which flooded forest areas the size of Lake Ontario.

Continue reading →

Roundup: False plots to take away votes

Posted on by

There is no set by-election in Etobicoke Centre yet – in fact, the Supreme Court has not yet decided if they will hear the appeal – and the ground war in that riding is already heating up. The Conservatives have been calling voters to warn them that the Liberals were plotting to “overthrow” their votes, and that their votes would be “taken away” by the court decision. Which is a complete distortion, but all’s fair in war and politics, or something like that. Not that the Liberals haven’t started fundraising in preparation for the by-election there either, though not using such patently false claims it should be noted.

Thomas Mulcair blames Stephen Harper for east-west divisions, not his own comments. Shocking, I know. Meanwhile, Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall has some concerns over the “Dutch disease” comments, as does Dalton McGuinty. McGuinty says that the high dollar does pose challenges for the manufacturing sector, but it’s not “Dutch disease,” which really, when you actually weigh what’s going on, is more the case.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Back-to-work legislation ahoy!

Posted on by

With the negotiations at CP Rail having broken down, it looks like we’ll be seeing some fresh back-to-work legislation this week.

Joe Oliver says he’s supportive of Alison Redford’s national energy strategy idea – but he just doesn’t want to call it that. Meanwhile, this unsigned Maclean’s editorial makes a few good points about the “Dutch disease” debate, the changing manufacturing sector, and the nonsense of trying to attach environmental concerns to the economics. Stephen Gordon has even more economic data that seems to divorce the decline in our manufacturing sector from the rise in our resource economy, when compared to other major economies.

Western premiers will be meeting on Tuesday to talk about energy and environmental regulation, and it seems like Mulcair will be on that agenda as well. Meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador premier Kathy Dunderdale has a bone to pick with Peter MacKay over the search-and-rescue closures in her province, and that’s only getting worse with the EI changes.

Jim Flaherty is striking a slightly more conciliatory tone around EI changes than Diane Finely has been.

There is talk that the government is exploring the idea of a standalone military procurement office, after all of the many and sundry blunders that have taken place in the past few years. One should say that if they do go ahead with this, they’re probably better off not just putting the same people in charge as the ones who’ve made the mistakes in the past – you know, like they did with the new fighter jet secretariat.

What’s that? An internal investigation of the privacy breaches at Veterans Affairs clears the department of wrongdoing? You don’t say!

What’s that? A quarter of defeated Conservative candidates have since been given public service jobs? You don’t say! Actually, this is neither that concerning nor alarming considering that most are qualified for the new jobs, and we shouldn’t get too worked up if defeated candidates get staffer positions. It’s not like opposition parties don’t give staffer jobs to their own defeated candidates at times either.

Thomas Mulcair has remortgaged his house eleven times since the early eighties, continually increasing his mortgage debt despite his MP salary, but no one will say why – even though this is a very unusual thing.

Sadly, the birth of Canada hardly rated mention in Queen Victoria’s journals. Alas!

And Tabatha Southey casts a satirical eye on the “bravery” of David Wilks and his strong stand against…his previous strong stand.