Dave Cournoyer

Dave Cournoyer is a writer, blogger, and political watcher living in Edmonton, Alberta.

Dave launched daveberta.ca in January 2005. It has been awarded the Best Political Blog, Best Progressive Blog, Best Blogosphere Citizen in the 2007 Canadian Blog Awards, and was listed SEE Magazine as one of Edmonton’s top blogs. Dave has written articles and columns for SEE Magazine, VUE Weekly, Alberta Views Magazine, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Dave was elected Vice-President (External) of the U of A Students’ Union and served as Chair of the Council of Alberta University Students from 2006 to 2007. In these roles, he served as a spokesperson and advocate for 80,000 undergraduate students at Alberta’s three largest Universities and was part of the team who successfully negotiated the creation of the Universal Transit Pass (U-Pass) for undergraduate students.

After completing his term in office, he entered provincial politics as Communications Coordinator for the official opposition, where he worked closely with Edmonton-Riverview MLA Kevin Taft during his time as Leader of the Official Opposition.

Dave made national headlines when Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach threatened legal action over his ownership of the domain name edstelmach.ca. The Premier’s lawyer accused him of misappropriating the Premier’s personality, a claim that Dave responded to by saying that “I don’t know where Premier Stelmach’s personality is, but I certainly don’t have it.”

In November 2009, Dave entered his current role as Communications Advisor with the United Nurses of Alberta. He has presented social media and communications workshops to the Canadian University Press, Public Interest Alberta, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, Next Up, the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton and Homeward Trust Edmonton. He has presented guest lectures to classes at the University of Alberta, Grant MacEwan University, and King’s University College.

He is a past member of the Programming Committee for the Edmonton’s Litfest and former Community Representative on the Board of Directors of the Gateway Student Journalism Society. In 2003, he was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in recognition of his volunteer work with the WarAmps of Canada and in 2010 he was named as one of Edmonton’s Top 40 under 40 by Avenue Magazine. In 2012, the global public relations company Hill & Knowlton recognized Dave as one of Alberta’s most influential Tweeters.

You can follow his tweets at @davecournoyer, glance through his photos on Flick, watch his favourite videos on YouTube, and send your fan letters to david.cournoyer@gmail.com.

The opinions expressed on this blog represent my own and not those of my employer or any organization I may be affiliated with.

In addition, my thoughts and opinions change from time to time. I consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind. This blog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot and manifestation of the various ideas running around my brain, and as such any thoughts and opinions expressed within out-of-date posts may not the same, nor even similar, to those I may hold today.