After spending some much needed time relaxing in beautiful British Columbia, I returned to Alberta this week and noticed some of the political stories that occurred during my absence. Here are some of the top political stories from last week that caught my attention:
Political games in High River
Buckling under the pressure of constant opposition criticism, rookie Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths lost his cool this week when responding to Wildrose leader Danielle Smith‘s latest salvo. Ms. Smith, the MLA for the High River area, has taken advantage of allegations that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police overstepped their authority by removing privately-owned firearms from private residences during the High River flood evacuation earlier this year. As masters of wedge-issue politics in Alberta, the Wildrose Party appears to be using every political tool they can to solidify Ms. Smith’s base in that area by wedging voters away from the Tories.
Another Alberta Health Services shake-up
David Climenhaga has an excellent analysis of the political implications of Health Minister Fred Horne‘s recent changes to Alberta Health Services executive structure, Janet Davidson‘s appointment as Deputy Minister of Health and whether this actually constitutes a significant change.
Alberta Party leadership race
Two candidates – Greg Clark and Troy Millington – have stepped forward to contest the Alberta Party leadership selection being held on September 21, 2013 in Red Deer. Although the party experienced a significant amount of growth before the 2012 provincial election, including gaining an MLA in former Calgary-Currie Liberal Dave Taylor, the party was unable to elect any candidates to the Assembly on Election Day. The contest is being held to replace former party leader Glenn Taylor, who stepped down shortly after last year’s election.
Sex and the suburbs…
Two-term Strathcona County Councillor Jason Gariepy made national headlines this week when he publicly announced that someone was trying to blackmail him with explicit photos and emails collected during an illicit online relationship. No stranger to controversy, Councillor Gariepy was the centre of attention in the 2010 election when he claimed an email critical of the provincial government was the reason county administrators removed his Blackberry and computer privileges. In 2011, Councillor Gariepy made an unsuccessful bid for the Wildrose Party nomination in Strathcona-Sherwood Park.
Lordly, lordly…
Former Progressive Conservative MLA Jon Lord announced his plans to challenge mayor Naheed Nenshi in Calgary’s upcoming municipal elections. Mr. Lord, also a former Alderman, most recently challenged Joan Crockatt for the federal Conservative nomination in last year’s Calgary-Centre by-election. Unscientific polls show Mayor Nenshi holds 99.6% support among Calgarians.
4 replies on “Alberta politics last week”
… and let’s not forget the release of our new Wetlands Policy that will force industry that destroys wetlands to buy educational material to inform the public how important the wetlands we’re destroying are to our environment.
Truly Simpson-esque!
How about Heather Forsyth calling a ministers staff member an “A–hole” on Twitter at the end of August? Double standard for sure.
Right on Dave. Carry on.
A week is a long time! A lot happened!
Yes, Danielle again held a meeting with the RCMP as requested by her constituents. Was just another meeting held – all at request of constituents who want answers
Bad language wherever not professional
Health care- another shuffle of the deck chairs! But we started with 144 Vice Presidents. Lockhart brought it down to about 90 before he was fired for honouring contracts ( and the person brought in to replace him advised Horne of same thing – it is called contract law). So Horne dumped Lockhart plus 9 others. Davidson gets salary boost, new title, and gets rid of 5 with a promise to take the remaining 80 down to 10! So I guess that is progress! Also big severance bucks!!!!
Wetlands- well those have been being destroyed at an unbelievable rate, and no it is not all oil sands. Look at what the city of calgary has done ( see along 22x- remember what a beautiful drive that was with all the ducks and other birds in the wetlands)?
Teachers – yup shakeup to get rid of deadwood! Interesting! Merit pay coming?
Pensions for public service to be reformed- probably time- over 7 billion unfounded liability is a lot
Busy week – made me tired!!!