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Alberta Politics

Len Webber: we’ll give you safe injection sites if you give us oil pipelines

File this under: totally clueless politicians.

In the midst of an opioid crisis that is reported to have claimed the lives of more than 400 Albertans in 2016, Calgary-Confederation Member of Parliament Len Webber told the House of Commons Health Committee last week that opposition to the potentially lifesaving facilities was comparable to opposition to oil pipelines.

Here is Webber’s shockingly tone deaf response to Vancouver-Kingsway MP Don Davies during a discussion about Bill C-37 on February 9, 2017:

I don’t need five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It was really just a thought here. I think Mr. Davies’ intention here is to try to make the application process for safe injection sites easier.

Would you be in a similar position, Mr. Davies, if we were sitting around the table here talking about application processes for pipelines in Alberta? To apply for a pipeline is extremely onerous. It’s extremely burdensome and time-consuming. It can often take years.

We fought hard as Conservatives to try to make it easier to get pipelines built throughout this country, but we’re not talking about pipelines here today; we’re talking about safe injection sites.

Would you agree, Mr. Davies, that it is very onerous to put in a pipeline in this country? Would you be in favour of making it an easier process to put pipelines in, just as you would like to have safe injection sites put in without consultation from the community?

Basically, I see the changes here giving the minister the power to basically overrule any community consultation or community decisions, whereas communities opposing pipelines is something the minister can’t overrule.

The thought is there. I was just thinking that in Alberta we are having a very difficult time trying to get pipelines put in place, and you are here talking about how you want to make it easy to put in safe injection sites. I think it’s very important that we have community consultation, that we have approval from all areas with regard to getting these sites put in place. I know there are some communities that would be opposed to safe injection sites, yet the minister can overrule the desire of the community.

I don’t support what you’re doing here, Mr. Davies, in your motion or your amendments. However, I am making again the comparison between pipelines and safe injection sites. I may not have explained it quite clearly, but you know what I’m thinking here. It’s very onerous for pipelines, yet you want it to be very simple for safe injection sites.

If you’re willing to make it easier for us in Alberta, we can make it easier for you to put in safe injection sites throughout the country.

Webber was first elected to parliament as a Conservative in 2015 and previously served as a Progressive Conservative MLA for Calgary-Foothills from 2004 to 2014. Between 2009 and 2011 he served as Alberta’s Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. He does not hold a critic position in the Conservative Official Opposition Caucus in Ottawa.

Update: Len Webber issued a statement in response to the backlash created by his comments at the parliamentary health committee.

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Alberta Politics

Alberta Liberals fined $2000 for violating elections finance laws

Raj Sherman 2010
Raj Sherman

A $2,000 fine was issued against the Alberta Liberal Party in November 2016 after Elections Alberta found the party had accepted a $17,000 contribution that violated the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act.

The fine was unusually large and may have marked the first time the acceptor of a donation has been fined for accepting a donation larger than the maximum annual limit allowed under Alberta’s elections laws.

The maximum annual limit for donations at the time was $15,000 when the $17,000 donation was received from the Empress Group Ltd., which was owned by former Liberal Party leader and Edmonton-Meadowlark MLA Raj Sherman. Along with paying the $2,000 fine, the party was required to return the excessive contribution amount of $2,000 to the company.

The fine is related to a previous investigation which determined that Sherman exceeded donation limits between 2011 and 2013 by making donations through two companies he owns, Empress Group Ltd. and Raj Sherman Professional Corp. Elections Alberta deemed the two companies to be a single corporation and a fine of $500 was issued against Empress Group Ltd. The excess donations were also returned.

Party president Karen Sevcik told this blogger that the unusually large fine against the party may have been a result of the then-party leader’s involvement in the excess donations. Sevcik also pointed out that it would be impossible for the same mistake to be made again, as corporate donations were banned by the NDP in 2015 and annual individual donations are now limited to $4,000.

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Alberta Politics

40 candidates now running in Edmonton’s Municipal Elections

What Edmonton City Hall is expected to look like on Feb. 22, 2016.
Edmonton City Hall in the depths of winter.

There are 246 days until Edmontonians go to the polls to vote for their Mayoral, Councillor and School Board candidates. While it may feel like a long time away, candidates for the October 16, 2017 have started coming forward to campaign and prepare their bids for public office.

As I have done in past elections, I have created a list of candidates who I know are running for Edmonton City Council. This is an unofficial list of candidates who have declared their intentions to stand for office, as candidates become official after Nomination Day on  Monday, September 18, 2017. The list does not include all 40 candidates who have filed their intent to run, as not all of the candidates on that list have declared what position they are intending to seek.

If you know any candidates who have announced their intentions to stand for Mayor, Council, or School Board, please send me an email at david.cournoyer@gmail.com. I will add them to the list.

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Alberta Politics

Will the PC Party finally disqualify Jason Kenney?

Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean and PC leadership candidate Jason Kenney.

“He’s not running to be the leader of the Progressive Conservative party. He’s running to destroy the party so that he can then form a new party that he’s going to run and become leader of,” Progressive Conservative Party member Jeffrey Rath told CBC Calgary.

The Priddis-based lawyer has filed a complaint with his party alleging that leadership candidate Jason Kenney’s vision runs counter to the party’s constitution and that he should be disqualified.

Kenney is running to dissolve the PC Party, not to merge or unite it with the Wildrose Party.

Despite running under the slogan “Unite Alberta,” Kenney’s goal is to win the leadership and then dissolve the party. If that does not run counter to the party’s constitution, I am not sure what else would.

The PC Party was foolish for allowing Kenney to run in the first place. Facing a lethargic and uninspiring group of “renewal” candidates, Kenney appears to have easily locked up the support of enough delegates to secure a victory at the upcoming convention.

Rath’s complaint is a Hail Mary pass but it could work. It could be difficult for the PC Party executive to disqualify him now but they should if they want their party to exist in a year from now.

The Kenney campaign’s record of flouting the rules has given the PC Party’s executive plenty of reasons to consider disqualification. One of his chief strategists was even suspended from the party for a one-year period. Some moderate conservatives in the PC Party, including former leadership candidate Stephen Khan, believe Kenney’s plans to dissolve the PC Party and form a new party will lead to the creation of a party dominated by Wildrose Party supporters – “Wildrose 2.0.”

Wildrose leader Brian Jean, who had previously endorsed plans for a new party, recently announced that his plans would have conservatives rally behind the current Wildrose Party structure. That’s rebranded Wildrose Party.

Wildrose MLA Leela Aheer, who was recently acclaimed as the Wildrose Party candidate in Chestermere-Rocky View, even announced on a Facebook video that she was proud to be running for the Wildrose Party in the 2019 election, with no mention of a new party.

This goes back to my long-held belief that the Wildrose Party needs the PC Party more than the PCs need the Wildrose. In two consecutive elections the Wildrose Party has struggled to break out of its rural Alberta base and might only be able to win an election if the PC Party is completely removed from the picture.

In 2015, the PCs were arrogant, out of touch and deserved to lose the election. But unlike the Wildrose Party, the PCs have a record of 44 years of straight election victories and a brand that many Albertans still respect.

It would not be unimaginable to see the PCs bounce back to win another election. But they won’t be able to win any future elections if they allow Kenney lead them to extinction, as he plans to do.

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Clara Hughes’ “Open Heart, Open Mind” tops Audreys Books’ Edmonton Best-Selling Books List

Edmonton Best Selling Audreys Books
Edmonton Best Selling Audreys Books

Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ending Feb. 3, 2017, compiled on Feb. 7, 2017, by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.

Edmonton Fiction Bestsellers

  1. The German Girl – Armando Correa
  2. The Break – Katherena Vermette
  3. The Woman in Cabin 10 – Ruth Ware
  4. Do Not Say We Have Nothing – Madeleine Thien
  5. The Lonely Hearts Hotel – Heather O’Neill
  6. Art Lessons – Katherine Koller *
  7. Nostalgia – M.G. Vassanji
  8. Victoria: A Novel of a Young Queen – Daisy Goodwin
  9. Barkskins – Annie Proulx
  10. Lion – Saroo Brierley

Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers

  1. Open Heart, Open Mind – Clara Hughes
  2. Talking Music 2: More Blues Radio and Roots – Holger Petersen *
  3. Dysfunction: Canada After Keystone XL – Dennis McConaghy
  4. Change the Story, Change the Future – David Korten
  5. Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle With PTSD – Romeo Dallaire
  6. A Dog’s Purpose – Bruce W. Cameron
  7. Behind the Kitchen Stove – Ella Drobot *
  8. Hidden Figures: the American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped Win the Space Race – Margot Lee Shetterly
  9. Birds Art Life – Kyo Maclear
  10. Edmonton House Journals 1821-1826 – Hudson Bay Company ed. Ted Binnema and Gerhard J. Ens*

* denotes Alberta Author

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Alberta Politics

Misericordia versus Royal Alex: A legacy of poor long-term planning by the old PC government

NDP MLAs stood behind by-election candidate Bob Turner at a campaign event in Sept. 2014. Left to right: David Eggen, Rachel Notley, Bob Turner, and Brian Mason.
NDP MLAs stood behind by-election candidate Bob Turner at a campaign event in Sept. 2014. Left to right: David Eggen, Rachel Notley, Bob Turner, and Brian Mason.

Campaigns to rebuild two Edmonton area hospitals now competing for scarce funds to fix crumbling infrastructure are being run by organizations that include former Tory insiders who sat at the budget table when the decisions were made that led to the two facilities’ current dilapidated condition.

Alex the Spokes-puppet
Alex the Spokes-puppet

Political jockeying for funding for the Alberta Health Services-run Royal Alexandra Hospital in north-central Edmonton and Covenant Health‘s Misericordia Hospital in southwest Edmonton is intensifying as provincial budget deliberations heat up.

The Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation recently launched a public campaign to lobby the provincial government to provide additional funding for the hospital. The campaign’s message isn’t wrong. As the campaign’s memorable spokes-puppet points out, the Royal Alex has been on “top of the list for infrastructure redevelopment for more than 20 years.”

“New Mis Now” was a campaign slogan used by the New Democratic Party opposition during a 2014 by-election in the Edmonton-Whitemud constituency. NDP candidate Bob Turner criticized then-unelected health minister Stephen Mandel for a lack of funding from the Progressive Conservative government to build a new Misericordia Hospital in booming southwest Edmonton. Covenant Health is continuing to put pressure on the now-NDP government to invest in a new Misericordia Hospital.

They are both right. Both aging facilities are in need of major investment.

Iris Evans
Iris Evans

But how did we get to this point?

Poor long-term planning and a legacy of political meddling in the administration of the regional health authorities is likely the real reason why two aging Edmonton hospitals are in their current condition.

The blame lies with the old PC government, which sat in power from 1971 until 2015. During some of the province’s biggest economic booms, when resource royalties from oil and natural gas flooded into government coffers, the PCs could have chosen to invest in our aging public infrastructure. But through many of the boom years that took place during their final two decades in power, the PCs were more focused on giving out tax breaks or vanity cheques than investing in public infrastructure or saving for future generations.

There is some irony that three people who were sitting at the table when the lack of long-term planning occurred over the past twenty to twenty-five years are now personally connected with the organizations lobbying the NDP government for hospital funding.

Shirley McClellan
Shirley McClellan

Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation board member Iris Evans served in the PC government from 1997 to 2012, including as minister of health and finance. Sitting on the Covenant Health Board of Directors are Ed Stelmach, a former premier and cabinet minister from 1997 until 2011, and Shirley McClellan, another former minister of health and minister of finance. McClellan served as Minister of Health from 1992 to 1996, when deep funding cuts were made to Alberta’s health care system, and later as Minister of Finance from 2004 to 2006.

So now, Albertans, and an NDP government faced with limited funds and low international oil prices, have to deal with the previous government’s lack of foresight.

As government, the NDP is now responsible for figuring out how to fix the infrastructure problems created by the old PC government while living up to the promises they made while in opposition. Some real long-term planning would be a good place to start.

Photo: NDP MLAs stood behind by-election candidate Bob Turner at a campaign event outside the Misericordia Hospital in Sept. 2014. Left to right: David Eggen, Rachel Notley, Bob Turner, and Brian Mason.

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Alberta Politics

Updates: Calgary-Heritage and Calgary-Midnapore by-elections

Former Conservative MP Lee Richardson will Liberals in an upcoming Calgary by-election.
Former Conservative MP Lee Richardson will Liberals in an upcoming Calgary by-election.

A quick update on the upcoming federal by-elections in Calgary-Heritage and Calgary-Midnapore:

– Former Conservative MP Lee Richardson will not run for the Liberal nomination in Calgary-Heritage, but three other candidates – Scott Forsyth, Steven Turner and Kanwar Gill – will run. Forsyth is a family physician who holds both medical and law degrees from the University of Calgary He is also a Fellow at Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Turner is a former Conservative supporter who ran for the federal Liberal nomination ahead of the Calgary-Centre by-election in 2012.

– The New Democratic Party is expected to nominate Holly Heffernan as their candidate in Calgary-Midnapore on Feb. 6, 2017. Heffernan is a Registered Nurse, labour activist and past NDP candidate. She was a provincial NDP candidate in Calgary-Glenmore in 2004 and federal NDP candidate in Calgary-Southwest in 2006, 2008 and 2011.

– Darcy Gerow is the Libertarian Party candidate in Calgary-Heritage.

An updated list of nominated by-election candidates with their social media links can be found here.

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Alberta Politics

Setting the stage for Wildrose 2.0: Moderates need not apply

“We must also ensure that a new, united party will be built on a solid foundation of conservative principles and policy. The left-liberal clique that managed to slowly highjack the PC Party must never again be allowed to seize control of Alberta’s conservative movement.”

Derek Fildebrandt Alberta Taxpayers
Derek Fildebrandt

This call for ideological purity came from Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt in an opinion-editorial published by Postmedia earlier this week. Fildebrandt, who sounds as if he is preparing his own leadership bid, has been a vocal supporter of Jason Kenney’s bid to “unite” the Progressive Conservative Party and the Wildrose Party to form a new consertvative party before the next election.

Fildebrandt’s manifesto reads like a call to create a rebranded Wildrose Party without the moderates, centrists and liberals who once found a home in the old PC Party. Driving this ideological agenda, Fildebrandt would undoubtably be a prominent leader in the new Conservative Party, one that a province-builder like Peter Lougheed might not even recognize.

Sandra Jansen
Sandra Jansen

Kenney’s hostile takeover of the PC Party appears unstoppable at this time. Along with support from former prime minister Stephen Harper, the Manning Centre, and Wildrose Party members, he appears to have secured a majority in the leadership delegate count.

Kenney’s supporters have succeeded in driving out a number of high profile political moderates from the party.

Former cabinet minister Sandra Jansen quit the leadership race after being harassed and threatened with violence. She later joined the NDP and is expected to be appointed to cabinet sometime this year.

Former MLA Stephen Khan told Postmedia columnist Paula Simons last week that he quit the PC leadership race last week after an ugly race where he was the target of racist and Islamaphobic emails from new party members supporting Kenney.

Stephen Khan
Stephen Khan

When AlbertaPolitics.ca author David Climenhaga, well-known for his progressive views, asked him about his political future, Khan replied “I have as much interest in joining the Wildrose 2.0 Party as you do.”

Party president Katherine O’Neill has done an admirable and thankless job trying to lead the PCs through the turbulent period. Under siege from conservative hard-liners and Kenney supporters, O’Neill represents urban, centrist and moderate views that could lead to a PC Party revival. Too bad she is not a candidate for the leadership.

One year and eight months after losing the election, the big blue tent that led the PC Party to 44 years of electoral success has collapsed but not folded. The party was ripe for Kenney’s hostile takeover but any plans to dissolve the party will have to address  vendor contracts, party constitutional issues, local and provincial board approvals, legalities around fundraising and bank accounts, and fairly strict legal parameters. Despite his campaign to “unite” the two political parties, it is legally impossible to merge political parties in Alberta.

Ed Stelmach
Ed Stelmach

All this is occurring at the same time as Rachel Notley’s NDP government looks more moderate and centrist by the day. And with pipeline approvals and some projections of a recovering economy, the NDP might be the sensible option on Albertans’ ballots in 2019. But attacks on the NDP, and on Notley personally, will be harsh.

Last week marked six years since Ed Stelmach announced he would step down as Premier of Alberta. Faced with a revolt by right-wing cabinet ministers and the rise of an insurgent Wildrose Party, Stelmach surprised the province at a Jan. 2011 press conference, where he issued a stern warning about the direction and tone of politics in our province, which is shockingly relevant to today:

“There is a profound danger that the next election campaign will focus on personality and US style negative, attack politics that is directed at me personally.

The danger is that it could allow for an extreme right party to disguise itself as a moderate party by focussing on personality – on me personally.

This type of U.S. style wedge politics is coming into Canada, and it comes at our peril.”

Stelmach was a few years early, but he was right.

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“Commonwealth” by Ann Patchett tops Audreys Books’ Edmonton Best-Selling Books List

Edmonton Best Selling Audreys Books
Edmonton Best Selling Audreys Books

Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ending Jan. 27, 2017, compiled on Jan. 31, 2017, by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.

Edmonton Fiction Bestsellers

  1. Commonwealth – Ann Patchett
  2. The Couple Next Door – Shari Lapena
  3. The Traitors of Camp 133 – Wayne Arthurson *
  4. My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante
  5. Do Not Say We Have Nothing – Madeleine Thien
  6. What She Knew – Gilly Macmillan
  7. Neverwhere: Author’s Preferred Text – Neil Gaiman
  8. The Slow Waltz of Turtles – Katherine Pancol
  9. The High Mountains of Portugal – Yann Martel
  10. Nutshell – Ian McEwan

Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers

  1. The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything –
    Neil Pasricha
  2. Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?: When Celebrity Culture and
    Science Clash – Timothy Caulfield *
  3. Paintings of Edmonton – Judy Popham *
  4. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World – Peter Wohlleben, Tim Flannery
  5. A Family Outing – Ruby Remenda Swanson *
  6. Talking Music 2: More Blues Radio and Roots – Holger Petersen *
  7. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race – Margot Lee Shetterly
  8. The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet – Sheila Watt-Cloutier
  9. Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lillies – Ross King *
  10. The Princess Diarist – Carrie Fisher

*  ALBERTA AUTHORS

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Alberta Politics

Candidate nominations begin for Alberta’s next election but the rules have changed

The next election may be more than two years away but that is not stopping eager potential candidates from wanting a head start on the hustings. Both the Alberta Party and Wildrose Party now beginning the process of nominating candidates for the next election.

It may feel like it is too early to start nominating candidates because Albertans are now two years, one month away from when the next provincial election is expected to be called, but we are not far away from the same time parties began nominating candidates before the last election.

Leela Aheer Wildrose MLA Chestermere Rockyview
Leela Aheer

The next election is expected to be called between March 1, 2019 and May 31, 2019, as Alberta’s fixed election legislation suggests.

The Wildrose Party will be holding its first nomination meeting on Feb. 25, 2017 in the Chestermere-Rocky View constituency. It is expected that incumbent MLA Leela Aheer will be nominated but I have heard rumours that she could face a challenge from a former municipal politician. The Alberta Party was the first to nominate a candidate for the next election when Omar Masood was chosen to represent the party in Calgary-Buffalo at a Nov. 2016 meeting.

As I have done in previous elections, I will do my best to keep track of nomination contests as they heat up.

Omar Masood ALberta Party Calgary Buffalo
Omar Masood

Expected changes to the electoral boundaries for the next election could force the parties to hold new nomination meetings, but there is a real advantage in having a candidate campaigning, fundraising and organizing early.

Amendments to the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act passed in the fall 2016 sitting of the Alberta Legislative Assembly introduced rules around the business of nominating candidates, something that did not previously exist in our province. Here are a few of the new rules:

  • Candidates running for party nominations must register with Elections Alberta. Within 10 days of the conclusion of a nomination contest, the party or constituency association is required to submit to the Chief Electoral Officer a statement including the full names of the nomination contestants.
  • Section 17(1) of the Act states that a maximum annual donation to a nomination candidate is $4,000.
  • Section 9.3 (1) states that the chief financial officer of the party or constituency association must file a statement informing Elections Alberta of the date of the official call of the nomination contest, the date of the nomination meeting, and any fee or deposit required to be paid by a person as a condition of entering the nomination contest, and the estimated cost for holding the nomination contest.
  • Section 32 (4.2) (a) states that all donors who have contributed more than $250 to a nomination campaign will have their names made public, similar to regular donations to candidates and political parties.
  • Section 41.4(1) states that nomination campaign expenses are limited to 20 percent of a registered candidate’s spending limit for an election in that constituency.
  • Section 43.01 (1) states that within 4 months after the conclusion of a nomination contest, the chief financial officer of a nomination contestant is required to file financial return with Elections Alberta.

 

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Alberta Politics

New Alberta Politics Podcast: The Broadcast

Edmonton-based journalists Trisha Estabrooks and Alex Zabjek have launched a new podcast focusing on women and Alberta politics. The Broadcast website describes the inspiration for the podcast:

We started this podcast because we believe that 100 years after some women won the right to vote in Alberta, there are challenges to figure out, successes to celebrate, inequalities that need to be exposed, and stories to discover. We hope to learn as much as you through our work on this show.

The first three episodes of the podcast include interviews with PC-turned-NDP MLA Sandra Jansen, historian Charlotte Gray, and journalist turned politicians Katherine O’Neill and Danielle Smith.

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Alberta Politics

Today’s Edition of The Fight on the Right

A Wildrose Party sign spotted outside of Hinton last week.
A Wildrose Party sign spotted outside of Hinton last week.

Starke vs. Kenney: the lightweight match

Richard Starke
Richard Starke

Starting the day off, Richard Starke, the soft-spoken veternarian from Lloydminster entered the ring with his “Common Sense Plan” to save the Progressive Conservative Party from Jason Kenney’s hostile takeover plans to merge it right-wing Wildrose Party.

The PC leadership race has largely been devoid of any other real issues or policy discussions and focused almost entirely on Kenney’s takeover bid. Starke’s plan was extremely light on details but here’s what we know: he is open to a coalition between the two parties but he would keep the PC and Wildrose parties separate.

Jason Kenney
Jason Kenney

It is unclear if this means the two parties would not run candidates against each other, but that might be one way of salvaging the estimated $1.5 million currently sitting in the bank accounts of PC constituency associations that would be forfeit if the party was dissolved into the Wildrose Party.

Today’s announcement was likely aimed at dislodging the significant lead Kenney has secured in the delegate selection meetings, but it feels like a desperate last grasp by Starke.

Jean vs. Kenney: The bare-knuckle round

Overshadowing Starke’s plan is Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean‘s shot at Kenney. Jean announced today that he is prepared to step down as leader of his party to contest the leadership of a new conservative party, if one is created before the next election.

Brian Jean

There had been speculation for months that Jean could avoid a messy leadership challenge by running for Mayor of Wood Buffalo in October 2017 instead of fending off a challenge from Kenney, but this appears to settle it. As leader of the Wildrose Party, Jean has been unofficially campaigning for months to bolster his bid to leader the conservative movement in this province by holding town hall meetings with supporters.

Jean took the reigns of his party from the edge of the political abyss after most Wildrose MLAs crossed the floor to the PC Party in 2014. He led the rural-based party to a swift recovery in the 2015 election but has faced challenges within his caucus and party ever since. His party has also been stuck in the mid-30 percent range in public opinion polls over the past year.

It is unclear whether Jean and Kenney would be the only two candidates to run for the leadership of a new Wildrose-dominated conservative party, or whether a third or fourth contender would enter the contest to lead this currently non-existent party.

Khan throws in the towel

Stephen Khan
Stephen Khan

Former St. Albert MLA Stephen Khan has dropped out of the PC leadership race. The former one-term MLA gave columnist Paula Simons a fairly damning description of the state of conservative politics in Alberta: “I wouldn’t call it a dumpster fire. But I’d call it a destructive circus.”

Here is an excerpt from his statement:

I was confident that this race would be one of ideas and hope for Alberta’s future and I expected it to be a well-run and principled campaign. Instead, it has devolved into vitriol, anger and division. As such, I can no longer participate in this race in good conscience, nor ask my family, volunteers and supporters to do the same on my behalf.

We have seen the reputation of the PC Party damaged so badly over the course of this campaign that our credibility may be beyond repair. More concerning, we have seen volunteers, organizers, leadership candidates, members of the Board of Directors, our party President and even some PC caucus members harassed and threatened. It is clear that there is no room in this race for competing ideas and we have seen more anger and division in the last 3 months than in the half-century legacy of this party.

As I step down, I know other candidates in this leadership race will carry on the fight. I will remain a proud member and volunteer with the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta. Going forward, I will put my support behind Richard Starke and I would ask my supporters to do the same. 

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‘Happy City’ by Charles Montgomery tops Audreys Books’ Edmonton Bestseller List

Edmonton Best Selling Audreys Books
Edmonton Best Selling Audreys Books

Here is the list of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold in Edmonton for the week ended Jan. 16, 2017, compiled on Jan. 24, 2017, by Audreys Books and provided by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.

Edmonton Fiction Bestsellers

  1. The Break – Katherena Vermette
  2. The Woman in Cabin 10 – Ruth Ware
  3. Do Not Say We Have Nothing – Madeleine Thien
  4. The Chosen Maiden – Eva Strachniak
  5. The Princess Diarist – Carrie Fisher
  6. Wenjack – Joseph Boyden
  7. Even Cows Cry – Ella Drobot *
  8. The German Girl – Armando Correa
  9. Victoria: A Novel of a Young Queen – Daisy Goodwin
  10. The Association of Small Bombs – Karan Mahajan

Edmonton Non-Fiction Bestsellers

  1. Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design – Charles Montgomery
  2. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World – Peter Wohllleben, Tim Flannery
  3. Edmonton Cooks: Signature Recipes from the City’s Best Chefs – Leanne Brown *, Tina Faiz *
  4. Notley Nation: How Alberta’s Political Upheaval Swept the Nation  – Sydney Sharpe*, Don Braid *
  5. Edmonton House Journals 1821-1826 – Hudson Bay Company – ed. Ted Binnema and Gerhard J. Ens
  6. I am Woman – Lee Maracle
  7. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race – Margot Lee Shetterly
  8. The Marriott Cell: The Epic Journey from Cairo’s Scorpion Prison to Freedom – Mohamed Fahmy, Carol Shaben *, Amal Clooney
  9. The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds – Michael Lewis
  10. The Telomere Effect – A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer – Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, Dr. Elissa Epel

*  ALBERTA AUTHOR

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Notley NDP’s latter-day conversion to Keystone XL boosterism

Alberta PIpelines
Pick a pipeline. It is sure to be controversial
Premier Rachel Notley Calgary Stampede Alberta
Rachel Notley

It has been fascinating to watch the Alberta New Democratic Party transition from being skeptical of oil pipelines as opposition to fairly effective advocates for pipelines as government.

While the approval of the Trans-Canada Keystone XL Pipeline from Hardisty to Texas Nebraska has nothing to do with the Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan, the more diplomatic approach taken by Premier Rachel Notley’s government has translated into overall success in pipeline expansion approval.

Alberta’s action on climate change and drive for social license played a key role in the federal government approving the expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans-Mountain pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia. The action on climate change was even lauded by former president Barack Obama during his visit to Parliament Hill last year.

Premier Alison Redford
Alison Redford

Notley was supportive of the Trans-Mountain pipeline and the TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline but not supportive of the Keystone XL pipeline when she led the NDP Opposition before the 2015 election. The NDP election platform even took the Progressive Conservatives to task for focusing so much energy on Keystone XL and exporting raw bitumen, and jobs, to Texas. The old PC government, especially under premier Alison Redford, was harshly criticized for spending so much time travelling to Washington D.C. and other big American cities, to lobby for pipelines.

Public opinion and pressure from corporate leaders would make it tough for any elected officials in Alberta to be unsupportive of oil pipelines these days. Support for pipelines in this province feels like it ranges somewhere close to 100 percent on some days.

Otto von Bismarck

Otto von Bismarck is said to have coined the phrase “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best,” as David Climenhaga of AlbertaPolitics.ca fame reminded me today. That seems true of the Alberta NDP and their pro-pipeline conversion.

Approaching two years in office, Notley’s NDP government has become more pragmatic and centrist than one might have predicted, on pipelines specifically and most government policy in general. This probably bodes well for the NDP in terms of appealing to broader public support but could cause trouble for Notley from the party’s more ideological supporters.

And, reminding Canadians of the deep split over pipelines between the Alberta NDP and national NDP, federal leader Thomas Mulcair called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, apparently to accomplish little more than to pick a fight with Trump.

At this moment, I can see little benefit from the Canadian government doing anything but keeping out of the new president’s line of fire (or line of Tweets).

Donald Trump
Donald Trump

According to executive orders signed by Trump today, the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will have 60 days to approve the Keystone XL pipeline once the TransCanada corporation has submitted its application and the Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross will have 180 days to create a plan to ensure all the steel used to construct the pipeline is manufactured in the United States.

As Postmedia columnist Paul Wells pointed out yesterday, it was probably good that Notley took a measured tone and did not do cartwheels during her press conference in response to the Keystone XL Pipeline approval. Trump has proven to be irrational and unpredictable and his government had indicated it may try to renegotiate the deal with the TransCanada corporation.

With that in mind, it might be smart for political leaders in Canada to remain cautious, even if they feel optimistic, about the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline approval.

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Alberta Politics

Nomination updates: Calgary-Heritage and Calgary-Midnapore by-elections

Haley Brown won a contested Liberal nomination race in Calgary-Midnapore.
Haley Brown was acclaimed as the Liberal Party candidate in Calgary-Midnapore.

Some recent updates related to two federal by-elections soon expected to be called in Calgary:

Federal by-elections must be called in Calgary-Heritage by February 25, 2017 and in Calgary-Midnapore no later than March 22, 2017. An updated list of nominated by-election candidates with their social media links can be found here.

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