Tag: Nicole Buchanan

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Alberta Politics

Alberta responds to Trump’s trade war still obsessed with border security

Danielle Smith joins Team Canada reluctant to use oil & gas trump card

One full day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial premiers Doug Ford in Ontario and Wab Kinew in Manitoba announced retaliatory measures in response to American President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs on Canadian products, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith entered the fray.

“This economic attack on our country, combined with Mr. Trump’s continued talk of using economic force to facilitate the annexation of our country, has broken trust between our two countries in a profound way,” Smith said at a press conference where she was flanked by Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Justice Mickey Amery, Deputy Premier Mike Ellis, and two law enforcement officers (one wearing a bullet proof vest and carrying an assault rifle).

“It is a betrayal of a deep and abiding friendship,” she said.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Quick note: Thank you for reading today’s Daveberta Newsletter! Paid subscribers can keep scrolling to read about the upcoming Edmonton-Strathcona provincial by-election and the federal Conservative Party candidate nomination votes being held in Bow River on March 6 & 7, Red Deer on March 8, and Edmonton Griesbach on March 9.

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Alberta Politics

Changing the channel on the Dodgy Contracts Scandal

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks to reporters in Washington DC on February 12, 2025. Standing behind her are Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford (screenshot CPAC)
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks to reporters in Washington DC on February 12, 2025. Standing behind her are Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford (screenshot CPAC)
When scandal threatens to envelop a government, the politicians spin hard

“Changing the channel” might be an outdated metaphor in a world where online streaming is how a lot of people now watch “television,” but it is a term that remains in use by politicians and political communicators to describe a strategy to draw attention away from something you don’t want to be on the top of people’s minds or the front pages of the news websites.

That’s exactly what Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government has been trying to do since Globe & Mail reporter Carrie Tait broke the Dodgy Contract Scandal last week.

The bombshell story revolves around allegations that senior political staff in the government were involved in a $600 million procurement scandal and that AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos was fired by the government two days before she was scheduled to meet with the Auditor General “to discuss her investigation into procurement contracts and deals for private surgical facilities.”

Read more on the Daveberta Substack

Note: Paid subscribers on the Daveberta Substack can keep scrolling and read all about the candidates running for the federal Conservative Party nominations in the Bow River and Red Deer ridings.

 

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