Tag: Nixan Patel

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Alberta Politics

Peter Guthrie gets kicked out of the UCP Caucus

Peter Guthrie and Premier Danielle Smith at the cabinet swearing-in ceremony in 2023 (source: AlbertaNewsroom / Flickr)
Peter Guthrie and Premier Danielle Smith at the cabinet swearing-in ceremony in 2023 (source: AlbertaNewsroom / Flickr)

Confusing hodgepodge of government investigations shows need for independent public inquiry into Dodgy Contracts Scandal

There is a lot happening in Alberta politics this week, including the news that Airdrie-Cochrane United Conservative Party MLA Peter Guthrie has been officially removed from the UCP caucus. The former cabinet minister resigned as Minister of Infrastructure in February 2025 as a protest against allegations of corruption, cover-ups and political interference in government contracts related to health care supplies and private surgical companies.

“I’m not going to stand by and see potential corruption exist within government and be a part of that,” Guthrie told the Globe & Mail when he resigned from cabinet in February. “I felt profound disappointment in their ability to be able to ignore these clear conflicts,” he said.

Read more on the Daveberta Substack

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Alberta Politics

Alberta boys Pierre Poilievre and Mark Carney return to the province of their youths

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre and former Prime Minister Stephen Harper at an election rally in Edmonton on April 7, 2025 (source: Pierre Poilievre / Facebook)
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre and former Prime Minister Stephen Harper at an election rally in Edmonton on April 7, 2025 (source: Pierre Poilievre / Facebook)

It was Alberta Week in Canada’s federal election campaign

It was Alberta Week in the federal election campaign with the two party leaders who grew up in the western province returning to wave their party flags and rally supporters.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

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Alberta Politics

Long list of COVID-19 grievances could head to UCP AGM policy debate

Premier Danielle Smith and Innisfail-Sylvan Lake UCP MLA Devin Dreeshen at a UCP member only town hall meeting (source: United Conservative Party / Facebook)
Premier Danielle Smith and Innisfail-Sylvan Lake UCP MLA Devin Dreeshen at a UCP member only town hall meeting (source: United Conservative Party / Facebook)

It’s hard to imagine the old PC Party getting bogged down by this debate

If I had walked into the Alberta Legislature ten years ago and told an MLA, staffer, or journalist that in 2024 the province’s political landscape would be a competitive two-party system, I probably would have been laughed out of the Rotunda. They might have even alerted a security guard if I’d been so out of my mind to predict that the New Democratic Party would be competing with the conservatives to form Alberta’s government.

Until that point ten years ago, only twice in the Progressive Conservative Party’s four decades of uninterrupted majority governments had the dynasty been seriously challenged in an election. The PC Party was unquestionably Alberta’s Natural Governing Party.

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