Politics Archives - Page 2 of 12

28Oct

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Education, Politics

Opening of the Fall Sitting- Conversation with Graham Thomson

Last Thursday morning I had the opportunity to speak with Graham Thomson, a 30-year veteran of covering the Alberta Legislature to discuss the fall sitting which commences on 28 October. In addition to his coverage of the "Leg" as a public affairs columnist for the Edmonton Journal, he writes a column for Alberta Views and his analysis of Alberta politics is found in the The Tyee and Toronto Star. In this 30-minute discussion, Thomson emphasized that the upcoming session was basically about the UCP's leadership review which is occurring on 1-2 November 2024 in Red Deer. On Friday 25 October, Joseph Schow, UCP House Leader and Minister of Tourism and Sport briefed the media on the upcoming session. “Alberta’s government is heading back to the legislature with a laser-focus o...

27Oct

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Energy, Environment, Health, Politics

Grassy, not Shaun, of the Dead

Updated 28 October 2024 This post is contributed by Ian Urquhart who taught political science at the University of Alberta for over thirty years. He is the author of Costly Fix: Power, Politics and the Nature of the Tar Sands. You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. - Margaret Thatcher Zombies. The Undead. They’re in neighbourhoods everywhere now – part of the ghoul fun of Halloween. Most will be dragged back to their crypts in a few weeks. Not the Grassy Mountain coal project. This zombie still will be lurching through the corridors of provincial power and the Crowsnest Pass at least until well into 2025. Grassy Mountain’s First Death Sentence Many will recall Benga Mining’s Grassy Mountain venture. Benga proposed ...

20Oct

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Agencies, Government Finances, Opinion/Research, Politics

Why AIMCo needs more scrutiny and transparency- Part 1

Note to readers: Updated 21 October 2024 On 6 November the Standing Committee on the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund (AHSTF) will be holding its annual public meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the Rocky Mountain Room, 2nd Floor of the Queen Elizabeth II Building in Edmonton. The annual public meeting is open to members of the public either in person or via social media including Facebook. I attended the last two meetings in person and have been able to raise important questions of policy. In the 2022 meeting (transcript here), I was the only member of the public present in person. In 2023, I was pleased that there were nine members of the public raising uncomfortable questions which generally were deflected by officials of Alberta Treasury Board and Finance (TBF) and senior Alberta Invest...

1Jul

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Energy, Environment, Opinion/Research, Politics

The Pronouncements of Rebecca Schulz

In this 4,000 word essay I recount and analyze the dozen or so news releases put out by Environment and Protected Areas Minister Rebecca Schulz since last June. On 9 June 2023, after the 29 May election Rebecca Schulz was appointed the minister of Environment and Parks. Under the order of precedence for cabinet, Schulz was in the middle of the pecking order at ninth after the Premier. However since her appointment Schulz has overshadowed Smith energy and minerals minister, Brian Jean and has become indispensable in supporting Premier Smith assault against the federal government and, in particular, Environment and Climate Change minister Stephen Guilbeault. In an particularly unsavoury remark in a friendly conversation with Tucker Carlson, Ms. Smith urged Carlson to put Stephen Guilbe...

NDP Leadership campaign- policies compared

31May

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Education, Energy, Environment, Health, Opinion/Research, Politics

NDP Leadership campaign- policies compared

Introduction Every voter in Alberta’s NDP leadership race has their own set of public policy interests. Some of these voters have few if any interest in politics and have few policy issues except those involving their pocketbooks. Pocketbook issues include being able to eat, own a cell phone, have a place to call home, access a family doctor and affordable transportation. Whether this is the typical NDP voter is another question, but at the end of the day if the successor to Rachel Notley is to defeat Danielle Smith’s UCP they will need to understand these pocketbook issues. NDP leadership policies can be found at these websites: · https://voteforjodi.ca/jodis-leadership/# · https://teamganley.ca/policies · https://www.sarahhoffman.ca/priorities ...

Democracy in Alberta – Continued- Opinion

31May

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research, Politics, Uncategorized

Democracy in Alberta – Continued- Opinion

I commend to readers the article by Elizabeth Smythe, my former intergovernmental colleague in Wednesday’s Edmonton Journal. Opeds by Dr. Smythe and Jared Wesley in The Tyee are honest attempts by political scientists to do what they are trained for- to provide objectively-based warnings about how fragile our democratic institutions have become. Recent moves by the Smith government to smother dissent in municipal councils is another worrying sign (Bills 18 and 20). As Wesley states in the Tyee "There’s no hard-and-fast line between democracy and authoritarianism. Just ask people from autocracies: you don’t simply wake up one day under arbitrary rule." A 30-minute interview between Jared and I can be found at this link The State of Democracy in Alberta- A conversa...

30May

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Agencies, Budget, Credit Ratings, Economic Data, Environment, Government Finances, Opinion/Research, Politics

Alberta’s Public Accounts Committee- Thoughts on Accountability and Public Service Neutrality

The purpose of this post is to the delve into the accountability aspects of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Alberta through the lens of one meeting which took place on 7 May 2024. The transcript of the meeting can be found here and the video proceedings here. Readers may wish to skip over the detail about the meeting to read the conclusions at the foot of this essay. I attended this meeting because a colleague and I provided briefing material for Marlin Schmidt, NDP MLA for Edmonton Goldbar about the Auditor General’s report on Key Audit Matters. This post serves as a companion piece to my interview with Professor Jared Wesley on the state of democracy in Alberta. As discussed below, the Public Accounts Committee serves as one of the principal structures of holding governm...

The State of Democracy in Alberta- A conversation with Jared Wesley

18May

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Intergovernmental, Politics

The State of Democracy in Alberta- A conversation with Jared Wesley

On 6 May, Professor Jared Wesley wrote a piece in The Tyee about the dangers of creeping authoritarianism in Alberta. I reached out to Wesley last week to invite him to chat with me about this threat. We talked on Thursday 16 May. What I particularly liked about his online piece was both warning of the dangers of creeping authoritarianism and the need for citizens to raise their voices about questionable overreach by the provincial government in number of areas discussed in the interview. In “Why the UCP is a Threat to Democracy“ Professor Wesley lists four key traits or pillar values of democratic societies – 1. Rule of law; 2. Checks and Balances; 3. Electoral integrity; and 4. Distribution of power. He then proceeds to define key attributes of these pillars and where these values or...

Exclusive Interview with M.P. Heather McPherson- CPP Act amendments

5May

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Demographics, Employment, Intergovernmental, Politics

Exclusive Interview with M.P. Heather McPherson- CPP Act amendments

On Tuesday 30 April Edmonton Strathcona M.P. Heather McPherson introduced Bill C-387 a simple amendment to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Act. The one page bill, introduced as a Private Member's Bill would change the current requirement for a province to withdraw from the CPP. At present, withdrawal can occur when the Minister of Employment and Social Development, with the approval of the federal cabinet, has entered into an agreement with the government of a province providing a comprehensive pension plan comparable with the CPP Act's benefits. As Ms. McPherson pointed out during this interview, with the prospect of a majority Conservative government under Pierre Poilievre increasingly probable, other provincial governments would have no say on whether Alberta leaves under the current legi...

21Apr

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Energy, Environment, Financial Institutions, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research, Politics

Smith and the Free Alberta Strategy- An assessment

Overview and Context Premier Danielle Smith has been in office for 19 months and provides an opportunity to evaluate how Smith is proceeding in implementing the Free Alberta Strategy (FAS). I found that many boxes have been checked by the premier but her biggest test is ahead- how to prevent the federal from weakening Alberta's largest industry in its bid to lower CO2 and other emissions. Smith is closely associated with one of the FAS authors, Rob Anderson. Rob Anderson is now the Executive Director of the Office of the Premier which places him at the apex of policy-making in Alberta. His acquaintance with Smith goes back to at least 2010 when, as a former Progressive Conservative (Airdrie -Chestermere), he crossed over to join the Wildrose Alliance party becoming deputy leader. In...