Alberta Teachers Association

Alberta public employees, subject to constant Wildrose and media vilification, win national award for effective service

| February 7, 2017

Just guessing, but you probably won't read much news coverage about the national award the Alberta Public Service received yesterday for its effective response to last spring's Fort McMurray fire.

We don't need an inquiry -- we need to bring the hammer of defunding down now on scofflaw private schools

David J. Climenhaga

| September 21, 2016

To jaw-jaw is generally held to be better than to war-war, as Winston Churchill observed, but there are times when a short, sharp correction is what a situation demands.

Alberta's New Democratic government now faces just such a circumstance in the case of the two Edmonton-area private Baptist schools openly defying the government on the matter of the Jim Prentice-era Tory law, supported back in the day by the NDP, that requires schools to permit students to form gay-straight alliances and other types of anti-bullying clubs.

What's behind Canadian Taxpayers Federation's stunt calling for rollbacks in Alberta teachers' pay?

David J. Climenhaga

| March 5, 2016

Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming.

George Clark's parking lot putschists deliver unintended compliment to Alberta NDP

David J. Climenhaga

| February 21, 2016

Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming.

Don't you think there’s sort of an unintended compliment to Alberta's New Democratic Party in George Clark's announcement Friday he's asking his supporters to help him hijack the party by signing up 400,000 new members?

Alberta Education Minister's War on Teachers signals Tory division, not conspiracy

David J. Climenhaga

| July 6, 2014

Anti-teacher sentiment runs deep nowadays in Alberta conservative circles.

Education Minister Jeff Johnson's war with the Alberta Teachers Association over how its members ought to be disciplined on those rare occasions when they misbehave is only the latest manifestation of this phenomenon, which can be traced back to the leadership of Ralph Klein.

But while it is tempting to ascribe this to Klein's failure to complete high school, it surely has more to do with the neoliberal market fundamentalist fantasies that went mainstream in Alberta during his premiership.

Who will rid Alberta's Tories of their turbulent Education Minister?

David J. Climenhaga

| July 4, 2014

Now that we know Education Minister Jeff Johnson or someone in his office broke Alberta's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to send an email to more than 34,000 teachers back in 2013, is it time for Dave Hancock to start acting like he really is Alberta's Premier and kick Johnson out of cabinet?

Johnson has been behaving like the proverbial bull in the china shop for months in his ongoing feud with Alberta's teachers and the Alberta Teachers Association, their combined union and regulatory body.

Alberta's Tories appear to have waded into the shallow end of the political gene pool

David J. Climenhaga

| July 3, 2014

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…

Never mind the bit about any second coming being at hand. You can go too far, in my estimation, searching modern poets for political metaphor. Anyway, that was what Alison Redford was supposed to be, wasn't it? Or was that Ed Stelmach?

Just the same, I do have a revelation for you: the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, the mighty dynasty created 43 years ago by the sainted Peter Lougheed, is coming apart at the seams and the springs and stuffing are starting to peek out between the splits.

Promises aren't enough for Alberta Tories to win back any progressive votes

David J. Climenhaga

| June 27, 2014

Please support our coverage of democratic movements and become a monthly supporter of rabble.ca.

Perhaps it's time to just come right out and state the obvious: If Tory leadership front-runner Jim Prentice wants even a few of Alberta's badly burned progressive voters to give his so-called Progressive Conservative Party their consideration one more time, he's going to have to do more than make promises.

There's one big reason for this: Alison Redford.

Ric McIver Tory leadership campaign lurches to life

David J. Climenhaga

| May 29, 2014

Ho-hum. After days of virtual silence, former infrastructure minister Ric McIver made the first official appearance of his campaign for the leadership of Alberta's geriatric Tory dynasty at an Edmonton old-folks' home yesterday morning.

Judging from the poor-quality CBC live-feed of the event, McIver's heart wasn't quite in it. But maybe I'm projecting -- people keep telling me not to under-estimate McIver, so I won't -- but he sure looked like a guy who would rather have been somewhere else doing something else.

News reports said there were about 25 seniors at the event, and they probably would have rather been doing something else too. Shuffleboard, maybe.

Democracy, Alberta-style: Voters can have any policy they want, as long as it's Conservative

David J. Climenhaga

| May 14, 2013

In Alberta, it appears you now have more power as the president of a neighbourhood community league than as a duly elected member of a school board!

With province-wide municipal elections scheduled to take place in October, that's something would-be candidates for school trustee might want to think about.

Albertans had a small but significant demonstration of this axiom yesterday, when Education Minister Jeff Johnson announced that if members of elected school boards won't co-operate with the government and vote the way they have been instructed, the results of their mistaken votes will be made to reflect the decision they were supposed to make.

Alberta Teachers Association

rabble.ca in your inbox!

Top Picks On rabble