Conservative Party of Canada

Canada's Conservative Party, a once-great national organization, is being overwhelmed by its own extremists

| February 17, 2017

The refusal by Conservative MPs to agree to an anti-Islamophobia motion and their mockery of an Edmonton Liberal MP for having once worked as a bus driver are both additional evidence their once-great national party, like its Republican counterpart in the United States, is increasingly controlled by an extremist, offensive fringe.

Not that additional proof was really needed. The blowhards and bigots crowding the Conservative Party of Canada's interminable leadership race should be evidence enough.

This feels like it's happened before … it's Groundhog Day and the Liberals have just broken a promise!

David J. Climenhaga

| February 2, 2017

So long, electoral reform! Welcome back, first-past-the-post!

Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party, said yesterday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's announcement that his clear promise of electoral reform back in the 2015 federal election campaign was going over the side left her feeling "more deeply shocked and betrayed by my government today than on any day of my adult life."

Those of us who are old New Democrats, or old Tories for that matter, may not feel quite so much shock.

It is Groundhog Day, after all, and we've seen this movie before -- over and over and over. Every time we're persuaded to vote Liberal for one reason or another, as a matter of fact.

Others sure to suffer as Sudden Apocalyptic Deficit Syndrome strikes affluent, older, white males from Saskatchewan

David J. Climenhaga

| January 24, 2017

Saskatchewan appears to be suffering from a serious economic malady.

Nobel Prize-winning economist and journalist Paul Krugman calls it "Austerity Fever."

Canadian economist and journalist Toby Sanger calls it Sudden Apocalyptic Deficit Syndrome (SADS).

Call it what you will, a new case has now been diagnosed in Manitoba, and conservatives here in Alberta appear to have been afflicted as well -- although, thankfully, not our social democratic NDP government.

As a result, for the time being at least, we will likely be spared the worst symptoms of this tragic condition, which Sanger noted in correspondence with your blogger is "mainly a disease of affluent older white males, in which the 'cure' is inflicted on others, and is far worse than the disease."

Alberta Tories on the brink of dumping Jason Kenney? Not a chance.

David J. Climenhaga

| January 20, 2017

"Faced with the end of their party, PCs ponder kicking out Jason Kenney," the Calgary Herald blared yesterday.

The author of this scoop -- and if his story is right, it's undeniably a major scoop -- is Don Braid, the Herald's political columnist for many years.

Braid's claim in a nutshell is that now with it looking increasingly as if Kenney will win the race to lead the Alberta Tories with relative ease -- thanks to what the columnist called "his organization, money and bloodthirsty will to prevail" -- Tory insiders on the party's board may give him the bum's rush for planning to destroy the party.

Oilsands phase-out freak-out explained: Conservatives think road back to Ottawa runs through Edmonton

David J. Climenhaga

| January 16, 2017

OTTAWA

"Funny," Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan observed in a tweet yesterday: "I don't remember Kenney or Jean hyperventilating when their boss agreed to decarbonization by 2100."

McGowan was referring to the nearly complete meltdown on the right in Alberta after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's remark last Friday in Peterborough, Ont., that "we can't shut down the oilsands tomorrow. We need to phase them out."

Lid's still on the unite-the-right soup the Wildrose Party's leader is cooking up, but there are hints about the recipe

David J. Climenhaga

| January 10, 2017

As 2017 begins, we still await the details of Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean's alternative plan to unite the right.

All we're supposed to know is that it presumably involves him, and not Jason Kenney or some other nominal Progressive Conservative, leading the charge against the NDP government of Premier Rachel Notley in the next provincial general election.

The Wildrose Party is still cooking up their launch strategy, and their only comment is that they won't yet comment. Naturally, idle hands being the Devil's workshop, this leads to idle speculation on the part of bloggers.

Past PC taxes disappear down conservative memory hole amid apocalyptic claims about similar NDP policies

David J. Climenhaga

| January 4, 2017

It's worth remembering as unite-the-right conservatives of all stripes completely melt down over the supposedly job-destroying, economy-destroying, soul-destroying 4.5-cent-per-litre increase in the price of gasoline introduced as part of the Alberta NDP Government's climate strategy, that if Jim Prentice's Progressive Conservatives had won re-election in May 2015 his government would have raised the gasoline tax roughly the same amount.

Alberta's carbon tax: Science is political when it doesn't suit Wildrose agenda; politics is scientific when it does

David J. Climenhaga

| January 3, 2017

Alberta has had a carbon tax for two days now and as Environment Minister Shannon Phillips observed at a news conference yesterday, notwithstanding the predictions of the two principal right-wing parties, the province remains standing.

In this regard, I suppose you could say, Alberta is like British Columbia, which is similarly still standing after having had a carbon tax for 3,108 days.

Jason Kenney -- just visiting Alberta? -- piously congratulates Michael Ignatieff for Order of Canada

David J. Climenhaga

| January 2, 2017

Jason Kenney's Tweet of congratulations to former Liberal Party of Canada leader Michael Ignatieff on Friday was a rare moment of graciousness amid the usual stream of splenetic social media outbursts Albertans have come to associate with the candidate to lead Alberta's Progressive Conservative Party.

"Congratulations to @M_Ignatieff and all others receiving the Order of Canada today," former prime minister Stephen Harper's top lieutenant piously proclaimed in the Tweet. "A much-deserved recognition of a brilliant Canadian." (Emphasis added.)

Santa has presents for everyone in Alberta this year, regardless of political orientation

David J. Climenhaga

| December 24, 2016

Merry Christmas! Vladimir Putin has not yet hacked Christmas in Alberta, although he probably could, so there are political presents under the Yule tree for everyone, regardless of whether their orientation is to the right or to the left.

Conservative Party of Canada

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