Alberta Politics

2 weeks ago | albertapolitics.ca | David J. Climenhaga

There was another big health care announcement by the Alberta Government yesterday, the second in as many days, this one about the further deconstruction of Alberta Health Services and the shuffling of important health care activities among newly created bureaucracies like a pea under some walnut shells. Where’s cancer care gone? What about organ transplants and tissue donations?

2 weeks ago | albertapolitics.ca | David J. Climenhaga

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith claimed yesterday a new “patient-focused funding model” planned for Alberta hospitals “will increase transparency, lower wait times and attract more surgeons – helping deliver better health care for all Albertans, when and where they need it.”But what will really happen when the United Conservative Party Government puts Ms. Smith’s new acute-care funding model into effect at Alberta hospitals?

2 weeks ago | albertapolitics.ca | David J. Climenhaga

If vetting federal political candidates was as strict in 2004 as it needs to be today, would Pierre Poilievre have made the cut as a candidate? I wonder. Since candidate vetting by national political parties is as rigorous as it is in this age of social media, where any injudicious thing we say is likely to live online forever, is the quality of the candidates we’re getting better or worse? I’m not confident I know the answer to either question, but they’re both worth asking.

3 weeks ago | albertapolitics.ca | David J. Climenhaga

Something new is happening in the 2025 federal election campaign now under way. After a couple of years of polls suggesting that a Conservative victory was a deadbolt cinch and Pierre Poilievre would soon be prime minister, no sooner did Justin Trudeau quit as PM than public opinion began to turn back toward the Liberals now led by former central banker Mark Carney. This seems to have pushed some prominent Alberta Conservatives right up to the edge, maybe right over it.

3 weeks ago | albertapolitics.ca | David J. Climenhaga

How big a role did the colourful image of popsicles play in the Alberta Government’s decision yesterday to drop the appalling Alberta Health Services policy of not providing frozen treats, juice boxes, water and snacks to kids recovering from cancer treatments? Never mind the letterhead on the memo or the excuses we’re hearing now, it’s the Alberta Government that owns the penny-wise, pound-foolish policy that under the circumstances can only be described as depraved.