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Alberta Diary

David Climenhaga, author of the Alberta Diary blog, is a journalist, author, journalism teacher, poet and trade union communicator who has worked in senior writing and editing positions with the Toronto Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald. His 1995 book, A Poke in the Public Eye, explores the relationships among Canadian journalists, public relations people and politicians. He left journalism after the strike at the Calgary Herald in 1999 and 2000 to work for the trade union movement. Alberta Diary focuses on Alberta politics and social issues.

Blog - Alberta Diary January 19
The University of Alberta's Central Academic Building
Alberta's UCP hits universities with red tape
David J. Climenhaga | Jason Kenney's government adores regulations intended to harass people and organizations they don't like, for example, the University of Alberta.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 17
Manning Centre founder and former Reform party leader Preston Manning. Image: David J. Climenhaga
Mysterious career changes announced in Alberta and British Columbia
David J. Climenhaga | File under unsolved political mysteries: career changes by Stephen Harper, Preston Manning and Andrew Weaver. Whatever can they mean?
Blog - Alberta Diary January 16
Premier Jason Kenney speaks to media. Image: Government of Alberta/Flickr
Jason Kenney's economic policies are failing Alberta
David J. Climenhaga | The Alberta legislature returns on February 25 amid disappearing jobs and sour economic indicators. Can Alberta survive another spring of renewal like the last one?
Blog - Alberta Diary January 14
Mass strikes and protests in France over pension reform. Image: Jeanne Menjoulet/Flickr
Corporate media is ignoring the general strike in France
David J. Climenhaga | Why is there an almost total blackout of news about the general strike in France in Canadian media?
Blog - Alberta Diary January 12
Wexit rally in Edmonton. Image: David J. Climenhaga
About 150 people make it to frigid Wexit rally at Alberta Legislature Building
David J. Climenhaga | Judging from the turnout at its Edmonton rally yesterday, Alberta's minuscule Wexit faction might want to reconsider its demand for a separation referendum right now.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 10
The "fair deal" panel in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. Image: David Climenhaga
'Fair deal' panel town hall fails to stoke support for Wexit
David J. Climenhaga | If you expected a separatist open mic night in Fort Saskatchewan, guess again!
Blog - Alberta Diary January 9
Tehran in 2010. Image: Flickr/Ninara
With no embassy in Tehran, Canada has little influence over response to plane crash
David J. Climenhaga | In the wake of yesterday's air tragedy in Iran that took the lives of at least 63 Canadians, all Canadians want answers to what caused Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS 752 to crash.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 8
Alberta Minister of Energy Sonya Savage. Image: David J. Climenhaga
Alberta government criticizes UN discrimination report
David J. Climenhaga | The United Conservative Party has a lot of time for the rule of law -- but only when the law lets it enforce its own rules.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 7
NDP Opposition energy critic Irfan Sabir when he was a minister of the Crown. Image: David J. Climenhaga
NDP assails Alberta energy war room for 'gross incompetence,' but is that such a bad thing?
David J. Climenhaga | Run competently, the Canadian Energy Centre could do considerably more damage to the democratic rights of Albertans and the state of our rapidly heating globe.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 6
A helicopter drops a bucket of water on a wildfire near High Level, Alberta in May 2019. Image: Chris Schwarz for Government of Alberta/Flickr
Get used to it, Alberta: the world is learning how to talk about climate change
David J. Climenhaga | Response to Australian wildfires shows how much has changed since 2016, when connections between Alberta wildfires and climate change were denounced as outrageous.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 3
Linda Silas. Image: David Climenhaga
Linda Silas announces bid to lead Canadian Labour Congress
David J. Climenhaga | The New Brunswick nurse and president of Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions is best known outside labour as a high-profile supporter for a national pharmacare program.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 31
Image: Jeff Wallace/Flickr
Political predictions for Alberta in 2020
David J. Climenhaga | The United Conservative Party's austerity program will push Alberta into recession. The UCP, naturally, will blame the NDP and Justin Trudeau.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 27
Oil pump jacks in Alberta. Image: Jeff Wallace/Flickr
Alberta's energy 'war room' is spreading disinformation
David J. Climenhaga | The Canadian Energy Centre is churning out thinly veiled propaganda while staffers masquerade as reporters, endangering the integrity of an already struggling media ecosystem.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 21
Left image: Progress Software Corp. logo. Right image: The CEC's first logo.
Annals of the energy war room: Square-pipeline logo to be dumped like a bad first date
David J. Climenhaga | It turns out the square-pipeline symbol that was supposedly rustled up just for the Canadian Energy Centre was already in use as the corporate logo of a software developer based in Massachusetts.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 21
Image: Government of Alberta/Flickr
Rebranded 'war room' aims for 'measured tone,' doesn't quite succeed
David J. Climenhaga | What the "war room" came up with in response to a tart column in the Medicine Hat News was more akin to a boring press release, as staffers of the newspaper were soon gleefully tweeting.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 18
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney speaks to media December 6, 2019. Image: Government of Alberta/Flickr
No more pipelines? Another UCP talking point debunked
David J. Climenhaga | Is Bill C-69 the "No More Pipelines Bill," as Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says? Apparently not.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 18
Alberta Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer promises Alberta has a "unique fact scenario" to sway the courts in its fight against the federal carbon tax. Image: David J. Climenhaga
Jason Kenney battles carbon tax, as his 'war room' tussles with local journalist
David J. Climenhaga | Kenney will take his war on Alberta's carbon tax to the Supreme Court, even as data shows the tax did not significantly harm the province's GDP. Meanwhile, his 'war room' takes on a local columnist.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 15
Maxime Bernier and Andrew Scheer. Image: Andrew Scheer/Flickr
Maxime Bernier also done like dinner after Andrew Scheer's resignation
David J. Climenhaga | Had he not left the Conservative party in 2018, Bernier would be a prime candidate for the party leadership after Scheer's departure.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 12
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. Image: David J. Climenhaga
Now that Andrew Scheer is done like dinner, what will Jason Kenney do?
David J. Climenhaga | Jason Kenney will run for Andrew Scheer's job. You'll know this is true if all of a sudden you don't hear much more about Alberta's non-negotiable demands from Confederation.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 12
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announces the launch of a public inquiry into foreign-funded anti-Alberta energy campaigns. Image: Government of Alberta/Flickr
Jason Kenney's $30-million 'war room' finally launches with underwhelming website
David J. Climenhaga | The voice of Alberta's oil industry, the $30-million "energy war room," stumbled out of the starting gate yesterday after a news conference graced by Premier Jason Kenney.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 11
Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro, at right, poses with two surgeons and a patient at a private Calgary eye-surgery clinic yesterday. Image: Government of Alberta/Flickr
Private clinics won't shorten surgical wait times in Alberta -- they'll make them longer
David J. Climenhaga | The UCP's privatization plan might have a chance if the government is prepared to spend a lot of money to ensure wait lists for everyone are reduced. How likely do you think that is?
Blog - Alberta Diary December 11
A detail from Joe Versikaitis's portrait of former Alberta Speaker Bob Wanner. Image: Legislative Assembly of Alberta/Flickr
A 21st century touch to a gloomy portrait collection
David J. Climenhaga | That former Speaker Bob Wanner accomplished this by turning to a "sports artist" -- Joe Versikaitis -- just goes to show one ought not to be snooty about such matters.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 10
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney with his cabinet. Image: Premier of Alberta/Flickr
Kenney's holiday flight to Ottawa with his entourage isn't about a 'fair deal'
David J. Climenhaga | No one visits Canada's capital just before Christmas expecting to get any business done with the government.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 8
Image: Jason Kenney/Facebook
Jason Kenney protests Alberta's downgraded credit rating
David J. Climenhaga | The Alberta premier has just added Moody's Investor Service to his growing list of public enemies, moments after it downgraded the province's credit rating for its dependence on fossil fuels.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 6
Journalist Nora Loreto. Image: David J. Climenhaga
30 years after the Montreal Massacre, politicians and media are making things worse
David J. Climenhaga | Every Canadian should read Nora Loreto's essay in the National Observer -- and every Canadian man should read it in a spirit of reflection and honest self-examination.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 3
Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews speaks about budget 2019. Image: Government of Alberta/Flickr
What's behind the United Conservative Party's emerging fury at nurses?
David J. Climenhaga | The UCP's public disparagement of nurses is a troubling development, which shows just how cocksure the party is right now as it sets about dismantling public health care.
Blog - Alberta Diary December 1
Image: United Nurses of Alberta/Facebook
With 5,000 job cuts planned, perpetual chaos returns to Alberta's health system
David J. Climenhaga | Widespread privatization, shuttered health care facilities, and service cuts are all in Kenney's cards as Alberta's government breaks earlier promises on health care.
Blog - Alberta Diary November 28
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. Image: David J. Climenhaga
Alberta to Canada: Get off our lawn -- and mow it, please
David J. Climenhaga | We're not just going to build a firewall, we're going to build two firewalls, with lots of pipelines running through them, and you're going to pay for them!
Blog - Alberta Diary November 27
CN Rail grain train at Spences Bridge, B.C. Image: Mick Hall/Flickr
No way Conservatives will admit they look foolish for calls to legislate CN strikers back to work
David J. Climenhaga | Don't look for any Conservative to confess they were wrong about the CN rail strike. Admitting error -- even when it's blatantly obvious -- is just not in their political DNA.
Blog - Alberta Diary November 26
In what is again becoming a typical Alberta scene, workers, this time unionized nurses, protest Kenney Government policies at the Alberta Legislature last week. Image: David J. Climenhaga
Alberta union leaders summoned to provocative weekend 'consultation' by Kenney government
David J. Climenhaga | If Canadian charter rights stand in the way of the objective of silencing unions, Alberta's UCP seems prepared to bulldoze them.

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