- Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau often come across as political birds of a feather.
It's no surprise that the University of Alberta has come under fire for planning to award an honorary degree to famed environmentalist David Suzuki.
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After all, its campuses are in what is still the most right-wing province in Canada.
It's given birth to the political careers of Stephen Harper, Preston Manning, Jason Kenney, Ted Morton, and, good God, Rob Anders—the only parliamentarian to vote against awarding honorary Canadian citizenship to Nelson Mandela.
Lawyer and polemicist Ezra Levant first became famous in Alberta. The Byfields ran their publishing operation from Alberta, giving a platform to Ken Whyte, the first but not the last right-wing editor of the National Post.
And the University of Calgary has been home to several of Canada's most conservative academics, including Barry Cooper, who's been linked to the climate-change-denial movement, and Rainer Knopff, whose been slamming the Supreme Court of Canada for years.
Alberta-based writers such as Kevin Taft and Andrew Nikiforuk have chronicled the grip that the Alberta oil industry has had on that province's political culture.
It's reflected in the daily newspapers. It's also demonstrated in Premier Rachel Notley's steadfast support for pipelines and expanding production of diluted bitumen.
Today, Notley said that she disagrees with the University of Alberta's decision to give the honorary degree to Suzuki.
It's another sign of how out of touch Alberta is sometimes with the rest of Canada, who voted Suzuki as the fifth-greatest Canadian of all time in a CBC poll.
After all, its campuses are in what is still the most right-wing province in Canada.
It's given birth to the political careers of Stephen Harper, Preston Manning, Jason Kenney, Ted Morton, and, good God, Rob Anders—the only parliamentarian to vote against awarding honorary Canadian citizenship to Nelson Mandela.
Lawyer and polemicist Ezra Levant first became famous in Alberta. The Byfields ran their publishing operation from Alberta, giving a platform to Ken Whyte, the first but not the last right-wing editor of the National Post.
And the University of Calgary has been home to several of Canada's most conservative academics, including Barry Cooper, who's been linked to the climate-change-denial movement, and Rainer Knopff, whose been slamming the Supreme Court of Canada for years.
Alberta-based writers such as Kevin Taft and Andrew Nikiforuk have chronicled the grip that the Alberta oil industry has had on that province's political culture.
It's reflected in the daily newspapers. It's also demonstrated in Premier Rachel Notley's steadfast support for pipelines and expanding production of diluted bitumen.
Today, Notley said that she disagrees with the University of Alberta's decision to give the honorary degree to Suzuki.
It's another sign of how out of touch Alberta is sometimes with the rest of Canada, who voted Suzuki as the fifth-greatest Canadian of all time in a CBC poll.
An NDP premier opposes giving an honorary degree to David Suzuki. Imagine that.
Notley says she won't meddle in the university's move but the message is clear.
The most powerful person in Alberta—who ultimately controls the provincial public purse—clearly disapproves of a publicly financed university recognizing the achievements of the greatest science educator in the country's history.
And she calls herself a New Democrat?
From my vantage point in B.C., it's clear that her allegiances really lie with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal cabinet.
They both support a dishonourable National Energy Board pipeline-approval process, which didn't take upstream or downstream greenhouse gas emissions into account when giving the green light to Kinder Morgan's plan (subject to conditions).
https://www.straight.com/news/1066196/suzuki-comment-rachel-notley-may-w...
