Feeling a little choked about this today. I saw Glen Hansard perform with Markéta Irglová in Seattle back in 2023. It was a great outdoor show. The two of them brought so much talent to the stage.

These articles were published just hours apart. It’s been pretty obvious for sometime that US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra has little to no influence or insight into what’s happening in Trump’s White House.

🟧 Former school trustee Trisha Estabrooks launches her campaign for the Alberta NDP nomination in Edmonton-Strathcona.

The Rugby Nations Cup is hosting a few matches in Edmonton this month. Yesterday’s fast paced match between the Canadian and Spanish men’s national teams ended in a 42-42 draw and was pretty exciting. On July 11 there’s a double header with Spain vs Tonga and Canada vs Portugal. 🇨🇦

⚽️🇨🇦 There’s a big feature about Alphonso Davies in Edmonton’s Beverly Community News this month. Davies played soccer in north east Edmonton and attended St. Nicholas Junior High School in Beverly.

🟦🗳️ Former Catholic school trustee and past UCP candidate Pamela Rath has launched her campaign for the UCP nomination in Calgary-Beddington. daveberta.substack.com/p/kyle-campb...

Nah. It’s Steve McQueen. 😎

Mike Derry also had the support of campaign manager Craig Chandler, a frequently controversial and seasoned right-wing political organizer who spearheaded an aggressive lawn sign campaign in the riding calling on Dan McLean to remain on city council.

“The race to replace Premier Ralph Klein is shaping up to be a two-person contest between Jim Dinning and Lyle Oberg, according to recent polling figures that suggest a statistical dead beat between the leadership rivals.” 📰 Calgary Herald, June 23, 2006

It’s not nothing but it’s close to nothing. The one-time $100 rebate from the Alberta government leaves me wondering when was the last time any cabinet minister actually went grocery shopping or looked at their utility bills.

🟧🗳️ A Saturday afternoon press release from the Alberta NDP announcing that MLAs Joe Ceci (Calgary-Buffalo), Luanne Metz (Calgary-Varsity), Lori Sigurdson (Edmonton-Riverview) and Marlin Schmidt (Edmonton-Gold Bar) will not be running for re-election when the next provincial election is called.

Alberta is a province of 5 million people with an incredible depth of talent, knowledge and experience, yet the UCP basically appoints the same people to every panel the government creates. 🙄 www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?...

👋 Hello, Calgary!

🗳️😎 I’m tracking candidate nominations for Alberta’s next provincial election. ✅ Here’s the list: daveberta.substack.com/p/candidates...

The Alberta NDP have relaunched their website with a new splash of purple.

🇨🇦 "I'm no separatist. I am a Canadian. A proud Canadian. And I think almost every person in this party is a proud Canadian." - Premier Ralph Klein speaking to Progressive Conservative Party convention delegates on March 28, 2003. (📰📸 Red Deer Advocate, March 29, 2003)

The Confederacy of Treaty No. 6 First Nations has released a blistering response to the UCP government moving forward with a referendum on Alberta separation from Canada.

🇨🇦City Councillor Michael Janz joined former Edmonton MLA Thomas Lukaszuk and supporters near the Alberta Legislature today to announce a proposal to rename a two-block stretch of 99th Avenue between 107 Street to 109 Street to Forever Canadian Avenue.

New PC Premier Don Getty faced a larger opposition of 16 NDP, 4 Liberal & 2 Representative MLAs. The NDP jumped from 2 to 16 seats and the Liberals, led by the eminently quotable Nick Taylor, reemerged for the first time since the late 1960s. (📰 Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Red Deer Advocate)

Yesterday marked 40 years since Alberta’s 1986 provincial election. Facing skyrocketing costs of living, rising inflation and low oil prices, the Progressive Conservatives won a 5th straight election but it was a smaller majority compared to the electoral romps of the Lougheed era.

Emmott Kelsey of the separatist Centurion Project is a UCP member and has submitted a policy resolution for debate at this year’s UCP AGM that would officially endorse Alberta leaving Canada. He spoke at the Centurion Project event in Edmonton last week.

The mould of Alberta politics was shattered 11 years ago today when Rachel Notley’s NDP surprised the country by defeating the 43-year long governing Progressive Conservatives. We were also gifted the best Peter Mansbridge screenshot ever. 🤠

👀 We will have a lot more questions than answers about this unfolding story and what it means for Albertans’ privacy this week, but the five questions that immediately popped into my mind over the last few days are: daveberta.substack.com/p/largest-pr...

The October 19 referendum day is now a day off for students in Edmonton Public Schools.

Elections Alberta issued a statement this morning about the alleged inappropriate access and use of the official voters list. Very unusual that Elections Alberta would even comment on this — it shows they are taking these allegations very seriously.

Huge congratulations to @carrietait.bsky.social for being named Journalist of the Year for her ongoijg investigation into the Alberta government health care procurement scandal. 🏆 www.newswire.ca/news-release...

Getty spent part of the first week of the election dropping into the 4 opposition held ridings, but a stop in Lamont gave us this great photo of farmers, including future PC cabinet minister Ray Danyluk, confronting the Premier over rising costs of farming. 2/ (📸 Edmonton Journal, April 18, 1986)

Nenshi wants to avoid Brexit mistakes in fight against Alberta separatists. Alberta politics is going to get a lot noisier and more confusing during the months ahead. 🤠Read all about it: daveberta.substack.com/p/nenshi-wan...

Every year someone (I don’t know who) still delivers a Yellow Pages book to my house and when it arrives the first thing I do is check if the phone number for Ted Morton’s 2011 Progressive Conservative leadership campaign is still listed. Yes, it’s still there.

There was a time in the not too distant past when it was frowned upon, and possibly even against ethics rules, for political parties in Alberta to use cabinet ministers titles to sell tickets to partisan fundraising events. No more, I guess.