Writer/Researcher, Former journo (Torstar, Calgary Herald, FFWD)

Calgary, Alberta
Mike Ellis is furious. Absolutely outraged. Somebody should really find out who’s in charge of the ministry responsible for corrections officers dumping released inmates in Edmonton’s Chinatown. #ableg #abpoli
'It was human error': Public safety minister outraged over Chinatown inmate drop-offs edmontonjournal.com/news/pol…
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Funny lecture coming from Rob. A senior UCP caucus staffer watched separatists display @jkenney’s personal information from the voter database. The staffer reported it up the party chain. The UCP kept it in-house. Danielle Smith says she was never told. The NDP learned about it the next day and went straight to the RCMP with the recording. One party notified authorities. The other buried it. But please, Rob, tell the three million Albertans whose private information was leaked to your separatist pals who really takes voter privacy seriously. #ableg #abpoli
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Not to be the guy telling the media how to do their jobs, but… someone’s going to look into why the President of the UCP says his members favour separation, and the Leader says that’s not true, right? I mean, one of them is wrong: which one? #ableg #abpoli
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Remember when Danielle Smtih’s chief of staff said Janet Brown was the only Alberta pollster worth following. “She is the best in the business.” Well, she’s back. Calgary: NDP 46%, UCP 38%. Five months ago, the UCP led Calgary by 11 points. Now the NDP leads by 8. Suddenly the UCP’s push to carve Calgary into urban-rural hybrid ridings make a whole lot more sense. Not pretty for Team Blue. #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/j…
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Danielle Smith says her biggest challenge is keeping conservatives united. Meanwhile, a day earlier in Calgary at a separatist event, Mitch Sylvestre showed the crowd a slide grouping her with Carney, Kenney, Poilievre and Nenshi as "THE SAME." "We've got Danielle, who's probably worked her whole life to get into a position of power." The big tent is doing great. #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli
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Trevor Scott Howell retweeted
I was in the audience for Smith's answer on the MGA/municipal frustrations, but could not make sense of it, nor could others I spoke to. As raw riffs go, this was convoluted, way off point and (probably) not to be taken seriously. #ableg #yeg edmontonjournal.com/news/loc…
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WATCH: The president of UCP MLA Scott Cyr's constituency board says members confronted Cyr over Pathways and AI data centres and warned him he could be replaced. At a Calgary separatist event this week, Mitch Sylvestre said board members brought reports on both issues to their last meeting. One challenged Cyr over his Pathways vote; another asked when he would "start representing the people that elected" him. The board wants answers to nine Pathways questions at its next meeting. Sylvestre's warning: "If he doesn't do it, he'll get replaced. Plain and simple." #abpoli
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Trevor Scott Howell retweeted
Priorities? "The premier says this battle to keep conservatives together is no doubt her greatest challenge." Not reducing ER waiting room deaths. Not making life easier for seniors and disabled folks struggling to survive. Not improving an education system in crisis. #ABPoli
Danielle Smith spent years trying to keep separatists inside the UCP. Now she calls their cause an angry overcorrection, while Jason Nixon predicts they'll lose in the rural heartland. At what point do Alberta separatists realize they were useful right up until they weren't? #abpoli calgaryherald.com/opinion/co…
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Danielle Smith spent years trying to keep separatists inside the UCP. Now she calls their cause an angry overcorrection, while Jason Nixon predicts they'll lose in the rural heartland. At what point do Alberta separatists realize they were useful right up until they weren't? #abpoli calgaryherald.com/opinion/co…
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Trevor Scott Howell retweeted
The UCP have zero firm details about their proposed head tax, other than it won't come into effect until after the next election. So why the hell are we voting on this in a referendum? Why don't they table it in their platform and campaign on it? cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/a…
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Trevor Scott Howell retweeted
She should have done this six months ago. Instead, she was focused on putting forward a separatism referendum.
Alberta already had the lowest fuel prices in the country. Now they are even lower. Affordability is top of mind for families right now. We have their backs. Starting October 1 we are suspending Alberta's fuel tax in full. That is 13 cents off every litre of gasoline and diesel, every single time you fill up. Business owners feel it too. Every fleet, every delivery van and every work truck in this province fills up cheaper.
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Internal government records undercut the UCP's justification for replacing July’s fuel-tax relief with a $100 rebate. A May 29 briefing prepared for Finance Minister Jason Nixon states: "Internal and external studies (including one conducted by Trevor Tombe) indicate that fuel tax reductions are fully passed through to taxpayers." The briefing explains that rising oil prices and other market forces can obscure the savings at the pump, even when the tax cut has been passed through. It also says fuel-tax relief "does temper inflation as it reduces the cost of doing business." But in June, the UCP cancelled the scheduled tax suspension, saying the rebate was preferable to "relying on fuel tax relief and hoping that savings are passed on through lower prices." Today, Nixon repeated that he is "not 100 percent sure" the savings can be passed on. He then admitted the rebate's computer system "did not work the way that I was satisfied with" and that Albertans struggled to use it. So... the UCP replaced automatic fuel-tax relief with a cumbersome rebate system that failed to meet its own minister's expectations. Now it is returning to the policy its own briefing said worked all along. #abpoli
Global uncertainty continues to push energy prices higher, and that’s putting more pressure on Albertans’ wallets. Today I announced that relief is on the way. Starting Oct. 1, Alberta will suspend the full provincial fuel tax, saving Albertans 13 cents per litre on gasoline and diesel every time they fill up until the end of the year. This is practical relief that helps families, workers and businesses keep more money in their pockets. Albertans already pay the lowest overall taxes in Canada, and this cut adds to our unmatched tax advantage.
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Trevor Scott Howell retweeted
#ableg Separatist Danielle Smith is spending $136M taxpayer dollars on a BOGUS non-binding separatist referendum Albertans don’t NEED this We NEED more hospitals, schools, and supports. Here’s EXACTLY what that $136,000,000 could ACTUALLY get for Albertans INSTEAD:: 🧵👇
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Separatist podcaster John Bolton says independence supporters were urged to buy UCP memberships and now plan to "drop a bomb" on Danielle Smith at the November AGM. He predicts she could be "Jason Kenney'd" by the very base that put her in office. The UCP's civil war is going public. #abpoli #cdnpoli piped.video/watch?v=TtK0qVG3…
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Replying to @ABDanielleSmith
@ABDanielleSmith where were your tears when patients died in ERs before even seeing a doctor. Where were your tears when #AISH recipients begged you not to inflict punishing change to their supports? No tears for abandoned wells poisoning farm land? #UCPcorruption #healthcare
Is... Is everything ok with Dani? Because today she broke down in tears over... Equalization payments and pipelines regulations? #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli
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