This was not supposed to be yet another column about COVID-19. This was supposed to be a review of the fall sitting of the Alberta legislature and all the things that happened while we were distracted by the pandemic. But the coronavirus is like sand at a beach picnic — it gets into everything.

After months of pleading with Albertans to take “personal responsibility” to stop the spread of COVID-19, Premier Jason Kenney has finally taken personal responsibility himself. On Tuesday, he reluctantly announced the kind of sweeping COVID-19 restrictions he had been tersely rejecting for weeks. He is now ordering everyone to wear a mask in public spaces everywhere in Alberta. And nobody is…

Buried amidst the ongoing COVID confusion and controversy this week in Alberta came a bit of unusual news: the UCP government and NDP opposition agreed on something. It wasn’t exactly a Kumbaya moment but the two battling political parties that have turned the legislature’s daily question period into a form of trench warfare finally see eye-to-eye on an issue. They’re…

Kenney’s shrinking support. Jason Kenney is not the man he used to be. At least not popularity-wise. His approval rate has been falling, not sinking like a stone but deflating slowly like a balloon.

When Premier Jason Kenney held his long-awaited news conference on Tuesday to announce new COVID-related restrictions, he did two unusual things. Well, unusual for him. He admitted to making a mistake and he issued an apology. I don’t want to overstate the moment but, well, I’ve never heard Kenney definitively do either of those things in his 23 years as…