Tag Archives: Alberta

Arts

Jemma Hicken and Robbie Banks tour: Coming Back To Cortes

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Originally published Jun 26, 2024

The audio version of this opens with a short clip of Jemma Hicken singiing ‘Skim Milk.’ I was hoping it would be a new version, with her and Robbie Bankes singing together, but it looks like the only place to hear that will be in Mansons Hall at 7:00 on Tuesday July 2, 2024. Jemma and Robbie are just finishing a month long tour of Alberta and BC. They were about to play at Campbell River’s Spirit Square when Cortes Currents reached them yesterday. They will be on Read Island today.

 Cortes Currents: How long have you been playing together? 

Jemma Hicken: “We had one show together last November. Then we’ve just had our tour, so mostly since May 30th.”

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Politics

Elbows up plus — retaliation is just part of the story, Alberta legislature hears

By George Lee, The Macleod Gazette, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Elbows up has earned its place as a catchphrase of the moment for a Trump-and-tariffs Canada where patriotism suddenly got cool again. But perhaps also worth considering is the not-so-sexy cliché nose to the grindstone, as provinces like Alberta reorient their economies to become less reliant on the U.S.

Both ideas rose from the floor of Alberta’s legislature this week, as Donald Trump’s pronouncements, commentary and policies continued to sow economic havoc and news cycle confusion and unpredictability.

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Energy, Politics

A Peek Into Big Oil’s Playbook with Environmental Defence

Environmental Defence just released a report showing that last year oil and gas company lobbyists were targeting the Conservative Party, in preference to the Canadian Government, by more than a 2 to 1 ratio. Cortes Currents interviewed Emilia Belliveau, lead author of ‘Big Oil’s Playbook, A Summary of Big Oil’s 2024 Federal Lobbying’ and asked Max Thaysen, from the Cortes Island Climate Action Network for his insights.  

Emilia Belliveau:  “Environmental Defence is a charity, so we are nonpartisan. What I can do is simply relay the facts, which are that the Bloc Québécois and the Green Party did not take any lobbyist meetings. The NDP took a very small number, four. Then you have most of the lobby meetings targeting the Federal Liberals and the Federal Conservatives. The Federal Liberals had 62 meetings with ministers and 29 meetings with backbencher MPs, and Conservative MPs took 216  lobby meetings.”

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Politics

Tariffs a wake-up call for how much of our natural resources are tapped by the US

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Canadian public is souring on the U.S. as Trump wields trade threats as an “economic force” to drive home his message that Canada should become the 51st state. 

The prospect has sparked a Buy Canadian movement, and a national Leger poll conducted last weekend suggests 80 per cent of Canadians are opposed to U.S. companies taking greater ownership of natural resource projects in Canada. 

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Animals, Health

Chronic Wasting Disease reported in the Kootenay Region

On January 31, 2024, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed that two cases of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) have been found south of Cranbrook, in the Kootenays. ‘The first sample came from a ‘harvested’ adult male mule deer and the second from a white-tailed doe that was struck on the road. 

CWD is a highly infectious and fatal disease, which the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention states, “affects many different species of hoofed animals including North American elk or wapiti, red deer, mule deer, black-tailed deer, white-tailed deer, sika deer, reindeer, and moose.”

This is the first report of CWD west of the Rocky Mountains in Canada or the United States.  

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