The Progress Report

Progress Alberta speaks with the only person to provide even a halfway amount of drama in Alberta during the last federal election – Michael Kalmanovitch. He was the Green candidate for Edmonton-Strathcona who, just days before the federal election, threw his support behind NDP candidate Heather McPherson the only non-Conservative elected to parliament in Alberta. We talk about why he did it, what the Greens can learn from this and what's next for the Green part as Liz May steps down. Also, should Progress Report host Duncan Kinney run for leadership of the Greens? Email him at [email protected] and let him know.

Listen and subscribe on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts or just subscribe to the RSS feed

If you like this podcast and you want to support it go to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron!

Further reading:

• Green Party kicks out Edmonton Strathcona candidate after he endorses NDP
• Elizabeth May resigns as Green Party leader after 13 years, plans to remain MP
• 2020 Green Party of Canada leadership election
• A Green/NDP merger? It could be a big hit

Jason Kenney’s brutal class warfare on Albertans on behalf of the rich means people want to fight back. And one of the biggest tools working folks have to fight back is the general strike – but it’s not to be undertaken lightly. We talk to Sam Gindin about the lessons learned from the Days of Action in Ontario in the ‘90s fighting Mike Harris and what folks who are considering a general strike today need to to think about.

Documents from the Glenbow Museum Archives show that Imperial Oil, a subsidiary of Exxon, knew about the catastrophic effects of climate change before anyone. Instead of telling the world and transforming their business they suppressed their research, started a climate denial PR war and started building dossiers and surveilling climate activists. We talk to Murtaza Hussain of the Intercept about his story on the Esso cover-up and on Iran and his investigative journalism on the Iran Cables. 

Stanned by Herald columnists, protected by the old boys' club, and allegely able to disintegrate a grown horse with a single strike: on today's pod Duncan and Mav Adecer delve into the wild history of UCP deputy house leader Jason Nixon.

Further reading:

• "Judge bars media from accessing video of UCP MLA Jason Nixon, siding with party lawyers"
• Sundre horse shooting trial adjourned
• Sundre man not guilty of threatening wildlife officer
• Alberta Conservative house leader fired single mother after she complained of sexual harassment
• Wildrose MLA Jason Nixon faces expulsion motion from students’ union

Mav's friend Jim who's getting sued is our very own Producer Jim, and you can donate to his legal defense fund here.

Support the Progress Report by becoming a patron!

While Albertans suffer from brutal austerity corporations in Alberta will collectively pocket $4.7 billion dollars from Kenney’s corporate tax cut - at least that’s what the government of Alberta and the media is telling you. But when you dig into what these companies are telling their shareholders you find something else entirely. To help us sort through this we have Angella Macewen, senior economist with the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

If you like our podcast and want to support it head to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron!

Further reading:

• Labour party video on why corporate tax cuts don’t work
• Darren Gee, CEO of Peyo Exploration on climate change 
• Calgary Oil CEO Warns Workers Alberta Could Separate From Canada If Conservatives Lose the Election
• UCP’s Corporate Tax Cuts Could Let Five Companies Alone Reduce Public Revenues $4.3 Billion
• CUPE: The hidden cost of corporate tax cuts
• Spreadsheet – Alberta's Corporate Tax Cut: What they're actually saving

Meet Frank Oliver, the man who tried to block black people from coming to Canada, created modern western Canada by stealing massive amounts of land from Indigenous people and personally profited from the whole thing.

If you like our podcast and want to support it head to https://www.theprogressreport.ca/patrons and become a monthly patron :)

Further reading:

• First Nations Land Surrenders on the Prairies
• Frank Oliver and the Michel Band
• A tax-eating proposition : the history of the Passpasschase Indian Reserve
• Details on land surrenders from the Government of Canada
• No Means No: Erminskin’s Resistance to Land Surrender
• Frank Oliver and infantile Edmonton
• Remains of 28 First Nations people reburied after nearly 50 years in storage
• Order-in-Council P.C. 1911-1324 — the Proposed Ban on Black Immigration to Canada
• Paul First Nation History: Sharphead Band at Wolf Creek
• The Curious Case of the 1908 Enoch Surrender
• The Yards: Canada 150 and some tougher history for Edmonton

Don Cherry is finally off the air. We run through some of his greatest hits Rock‘Em Sock‘Em style but instead of brain damage and sweet goals it's racism, misogyny and climate denial. And to help us process the news of this hockey commentator cut down in his prime we turn to comedian Mav Adecer and writer and hockey dad Tej Swatch.

There's a group of Canadian veterans often overlooked on Remembrance Day--the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion who fought the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Kaarina Mikalson of the Canada and the Spanish Civil War Project joins us on the pod to tell us the story of Canada's original anti-fascists.

Further reading:

• Canada and the Spanish Civil War
• Quill and Quire: Generals die in bed
• Jim/Jean Watts

Alberta has deliberately designed its economy to be reliant on oil and gas production--which means the international climate change crisis matters here more than almost anywhere else. But you won't hear much on that subject from Alberta's monolithic, corporate media establishment. On this special episode of the Progress Report, taped live at the University of Calgary on November 4th, we interview climate activist and former Oil Sands Advisory Group member Tzeporah Berman to understand the climate debate beyond the narrow perspective and shallow discourse we get here in Alberta.

Outside of the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in north Edmonton is a statue of Roman Shukheyvych--a Nazi collaborator who took part in the mass murder of Jews. Local activist Paula Kirman and host Duncan Kinney discuss Shukheyvych’s historical legacy with Per Anders Rudling, an expert on the Ukrainian far right.