The exact salary of Calgary’s chief of police is being kept secret in order to protect his privacy despite the fact that every other major Canadian city discloses the salary of its chief of police. 

Rob Houle joins host Duncan Kinney to discuss a month of police politics that saw the police and their business and UCP allies got everything they wanted with the police budget even if it took the likely withholding of vital facts about the Chinatown murders to get it.  

Jason Kenney’s interregnum continues to get weirder: over the weekend Kenney was doing online victory laps about one of the world’s largest crypto companies coming to Calgary.

Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee has changed the Edmonton Police’s story about its contact with Justin Bone, the accused murderer of Hung Trang and Ban Phuc Hoang, in a way which absolves the Edmonton Police Service’s responsibility for the incident. However, new reporting from the CBC directly contradicts McFee's claims that Edmonton Police Service officers couldn't have picked Bone up for violating his bail conditions prior to the Chinatown murders. 

Never before have I written a preview of an Edmonton Police Commission meeting but we live in extraordinary times. 

Weeks of acrimonious debate around public disorder and the policing budget have come to a temporary conclusion in Edmonton, and the winners—to the tune of at least $22 million—are the UCP, the Edmonton Police Service, and the local business lobby.

At issue have been two sources of funding: a funding formula introduced during the Iveson years, and a pot of money derived from the city’s photo radar fines.

Edmonton’s police chief, police commission, business associations, and a collection of conservative politicians brought an incredible amount of political pressure to bear on Edmonton’s city council over the past month in order to secure a $22 million increase in base police funding from the city and the continued existence of a police funding formula that has continually increased the police budget.

Until we asked for it, the salary of Edmonton’s chief of police was a secret. Let me tell you the ridiculous story of what it took just to find out about Chief Dale McFee’s luxurious $340,000-a-year salary. 

Jason Kenney has resigned, but he’s not leaving until there’s a new UCP leader, so I regret to inform you that we have entered Kenney’s lame duck period. No long-term goals, no power over his caucus, dwindling influence, and worst of all for us, no consequences. After all, he’s already lost; so brace yourself, things could get wacky.

Journalist Sarah Hoyles joins Duncan Kinney to talk about how Kenney just won't go away, her dramatic departure from Ryan Jespersen's show and the state of independent media in Alberta.