Alberta
WATCH: Alberta remains fertile ground for country music
![](https://www.todayville.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/acma-nominations-1.jpg)
The west has been a hotbed for country music for a very long time and so it continues. Exciting this morning to receive the list of nominees for the 2019 Alberta Country Music Association Award Nominees and see my friend Ryan Langlois on the list for Male Artist of the Year. So many terrific musicians, writers, performers on this list.
Male Artist of the Year
Ben Chase
Dan Davidson
Drew Gregory
Sean Gristwood
Ryan Langlois
Female Artist of the Year
Hailey Benedict
Krissy Feniak
Lauren Mayell
Andrea Nixon
Mariya Stokes
Group/Duo of the Year
The Dungarees
Ghost Boy
Nice Horse
The Prairie States
Renegade Station
Fans Choice
Ben Chase
The Dungarees
Drew Gregory
Nice Horse
The Prairie States
Renegade Station
Industry Person of the Year
Johnny Gasparic / MCC Recording
Carla Hackman / Sakamoto Agency
Larry Mayell / LJVM Projects
Chard Morrison / Shattered Glass
Sarah Scott / Sun Country 99.7
Musician of the Year
Lisa Dodd (Bass)
Johnny Gasparic (Guitar, Bass, Banjo, Dobro, Mandolin)
Cody Mack (Drums, Bass)
Josh Ruzycki (Guitar)
Brandi Sidoryk (Bass)
Album of the Year
“Juliet” / Dan Davidson
“Twenty Something” / The Dungarees
“Running on the Edge” / Tim Isberg
“It Was A Song” / Ryan Langlois
“Wild” / Ryan Lindsay
Song of the Year
“All Over It” / Written by: Ben Chase, Matty McKay, Aaron Pollock, Adam Dowling
(Performed by: Ben Chase)
“Better in a Bar” / Written by: Drew Gregory, Aaron Goodvin
(Performed by: Drew Gregory)
“Hands on My Body” / Written by: Mariya Stokes, Aaron Pollock, Michael Braun (Performed by: Mariya Stokes)
“It Was A Song” / Written by: Ryan Langlois
(Performed by: Ryan Langlois)
“Just Drive” / Written by: Justin Hogg, James Murdoch
(Performed by: Justin Hogg)
Single of the Year
“All Over It” / Ben Chase
“Twenty Something” / The Dungarees
“Better In a Bar” / Drew Gregory
“Just Maybe” / The Prairie States
“Along for the Ride” / Renegade Station
Horizon Youth
Hailey Benedict
Martina Dawn
Hannah Gazso
Anna Johnson
Jordan Leaf
Entertainer of the Year
Gord Bamford
Paul Brandt
Aaron Goodvin
High Valley
Brett Kissel
Tenille Townes
Video of the Year
“Twenty Something” / The Dungarees
“Suntans & Beer Cans” / Justin Hogg
“Lightbulb” / Troy Kokol
“Just Maybe” / Prairie States
“Along for the Ride” / Renegade Station
“Hands on My Body” / Mariya Stokes
Community Spirit Award
Hailey Benedict
Bob Donaldson
The Dungarees
Donny Lee
Kym Simon
The Prairie States
Renegade Station
Country Venue of the Year
Boot Scootin Boogie – Edmonton
Cook County Saloon – Edmonton
Ranchmans Cookhouse and Dancehall – Calgary
Talent Buyer of the Year
Carla Hackman / Sakamoto Agency
Natasha Mandrusiak – Calgary Stampede
Pat McGannon / PM Gigs
Chris Melnychuk – Trixstar
Angie Morris – Sirroma Entertainment
Adam Oppenheim / Stampede Entertainment
Rising Star
Ben Chase
Karac Hendriks
Ryan Lindsay
Trevor Panczak
Brad Saunders
Radio Station of the Year
840 CFCW – Edmonton
REAL COUNTRY 95.5 – Red Deer
SUN COUNTRY 99.7 – High River
THE ONE 88.1 – Parkland
WILD 95.3 – Calgary
Ticket link, hotel info, and further information about the ACMA™ Awards Weekend will be announced soon. Information on ACMA available at www.acmamusic.com.
ACMA Awards weekend will be held January 25-26, 2020 at the Cambridge Hotel and Conference Centre in Red Deer.
2019 ACMA Award Nominees!
November 19th, 2019 (Edmonton, AB) – The Association of Country Music in Alberta (ACMA)™ is pleased to present our Nominees for the upcoming 2019 Alberta Country Music Awards™.
Winners will be announced during the ACMA Awards weekend on
January 25 & 26, 2020.
Alberta
Alberta awash in corporate welfare
![](https://www.todayville.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/tvrd-fi-corporate-welfare-image-2024-07-26.jpg)
From the Fraser Institute
By Matthew Lau
To understand Ottawa’s negative impact on Alberta’s economy and living standards, juxtapose two recent pieces of data.
First, in July the Trudeau government made three separate “economic development” spending announcements in Alberta, totalling more than $80 million and affecting 37 different projects related to the “green economy,” clean technology and agriculture. And second, as noted in a new essay by Fraser Institute senior fellow Kenneth Green, inflation-adjusted business investment (excluding residential structures) in Canada’s extraction sector (mining, quarrying, oil and gas) fell 51.2 per cent from 2014 to 2022.
The productivity gains that raise living standards and improve economic conditions rely on business investment. But business investment in Canada has declined over the past decade and total economic growth per person (inflation-adjusted) from Q3-2015 through to Q1-2024 has been less than 1 per cent versus robust growth of nearly 16 per cent in the United States over the same period.
For Canada’s extraction sector, as Green documents, federal policies—new fuel regulations, extended review processes on major infrastructure projects, an effective ban on oil shipments on British Columbia’s northern coast, a hard greenhouse gas emissions cap targeting oil and gas, and other regulatory initiatives—are largely to blame for the massive decline in investment.
Meanwhile, as Ottawa impedes private investment, its latest bundle of economic development announcements underscores its strategy to have government take the lead in allocating economic resources, whether for infrastructure and public institutions or for corporate welfare to private companies.
Consider these federally-subsidized projects.
A gas cloud imaging company received $4.1 million from taxpayers to expand marketing, operations and product development. The Battery Metals Association of Canada received $850,000 to “support growth of the battery metals sector in Western Canada by enhancing collaboration and education stakeholders.” A food manufacturer in Lethbridge received $5.2 million to increase production of plant-based protein products. Ermineskin Cree Nation received nearly $400,000 for a feasibility study for a new solar farm. The Town of Coronation received almost $900,000 to renovate and retrofit two buildings into a business incubator. The Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada received $400,000 for marketing and other support to help boost clean technology product exports. And so on.
When the Trudeau government announced all this corporate welfare and spending, it naturally claimed it create economic growth and good jobs. But corporate welfare doesn’t create growth and good jobs, it only directs resources (including labour) to subsidized sectors and businesses and away from sectors and businesses that must be more heavily taxed to support the subsidies. The effect of government initiatives that reduce private investment and replace it with government spending is a net economic loss.
As 20th-century business and economics journalist Henry Hazlitt put it, the case for government directing investment (instead of the private sector) relies on politicians and bureaucrats—who did not earn the money and to whom the money does not belong—investing that money wisely and with almost perfect foresight. Of course, that’s preposterous.
Alas, this replacement of private-sector investment with public spending is happening not only in Alberta but across Canada today due to the Trudeau government’s fiscal policies. Lower productivity and lower living standards, the data show, are the unhappy results.
Author:
Alberta
‘Fireworks’ As Defence Opens Case In Coutts Two Trial
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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Ray McGinnis
Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial for conspiracy to commit murder and firearms charges in relation to the Coutts Blockade into mid-February 2022. In opening her case before a Lethbridge, AB, jury on July 11, Olienick’s lawyer, Marilyn Burns stated “This is a political, criminal trial that is un Canadian.” She told the jury, “You will be shocked, and at the very least, disappointed with how Canada’s own RCMP conducted themselves during and after the Coutts protest,” as she summarized officers’ testimony during presentation of the Crown’s case. Burns also contended that “the conduct of Alberta’s provincial government and Canada’s federal government are entwined with the RCMP.” The arrests of the Coutts Four on the night of February 13 and noon hour of February 14, were key events in a decision by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Janice Charette, and the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, Jody Thomas, to advise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act. Chief Justice Paul Rouleau, in submitting his Public Order Emergency Commission Report to Parliament on February 17, 2023, also cited events at the Coutts Blockade as key to his conclusion that the government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act.
Justice David Labrenz cautioned attorney Burns regarding her language, after Crown prosecutor Stephen Johnson objected to some of the language in the opening statement of Olienick’s counsel. Futher discussion about the appropriateness of attorney Burns’ statement to the jury is behind a publication ban, as discussions occurred without the jury present.
Justice Labrenz told the jury on July 12, “I would remind you that the presumption of innocence means that both the accused are cloaked with that presumption, unless the Crown proves beyond a reasonable doubt the essential elements of the charge(s).” He further clarified what should result if the jurors were uncertain about which narrative to believe: the account by the Crown, or the account from the accused lawyers. Labrenz stated that such ambivalence must lead to an acquittal; As such a degree of uncertainty regarding which case to trust in does not meet the “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold for a conviction.”
On July 15, 2024, a Lethbridge jury heard evidence from a former employer of Olienicks’ named Brian Lambert. He stated that he had tasked Olienick run his sandstone quarry and mining business. He was a business partner with Olienick. In that capacity, Olienick made use of what Lambert referred to as “little firecrackers,” to quarry the sandstone and reduce it in size. Reducing the size of the stone renders it manageable to get refined and repurposed so it could be sold to buyers of stone for other uses (building construction, patio stones, etc.) Lambert explained that the “firecrackers” were “explosive devices” packaged within tubing and pipes that could also be used for plumbing. He detailed how “You make them out of ordinary plumbing pipe and use some kind of propellant like shotgun powder…” Lambert explained that the length of the pipe “…depended on how big a hole or how large a piece of stone you were going to crack. The one I saw was about six inches long … maybe an inch in diameter.”
One of Olienick’s charges is “unlawful possession of an explosive device for a dangerous purpose.” The principal evidence offered up by RCMP to the Crown is what the officers depicted as “pipe bombs” which they obtained at the residence of Anthony Olienick in Claresholm, Alberta, about a two-hour drive from Coutts. Officers entered his home after he was arrested the night of February 13, 2022. Lambert’s testimony offers a plausible common use for the “firecrackers” the RCMP referred to as “pipe bombs.” Lambert added, these “firecrackers” have a firecracker fuse, and in the world of “explosive” they are “no big deal.”
Fellow accused, Chris Carbert, is does not face the additional charge of unlawful possession of explosives for a dangerous purpose. This is the first full week of the case for the defence. The trial began on June 6 when the Crown began presenting its case.
Ray McGinnis is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy who recently attended several days of testimony at the Coutts Two trial.
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