Categories
Be Arthurs Born Ruffians Miriam Smith Oh Susanna Rainer Knopff Ted Morton Varscona Theatre

no morton points scored here.

After having spent most of my day sitting in Rutherford Library pouring over a series of response articles between the Ted Morton and Rainer Knopff duo and the feisty Miriam Smith, I think my brain is very close to reaching the ‘mush’ point. As interesting as I find the Court Party debate, I think I’ll save writing a post about it until later…

I had some good solid fun checking out the Born Ruffians show at the Velvet Undergroud this weekend. The Born Ruffians are on tour now, so I’d recommend you check them out if they’re playing in a town near you… you should also check out their MySpace page for some sample songs. Here’s the video for their song ‘Hummingbird’…

And of course, as I seem to do at the end of month, I was at Oh Susanna at the Varscona Theater last night. If you haven’t been, you should. They put on a good show and rarely disappoint. The Be Arthurs were there too and gave the audience a hilarious rendition of Bitches ain’t Shit.

If you’ve never heard the Be Arthurs, here’s a clip from one of their live shows.

Categories
2006 Alberta PC Leadership Race Ed Stelmach Jim Dinning Ted Morton

everybody’s third choice. one year later.

Today is the one-year anniversary of Ed Stelmach‘s selection as leader of Alberta’s 36-year old Progressive Conservative government (and also a first-anniversary for anniversary for Stephane Dion). On December 2, 2006, Stelmach came from third place to defeat Jim Dinning and Ted Morton in the final weekend of the Alberta PC leadership selection.

Stelmach’s year as Tory Premier has been the most shaky the Tories have witnessed in a long time. I could use this post to write about Ed Stelmach’s Tories and their many, many missteps and missed opportunities over the past year (the Calgary-Elbow by-election, EUB spy scandal, a damning Auditor General’s report, waffling on the royalty review, shutting down debate on Bill 46, taking 4 months to deal with Craig Chandler in Calgary-Egmont, the rest of the Top 10, etc), but instead, I’ll wish Premier Stelmach congrats on surprsing many of us by surviving one year.

In conclusion, I will leave you with everyone’s favorite theme song from the 2006 Alberta PC leadership race:

Categories
Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Ted Morton

an unruly bunch.

Ed Stelmach leaves the province for only a couple of days, and already the kids are at each others throats

Tory MLA slams Ted Morton
By RENATO GANDIA, SUN MEDIA

Tory MLA Denis Ducharme is slamming Sustainable Resource Minister Ted Morton’s decision to allow seismic tests by a Calgary-based company on Marie Lake, one of Alberta’s remaining pristine bodies of water.

He’s also “very disappointed” that he found out about the decision through the media.

“I found that his lack of professional courtesy to me was unacceptable,” Ducharme, of the Bonnyville-Cold Lake constituency, told Sun Media. “I’m certainly going to be having a discussion with the premier regarding this decision.”

Ducharme suggested Morton’s hands may be tied by the province’s oil development policy.

“Maybe there are some changes that have to be done,” he said. “Unfortunately, Mr. Morton did not show leadership.”

Categories
Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Ted Morton

and it’s only thursday.

What a week…

– Tory Education Minister Ron Liepert claims poverty. Finance Minister Lyle Oberg announces an $8.5 Billion surplus. For some reason, Liepert’s argument sounds more ludicrous today than it did yesterday…

– The Edmonton Journal Editorial Board rebutted Ed Stelmach in today’s editorial:

Stephen Mandel is right and Ed Stelmach is wrong. Edmontonians don’t need a plebiscite on new taxation powers. They need politicians with the courage to make decisions on this and other questions, to explain and defend those decisions to a skeptical public, and to be held responsible for them at election time.

In short, they need politicians who are more willing to do the difficult parts of the job for which they are paid.

In Stelmach’s case, one is tempted to note that a politician who has yet to subject his own premiership to a popular vote has a lot of nerve lecturing the mayor of Edmonton on the wisdom of seeking popular endorsement for his tax ideas.

– The House of Commons sheds a layer: Myron Thompson, Bill Graham, Michel Gauthier, Jean Lapierre, Jim Peterson and is about to make an unfortunate addition.

– Ted Morton wants to raise the drinking age from 18 to 19 years-old to cut down on crime and violence. I’d love to see Ted Morton’s data that shows it’s the 18 years-olds causing all the trouble, and not the rig pigs in town for a weekend romp.

– And finally, it wouldn’t be an election in Alberta without a crazy wingnut: enter Bill Whatcott.

Categories
Alberta Politics Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Jim Dinning Ted Morton

shakin’ up the alberta scene.

This great editorial from today’s Calgary Herald touches on some of the same points surrounding the myths of Alberta’s “new political forces” that I’ve talked about for some time now…

Shake up party from inside out
Brent Johner, For The Calgary Herald
Published: Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Alberta’s new premier may be know affectionately as Steady Eddie in small town coffee shops, but his cabinet selections — chosen more for their loyalty than for their brilliance — are seen by many here in Calgary as the Special Eds.

And despite this city’s willingness to give the new guy a chance, many find it hard to believe that a white, middle-aged, male and mostly rural group of conservative cabinet ministers will ever feel comfortable with urban Alberta’s growth-and-change agenda.

So what’s to be done?

What are the alternatives should Steady Eddie and the Special Eds turn out to be Harry Strom and the Socreds reincarnated?

At least one Calgary columnist is predicting the imminent collapse of the Alberta PCs and is calling on Ted Morton and Jim Dinning to flee with their supporters to the Alberta Alliance Party — Alberta’s newest protest party.

He’s not alone. Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail is also wondering aloud if it isn’t time for a new political alignment in Alberta.

Like many pundits, Simpson disdains the current opposition and looks to the formation of a new party in the event that Steady Eddie proves “too steady,” boring and old-fashioned for Albertans focused on a growth-and-change agenda.

“The name ‘Liberal’ is just too toxic in Alberta,” writes Simpson. “The desire for political change in Alberta runs not through an established political alternative but some new political force.”

He’s wrong, of course. But he can be forgiven for being so. Many people, professional historians included, have looked at Alberta’s history and have come to exactly the same utterly incorrect conclusion.

The brilliant success of two protest parties — the United Farmers of Alberta (1921-1935) and the Social Credit Party (1935-1971) — blinds people to the fact that more than 20 other “new” parties have failed to gain any traction whatsoever in Alberta.

In fact, only a tiny fraction of Alberta’s “new” parties have been able to elect any members to the provincial assembly and with the exception of the two just mentioned, none were able to garner enough support to form a government.

It is nearly three generations now since a new political party in Alberta has gained sufficient momentum to seize the reins of government.

Witness the spectacular lack of success now enjoyed by new parties such as the Alberta Alliance and the Alberta Greens.

A single MLA between them doesn’t give much credence to the arguments put forth by new party proponents.

Even the federal Reform Party (what a monumental waste of time and energy that proved to be) has now slipped below Alberta’s political horizon after failing to achieve anything more than forming the Official Opposition for a few brief years.

So much for the Manning model. So much for Simpson’s “new political forces.”

A much better idea, if history is to be accepted as our best instructor on this subject, is to take an existing party and remake it. That’s what Peter Lougheed did. Or at least, that is what Lougheed is often credited with accomplishing.

In 1965, Lougheed inherited a failed party and a “toxic” brand. Two years later, his Progressive Conservatives formed the Official Opposition. Four years after that, they formed the government.

How did Lougheed do it? He didn’t. At least, not really.

Albertans did it. Specifically, voters in Edmonton and Calgary who had been voting for Social Credit candidates for decades, brought about the government’s sudden collapse.

In 1971, they decided that the Socreds were too steady, boring and old-fashioned. They looked at the dim lights and rural faces perched on the cabinet benches and decided that enough was enough.

After 36 years of one-party rule, the time had come to make a change.

So they switched to a different party — not a new party, but an established party.

It was an enormously practical decision. Not a minute was wasted trying the reinvent the wheel.

Change came in an instant. Without warning, Albertans put a new government formed from an old party on track toward a growth-and-change agenda valued by a new generation of urban voters.

And in doing so, they permanently changed the political landscape.

Categories
Foothills-Rockyview Ted Morton

no kyoto! no wheat board! no gun registry! no french citizenship!

Just got back from the wonderful City of Lethbridge in southern Alberta!

This was on the side of the road in what I believe to be the Foothills-Rockyview Constituency which is represented by one Fredrick Lee Morton.

I wonder what happens when you call 1-403-265-3669?

Categories
2006 Alberta PC Leadership Race Alberta Tories Dave Hancock Ed Stelmach Jim Dinning Mark Norris Ted Morton

selected alberta pc leadership selection results…

Here are the main and selected riding results from yesterday’s Alberta PC leadership selection…

First Ballot
Jim Dinning – 29,470
Ted Morton – 25,614
Ed Stelmach – 14,967
Lyle Oberg- 11,638
Dave Hancock – 7595
Mark Norris – 6789
Victor Doerksen – 873
Gary McPherson – 744

Second Ballot
Ed Stelmach – 51,764
Jim Dinning – 51,282
Ted Morton – 41, 243

Third Ballot
Ed Stelmach – 77, 577
Jim Dinning – 55,509
(Morton to Stelmach – 25,813)
(Morton to Dinning – 4,227)

Here are some interesting selected riding results…

Calgary Elbow (Ralph Klein’s riding)
First Ballot
Jim Dinning – 1,890
Ted Morton – 656
Ed Stelmach – 360

Second Ballot
Jim Dinning – 2,004
Ed Stelmach – 747

Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville (Stelmach’s riding)
First Ballot
Ed Stelmach – 4,156
Ted Morton – 316
Jim Dinning – 170

Second Ballot
Ed Stelmach – 4,382
Jim Dinning – 193

Little Bow
First Ballot
Ted Morton – 1,784
Jim Dinning – 382
Ed Stelmach – 351

Second Ballot
Ed Stelmach – 1,518
Jim Dinning – 515

Categories
2006 Alberta PC Leadership Race Ed Stelmach Jim Dinning Ted Morton

premier ed stelmach…?

Say hello to Premier Ed Stelmach on the third ballot…

Most recent second ballot results of the Alberta PC race…

Jim Dinning – 44.000
Ed Stelmach – 36,000
Ted Morton – 32,000

Wow…

First, Stephane Dion… now maybe Ed Stelmach… it’s a good night for third place finishers…

I may or may not be heading off to the PC party at the Aviation Centre…

Categories
2006 Alberta PC Leadership Race Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Jim Dinning Ted Morton

debate? how about mini-put?

The three last remaining Alberta PC leadership candidates standing – Ed Stelmach, Ted Morton, and Jim Dinning – had it out tonight in a televised debate. Now, one might say,:

“Daveberta, you’re a keen observer of the albertus politicnus. What did you think of the debate?”

Well, my answer to that question is that I didn’t watch the debate.

I spent my evening having a blast at West Edmonton Mall’s Glow-in-the-Dark Mini-put! If you haven’t been, I do recommend. It’s quite fun.

From what I can tell about the debate, it wasn’t exactly exciting (I may be wrong?).

Jim Dinning went on the attack against Ted Morton. This isn’t overly surprising as Dinning has been in desperate-attack mode against Morton since only receiving 30% support on last Saturday’s PC leadership vote. All you have to do is watch and listen to Dinning to feel the sense that he’s extremely desperate to save his political future and pull off a win. Check out this video of Dinning’s rally speech to supporters earlier this week to see what I mean.

Though I’m really at a loss as to predict what the results of Saturday’s vote will be, it should be interesting to see how much support Ed Stelmach has been able to gain over the past week. He seems like the only of the three to have some sort of momentum…

As for the other candidates, I will have my final pre-second/third ballot up tomorrow.