Category: Uncategorized

This afternoon, I went to the University of Alberta‘s launch of the Institute for United States Policy Studies. The launch included a well-attended panel discussion, titled Sharing a Continent. The panel included Naim Ahmed, United States Consul-General in Calgary, Amira de la Garza, Acting Director of the North America Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, Michael Hawes, Executive Director of the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program, and Jeffrey Simpson, the National Affairs Columnist at The Globe & Mail.

Some of the notable attendees I noticed included former Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, U of A Political Science Professor Linda Trimble, Alberta Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Gary Mar, and U of A President Emeritus Rod Fraser, and what looked like nearly the entire U of A Political Science department…

It was really an interesting panel discussions. Though I’ve seen him speak a number of times, and had a nice little chat with him at the Public Interest Alberta PSE conference a couple months back, I thought Jeffrey Simpson was more articulate that I have seen him before – in his thoughts about border issues and US-Canada relations.

As well, I was very interested to hear what Michael Hawes had to say, as he sounded like he had a wealth of information he wanted to speak to (though he only had 10-12 minutes to get it all out).

Overall, it was an interesting event and I’m glad I went.

Like most of my recent addictions, I think it’s safe to blame mr. face for this one.

For those of you who haven’t seen these clips from the MTV2 show Wonder Showzen, they’re awesome.

The clips are called “Beat Kids” and they make me laugh…

Beat Kids on Wall Street
Beat Kids and Little Hitler
Beat Kids at the Vet
Beat Kids at a Beauty Pagent
Beat Kids at Horse Apple

HIGH FIVE!

Enjoy.

Well, I AM back in Edmonton and slightly busier I usually (so the blog posting action may be a frugal over the next while). I started my new job this week and am enjoying every moment of it. Plus, it’s a really nice day outside.

It was interesting to see what the first Budget of the new Conservative Government had in it for Post-Secondary Education.

Though it’s nice to see this government at least talking a bit about PSE issues, I really hope it doesn’t turn in to the same situation which came about with the previous Liberal government (a main course of talk with a side-order of piece-meal change – with the exception being the creation of the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation in 1998, who’s mandate comes up for renewal in 2008 and should cause an interesting amount of debate on student finance issues).

Last week’s budget did have some PSE related changes in it, but I can’t see these changes having a large effect on the majority of Canadian students.

– Tax credits for textbooks. Canadians attending university or college can claim an annual $500 tax credit on textbook costs, which translates into a benefit of about $80 a year for a typical full-time student. Though it sounds nice, this doesn’t address the reality that because most students already have enough education credits to cover their limited incomes, these new credits won’t make buying textbooks or any other educational expense easier. Not to mention that if it did, students still have to wait until the following year to receive their miniscule $80 rebate.

– Increasing access to student debt. More people will be eligible for Canada Student Loans because of a reduction in the amount parents are expected to contribute toward the cost of post-secondary education, effective August 2007. This is a shortsighted move which doesn’t address the long-term problems caused by students graduating with large amounts of debt. Increasing students’ access to loans, and henceforth, debt, doesn’t even begin to address the problems facing the student finance system.

–100% Scholarship and Bursary exemption. All scholarship, fellowship and bursary money will now be income-tax exempt, compared to the current exemption limit of $3,000 a year. This tax exemption for all scholarship and bursary money from taxation is negated by that fact that the first $3,000 in scholarship and bursary money is already tax-free, and few students will receive even that much. Even if they did, their other tax credits would likely cover it. This measure will only make a difference for a few super-elite scholarship recipients, and thus cannot be said to be of any benefit to the average student.

Here are some suggestions on what the Tories could add to the budget to make it more effective and positive for Canadian students:

– Create more scholarships and bursaries, which would reduce students reliance on loans, and hence, the creation of large amounts of student debt, instead of raising the amount students borrow for their education.

– Implement the Council of the Federation’s request for an immediate $2.2-4.9 billion injection for post-secondary education.

So, overall, the PSE portion of the budget seems to be a victim of the band-aid reaction of trying to fix things by using the tax system instead of actually facing and dealing with the issue head-on.

After a week just outside of the wonderful town of Rocky Mountain House, I’m officially back in Edmonton – woot!

More posts soon.

Props to Jason from Gauntlet who did a little digging in response to my post “propaganda peice” about the new Conservative Government’s “make-over” of the Government of Canada website into a press release generator for Conservative Party of Canada.

For those of you who may have had doubts about this allegation, check out the links Jason has provided in the comment section of that post:

Compare these archives of the Government of Canada site with these archives of the Liberal Party of Canada site.

There’s no question that the current situation is vastly different. Vastly.

When Harper said he had a problem with Liberals covertly using government resources to support their party’s political objectives, I thought the operative word was “government.” Evidently, it was “covertly.”

As long as you’re brazen about it, it’s OK.

Seriously folks, at what point did the Government of Canada main website become a propaganda page for the Conservative Party of Canada?

If I wanted PMO press releases shoved down my throat, I’d go to his site, not the main Government site.

I saw Inside Man on Friday night.

It was a good movie. Somewhat intelligent.

The fast paced story was complemented by the great cast (Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer). Jodie Foster’s character was the most interesting, I’m not even sure how to describe it.

I wasn’t sure if I liked the movie until about after half-an-hour into it. I would recommend that you see it.

Tuesday, I went to the City of Edmonton‘s Transportation and Public Works committee meeting. It was actually not as boring as it sounds as a tonne of Councillors showed up to hear the presentation that morning (those there included Councillors Michael Phair, Jane Batty, Kim Krushell, Terry Cavanagh, Janice Melnychuk, Ed Gibbons, Karen Leibovici, Linda Sloan, Bryan Anderson, and Mayor Stephen Mandel).

On another note (unrelated to the presentation I went to), Edmonton City Council operates under the Ward system, with two Councillors for each of the six wards. The City of Edmonton is currently reviewing this system and are accepting public input in the process. Here are the options they are considering:

Essentially there are two questions on the table.

1. Should the number of Councillors be increased from 12 to 14?
2. Should each ward have single or dual representation?

Out of these questions come four possible choices:

1. The current six wards with two Councillors per ward
• Average 118,732 people per ward
2. 12 wards with one Councillor per ward
• Average 59,366 people per ward
3. Seven wards with two Councillors per ward
• Average 101,770 people per ward
4. 14 wards with one Councillor per ward
• Average 50,855 people per ward

Based on 2005 census data

Thirty-Eight years ago today, Pierre Elliot Trudeau became Prime Minister of Canada after suceeding Lester Pearson as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Thank goodness someone agrees with me on this one.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper shocked millions today as he single-handedly challenged the popular culture of our verbal lexicon in using the vintage 1890’s term “old hat” in describing the issue of International Trade Minister David Emerson’s crossing-the-floor from the Liberals to the Conservatives two weeks after the last election….

Emerson protests ‘old hat,’ Harper says
TERRY WEBER
Globe and Mail Update

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday continuing protests over the defection of former Liberal David Emerson to his Tory cabinet are getting “old hat” and suggested Vancouver voters are now becoming more comfortable with the move.

Mr. Harper made the comments to reporters after delivering a speech in Burnaby, B.C., touting the Conservative government’s child-care program.

“The same ten people every time,” Mr. Harper said. “You know, it’s kind of getting old hat, isn’t it?”

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, reportedly last used by William Ewart Gladstone, here are the definitions from wordreference.com:

1. out of fashion; “a suit of rather antique appearance”; “demode (or outmoded) attire”; “outmoded ideas”

2. repeated too often; over familiar through overuse; “bromidic sermons”; “his remarks were trite and commonplace”; “hackneyed phrases”; “a stock answer”; “repeating threadbare jokes”; “parroting some timeworn axiom”; “the trite metaphor `hard as nails'”

So, I guess this means that the Triple-E Senate and Parliamentary Committee Reform are old hat as well…

It is widely suspected that the Prime Minister’s Office has hired The Slingshot: the Great British Magazine for Young Chaps, as Mr. Harper’s in-house media consultants.

On a completely unrelated note, check out this Llama clip (props to s.b. for the Llama linkage)

(Are Llamas becoming old hat at daveberta?)

Someone tried to break into my house 10 minutes ago.

They tried to break open the back door.

I heard a bang and went to see what it was.

They saw me.

They ran.

I called the Police.

Now I’m left wondering if he’ll come back when I leave.

Oh loyal readers of everything daveberta, by the end of the summer, I pledge to have this song memorized from United States to Sudan!

“United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru
Republic Dominican, Cuba, Caribbean, Greenland, El Salvador too
Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Guyana and still
Guatemala, Bolivia, then Argentina, and Ecuador, Chile, Brazil
Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda, Bahamas, Tobago, San Juan
Paraguay, Uruguay, Suriname, and French Guiana, Barbados and Guam

Norway and Sweden and Iceland and Finland and Germany, now one piece
Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Turkey and Greece
Poland, Romania, Scotland, Albania, Ireland, Russia, Oman
Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Cyprus, Iraq and Iran
There’s Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, both Yemens, Kuwait and Bahrain
the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Portugal, France, England, Denmark and Spain

India, Pakistan, Burma, Afghanistan, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan;
Kampuchea, Malaysia, then Bangladesh, Asia, and China, Korea, Japan
Mongolia, Laos, and Tibet, Indonesia, the Philippine Islands, Taiwan
Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Sumatra, New Zealand, then Borneo and Vietnam
Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Botswana
Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Gambia, Guinea, Algeria, Ghana

Burundi, Lesotho and Malawi, Togo, the Spanish Sahara is gone
Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Liberia, Egypt, Benin and Gabon
Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya and Mali, Sierra Leone and Algiers
Dahomey, Namibia, Senegal, Libya, Cameroon, Congo, Zaire
Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Rwanda, Mahore and Cayman
Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Yugoslavia,
Crete, Mauritania, then Transylvania, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Malta and Palestine, Fiji, Australia, Sudan!”

(According to the Wikipedia post on the song, by Yakko from the Anamainiacs, some of the irregularities include missingn counties and regions named (instead of countries).)

This would be an interesting conference to go to…

SEMINAR ON STRATEGIC CHANGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
“Governing Universities in the Knowledge Society”

27-28th, April, 2006

Organized by the Generalitat Valenciana and the Institutional Management
Higher Education (IMHE) Programme, OECD.

Venue: Conference room, Botanical Garden, University of Valencia,
Valencia

Language: English and Spanish (with simultaneous translation)

AIM: Knowledge and the global society are generating profound change in the context of universities which are faced the world over with the need to change their internal structures and, in the case of public institutions, their relationships with public authorities.

On one hand, universities are calling for a fundamentally new type of arrangement
with society, whereby they are responsible and accountable for their programmes, staff and resources, while public authorities focus on the strategic direction of the system as a whole. In an open, competitive and ever-changing environment, autonomy is a pre-condition for universities to be able to respond to society’s changing needs and to take full responsibility for their responses. The majority of universities feel that national regulations do not currently allow them to implement the changes required for the future.

On the other hand, empowering universities effectively to make and implement
decisions requires leadership teams with sufficient authority and management capacity, considerable time spent in the office and wide-ranging experience. New ways of university governance are needed to develop effective autonomy and to run universities efficiently in the current changing environment. Success in implementing new ways of university governance will probably be linked to the success of institutional outputs in the new knowledge society.

For those of you looking for some distracting reprieve from the onslaught of final exams, here are some notorious distractions that will provide your mind with some of the entertainment it desires…

– The Shining – a great parody trailer.

– Are you feeling GREAT?

– Yakko Warner and the countries of the world (I’m going to memorize this song by the end of the summer).

– The new trailer for X-Men 3: the Last Stand has been running for sometime now. It looks like a pretty sweet production.

– Anyone remember the mid-1990’s kids cartoon “Dino-Riders?” If so, you can nerd it up on their website…

– And finally, a BIG SHOUT OUT to my good friend Amika Schodie, who sent me an email last night from the beautiful Greek island of Naxos. After a year stint of living in the UK, she’s now on a cross-continental journey across Europe for the next couple months.

Here is a great quote in her email about Athens:

“it is really cool to be surrounded by so much history but the city itself is kinda dirty and creepy. and there’s a garbage strike on so it’s stinky too! but the area around the markets and restaurants and ruins is really cool, it’s very greek!!“

(You can thank/blame chris-face for the links to most of these links)