This past wednesday, we visited the Alberta Legislature and watch some Question Perioding. Here’s a quick recap of our observations from the visitors gallery… (though they’re definately not as exciting as some of our previous Legislature experiences)
(OPENING SCENE: Beautiful +14C day in the City of Edmonton)
1:00 pm – Leave work at the University, catch the train to Grandin station.
1:10 pm – Get off the train at Grandin station.
1:15 pm – Meet up with our friend Ms. Jane on the front steps of the Leg.
1:19 pm – Bump into Rick Miller in the elevator. We have a quick chat.
1:23 pm – Stand in line to get our QP pass… there are about 5000 school kids in the rotunda. crazy. Donna Martyn and Mr. Sharma are in line ahead of us. Dan McLennan is also in line.
1:30 pm – QP starts. Mr. Sharma crosses party lines and sits beside a Liberal (us). Way to go, Anand! 😉
1:40ish pm – Laurie Blakeman introduces us. Very nice.
1:41 pm – Premier Klein is on his cross-Canada “Torpedo Stephen Harper” Tour, so Finance Minister Shirley McClellan is running the show… man does she have a boring voice…
1:42 pm – Liberal leader Kevin Taft asks the first question.
1:43 pm – Alliance MLA Paul Hinman is here. Sitting all by himself. The ND’s are there too. Brian Mason is quieter than his usual “QP bull dog” self. But he does make some good heckles.
1:45 pm – It looks like Ted Morton is playing paddy cake… wha? either that, or he has a Juba song stuck in his head…. crazy right-winger…
1:47 pm – We notice that Dave Hancock is still in his “grey hair period” (as opposed to his
previous brown and black periods).
1:49 pm – Aboriginal Affairs Minister Pearl Calahasen is reading the Hill Times.
1:50 pm – Education Minister Gene Zwozdesky scoffs at an opposition question about hot lunch programs in schools. St. Albert Liberal MLA Jack Flaherty yells at Zwoz and looks like he’s going to get up and deck him. For a 74-year old, Flaherty sure has alot of energy.
2:00 pm – Banff-Cochrane Tory MLA Janis Tarchuk is signing Christmas cards. Lucky for her, her seatmate Rob Lougheed is MIA. So she uses his chair to pile her cards.
2:05 pm – QP continues. The opposition asks decent questions, but the Tories give boring answers. They know the media isn’t paying attention to QP while Klein is on tour. We’re bored. Time to bounce. Adios.
2:10 pm – On our way out, we bump into Agriculture Minister Doug Horner. Have a nice chat with him in the rotunda.
(END SCENE)