– Dr. David Schindler‘s oilsands toxins report stirred the pot this week and United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is coming to Canada to talk oilsands.
– Remember the Gap boycott of the oilsands? It turns out it was all made up.
– The Calgary Herald has called for Speaker Ken Kowalski‘s resignation over politically-motivated attempts to censor the Wildrose Alliance.
– The Legislative Assembly is set to reconvene this fall. The official calendar has the sitting scheduled for October 25, but I have heard talk of the Assembly reconvening as early as the second or third week of September.
– The ongoing saga of the financially insolvent Health Resource Centre continues. David Climenhaga has written some excellent blog posts on this topic. The Calgary Chapter of the Friends of Medicare are organizing a rally at HRC on September 10 at 10am.
– Edmonton-Centre Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman has released a new video encouraging Albertans to get involved in the discussion about land use and conservation in the Athabasca region.
– Ernie Isley is seeking a third-term as Mayor of Bonnyville. Mr. Isley was first elected Mayor in 2004 and previously served as a provincial Cabinet Minister and PC MLA for Bonnyville from 1979 until 1993 when he was unseated by Liberal Leo Vasseur.
– Vulcan County Councillor Ian Donovan is seeking the Wildrose nomination in Little Bow to run against long-time PC MLA Barry McFarland. Mr. McFarland was first elected in a 1992 by-election.
– Melissa Blake is standing for re-election as Mayor of Wood Buffalo.
– The Social Credit Party has lost their website.
– Former Premier’s Office staffer and current Assistant to the Energy Minister David Heyman is working on Calgary-Buffalo Liberal MLA Kent Hehr‘s bid for Mayor of Calgary. Former Liberal strategist Donn Lovett is in candidate Barb Higgins‘ camp. Mr. Hehr’s 2008 campaign manager Chima Nkemdirim is the campaign director for Naheed Nenshi‘s Mayoral campaign (Mr. Nkemdirim is also the President of the new Alberta Party).
– The Alberta Party recently hired former Greater Edmonton Alliance lead organizer Michael Walters as their Provincial Organizer and released a video as part of their announcement:
Read more in the Alberta Politics Notes archive.
6 replies on “alberta politics notes 9/03/2010”
What is the Alberta party? Centre? Left? Right? Upside down? Do they even know?
With respect to the Health Resources Centres saga, I have read the 55 page affidavit file by Bernie Simpson on August 31, 2010 and it makes for interesting reading. Mr. Simpson is able to back up a good deal of what he is saying with written documents. It certainly would appear that Alberta Health Services is trying to put them out of business and could very well succeed. Their problems all relate back to AHS’s but this is such a long story that I won’t go into it here.
It will be interesting to see if David Climenhaga blogs on the HRC’s side of the story.
As we all know, there are three sides to a story, yours, mine and the truth so I guess it is up to the courts to decide which side they will believe.
I wish the HRC the best. In my opinion what AHS’s is doing to them is immoral and unethical.
Again, wrt the HRC, I sent an email to the Friends of Medicare part of which is as follows:
What is it you are protesting? Is it the fact that surgeries done at the HRC are less expensive than those done in acute care hospitals? Is it the fact that the surgeries done at the HRC require a shorter stay so has saved our health care system 12,000 hospital days? Is it the fact that if it weren’t for the HRC a good number of Albertans would still be waiting for surgery? Perhaps it is the fact that public dollars are paying a private health facility and the unions are afraid of losing control. I truly do not understand; the HRC has provided a good service to Albertans, I do not see why you would want to shut it down.
Are you concerned that the people of Alberta will find out that a private company, paid with public dollars, is far more efficient than AHS’s? Are you afraid that we might demand there be more facilities such as the HRC? I truly do not understand why you are protesting.
It will be interesting to see if I get an answer.
Your comment about the Alberta Party: “do they even know what they are?” is a fair one. It’s a party being built from the bottom up… and right now there are so many people of diverse backgrounds coalescing that “what the party actually is,” is still a bit of a question… even for people like me who are nominally involved.
I know it’s a bit hard to grasp in our hyper-partisan world… but this is a party being built by people who consider themselves rational moderates and want decisions in this province to be based on research and evidence… people who are prepared to change opinions based on that research and evidence… and to work with all others in a civil way… putting the interests of Albertans (present and future) ahead of narrower, ideological interests.
A bit vague? Yep… I’ll grant that.
Whatever we are (or become) depends on who becomes actively involved… especially in the beginning. There is a new hard-right option that deserves credit for lighting a fire under the collective politcal arses of Albertans. For those who are not comfortable with the Wildrose Party, the Alberta Party is there to build.
What is the Alberta Party? If you really want to know, come to the convention on October 2 and decide for yourself.
Partisanship has served Albertans well so there’s no reason to change.
Good to see the Calgary Herald has become a free daily campaign brochure for Danielle Smith and gang…
*sigh*