Author: Dave Cournoyer

Kind of a recap of the last week…

– The Alberta Liberals scored $1,400 for the Edmonton Youth Emergency Centre this week when they auctioned the Liberal Health Policy book that Premier Klein threw at a 17 year-old legislative page this spring. Also, Liberal leader Kevin Taft is taking the summer to tour Alberta communities.
– I attended Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton‘s BBQ Picnic this week in the federal riding of Edmonton Strathcona. It was well attended, but like most partisan-flavoured political events was overwhelmingly dominated by grey-haired individuals (I think I’m going to write a post about this topic at some point). Among those attending were fellow Edmonton blogger Idealistic Pragmatist, the Alberta NDP caucus, and 2004 Edmonton Strathcona federal candidate Linda Duncan.

This is too bizarre…

Russian blogs and Internet message boards have been awash with chatter since June 28, when Channel One, Russia’s largest broadcaster, showed Mr. Putin strolling past the golden domes and white stone of an Orthodox church inside the Kremlin grounds.

The President paused at a gaggle of tourists, and he seemed struck by the presence of a shy boy.

He grasped the fair-haired child by the arm, squatted in front of him, and asked his name. “Nikita,” the boy answered.

Without further conversation, Mr. Putin quickly pulled up the boy’s white tank-top and planted a kiss on his belly. Then he stood up, and brusquely walked away.

Following Tory Premier Ralph Klein’s ridiculous personal attack on Al Gore:

How likely do you think it is that Klein would be singing a different tune had Gore been allowed to become President after winning the 2000 US Presidential election?

Tory Premier Ralph Klein once again proved to the world that his knowledge of American politics is limited to assumptions and jiggerypokery. Today, Klein called former US Vice-President Al Gore “about as far left as you can go,” which is just plain wrong.

Here is the story:

“I don’t know what he proposes the world run on, maybe hot air,” Klein told reporters Tuesday. “I don’t listen to Al Gore in particular because he’s a Democrat. And not only that, he’s about as far left as you can go.

“The simple fact is America needs oil. They need gas. And unless he can find some other source, fine.”

Klein has stirred controversy in the past by rejecting scientific data suggesting industrial pollution is one of the leading causes of global warming.

He has even said global warming trends that occurred millions of years ago may have been caused by “dinosaur farts.”

Not only are Klein’s comments embarrassingly bush-league and uninformed, but they again point out his near complete lack of knowledge about American politics.

I would suggest that Klein, or one of his hundred minions in the Public Affairs Bureau, simply check out the Wikipedia entries on Gore and global warming (source: Internet). Then he might not have to resort to cheap personal attacks when he disagrees with someone – especially when he is supposed to be representing Albertans in foreign capitals.

Our glorious and beloved Premier has been speaking in public again… (from the Vancouver Sun)

Can Canada’s oilsands save the U.S. Republicans from defeat this fall in mid-term congressional elections?

Alberta Premier Ralph Klein thinks so and said as much during a private meeting Wednesday with U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney.

In a bid to persuade Cheney to visit northern Alberta’s oilfields this fall, Klein told him a high-profile trip would help Republicans win votes from Americans worried about buying oil from unstable countries in the Middle East.

Klein’s unusual venture into U.S. election-year politics he called Alberta Canada’s only Republican ”red” province came amid separate appeals for a joint Canada-U.S. energy task force to help accelerate Canadian exports of oil.

”It might be good for American politics, and for the Republican party in the U.S., for the vice-president to visit,” Klein said following a 30-minute meeting with Cheney in his West Wing office at the White House.

”It would be politically wise for him to travel to the oilsands.”

And Cheney’s response?

According to Klein, Cheney ”said that he would try” to reschedule.

Calling Alberta Canada’s “only Republican red province” is flawed in many different ways – calling Alberta Canada’s more conservative province is quite more accurate.

In Michael Adams’ “Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada, and the Myth of Converging Values,” social additude survey’s taken in all of North America’s regions found that attitudes and values held by Albertans were less traditional and more “liberal” than the United States most “liberal” region – New England – suggesting that though Alberta is Canada’s more conservative province it is far from being a “Republican red province.”

I would predict that if (*heaven forbid*) Alberta were an American state, we’d probably float between moderate Republican and Democratic governments (as opposed to the type of hardcore Christian social conservative Republicans documented in Thomas Frank‘s “What’s the Matter with Kansas“).

As for Dick Cheney’s junket to Fort McMurray helping the Republicans in November’s mid-term elections, I don’t think most Americans would even care (not that it’s likely the Democrats will actually take back the Senate in November 2006 – see the Swing State Project).

I’m out of town for the weekend so…

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Here’s somewhat of an Alberta political roundup….

– Kevin Taft‘s Alberta Liberals e-Bay adventure is continuing with the current bid at $1,400 on the Liberal Health Care book that Ralph Klein threw at a Legislative Page. All money raised will go to the Edmonton Emergency Youth Shelter.

– Crazy right-wing Tory backbencher Ted Morton launched his campaign for the Alberta PC leadership this week. In his opening speech, Morton attacked front-runner establishment candidate Jim Dinning – saying that Dinning’s under-30 taxbreak idea will not only:

“bankrupt the province, but it would lead to the kind of top-down policy process that has produced some of the worst public policies since joining caucus — polices like the Interim Metis Harvesting Agreement and the prosperity bonus cheques.”

Morton also thinks that Albertans should be beware of Stephen Harper and his Ottawa Conservatives…

Alberta Tory leadership candidate Ted Morton says he fears Alberta’s wealth will be used to appease Quebec despite the change to a Conservative government at the federal level.

– Speaking of Jim Dinning…. yesterday, he declared he didn’t believe in Private Health Care. Sure, Jim, and in the 1992 PC leadership race you didn’t believe in Ralph Klein either… it still didn’t stop you from being his Finance Minister for 4 years…

– Former Advanced Education Minister Dave Hancock launched his leadership campaign this week with his K-12 platform which includes innovative ideas such as “Government should walk the talk” and “Aggressively attack illicit drug use and sales in and near schools.”

Though Hancock’s policies remain somewhat vague, I do like this one: “Deal with the unfunded liability issue for teachers’ pensions.” But then again, I’d like to know his definition of “deal with.“

American V: A Hundred Highways – 4th of July, 2006.

“These songs are Johnny’s final statement. They are the truest reflection of the music that was central to his life at the time. This is the music that Johnny wanted us to hear.”
– Rick Rubin

There is some very interesting and startling stuff going on in the American Post-Secondary Education system. From today’s Inside Higher Education:

Prose and Politics

As college officials, higher ed policy wonks and other interested observers digested a draft report released late Monday by the federal higher education commission, some of them focused on ideas that should have been included but weren’t. Others analyzed the report’s political prospects. But again and again, virtually all of them returned to the paper’s “tone” — which partisans of higher education found distasteful (or worse) but others suggested was purposely designed to create a sense of public urgency about the problems facing academe and the country.

The report from the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education was prepared by the panel’s writer and several outside consultants, under the direction of Chairman Charles Miller. The document raised the hackles of many college officials who perceived it as giving short shrift to the many strengths of American higher education and emphasizing (or even exaggerating) its problems. The 27-page report describes colleges in one place as “risk-averse, frequently self-satisfied, and unduly expensive,” and characterizes higher education leaders as having an “unseemly complacency about the future.”

Miller and the panel’s staff had been planning on keeping all of the commission’s written work under wraps until it delivered a final report to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings in September, but they decided only over the weekend to make the draft public after concluding, they said, that federal law required them to release it.

Read the rest here…

(Cross-posted at Ponies & Pachyderms)

…Tim Horton’s and McDonald’s are featured fairly prominently on this list.

The Alberta Federation of Labour has released a list citing resturants in Alberta that have taken advantage of Alberta’s new employment regulations allowing them to employ 12-14 year olds.

The AFL attained the “Safety Checklist for Adolescent Employees in Restaurant and Food Industries” forms after having to FOIP them.

The book that Tory Premier Ralph Klein threw at a Legislative Page has been placed up for bid on eBay!

As I first mentioned here, the Alberta Liberal Health Care Policy book has been signed by Kevin Taft, the Alberta Liberal Caucus, and hundreds of Albertans (including yours truly) before being put up for bid. Here is part of the description on eBay:

You are bidding on a book which played a major role in a political embarrassment for Ralph Klein, Premier of Alberta. You may remember that in March of this year, a Legislative Page was assaulted by the premier, when he angrily threw a book which struck her, during a session of the Legislature.

The book, “Creating a Healthy Future – Our Plan for Public Health Care” by the Alberta Liberal Opposition, was carried to the Premier, in response to charges by the premier that he had not seen any good policy regarding health care which was better than his own badly explained “Third Way”. The book struck the page as she was walking away from Mr. Klein’s desk. That actual book, suitably autographed, is now offered for sale here – with the proceeds going to support the work of the Edmonton Youth Emergency Shelter Society.

As of this morning, the bid is up to $182.00 – place your bids!

(Cross-posted at Ponies & Pachyderms)

On November 7, 2006, 33 seats in the United States Senate will be up for grabs as those Senators last elected in 2000 are up for re-election.

At this point, the United States Senate is composed of 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats, and 1 Independent. Out of the 33 contested seats, 17 are Republican, 14 are Democrat, and 1 is an Independent (former Republican Seantor Jim Jeffords of Vermont).

To continue to hold the majority, the Republicans need to win 50 seats. For the Democrats to attain a majority, they need to win 7 (7 Republican, or 6 Republican and the 1 Independent).

According to the United States Senate 2006 Elections entry on wikipedia:

The market-based outcomes of an independent public trading exchange suggests as of June 7, 2006, that the most vulnerable Republican seats are Pennsylvania, Montana, and Ohio, respectively and are likely to switch control. In addition, the same market suggests that in Rhode Island and Missouri, the chance that the Republicans will keep the seat is less than two out of three. For the Democrats, two seats (Minnesota and New Jersey) fall below the two-out-of-three threshold of safety, but are still deemed likely by the public market to be retained by the Democrats.

The entry also notes that a number of Senators will be retiring – including Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton (D), Tennessee Senator Bill Frist (R), Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords (I), and Maryland Senator Paul Sarbanes (D).

Noteable incumbents planning on running for re-election include Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut), Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey), Bill Nelson (D-Florida), Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan), George Allen (R-Virginia), Conrad Burns (R-Montana), Lincoln Chafee (R-Rhode Island), Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), John Ensign (R-Nevada), Jon Kyl (R-Arizona), Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania), and Jim Talent (R-Missouri).

What will happen? We’ll just have to wait and see (meanwhile, make sure to keep an eye on sites like Politics1 and the Daily Kos for current US political goings on…)

–daveberta