It looks like the glorious summer of January and February 2006 is bidding us farewell…
Current forecast from the Weather Network:
Right now: -24C
With windchill: -35C
It was +8C last week. So, that’s a 43C temperature change in a week.
Lord we love Alberta…
Here is part of an editorial that was in the Calgary Herald this weekend. It pretty much sums up what we’ve been talking about for the past couple years…
Alberta has been given a vast array of gifts — of natural resources, of hard-working people with entrepreneurial spirit, of markets eager to do business. It has been wise enough to steward these riches well to this point. It now faces a greater challenge: to build a better future, not just for Albertans, but for Canada and the world.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Start saving. In the past 30 years, only 8.6 per cent of royalties have been set aside and more than 90 per cent spent. The Heritage Fund is worth $2,500 per capita, compared with $6,000 per capita in 1991.
Now that its debt is paid off, Alberta must start a serious savings plan. Canada West suggests half of all resource revenue go to an endowment fund; whatever the percentage, it needs to be substantial.
2. Manage spending. Alberta needs to invest in a strong health-care system, education and infrastructure for cities. The cuts that were necessary to bury the debt in the 1990s are no longer needed and Albertans have said they favour reinvestment.
So do we, but with a measure of stability. The greatest obstacle these sectors face is the roller-coaster of funding they’ve had to contend with as the provincial government lurches between surpluses.
These areas should be funded properly over the long term; the wild and wacky splurges of the past year have to stop.
3. Think big. If Alberta spends wisely and saves for the future, there will be still be ample opportunities to leave a proud legacy. Forget prosperity cheques and vanity projects — let’s aim higher.
The Canada West Foundation thinks Alberta could lead the world in research and development in alternate forms of energy, rival Harvard with a post-secondary endowment fund, or fund a national centre of excellence in wellness.
Albertans will have other ideas, if they are challenged to be visionary.
There was a bumper sticker popular in Alberta in the 1980s that read: “Please God, let there be another oil boom. I promise not to piss it all away next time.”
Albertans have been given that second chance with riches and potential that are the envy of many. It must not be wasted.
As far as university endowments are mentioned in the article, we are in the midst of writing a policy brief on North American university endowments – Harvard is the largest up around $25 Billion and Yale is second with around $15 Billion (the University of Alberta‘s endowment is currently sitting around half a billion – according to 2005 figures).
Endowment funds are where-it-is-at, dawg.
heh heh.
– Buzz Hargrove got the boot from the NDP (we can see the ads now… “this February, give Buzz the boot…”).
We don’t find this surprising seeing how the rift between Hargrove and the NDP has substantially grown in the past few years (we remember listening to an argument between Hargrove and then-NDP leader Alexa McDonough on CBC Radio One‘s As It Happens following her stepping down as leader – wow, she kept calling him “Basil” – you could have cut the tension between them with a knife).
Though were sure that his endorsing the Liberals in the last election (and his kind of endorsement of the Bloc…) had more to do with it than anything else.
If anything, we think this is a good move. Distancing the NDP from twits like Hargove and the grip of big labour (even symbolically) could help them expand their base of support.
– Second, United States Vice-President Dick Cheney shot someone with a shotgun!
Was Dick Cheney hunting people? No.
But it is slightly funny in a sick sort of way.
(Props to Anonymotron for “establishing [his] conservative credentials” by emailing us the story and gun links…)
UPDATE! Tomorrow’s headlines: “Cheney caused friendly fire incident“
Spruce Grove mogul skier Jennifer Heil has won the Gold Medal in her Olympic competition just moments ago in Turino, Italy!! Congrats!
WOO HOO! Canada rocks!
For interests sake, here are the books we are in the midst of reading at the moment…
– What’s the Matter with Kansas ? by Thomas Frank
– War by Gwyn Dyer
– Alberta Politics Uncovered: Taking Back our Province by Marc Lisac
– The Return of the Trojan Horse: Alberta and the New World (Dis)Order edited by Trevor W. Harrison
– Citizens Plus: Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian State by Alan C. Cairns
– Whose North: Political Change, Political Development, and Self-Government in the Northwest Territories by Mark Dickerson
– Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amoury Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins.
– Jarhead by Anthony Swofford
– Excuse Us! Herr Schicklgruber by Clifford Chadderton.
If you haven’t checked out this video, you should. It’s fun!
For those of you interested in democratic reform in the great province of Alberta, we are pleased to inform you that the Alberta Liberal Opposition is taking the bull by the horns and hosting a forum on this topic on Monday (February 13 from 7-9pm at the Stanley Milner Library in Edmonton).
Speakers will include Liberal leader Kevin Taft, and Craig Henschel and Shoni Field from the B.C.’s Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform.
The forum will be moderated by Edmonton McClung MLA Mo Elsalhy and attended by MLA’s Hugh MacDonald, Bridget Pastoor, and Maurice Tougas.
We will be attending, so if you want to talk about democratic reform AND get a glimpse of the original daveberta…
Well, there are many people who will testify that Alberta’s Health & Wellness Minister Iris Evans is “waaaay out there,” but now, she is officially out of the Alberta PC leadership race.
To give daveberta readers an example of the “way outness” of the Sherwood Park Progressive Conservative MLA, the first time we met her, she was clinging to a plastic SIDS baby doll. Now, as weird as it was for her to be clinging to a plastic SIDS baby doll in the first place, it was at a conference dealing with international development – why she was there we still do not know (she was Minister of Children’s Services at the time) – but she spoke on behalf of the Alberta Government following an terrific speech by then-Senator Doug Roche. The topic which she spoke of was just as bizarre… you guessed it… she spent her 5 minutes at a conference on international development and the third world talking about SIDS… it was really bizarre.
Not to mention the weirdness of the Tory Caucus video at the most recent Alberta Legislature Press Gallery dinner which had had Minister Evans making reference to “sausages.” This is made even weirder when you understand that she typically raises (at some very inappropriate times) that she is single and looking for a man…
Not that she was a “real” contender anyway, but it looks like the Tories may have an “all-white all-penis” leadership race on their hands once Premier Ralph Klein decides to go to pasture.
As you may now know, Martha Hall Findlay has beat us to the punch and is now the first candidate to officially enter the Liberal leadership race. Good for her! She has the guts to do what Frank McKenna, John Manley, Allan Rock, and Brian Tobin didn’t!
Hall Findlay is a Toronto lawyer who ran for the Liberals in 2004 against then-Tory MP Belinda Stronach in Newmarket-Aurora.
When Stronach crossed the floor to the Liberals last May, one of our favorite blogging Tories, Steve Janke of Angry in the Great White North, had this to say about Hall Findlay:
“(May 18, 2005) Who is Martha Hall Findlay? She was the woman found run over yesterday. Forensic analysis of the evidence suggests two vehicles — one was a Stronach Aspiration Special, outfitted with wide tread tires for extra grip in an environment of slimey and slippery power-grab politics, and the other was a Martin Desperation Wagon, the sort without doors so that anyone can just jump in as he drives by waving money and cabinet appointments.
Seriously, Ms. Findlay was the Liberal candidate for Newmarket-Aurora, ready to fight Ms. Stronach in a re-match of the 2004 election, which Belinda barely won (by a mere 689 votes).
Good thing the Liberals tossed Ms. Findlay. I’ve looked over her experience and skills, and I’d say she was far worse fit in the Liberal Party than Belinda Stronach was in the Conservative Party.
“(May 20, 2005) On another front, Martha Hall Findlay, the frighteningly qualified Liberal candidate for Newmarket-Aurora who was pushed out when multi-millionaire Belinda Stronach came to take her job away, still has her web site up. Good for her.”
Foothills-Rockyview MLA, Firewall letter signatory, and Alberta PC Leadership candidate Ted Morton spoke to a crowd of 130 people last Friday at a leadership campaign dinner in the Town of Cochrane.
Here’s a bit of it from the Cochrane Times…
In what turned out to be a night that just reinforced the support of Conservatives in Foothills-Rockyview area, Morton explained his platform of ideas that he wanted people to keep in mind when it comes time to vote for the next premier of Alberta, which at the very latest, will be in 2009, but is likely to be sooner.
“There are new challenges for our new century,” he said. “They require new ideas and new leaders.”
To which he received applause and nods among the audience.
Morton’s main challenge he believes must be faced, is that Alberta receive a “fair deal” in Ottawa.
While he explained that Alberta alienation could be far in the past, with the selection of the new prime minister, Stephen Harper, as his riding is in fact, in Calgary Southwest, he said choosing him would further the process.
Yes, Albertans will feel less alienated with a nutbar like Morton as Premier… sure…
…for a while at least.
– Putting the Emerson fiasco to a slight rest, we’d like to congratulate the 18% of Vancouver Kingswayites on their stunning victory. No one saw it coming.
– Michel Fortier: “I didn’t run, because I didn’t want to run. wow. We don’t want to run either, can we become a cabinet minister and get appointed to the Senate? Talk about culture of entitlement.
– Harper’s 1st cabinet is surprisingly low on the “Reformer” flavour. Only 3 of the original Reformers elected in 1993 made it to “full cabinet minister” status (including Harper, Monte Solberg, and Chuck Strahl).
– Yesterday morning we received what can only be described as the most ridiculous/hilarious piece of spam EVER. No only is it some sort of pyramid scheme, but it’s detailed in our very own individual video!!! “Dear Mr. Berta”
It’s quite hilarious. Make sure to keep an eye on the suggestive poses of the woman…
Unfortunately, since we originally watched the video, we’ve gotten about 8 emails from them wanting to know if we’re buying in to their little scheme…
– Today is the one year anniversary of Premier Ralph Klein’s promise to Albertans that by September 2006, Alberta will have the most affordable post-secondary tuition policy in the country.
Here’s the exact quote…
“By the time post-secondary students head back in September 2006, Alberta will define a new tuition policy for the 21st century. It will be the most affordable, entrepreneurial, and affordable tuition policy in the country. We will do whatever it takes to make sure money isn’t a barrier to attending Alberta’s post-secondary institutions.”
We have yet to see this tuition policy, but we’re hoping he will stick to his promise for September 2006.
Even faster than crossing the floor two weeks after your constituents re-elected you… silly David Emerson… even sillier Stephen Harper…
Leave it to the blogosphere to give disgruntled people a soapbox…
For interests sake, here are some of the Vancouver Kingsway facts we posted on Mr. Smith‘s blog…
Election results in Vancouver Kingsway on January 23rd:
Liberal – 20,064
NDP – 15,570
CPC – 8,699
Grn – 1,301
LTN – 277
COM – 162
CAP – 143
M-L – 69
History of electoral representation in Vancouver Kingsway:
1953-58 – CCF
1958-62 – PC (Dief sweep)
1962-74 – NDP
1974-79 – Liberal
1979-88 – NDP
(dissolved from 1988-1997)
1997-2006 – Liberal
Well, that was interesting…
– David Emerson crossing the floor this soon after the election has to set some sort of record. He’s like Belinda Stronach, except with integrity and substance. (UPDATE: Sorry to clarify: HAD integrity).
– No Deputy Prime Minister.
– Peter Mackay in Foreign Affairs.
– Other than Stockwell Day in Public Safety and unelected Michel Fortier in Public Works, it seems like afairly moderate and predictable cabinet. Harper had to stick Day somewhere, but we still haven’t figured out the logic in appoint Fortier.
– Alberta’s picks are Rona Ambrose for Environment, Jim Prentice for Indian Affairs, and Monte Solberg for Citizenship and Immigration.
– As far as we can tell, they haven’t announced any of the Parliamentary Secretaries, which we would assume means that they will not be members of the Privy Council (as was the case in the previous Liberal Government).
We’re kind of busy right now, so we’ll comment more soon… but the entire list can be found here.
We have to admit we’re amazed at the destruction that has occurred after the widespread publication of the now infamous cartoons Muhammad cartoons – originally posted in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten depicting Muhammad (click here to see the cartoons) and were republished in newspapers across Europe and in
Last week, Syrian protesters set fire to the Danish Embassy in Damascus and then proceeded to march 4 miles to the Norwegian Embassy (what did Norway have to do with it?). As well, the Danish Embassy in Beruit,
Though we obviously don’t share the anger of the protesters (we’re not finding any Embassies to burn), we agree that the cartoons did lack a certain amount of taste.
We find it very very curious that spontaneous protests of any kind could happen in strong dictatorships such as
Is this surprising? Not really.
As well, as was mentioned by a guest caller on the CBC Radio program Cross Country Checkup this afternoon, the outrage towards the Danish people signals a huge double standard among leaders in the Muslim world – many whom called upon calm following the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and that the western world should not blame all Arabs for the attack. Why should the Danish Embassies be attacked for the work of an individual cartoon drawer? They shouldn’t.
We’re not sure if any of our ramblings actually makes sense, but we would like prescribe a huge dose of “chill out” to all those angered enough to go and burn down foreign Embassies in their area.
Hopefully things will “chill out” and not let this international controversy effect the beginning of next week’s Olympic Games in
