Author: Dave Cournoyer

Aside from floating the idea of a K-14 education system, it looks like Advanced Ed Minister Dave Hancock is setting up a leadership website here (it also has a better picture than this one).

Also, for those of you who haven’t yet checked it out, Nicole Martel is running for the Federal Liberal nomination in Edmonton East and has set up a website with a cool blog (some you may know of Nicole from her former blog: GoPolitical.ca – which is now automatically linked to her new site). Currently, Nicole is running unopposed for the nomination, but rumours are floating around that Dan McLennan, President of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, and potentally former Edmonton Mayor Jan Reimer (Mayor from 1989 to 1995) may take a run for the Liberal nomination in Edmonton East.

So far in Edmonton East, the Tories have renominated the wanna-be President of Turks & Caicos, Peter Goldring, and the ND‘s have nominated former coordinator for the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters, Arlene Chapman.

We’ve known Nicole for a number of years and can definitely say with extreme confidence that she will make a great candidate come the next Federal election.

We’re currently sitting here in SUB looking at the paper that will not end. The sheer suckiness of it is sucking the life forces out of us. Literally!

We started it last Wednesday and don’t feel like it’s EVER going to end. It’s not a big paper by any stretch of the imagination. We planned for it to only be 7-8 pages. But, like a mole in a hole, we are approaching the eight pages with no end in sight. Arg! We really dislike these small paper types. All we want to do is write our little heart out, and they restrict us… anyway…

We’re sitting here in SUB and we can only be described as a refugee from our massive pot-headed housemate. We’re like the Palestinians of Garneau! (kidding…) We have nothing against mari-ju-an-a on its own, it’s the moron on the other side is the problem. 24/7 can be a little overwhelming. It’s like living with Cheech or Chong (the non-cool one-the one that wasn’t on Nash Bridges). Our friend thinks he’s a dealer. We don’t think he’s smart enough to pull that off.

Anyway… for the record, the wireless connection here in SUB sucks in a major way. So far, we’ve been sitting here for over 3 hours and have had to reconnect over 20 times. We’re willing to accept that it could be our lame PC laptop, but we’re not ruling out that it’s the fault of that shady organization known as the ‘Students’ Union.’ Shady bunch, indeed. 😉 Maybe we’ll write an epic story for this blog soon. We’ll see… Anyway, back to the paper mill…

ADDENUM 1.1: We see that the scoundrel of Calgary himself, Mr. C. Grit has linked us up in a post again. Props for the linkage, Mr. Grit. You are a lady and a gentleman.

ADDENUM 1.2: For those of you interested in heckling, Mr. Peter Mackay will be on the U of A campus on Thursday speaking about how he gave up the chance to be Nova Scotia’s Premier or something.

arg. papers. mindshattering of late.

At least an hour of wasted time here.

Also, there’s a new Strongbad email.

We meant to post this a while ago…

For those of you who haven’t seen last month’s edition of Alberta Venture Magazine, odds have been placed on successors to King Ralph’s throne*…

Here they are…

Jim Dinning (former MLA Calgary-Lougheed): 2-1
Dave Hancock (MLA Edmonton-Whitemud): 5-1
Iris Evans (MLA Sherwood Park): 16-1
Ted Morton (MLA Foothills-Rockyview): 8-1
Mark Norris (defeated MLA Edmonton-McClung): 9-1
Lyle Oberg (MLA Strathmore-Brooks): 8-1
Ed Stelmach (MLA Ft. Saskatchewan-Vegreville): 4-1

Obviously, many of the rumours being flushed through the grapevine come our way and trying to filter through them is a definite challenge.

But, if the rumours have a trend, the trend is:

1. Klein will be gone sooner than later (emphasis on *sooner*). Many of the rumours hint of recent and past health problems coming to roost. This shouldn’t be surprising when speaking of a career politician in his mid-60s (stress, age, history of drinking problems, etc).

2. Though it’s very early in the race, it’s looking to be a Dinning/Stelmach race. If Dinning can take it on the first ballot, then he’s got it. If not, look for Stelmach to be a force to be reckoned with on the second ballot. We’ve also heard rumours that the Godfather of Alberta Conservative politics, Speaker Ken Kowalski, has endorsed Mr. Stelmach’s campaign… this is huge when it comes to pulling the rural PC vote.

3. Don’t underestimate the darkhorse of the race: Dr. Ted Morton. Our sources deep in the Calgary Tory establishment tell us of a right-wing insugency with hundreds of pro-Morton PC memberships being sold. This is a scary thought.

4. Don’t forget that in many ways, this leadership race is a battle between the rural and urban factions within the Alberta Tory caucus. There are some pretty deep divisions. Look for them to manifest into some fairly entertaining firework shows in the coming months as the urban and rural leadership candidates begin to seriously position themselves publicly.

*The odds were produced by an anonymous panel of seven Albertans drawn from business, labour, academia, and journalism.

(Opening scene: two beautiful maiden’s bathing in pristine pools of Alberta crude)

Maiden #1: “ahh. To be an advertizing firm in oil-rich Alberta.”

Maiden #2: “Indeed.”

(End scene)

Watch out Paul. Stephen. Jack.

There’s a new political force to be reckoned with.

Read the rest here.

Lawyer, n. One skilled in the circumvention of the law.

Theories are always very thin and insubstantial, experience only is tangible.

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.

You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.

To save time is to lengthen life.

Opportunity knocked. My doorman threw him out.

A full cup must be carried steadily.

well, we’re glad we don’t have to write an entire new post about this.

To see our opinion, click here, and replace ‘provincial’ with ‘federal,’ ‘$400’ with ‘$133,’ and ‘Ralph Klein’s Tories’ with ‘Paul Martin’s Liberals,’ etc, etc, etc…

Just in case any of you missed the news from last week, it turns out that Alberta’s glorious and beloved leader, Premier Ralph Klein, is planning on missing most of the upcoming session of the Alberta Legislature to continue his 2005 Lame-Duck Farwell Tour.

While Klein spent quite a bit of time traveling through the US, Europe, and Africa this summer, he’ll be continuing his tour in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and British Columbia when the Legislature is expected to resume for a 2-3 week fall session in November. Though we’re not quite sure what exactly the purpose of Glorious Leader’s trip is, we can bet that it’ll have something to do with the reason the Harper Conservative’s will lose the next election.

Though it’s no secret that our dearest Premier holds not much more than arrogant contempt for the role of the elected assembly, he must think that by divvying up $400 rebate cheques to every Albertan, he somehow doesn’t have to show up. Wow.

From drunkenly kicking homeless people to verbally attacking women MLA’s, to now skipping out on session, this Premier continues to give Albertans no shortage of reasons to be embarrassed about him.

But, if anything, it should be entertaining to watch the candidates for the 2006 Tory Leadership Race kick the bejesus out of each other in their scramble for the spotlight when Klein’s skip’s town this fall.

We went to the Margaret MacMillan lecture at the Myer Horowitz Theatre at the U of A yesterday evening. The lecture, which was titled “The Art of Peace,” was enjoyable and from what we understand was basically a recap of her Paris 1919 book (which we have yet to read).

But it was an entertaining history lesson none the less.

The pre-lecture period was particularly interesting. It included a number of introductions…. the first began with the introduction of U of A Provost & VP Academic Carl Amrhein by an academic whose name escapes us. In turn, Dr. Armhein introduced history Professor and past-Provost of the U of A, Dr. Doug Owram, who in turn introduced Dr. MacMillan (if we missed an introduction, we apologize, it was slightly overwhelming). The post-lecture period included a somewhat lengthy ‘donation pitch’ from a Professor Emeritus whose name escapes us. We aren’t quite sure on whose behalf he was soliciting, but after paying our tuition fees last week, we were quite happy that the lecture was free.

Interestingly enough, Dr. MacMillan, who is also the Vice-Chancellor and Provost at Trinity College at the University of Toronto has posted office hours: “available to all members of the Trinity community to discuss any subject they wish.” This left us wondering whether we would be able to get an appointment to meet with Dr. Armhein if we called his office at U-Hall. hmmm….

And by the way, only 43 more days until Walk the Line is released in theatres! Huzzah!

You speak eloquently and have seemingly read every
book ever published. You are a fountain of
endless (sometimes useless) knowledge, and
never fail to impress at a party.
What people love: You can answer almost any
question people ask, and have thus been
nicknamed Jeeves.
What people hate: You constantly correct their
grammar and insult their paperbacks.

What Kind of Elitist Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

(props to Toronto Tory for the quiz link)

This was forwarded to us by a very cool Daveberta reader. Thanks, Marianne! 🙂

Daveberta reader and EMBA student, Aarn Wennekers, has forwarded us an awesome survey that he has set up as part of his studies at Queen’s University (and just like Grandinite’s Great Canadian Blog Survey, Aarn’s survey is quite awesome).

Aarn’s online survey deals with the political question that’s at the forefront of every Albertns mind: Who’s going to replace Alberta PC Premier Ralph Klein when he eventually decides to step down (and follow John Hamm’s lead)?

Will it be former Treasurer Jim Dinning? Ted “Firewall” Morton? Minister of “Staying out of the Limelight” Ed Stelmach? Advanced Ed Minister Dave Hancock? Defeated Minister Mark Norris? Clay Aitken look-a-like Lyle Oberg?

Well, luckily for you, here’s a chance to have your opinion counted in an awesome survey!

Stop by and fill out the PC Party of Alberta Leadership Survey!