Author: Dave Cournoyer

Today, the gods of patronage have blessed five lucky Canadians with Senatorial tenure to 75.

The PMO released the names today of 5 new Senators.

Here’s the list:

Andrée Champagne (Quebec-Tory): Former Mulroney Cabinet Minister

Dennis Dawson (Quebec-Liberal): Former Trudeau Cabinet Minister.

Hugh Segal (Ontario-Tory): Former Chief of Staff to Brian Mulroney; Former PC Leadership Candidate; and President of the Institute for Research on Public Policy.

Larry Campbell (BC-Liberal): Mayor of Vancouver; DaVinci’s Inquest guy (but not as cool as Quincy).

Rod Zimmer (Manitoba-Liberal): Businessman; Liberal Bagman.

You can read their full bios here

Aaron over at Grandinite has put together a top 40 annoying Canadians list. Check it out.

I’ve heard two separate rumours that Edmonton Strathcona ND MLA Raj Pannu is planning to retire this fall to clear the way for Larry Booi to contest the seat in a by-election for the Dippers.

Pannu, 71, was elected as the MLA for Edmonton Strathcona in 1997 in a close 3-way race which saw Pannu defeat Liberal Mary MacDonald by less than 60 votes with Tory John Logan less than 200 votes behind. He was the Alberta NDP Leader from 2000 to 2004 and led to them to a massive 2-seat landslide in 2001!

Larry Booi, former Alberta Teacher’s Association President, ran for the ND’s in Edmonton Glenora during last November’s provincial election. He was defeated by Liberal Bruce Miller.

Here are the results from Edmonton Strathcona since 1989:

1989
Gordon Wright, ND- 6,696
Philip Lister, Lib- 4,237
Jack Scott, PC- 3,724

1990* By-Election
Barrie Chivers, ND- 4,927
Nadene Thomas, Lib- 2,252
Eric Young, PC- 1,512
Betty Paschen, Grn- 424
Robert Alford, SC- 224

1993
Al Zariwny, Lib- 6,542
Barrie Chivers, ND- 5,121
Don Grimble, PC- 4,071
Patrick Ellis, SC- 460
Betty Paschen, Grn- 253
Ben Toane, NLP- 108
Noami Rankin, Com- 47

1997
Raj Pannu, ND- 4,274
Mary MacDonald, Lib- 4,214
John Logan, PC- 4,096
John Forget, SC- 552
Myles Kitagawa, Grn- 236
Eshwar Jagdeo, NLP- 47

2001
Raj Pannu, ND- 6,998
John Logan, PC- 4,749
Jim Jacuta, Lib- 1,944
James Lakinn, AFP- 136

2004
Raj Pannu, ND- 7,430
Shannon Stubbs, PC- 2,256
Steven Leard, Lib- 1,850
Adrian Cole, Grn- 287
Jeremy Burns, AA- 275
Kelly Graham, SC- 162

Well, it’s hot outside and I watched all 3 Jurassic Park movies last night. I was up until 4:20am.

It wasn’t worth it.

I’ve been thinking of how much I miss chillin’ with Ms. Amika Schodie (both of them). Alas, September will come and the former Ms. Schodie is off to Toronto (York Uni) and the latter Ms. Schodie is still in London, UK.

Well, if all works out, I’ll join the latter Ms. Schodie in Prague next May.

Tonight: Finish Finnish PSE Case Study.

I’m going outside now.

D 🙂

List One: Random things that annoy me (in random order).

1. People with honourary Ph.D.’s who go around calling themself a Doctor. ie: Dr. Joe Smith.
2. People who stand on the “walk” side of an escalator and then are too daft to move when 20 people are waiting for him or her to move.
3. Cell Phones. In general.
4. People who talk really loud on their cell phones on the bus or train.
5. People who turn their iPod or Diskman up so loud that everyone with a 20 feet radius can clearly hear what they’re listening to! It TOTALLY defeates the purpose of having headphones in the first place!!!
6. Pretentious rich kids who brag about not having to work while going to school.
7. Bouncers at bars. In general.
8. Reality TV.
9. How artificial the cheese in Kraft Dinner tastes.

List Two: DVD’s I own
(This list is more of a response to the gazillion DVD’s that my chum C-lo owns)

1. Family Guy Seasons 1 & 2 (Box Set)
2. Family Guy Season 3 (Box Set)
3. Seinfeld Seasons 1 & 2
4. Back to the Future I, II, & III (Box Set)
5. Chicago
6. Good Bye Lenin! (German)
7. Get Shorty
8. Bowling for Columbine
9. Buena Vista Social Club (Cuban/German)
10. City of God (Brazilian)
11. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
12: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
13: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

It’s a beautiful summer day and I’m semi-tired and semi-hungover. After a wonderful dinner last night at the U of A Faculty Club (where I dined like I was a member of the bourgeosie) I went out partying. It was good dtimes*.

Started at the Billiards Club on Whyte at about 10pm-ish and ended at Hudson‘s at closing time. It was great. I’m tired. Big thanks to Ms. Cassie Brown for letting me party and chill with her and her urban intellectual hipster friends (There’s nothing like sipping Martini’s while discussing the finer points of post-modernism). 😉

Also, a big “hej” to the Swedish women’s rowing team that I was dancing with at O’Byrne’s (I’m assuming they’re in e-town for the Masters Games).

Sweet.

D 🙂

PS. The Amazing Wonderdog has a pretty interesting post on the UK’s controversial shoot-to-kill policy. Check it out.

*Pronounced goou-de dimes (the “t” is silent).

Jurgen Gothe has the best name in radio.

I wish I had a name as cool as his.

UPDATE: Holger Petersen also has a cool name. HOLGER.

…ly old buffalo hair.

Along with my chums Colin Robertson and Jason Tobias, I went to the Sasquatch Hair press conference at the University of Alberta today (partly because we’re nerds, and partly because we all work on campus).

And yes, Dr. David Coltman announced to the world that the hair sample from the Yukon was not that of Big Foot, but was in fact old buffalo hair, at least a year old.

It was a big deal I guess, because over 20 reporters and 5 news cameras came out for the show. I guess this was big news.

At least it was entertaining.

More Sasquatch related news can be found here.

Rick Bell rocks today.

Sorry, Warren. Bill’s our guy.

D : )

Daveberta would like to salute the newly minted City of Brooks and Town of Onoway!

Today, both municipalities had their municipal status upgraded respectivly from Town to City, and from Village to Town. Congrats!

For those of you interested, in Alberta, there are now:

16 Cities
4 Specialized Municipalities
113 Towns
99 Villages
and 50 Summer Villages.

Only one year after declaring Alberta a “debt-free” province, the Alberta Tories are talking about getting back in the business of borrowing money.

According to the Edmonton Journal, yesterday, “[Alberta Premier Ralph] Klein signaled he will back a proposal by Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Lyle Oberg to borrow money to help clear a $7.2-billion backlog of schools, highways and health centers that need to be replaced or repaired.“

According to the Calgary Herald, “Premier Klein says there’s merit to the idea of Alberta going back into debt to catch up with seven billion dollars in building projects.“

Now, I think it about damn time they start working on this massive infrastructure debt and began investing in Alberta’s lacking infrastructure (which is a result of Klein’s cuts in the first place).

But, it left me thinking, will the Alberta Government be breaking the law if they borrow money?

According to Alberta’s Fiscal Responsibility Act, which forbids the government from running a deficit and limits government spending:

“The Fiscal Responsibility Act sets requirements of the annual fiscal plan:
– It requires balanced budgets. Deficits are not allowed, as expense and capital must not be more than revenue.”

Now, I honestly think this is probably the dumbest law ever thought up. How the heck is it supposed to be enforced? It was a cheap PR stunt from a government that was desperate to look fiscally responsible way back in 1993. Would the police arrest the Finance Minister for running a deficit?

Will Alberta be running a deficit if they borrow $7.2 Billion?

I’m no lawyer, but will they be breaking the law? Should I call the police?

This week’s blog of the week is none other than GoPolitical.

I’ve always enjoyed nic’s insightful and entertaining blogging over at GoPolitical. In fact, her’s was one of the very first blogs I ever read, and is part of the reason I started up this seudo-blog known as daveberta.

Check it out and enjoy! 🙂

Cheers.

D 🙂

PS. BTW, I made it to Warren’s blog today. Thanks again for the link, WK.

Last week, Aaron over at Grandinite tagged me with some sort of Joint Taskforce Twelve list game (Aaron also challenged Doucheblog, MKBraaten, and Bound By Gravity).

Here are the groundrules:

“If there were twelve blogs, as of right now, I think anyone should be visiting on a daily or hourly basis, it would be the Grandinite Joint Task Force Twelve, which is one more than Kip Esquire’s Elite Eleven. Joint Task Force Twelve requires twelve specialists, none of whom replicate the same area: in short, there must be very little overlap between the subject matter of the blogs in order to give the reader the maximum input potential.

The Joint Task Force Twelve also requires that the blogs in question be updated more than once a day (but if the content is great, this is totally unnecessary). The fact that there are twelve blogs on the list will mean that readers of the Joint Task Force Twelve are already in the elite of blog readers themselves – that select 5% of internet users who read blogs. On average, a blog reader will read 5-7 blogs per day. By reading through the Grandinite Joint Task Force Twelve, blog readers will already be in the elite of the elite.”

Okay, here’s my list…

1. Section 15 – This is at the top of my daily blog read list. Mark is a great blogger who always has fun posts (his comment sections are just as great).

2. Born with a Tail – Always a prolific writer, Mr. Raymaker has recently shifted his blog focus towards entertainment and music posts. Very cool.

3. Child of Regan – Okay, it’s been a couple of weeks since anyone over at this site has posted, but it’s an interesting read for those looking for a right-wing American response to world events.

4. Toronto Tory – Fun political posts from a Toronto political minority.

5. Little Man in a Toque – A fun blog, especially for Edmontonians. 🙂

6. Ask the Pope – I’m not going to comment any further than saying that this is one of the funniest blogs I have ever read (POPE MY RIDE!!!). Anyway, check it out and make your own decision…

7. ~we will always be a light~ – A fellow blogger with whom I share many mutual acquaintances, but have never met.

8. Kevin G. Powell – Always an interesting and insightful read.

9. Four Bad Men – One of the funnest and bestest group blogs out there.

10. A Newspaper called Gateway – Another fine group blog written by a bunch of kids who write a “newspaper” called Gateway.

11. Ahab’s Whale – Another group blog, but this time… by Canadians in the UK!

12. Grandinite – Not just because he challenged me, but because I am fascinated daily with the stuff he digs up and posts about.

There we go. Daveberta’s Joint Task Force Twelve (aka The Fantastic 12).

So, at this point, I am supposed to challenge other bloggers to join the elite group and create their own Joint Task Force 12. So, if the’re up to it, I challenge…

Scott Tribe

Section 15

Stephen Taylor

Any of the guys over at freethought.ca

PS. To the guy in the apartment above me: Thanks for BBQing that nice juicy steak at 10:30pm last night. I hoped it was even better after I opened my balcony door and blasted Michael Jackson and MC Hammer on my stereo just for you. Jerk.

There seems to be a decent amount of talk as of late about who will replace current Governor General Adrienne Clarkson when her term as GG is up later this year. Some of the names being dropped by other bloggers and the MSM include Bob Rae, Ed Broadbent, Joe Clark, Marc Garneau, James Bartleman, etc.

Here are some of my suggestions…

John Ralston Saul: Intellectual, author, and husband of Ms. Clarkson. I saw him speak at the University of Alberta a couple of years ago. This guy is amazing. I think he would be an interesting choice for GG (plus, think of how much taxpayers would save on moving costs!).

Preston Manning: Former Reform Party MP and Leader, bested by Stockwell Day, son of Ernest Manning. Though I think that the GG position shouldn’t be a dumping ground for old politicians, I think Mr. Manning would serve Canadians well in this position. I don’t tend to agree with his politics, but I have a large amount of respect for this man and think he would be a good choice.

Warren Kinsella: Author, Chrétien Advisor, Punk Aficionado etc. Born in Calgary, lives in Toronto (Pan-Canadian). I would love to see Monte Solberg’s reaction to this one. Just think of the cool GG blog!

Gordon Lightfoot: Canadian Music Legend. He scores pretty high on the “old white guy” scale, but I think he would do a decent job.

Knowlton Nash: Former CBC National News Anchor, correspondent, etc. Being an unabashed Knowlton Nash fan, so would love to see him become our Governor General (read his book: History on the Run: The Trenchcoat Memoirs of a Foreign Correspondent – It’s awesome!).

Naomi Klein: Author, Anti-Globalization activist, etc. She *might* be a little too controversial for the GG position, but I would LOVE to see the reaction from right-wingers on this one.

And finally…

William Shatner: Actor, Music Artist, Fiber Advocate. Come on, how cool would that be?!?!