Author: Dave Cournoyer

I thought the beginning was pretty funny – the first time the Speaker asked for yeas and nays, the yeas most definately out yelled the neas. The second time, the nays sounded like they had added 50 or so vocal cords…

The vote results:
Yeas: 158
Nays: 133

Nothing out of the ordinary. The Liberal God Squad voted nay. Dipper Bev Desjarlais voted nay, as did Kilgour and O’Brien. Tories James Moore and Jim Prentice voted yea.

I hope someone asks Stephen Harper if this means Quebec is going to separate 😛

What a goofball.

And so ends the story of how Canada legalized same-sex marriage.

PS. The sky never fell! 😛

until the 3rd reading of Bill C-38 the Civil Marriage Act… more commentary to come…

I’d just like to send a BIG HELLO out to jentario, who’s now residing on the Caribbean Island of Grenada! Hey Jen!

The island in the picture is a volcano known as ‘kick em’ jenny.’ It’s located north of Grenada.

UPDATE: Heaps and heaps of props to yingyang who pointed out to me that the picture above is not in fact ‘kick ’em jenny,’ but Diamond Rock (still near Grenada). KEJ is an underwater volcano. Very cool. Thanks yingyang!

For those of you wondering, WILD ROSE ROUNDUP #4 will be coming soon (probably tomorrow). It was a late night last night and it’s been a pretty busy day.

Also, Kevin Powell has written a great post here.

Cheers.

D 🙂

In a previous post, I blogged about the retirement of Rich Vivone, the editor of Insight into Government, a weekly Alberta Legislature news report. In the post, I wrote that Cambridge Strategies had purchased Mr. Vivone’s publication and that Marc Lisac would be succeeding Mr. Vivone as editor.

In reality, Mr. Lisac has purchased the publication, and Cambridge Strategies simply sponsored a transition party for the changeover.

I apologize to Mr. Vivone, Mr. Lisac, and Cambridge Strategies for posting this incorrect information, as it was not my intention to spread false information. Thank You, Mr. Vivone for pointing out my error.

I would also like to wish Mr. Vivone a happy retirement. Thank You for years of informative and interesting legislative reporting! Also, I would like to wish Marc Lisac good luck in his new venture!

This is too messed up not to post about.

(Props to chris-face for the link to this epic story. wow.)

(okay, maybe the picture is a little exagerated for Alberta…)

From the Globe and Mail…

Alberta eases child-hiring rules

By TERRY WEBER
Friday, June 24, 2005 Updated at 1:06 PM EDT
Globe and Mail Update

“Restaurant owners in Alberta are now able to hire children as young as 12 without first getting provincial approval as a result of what government officials call a “procedural change” in employment practices.

But labour groups have charged that the switch leaves vulnerable children at the mercy of an industry already difficult to police and say it amounts to a little more than concession a sector desperate for cheap labour.

“We’re horribly opposed to this,” Jason Foster, director of policy for the Alberta Labour Federation, said.

“We think this is bad public policy, bad for children, bad for customers and bad for Alberta’s reputation.””

Google hits to this site from yesterday:

– “fort mcmurray” “sweetheart”
– the firetruck stalks its prey (4 times!)
– a solitary killer the fire truck
– “a solitary killer the firetruck”

And yes, Daveberta is the 1# google hit for the fire truck stalks its prey.

Seeing how every blogger in blogdom is going to be either salivating or foaming at the mouth over this one, I’m not going to write a huge post.

I’ll refer you to Scott Tribe for a good post on the suprise final budget vote.

“Little Bunny Foo Foo,
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ’em on the head”

(Photo care of the CBC)

Yesterday, I linked to this article from the Globe and Mail, which reported on a prediction by Cambridge Energy Research Associates which suggested that the world is on the verge of an ‘oil glut.’

This post generated some interesting dicussion.

Mark from Section 15 pointed me to two interesting websites which discuss oil issues. Check them out here and here.

Tim from Ahab’s Whale has also joined in with some interesting comments on where the price of oil may be heading.

Aaron from Grandinite linked to an interesting article in the comment section.

Aaron also posted an interesting quote from the article:

“There has been a growing realization on the part of major oil producers such as Iran and Saudi Arabia that oil is not priced in dollars but rather dollars are priced in oil. The reality underpinning this epiphany is the fact that oil has “value”, or “money’s worth” – in exchange for commodities, goods and services – whereas the financial object we are accustomed to think of as the “dollar” is merely a “claim over value”, or IOU issued by the US Federal Reserve Bank.

If we look at the current structure of the global energy market, we are conditioned to think that the “big bad wolf” is a “cartel” of OPEC members. However, the fact of the matter is that while there has indeed been a cartel extracting extraordinary profits from energy markets in recent years, this has consisted of intermediary investment banks and energy traders, who control the global market platform on which oil is traded and benchmark prices are set. In other words, the derivative tail has been wagging the oil market dog.”

“One of the men I know who’s a good philanthropist says money is like fertilizer. If you pile it up, it starts to smell. But if you spread it around, you can grow some beautiful things.”

– Seymour Schulich

Yesterday, Mr. Schulich donated $25 Million to the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Engineering. The Faculty has been renamed the ‘Schulich School of Engineering.’

I liked the quote.

More at the CBC

This afternoon, Advanced Education Minister Dave Hancock appointed defeated Tory MLA Mary O’Neill to the Board of Govenors of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).

In 1997, O’Neill was first elected in the St. Albert riding by only 16 votes over Liberal MLA Len Bracko (who served as MLA from 1993 to 1997). O’Neill defeated Bracko in a 2001 re-match, but was knocked-out of office by Liberal Jack Flaherty in 2004 by 410 votes.

O’Neill will join former Dunvegan Tory MLA Glen Clegg (MLA 1986-2001) as a political appointee on NAIT’s BOG.

I love how Tories foam at the mouth when this stuff happens in Ottawa, but do the same stuff at home. Typical.