Category: Alberta Politics

peter lougheed at the university of alberta.

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date January 15, 2008
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Former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed will be speaking at the University of Alberta tomorrow.

Merv Leitch QC Memorial Lecture – The Honourable Peter Lougheed: Is Canadian Federalism Working?

The Honourable Peter Lougheed PC CC QC will deliver the Merv Leitch QC Memorial Lecture on the topic, “Is Canadian Federalism Working?”

The lecture will take place on Tuesday, January 15, 2008, from 12 noon to 1 pm in Law Centre Rooms 231/237. A light lunch will be served.

It should be an interesting talk and I’m planning on checking it out.

Alberta Politics Podcasts

edmonton journal podcast.

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date January 13, 2008
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Just over a week ago, I sat down and chatted with Edmonton Journal’s Legislature Reporter Archie McLean as part of the first edition of the Lej Out Loud podcast. Ken Chapman and I were lucky to be the first guests of the podcast in which we discuss the political blogging scene in Alberta.

Congrats to Archie and thanks for having us on!

Also, in case you haven’t yet read it, check out Graham Thomson’s column from today’s Journal.

2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

not-edstelmach.ca

Here’s a bit of a rundown of some of the political movement on the Alberta scene…

– The list of Alberta Provincial election candidates has been updated as Alberta Liberals have nominated Dick Mastel in Cypress-Medicine Hat and Dale D’Silva in Calgary-North West. For the New Democrats, former City Council candidate and two-time Edmonton-Manning candidate Hana Razga will be running in Edmonton-Whitemud against Tory Health Minister Dave Hancock and Alberta Liberal Nancy Cavanaugh. The NDs will also be running Mel Kraley in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo.

– The Battle for the Calgary-Egmont PC nomination is raging on. Don Middleton vs. Vicki Engel vs. Jonathan Denis. The victor will take on Alberta Liberal Cathie Williams, Independent-turfed-Tory Craig Chandler, Green Party Leader George Read, and New Dem Jason Nishiyama.

– Kudos to Elections Alberta for their swanky new website, it’s a great improvement compared the previous design.

– Jimmy Ford will be running as an Independent candidate in the next Federal election in the riding of Edmonton-Sherwood Park.

– The campaign south of the border gets more interesting as New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has ended his bid as a candidate in the Democratic race. I’m still betting on Mike Huckabee for the Republican nod…

Alberta Politics Craig Chandler

between $1.3 billion and $2.8 billion in "uncaptured economic rent."

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date January 7, 2008
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Good morning. Here is an update…

– A censored provincial government report shows that Albertans weren’t necessarily getting their fair share in royalty rates…

Alberta Energy told the provincial government in 2004 that the province was missing out on billions of dollars in resource revenue, newly released documents show.

In a 2006 report, the department estimated that since royalty rates were capped at certain price levels, Alberta had lost between $1.3 billion and $2.8 billion in “uncaptured economic rent” for natural gas alone in 2003 and 2004, or between $700 million and $1.4 billion a year.

The department’s cross-commodity resource valuation team called on the government to “increase conventional oil and gas royalties to restore Alberta’s fair share at high prices.”

– The newest kid on the right-wing block of Alberta politics is strolling around the corner… two of Alberta’s right-wing political parties are setting the stage to merge. The Alberta Alliance and the Wild Rose Party have announced their intentions to join forces in an attempt to storm the right-wing gates of Alberta’s political spectrum. Enter the Wild Rose Alliance.

– The Stelmach Tories are attempting to forge a new day in post-Craig Chandler nomination Calgary-Egmont. It looks like two main candidates have stepped up to the place. Vicki Engel and Don Middleton are lining up to face former Calgary Catholic School District Chair Cathie Williams who is running under the Alberta Liberal banner and now-Independent candidate Craig Chandler.

– Also, Canada had a political leader even half as charismatic as Barack Obama, it would be a gigantic improvement over our current Canadian political leaders. I’m excited to watch the New Hampshire results tomorrow night!

2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics Craig Chandler

the chanderlistas are marshalling their armies.

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 17, 2007
No Comments on the chanderlistas are marshalling their armies.

Along with Craig Chandler running as an Independent candidate in Calgary-Egmont, the Chandleristas will be following their glorious leader into the battle for social conservative votes in Calgary…

Jim Blake – Running as a Wildrose Party candidate or as an Independent in the Constituency of Calgary Currie.
Sid Helishauer – As an Alberta Alliance Party candidate or an Independent in the Constituency of Airdrie Chestermere.
Harley Shouldice – As an Independent in the Constituency of Calgary North Hill.
David Crutcher – Either as an Alberta Alliance or as an Independent in the Constituency of Calgary Glenmore. David Crutcher will be delivering a message very clearly to the Deputy Premier, Ron Stevens.

Merry Christmas, Ed Stelmach?

2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics Craig Chandler

monday nomination updates!

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 17, 2007
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Couple of nomination updates…

Calgary-Egmont: Craig Chandler and the Chandleristas are marching in full force against Ed Stelmach in Calgary.

“They picked the wrong guy to push aside — they’ve underestimated me every step of the way.” Chandler also announced three of his supporters who also plan to run as independents in the next election.

This includes former Calgary Egmont association president David Crutcher, Concerned Christians Canada national chairman Jim Blake, and Chandler’s campaign manager Harley Shouldice.

Chandler also announced that he’ll be launching a human rights complaint and suing the Alberta Progressive Conservatives for at least the $127,000 he spent campaigning to be their nominee.

As an independent candidate, Chandler will face former Calgary Catholic School District Chairperson and Alberta Liberal candidate Cathie Williams and the yet-to-be-chosen Tory
candidate.

Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview: Former Tory MLA Tony Vandermeer will take on ND MLA Ray Martin and Alberta Liberal candidate Dawit Isaac. Vandermeer was the MLA for Edmonton-Manning from 2001 to 2004. He was recently defeated by Peter Sandhu in the Edmonton-Manning Tory nomination meeting.

Edmonton-Gold Bar: It looks like Alberta Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald will be facing expected to be nominated ND candidate Sherry McKibben and Tory candidate David Dorward. in the next election. Sherry McKibben served one-year as a Ward 3 City Councillor from 1994 to 1995.

In 1994, McKibben was elected in a by-election after Judy Bethel was elected as Federal Liberal MP for Edmonton-East, but was defeated in the 1995 municipal election by Robert Noce (yes, Robert Noce actually defeated someone during his political career). McKibben then ran in Edmonton-Norwood in 1997 as the ND candidate but was defeated by Alberta Liberal Sue Olsen (Tory MLA Andrew Beniuk was defeated in this election. Beniuk is now a candidate for the Stelmach Tories in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood).

Hugh MacDonald was first elected as Edmonton-Gold Bar’s in 1997 after the retirement of Bettie Hewes (Hewes was the Alberta Liberal MLA for Gold Bar from 1986 to 1997). In 2004, MacDonald was re-elected with 62% of the votes and the second largest margin of victory in that election.

2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

scattered nomination updates.

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 13, 2007
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The Alberta PCs are holding their nomination meeting in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview tonight. A Conservative bird informed me that the Tories in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview were causing a stir a couple of months ago when they threatened to hold a “protest nomination meeting” to protest the PC party’s nomination rules.

Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview should be an interesting race and is definitely in the ‘one’s to watch‘ column. With NDP MLA Ray Martin running for re-election, he will face a strong challenge from Alberta Liberal Dawit Isaac. Depending who the Tories nominate in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview, it could get even more interesting. Martin defeated Liberal-turned-Tory MLA Julius Yankowski in 2004. Yankowski was elected as an Alberta Liberal in 1993, but quickly crossed the floor to wilt away in the Tory backbenches until 2004.

Further south, there’s the question of what’s going on in Calgary-Montrose. It seems that all has been quiet on the Calgary-Montrose front with no Tory nomination meeting schedules for this east Calgary constituency. With Calgary-Montrose Tory MLA Hung Pham (aka the MIA MLA) having ties to those connected with the Ward 10 scandal in the 2004 Calgary municipal election, I’m sure Pham is a caucus member that many Tory MLAs wouldn’t miss being associated with. In 2004, various Calgary-Montrose Tories ended up in court after challenger Gus Barron was disqualified from the Tory nomination race.

The ND’s have been nominating a flurry of candidates across the province. In the new hotbed of the New Democratic revolution, Tophie Davies will carry the NDP banner against Tory Luke Ouellette in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake. Also in the ND corner, Sidney Sadik was nominated in Edmonton-Decore. Sadik will face incumbent-Alberta Liberal MLA Bill Bonko and Tory candidate and former Catholic School Trustee Janice Sarich.

Also, it looks like the ND’s are setting up to nominate an ND-sized big candidate in Edmonton-Gold Bar to take on Alberta Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald (Janice Melnychuk?). Edmonton-Gold Bar has been one of the strongest Alberta Liberal supporting constituencies since 1986 when former Edmonton City Councillor Bettie Hewes was elected. Hewes served as MLA until 1997, when Hugh MacDonald was first elected. In 2004, MacDonald was re-elected with the second largest margin of victory in the province.

2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

nomination updates and more…

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 5, 2007
No Comments on nomination updates and more…

Some nomination updates for your Wednesday afternoon reading pleasure…

Calgary-Egmont – Disavowed Progressive Conservative candidate Craig Chandler is threatening to sue Ed Stelmach’s PC party for:

the $127,000 he claims he spent on his campaign to secure the party’s nomination in Calgary-Egmont.

And he may run for the seat in the next provincial election as either an independent or for a different party.

It looks like me like Craig Chandler is looking for is a political home to keep him warm and cozy for the holidays. Maybe these guys can help him out…

Calgary-Nose Hill – Len Borowski has been nominated to run for the Alberta Liberals against first-term incumbent Tory Neil Brown.

Edmonton-Strathcona – The PCs have nominated Hughena Gagne. I really don’t know any more about Ms. Gagne than that she defeated Whyte Avenue pretty-boy Chad Blake (who demonstrated his impeccable grammar skills here). Gagne will take on already nominated ND Rachel Notley and Green Adrian Cole.

West Yellowhead – Alberta Liberal candidate Lisa Higgerty will take on PC candidate Robin Campbell. West Yellowhead has been known to hold a strong non-conservative base (see: Jasper vs. Banff). From 1989 to 1993 New Democrat Jerry Doyle held the seat. Doyle was defeated by Alberta Liberal Duco VanBinsbergen in 1993 and VanBinsbergen was defeated by Tory Ivan Strang in 1997.

Strang is not seeking re-election this time around. A local rumour has it that nominated Tory candidate Robin Campbell has a little too many NDP connections in his recent past than the local PC establishment can stomach, leaving many local Tories questioning whether they will have the time to give in the next campaign. The NDs have yet to nominate a candidate in West Yellowhead.

Alberta Politics

ed stelmach invokes closure on bill 46.

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 29, 2007
No Comments on ed stelmach invokes closure on bill 46.

As part of his government’s priority of Accountability and Transparency for Building Tomorrow’s Secure Alberta Future, Ed Stelmach has taken a hold of the reigns of democracy by invoking closure on the debate of controversial Bill 46. Official Opposition MLAs were only given four hours to debate the Bill before Stelmach shut down debate on the Bill.

Alberta Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman:

“The Conservatives aren’t even allowing their own members to speak to it,” Blakeman says. “If you think electing a Conservative MLA will put you on the inside of government, you’re wrong. They’re shutting down their people.”

This is the first time the Stelmach government has used closure. The Klein government used closure 38 times in 14 years but it seldom used closure on more than one stage of a bill.

“Stelmach is Klein on steroids,” Blakeman says. “He’s hyper-Klein.”

The Tories introduced amendments to the Bill this week, but a group of central Alberta landowners (including Lacombe-Ponoka Green candidate Joe Anglin) responded with:

In Bill 46, including the new amendments tabled today, if a person is directly and adversely affected by a proposed project the new commission can still make any decision or issue any order without giving notice or holding a hearing if the commission is satisfied the applicant followed the rules respecting each owner of land. No one knows what the rules are in respect to each owner of land and the rules have not been made or defined. What’s troubling is, Bill 46 allows the commission to make rules and regulations that supersede legislation. In essence the new Commission will be able to make rules to circumvent legislation.

Furthermore, the public can have no confidence in Bill 46 if section 24(1) remains. Section 24(1) allows the Commission to make any decision or issue any order without giving notice or holding a hearing if the commission considers the matter urgent or for any other sufficient reason. Simply stated citizens have no right to notice or to a hearing in Bill 46. Finally, in Sec 9(4) the Commission does not have to afford an opportunity to a person to be represented by counsel.

Alberta Politics Craig Chandler Ed Stelmach

gary mar, a golden parachute, and more.

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 29, 2007
No Comments on gary mar, a golden parachute, and more.

A bit of a look around…

– Gary Mar has strapped on his golden parachute and is on his way to a +$230,000 taxpayer funded gig in Washington DC.

– Ed Stelmach doesn’t want to meet with Calgary-Egmont nominated Progressive Conservative candidate Craig Chandler. Stelmach and his inner circle will meet on December 1st to decide whether PC members in Calgary-Egmont made a better decision than a small group of Conservative lawyers.

Concerned Christians Canada are calling it a witch hunt, but I tend to agree with Don Braid:

All this happened because local Conservatives, demoralized after Jim Dinning’s leadership defeat, didn’t have the will to fight off Chandler even though they saw him coming months ago.

– A number of candidate nominations happened yesterday. For the Alberta Liberals, Greg Flanagan was nominated in Calgary-Bow and Tony Vonesh in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills. The Tories nominated Lindsay Blackett in Calgary-North West.

– Alberta’s Bill 46 battle continues, pitting rural landowners versus the Stelmach Tories.

2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

more alberta nominations.

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 27, 2007
No Comments on more alberta nominations.

A whole load of candidates have been nominated in the past week. In Calgary, three Alberta Liberal candidates were nominated last night Laura Shutiak in Calgary-Fish Creek, Lori Czerwinski in Calgary-Lougheed, and John Roggeveen in Calgary-Shaw.

The saga of Craig Chandler and his victory in the Calgary-Egmont Progressive Conservative nomination continues as the constituency President is now demanding a seat at the table when Ed Stelmach and the PC Inner Circle meet to decide Chandler’s fate this weekend.

In Edmonton…

Edmonton-Ellerslie – Naresh Bhardwaj was nominated as the PC candidate to take on Alberta Liberal MLA Bharat Agnihotri in the next election. Bhardwaj ran for the nominated against 1993 Edmonton-Ellerslie PC candidate Bas Roopnarine and 2001 PC candidate Sukhi Randhawa (of ‘Booze for Votes‘ fame). In 2004, Edmonton-Ellerslie was a three-way race between Agnihotri, Tory Gurnam Dodd, and ND Marilyn Assheton-Smith.

Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood – Former Liberal/Independent/PC MLA Andrew Beniuk defeated T.J. Keil for the Tory nod. Though I was rooting for T.J. (yes, I was rooting for a Tory), I think Beniuk’s name recognition might help him do decently against ND leader Brian Mason in the now merged constituency that Beniuk formerly represented.

Edmonton-Meadowlark – The Alberta Liberals have nominated Debbie Cavaliere to run for the spot of retiring MLA Maurice Tougas. Cavaliere will take on PC candidate Raj Sherman in what is sure to be a hot and probably close race. In 2004, Maurice Tougas surprised many when he defeated backbench Tory MLA Bob Maskell by a slim margin of +100 votes. Edmonton-Meadowlark was also a close race in 2001 when Maskell unseated Alberta Liberal MLA Karen Leibovici.

Edmonton-Mill Woods – The Tories have nominated Carl Benito to run against Alberta Liberal MLA Weslyn Mather. Benito ran unsuccessfully against MLA Don Massey in Edmonton-Mill Woods in 2001. Mather was elected in 2004 with a margin of +2,000 votes over Naresh Bhardwaj (who is now the nominated PC candidate in Edmonton-Ellerslie).

Other recent nominations include Robin Campbell for the Tories in West Yellowhead and Horst Schreiber for the Alberta Liberals in Battle River-Wainwright.

Click here for an up to date list of Alberta provincial election candidates.

Alberta Politics

stopping bill 46.

This ended up in my email inbox this evening…

– KILL BILL 46 RALLY ¬
What: A Rally of citizens concerned about the negative effects of the Government’s proposed Bill 46 on peoples rights to participate in energy and utilities regulatory proceedings.

When: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 12:00 Noon sharp
Where: Alberta Legislature Building
10800 – 97 Ave.
Edmonton, AB

Why: Bill 46 is about to be passed into law by the Conservative Government even though it will have very dramatic negative effects on the ability of the citizens of Alberta to effectively intervene into proposed energy and utility projects that will directly affect them, their lands or the environment. There has been widespread opposition to the Bill and now is the time to show Premier Stelmach that Albertans do not want Bill 46 to be passed into law.

Who: Concerned citizens, landowners, environmentalists and social justice activists – everyone interested in fair and transparent government.

Contacts: Southern Alberta: Mike Judd, 403-627-2949
Central and Northern Alberta: Joe Anglin, 403-843-3279

2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

trustees everywhere…

With parties nominating their candidates left, right, and centre, there are a noticeable number of former school board trustees being nominated.

Two former school board chairs have been nominated in Calgary. In Calgary-Egmont, former Calgary Catholic School District Chair Cathie Williams will be taking on Tory star candidate Craig Chandler. In Calgary-Mackay, former Calgary Board of Education chair Teresa Woo-Paw is the Tory candidate taking a run for Gary Mar’s soon to be vacated seat as Mar leaves on a taxpayer funded jet plane for the posh life in Washington DC. Another former CBE Trustee, Carole Oliver, is the Alberta Liberal candidate in Calgary-Fort. Calgary-North Hill PC candidate Kyle Fawcett is also a former CBE Trustee.

In Medicine Hat, former trustee Karen Charlton is running for the Alberta Liberals.

In Edmonton, former Catholic School Trustee Janice Sarich will carry the Tory flag against current MLA and former Public School Board Trustee Bill Bonko in Edmonton-Decore. In Edmonton-Whitemud, former Trustee Nancy Cavanaugh is mounting a campaign against Tory Health Minister Dave Hancock as the Alberta Liberal candidate. And last week in Edmonton-Meadowlark, former Catholic School District chair Debbie Cavaliere was nominated as the Alberta Liberal candidate. And according to his official candidate bio, Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview ND MLA Ray Martin is still the Edmonton Public School Board trustee for Ward D!

2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

a look around.

– I went to the latest Young Rutherford coffee night yesterday and enjoyed some great conversation about municipal affairs in Edmonton with Edmonton-Rutherford MLA Rick Miller and Ward 5 City Councillor Don Iveson.

– Mary Christa O’Keefe has written a great article on former Edmonton City Councillor Michael Phair in this week’s VUE Weekly.

– I’m excited to see underdog T.J. Keil take on former MLA Andrew Beniuk in the the Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood PC nomination.

Andrew Beniuk has a mixed political past as he was originally elected in 1993 as an Alberta Liberal in Edmonton-Norwood (defeating then-New Democrat Leader Ray Martin). Beniuk then sat as an Independent MLA in 1995 before joining fellow social conservative Liberal MLAs Julius Yankowski and Paul Langevin in joining Ralph Klein’s PC caucus in 1996.

Beniuk ran for re-election in 1997 but was defeated by Alberta Liberal Sue Olsen (Beniuk actually placed third in Edmonton-Norwood, behind Olsen and New Democrat candidate and former City Councillor Sherri McKibben). In 2001, Beniuk was also defeated in his attempt to unseat Alberta Liberal MLA Bill Bonner in Edmonton-Glengarry (now Edmonton-Decore).

Alberta Politics

unfunded resolution in alberta?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 16, 2007
No Comments on unfunded resolution in alberta?

– After a bizarre year of seemingly picking fights with the Alberta Teachers’ Association, it looks like there finally might be some resolution to the long-smoldering teachers unfunded pension liability issue.

Yesterday, the Tories announced that they will be investing $6.4 billion to deal with the issue. I haven’t any details of the deal, but this is a long-standing issue that has been on the mind of a lot of Albertans for a long time. Hopefully this issue will be resolved so that the government can now deal with the other critical issues facing Alberta’s education system.

– I attended session in the Alberta Legislature yesterday afternoon and have two main observations…

1) It was a little rich of Ed Stelmach to praise Stephen Harper’s electoral redistribution that gives Alberta five more seats in the House of Commons while at the same time 2/3’s of Alberta’s population is represented by under half of the seats in the Alberta Legislature.

I also noticed that Drayton Valley-Calmar Tory MLA Tony Abbott boisterously cheered the disparity when Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft pointed out urban Alberta’s underrepresentation in his response to Stelmach.

2) The bizarre contradictions that Ed Stelmach and disgraced Energy Minister Mel Knight continue to make regarding Auditor General Fred Dunn’s allegations that the Tory Government failed to collect up to $6 Billion in royalties over the past 7 years due to mismanagement and gross incompetence.

In Question Period yesterday, it was pointed out that on November 7, Ed Stelmach told The Canadian Press that as a Minister in Ralph Klein’s cabinet, he was never made aware that reports from the Department of Energy recommended that Alberta’s royalties be increased.

Here is where the contradictions begin…

Stelmach to CP: “In the time that I was around the Cabinet table…there was nothing coming to me…”

Mel Knight in the Legislature: Knight said he couldn’t release internal documents itemized by the Auditor General in his review of royalty rates because of “legislative protection with respect to some information that’s provided to the Cabinet.“

How can a document both not exist and be secret at the same time?

I think Stelmach may need to get someone other than Tom Olsen to write his talking points.