Category: Alberta Tories

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Alberta Politics Alberta Tories

suiting up for spring session #3: getting ready to celebrate 40 years.

For those of your looking forward to the beginning of Spring Session in the Alberta Legislature, here’s a sneak peak at what awaits…

– In members statements, expect a member from the Tory caucus to make a statement in remembrance of the passing of former Moses and NRA head, Charlton Heston.

– Health Care Premiums will be gone in four years, starting… now?

– Speaking of Health Care, newly appointed Health Minister Ron Liepert says health care reforms he plans to bring in will be modeled on the Klein cuts of the 1990s.

– A Blue Ribbon committee is expected to be appointed to plan for the 40th Anniversary Celebrations of Progressive Conservative rule in Alberta in 2011. Expect plans to include the construction of a 50-foot statue of Ralph Klein overlooking the crossing of the Bow and Elbow Rivers in Calgary and military parades across the province…

– Land-use struggles! The fight by rural landowners continues! The Round Hill-Dodds Agriculture Protection Association is fighting to stop the construction of a new coal and gasification plant south of Tofield. Major investors in the project include the City of Edmonton-owned EPCOR and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics Alberta Tories

give me a p-a-t-r-o-n-a-g-e!

For those who doubted the existence of the culture of entitlement and partisan patronage present under Alberta’s 36-year Tory regime, I present Case #9731.

Edmonton… Edmonton lawyer and community volunteer Douglas Goss has been designated chair of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT)’s Board of Governors.

It just so happens that Doug Goss is also the co-chair of the Stelmach Tories’ election campaign.

For more information on Tory political patronage in Alberta, click here, here, and here.

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Alberta Tories Barry McFarland Cindy Ady Ed Stelmach Idaho-Alberta Task Force

$19,000 payday for tory mla’s.

The Edmonton Journal is reporting that Tory MLA’s Cindy Ady and Barry McFarland received $19,000 for work on the Idaho-Alberta task force – a task force which only met once and has no recorded accomplishments.

No meeting minutes. No phone records. Not to mention no border between Alberta and Idaho.

A spokesperson from Premier Ed Stelmach‘s office:

admitted the task force didn’t do much in the end, but they had good intentions and tried to set up meetings with their American counterparts. “Can I show you a report, an agreement, a memorandum, anything? No, I can’t. It just isn’t there,” David Sands said.

John Nordstrom, with the Idaho Department of Commerce, referred to the group as the Idaho-Alberta Sister State Task Force.

He said the state politician who sat on the informal committee didn’t receive any extra compensation.

“It was just part of their normal job. There wasn’t any extra pay or any-thing.”

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Alberta Royalty Review Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Hugh MacDonald Kevin Taft Lyle Oberg

alberta’s royalty review.

Now that I’ve had a chance to take a look at the much talked about Alberta Royalty Review Panel Final Report, I have some thoughts to offer.

1. The report is much more damning than I think anyone thought it would be.

The report begins with the opening statement: “Albertans do not receive their fair share from energy development.” The report proves this to be an understatement.

2. The report revealed that a lack of government accountability has led to billions of dollars in reduced royalty income over the last 15 years – the royalty holidays and adjustments have reduced Alberta’s income by nearly $8.6 billion over the past 15 years.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft and Shadow Energy Minister Hugh MacDonald pointed out that:

the government failed to report a four year royalty holiday period, which began in 1997, under former Minister of Energy Steve West. In 2001, the Auditor General questioned why the royalty holiday and incentive programs were not reported. The Auditor General started to report these amounts in his annual report. Since then, the Department of Energy has buried the amount of the royalty adjustments in their financial footnotes.

Here are Kevin Taft and Hugh MacDonald in their media conference following the release of the report:

3. Though some are rallying against the report, the same people don’t seem to understand the difference between a royalty and a tax.

4. There is no doubt that the release of this report is a defining moment in Alberta’s politics and the reaction or lack thereof by Ed Stelmach‘s Tories may define the main issue of the next provincial election.

5. In 2004, Federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser’s report into the Sponsorship scandal revealed that up to $100 million of the $250 million sponsorship program was awarded to advertising firms and Crown corporations for little or no work.

In 2007, Alberta’s Royalty Review Panel revealed that approximately $8.6 billion in natural resource royalties owed to Albertans were not collected. This failure occured while Ed Stelmach and Lyle Oberg were sitting at the table in Ralph Klein’s Tory Cabinet.

Albertans have been cheated in a big way and should be furious.

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AEUB Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Mel Knight

ed stelmach and mel knight continue to fumble the aeub scandal.

Long title. Big deal.

Tory Premier Ed Stelmach and his Energy Minister Mel Knight continue to fumble in the face of the growing AEUB scandal. It looks as if Stelmach and Knight are pulling out every tool in the Tory tool chest in order to not deal with the scandal of the public AEUB hiring private investigators to spy on ordinary Albertans.

For the highlights, I’ll defer to the brutal eloquence of Edmonton Journal columnist Graham Thomson…

Energy Minister Mel Knight did two things exceptionally well in his news conference at the legislature on Monday afternoon: he arrived on time and he didn’t fall off the stage.

He did everything else remarkably badly.

At times Knight looked like he didn’t know how to answer questions or was doing his best to avoid them. Sometimes he grew so testy with reporters it looked like he wanted to kick them. I suspect the reason he didn’t was because at any given time he had a least one foot stuck firmly in his mouth.

Monday was supposed to be the day the Alberta government would demonstrate leadership on the EUB spying controversy that has plagued the government since news broke in June the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board hired a private investigator who had spied on landowners.

For weeks, the government has been hinting it was about to take decisive action to recover the EUB’s reputation that has sunk so low you’d need a drilling rig to find it.

Instead, we had a minister of energy doing his best to downplay the biggest scandal to hit the government since Ed Stelmach became premier.

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Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Neil Brown Political Patronage

political patronage: alberta-style continued…

The Edmonton Journal continued it’s two-part feature on political patronage in Progressive Conservative Alberta. Here is a second list that the Journal put together:

SOME PROMINENT TORIES WITH MULTIPLE APPOINTMENTS

– Audrey Luft, organizer of 2007 Alberta PC annual convention: Alberta Foundation for the Arts (chair), NAIT, Alberta Economic Development Authority

– Doug Goss, Edmonton co-chair of Tories’ next election campaign: Capital Health, Alberta Economic Development Authority

– Wayne Jacques, former Conservative MLA: Peace Country Health Region, Transportation Safety Board, Law Enforcement Review Board

– Alf Savage, former PC president: Auto Insurance Rate Board (chair), Municipal Government Board

– Wendy Kinsella, losing Edmonton PC candidate in 2001: NorQuest College (chair), Capital Health (vice-chair)

– Marvin Moore, former PC campaign manager and cabinet minister: Peace Country Health (chair), Agriculture Marketing Products Council Appeal Tribunal

– Dale Johnson, president of Whitecourt-Ste. Anne PC association: Aspen Health, Credit Counselling Services of Alberta

– Robert Seidel, lawyer to former treasurer Stockwell Day: Grant MacEwan College, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research

– Skip McDonald, former president of Klein’s PC constituency association: Calgary Health, ATB Financial

UPDATE: Calgary-Nose Hill MLA Neil Brown says there’s nothing wrong with these appointments.

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Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Neil Brown Political Patronage

political patronage: alberta-style.

Kudos to Darcy Henton and Jason Markusoff of the Edmonton Journal for writing a feature article on the deluge of political patronage currently present in Alberta. The Journal also went through and detailed a list of provincially appointed boards and their card carrying Progressive Conservative Party members.

Here are the top 40 boards with the highest percentages of card-carrying Conservatives serving on them.

Health boards and regions
– Peace Country Health Region: 13 Tories / 13-member board

– East Central Health: 9 Tories / 12-member board

– Capital Health: 8 Tories / 14-member board

– Calgary Health: 7 Tories / 13-member board

– Aspen Health Region: 11 Tories / 14-member board

– David Thompson Health: 11 Tories / 15-member board

– Chinook Health: 7 Tories / 12-member board

– Northern Lights Health: 7 Tories / 12-member board

– Palliser Health Region: 7 Tories / 13-member board

– Alberta Cancer Board: 5 Tories / 10-member board

– Health Quality Council: 4 Tories / 8-member board

– Public Health Appeal Board: 2 Tories / 4-member board

– Health Facilities Review Board: 8 Tories / 12-member board

Post-secondary Institutions

– Northern Alberta Institute of Technology: 8 Tories / 12-member board

– Portage College: 5 Tories / 7-member board

– Lethbridge College: 4 Tories / 7-member board

– Athabasca University: 6 Tories / 11-member board

– Red Deer College: 3 Tories / 6-member board

– Mount Royal College: 5 Tories / 10-member board

financial

– ATB Financial: 9 Tories / 13-member board

– Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corp.: 4 Tories / 8-member board

addictions and disabilities

– Premier’s Council on the Status of Persons with Disabilities: 5 Tories / 8-member board

– Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission: 7 Tories / 10-member board

– Crystal Meth Task Force: 7 Tories / 12-member board

– Northwest Alberta Persons with Developmental Disabilities: 6 Tories / 7-member board

Agriculture

– Alberta Grain Commission: 8 Tories / 11-member board

– Agriculture Products Marketing Council: 7 Tories / 11-member board

– Alberta Agriculture Research Institute: 4 Tories / 7-member board

Other

– Seniors Advisory Council: 8 Tories / 10-member board

– Northern Alberta Development Council: 9 Tories / 10-member board

– Worker’s Compensation Board: 3 Tories / 4-member board

– Alberta Foundation of the Arts: 6 Tories / 10-member board

– Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission: 6 Tories / 7-member board

– Alberta Economic Development Authority: 29 Tories / 60-member board

– Alberta Order of Excellence Council: 6 Tories / 6-member board

– Social Care Facilities Review Commission: 7 Tories / 11-member board

– Alberta Science and Research Authority: 9 Tories / 19-member board

– Northeast PDD Board: 5 Tories / 7-member board

– Alberta Fatality Review Board: 3 Tories / 3-member board

– Rural Alberta’s Development Fund: 6 Tories / 12-member board

Click here to see the list of the 100 provincially appointed Boards and Government agencies stacked with Tory appointees.

Tomorrow, the Edmonton Journal will be profiling the process which allows the Progressive Conservatives to commit this degree of political patronage.

UPDATE: Calgary-Nose Hill MLA Neil Brown says there’s nothing wrong with these appointments.

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Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

the post-ed stelmach pc poll.

Here are the results from the most recent daveberta poll:

Who will be the next Leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party?

Selection
Votes
Craig Chandler 17% 39
Ray Danyluk 1% 3
Jim Dinning 9% 21
Dave Hancock 14% 33
Ted Morton 33% 75
Mark Norris 3% 7
Lyle Oberg 5% 12
Tom Olsen 17% 40
230 votes total
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Alberta Tories Calgary-Egmont Craig Chandler

oh, craig…

This was in my inbox from a daveberta reader this morning. Thanks for the message…

Hey Dave, [Craig] Chandler keeps on giving – and he wrote some serious falsehoods in the herald today.

So, Chandler wrote an op-ed in the herald today, where he claimed to have written something different on his posting.

he claimed:

“To those of you who have come to our great land from out of province, you need to remember that you came here to our home and we vote conservative. You came here to enjoy our economy, our natural beauty and more. This is our home and if you wish to live here, you must adapt to our rules and our voting patterns, or leave. Conservatism is our culture. Do not destroy what we have created.” – from Daveberta

was more like:

“To those of you who have come to our great land from out of province, you need to remember that you came here to our home and we vote conservative (meaning Social Credit, Alberta Alliance, Wildrose or the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party.)”

he also changed it on the forum posting:

Firstly, Alberta is growing in a way that was never expected and many of the people coming here do not truly appreciate Alberta or even understand the history of this province or the relationship with small ‘c’ conservatism. To those of you who have come to our great land from out of province, you need to remember that you came here to our home and we vote conservative (meaning Social Credit, Alberta Alliance, Wildrose or the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party). You came here to enjoy our economy, our natural beauty and more. This is our home and if you wish to live here, you must adapt to our rules and our voting patterns, or leave. Conservatism is our culture. Do not destroy what we have created.

The great part is the forum tracks edits to posts. The post is tagged at the end with:
“Last edited by Craig B. Chandler on Sun Sep 02, 2007 8:52 pm; edited 4 times in total.”

Craig is being untrue about what he wrote in his forum post.

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2008 Alberta PC Leadership Race Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

post-stelmach poll results.

The interim results are tallying up in what is quickly becoming to known as the unofficial 2008 Alberta PC leadership race.

Look on the sidebar to vote (early and often…):

Who will be the next leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party?

Selection Votes
Craig Chandler 22% (20 votes)
Ray Danyluk 1% (1 vote)
Jim Dinning 12% (11 votes)
Dave Hancock 13% (12 votes)
Ted Morton 28% (26 votes)
Mark Norris 2% (2 votes)
Lyle Oberg 8% (7 votes)
Tom Olsen 15% (14 votes)

93 votes total

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Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

mr. dithers: alberta edition.

Aren’t you glad that Ed Stelmach is speaking for Alberta to the rest of Canada?

“Will there be people without homes? Yes. Will there be some sick people that we can’t save, despite all the medical technology that we have? Yes, there will be. But people are continuing to move here because where else are they going to go in Canada?”

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Alberta Liberals Alberta NDP Alberta Tories Richard Magnus

retirement row.

In what I expect to be a steady stream over the next few months, long-time Tory backbencher Richard Magnus joined the current as he announced that he won’t be seeking a fifth term in office.

That brings the official MLA retirement list to eight:

Progressive Conservative MLAs
Victor Doerksen (Red Deer-South)
Clint Dunford (Lethbridge-West)
Carol Haley (Airdrie-Chestermere)
Denis Herard (Calgary-Egmont)
Rob Lougheed (Strathcona)
Richard Magnus (Calgary-North Hill)

Alberta Liberal MLA
Maurice Tougas (Edmonton-Meadowlark)

New Democrat MLA
Raj Pannu (Edmonton-Strathcona)

On the Tory retirements, comments are abound:

“A lot of MLAs see the writing on the wall that people are not happy with the party and the way it’s run,” says Jim Stevenson, who chaired Alberta Renewal, founded during last fall’s leadership race in an effort to reconnect the party with its grassroots.

“There’s so many things that need to be changed to bring some democracy back into the party and I don’t see that happening.”

…

David Taras, a political analyst at the University of Calgary, agrees a number of factors affect the decision whether to run again, but says Stelmach has to wear some of the responsibility.

“There are a lot of factors at work here and some are not the kind of factors the premier likes to talk about,” he said. “Klein had enormous coat tails. With those coat tails gone, and the argument that Stelmach has very short coat tails, or none at all, could be a drag on some of these candidates.

“If you do the basic math, some of them could be in tough re-election battles and some could lose.”

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Alberta Tories Calgary-Egmont Craig Chandler Rick Bell

rick bell on ‘kooky craig.’

Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell offers his thoughts on Progressive Conservative nomination candidate ‘Kooky’ Craig Chandler’s recent comments that if new Albertans: “wish to live here, you must adapt to our rules and our voting patterns, or leave. Conservatism is our culture. Do not destroy what we have created.”

UPDATE: CTV Calgary and the Globe and Mail have both run stories on Mr. Chandler’s commments.

Ed Stelmach wouldn’t refute Chandler’s comments, but would only say that: “This province has welcomed newcomers and we will continue to welcome newcomers.”

Here is the YouTube video (linked from Glen):

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Alberta Tories Calgary-Egmont Craig Chandler Ed Stelmach

craig chandler continued.

Craig Chandler officially announced his intentions to run for the Progressive Conservative nomination in Calgary-Egmont as five-term Tory MLA Denis Herard announced his retirement today.

Chandler recently wrote the bizarre and ridiculous webboard statement that if new Albertans “wish to live here, you must adapt to our rules and our voting patterns, or leave. Conservatism is our culture. Do not destroy what we have created.

Chandler’s positions are somewhat confusing after you notice some pretty big contradictions between his campaign website and a media release sent out by his campaign today:

Media Release: “Some in our party have become complacent and think we have the natural right to govern because we are conservatives.”

Website: “Craig Chandler is seeking the riding nomination for the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party. We all know that whoever wins the nomination will surely become your next MLA.”

Yep, complacent.

I wonder if Ed Stelmach is starting to regret these best wishes…

Here is Chandler’s media release as received by email (how many spelling errors can you spot?):

CRAIG CHANDLER SEEKING TORY NOMINATION FOR CALGARY EGMONT

(Calgary) Craig Chandler, Executive Director of the Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB) and a well known name in conservative political circles is seeking to become the MLA for the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party in Calgary Egmont. Craig Chandler has taken a leave of abscence from the the Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB)

“I feel that we need a strong Alberta a government where we put Alberta first. Some in our party have become complacent and think we have the natural right to govern because we are conservatives. I feel we need to get back to looking at the whites of people eyes on their doorsteps and find out first hand what we are doing well and where we need to improve. I will show up at the door of my constituents at least once a year to find out first hand their concerns. I will be an effective and articulate voice for Calgary Egmont and Calgary as a whole” said Craig Chandler.

The Craig Chandler campaign has been campaigning for over 3 months and has submited a very substantial amount of memberships to the party. Several communities have already been doorknocked and the campaign is working full time with volunteer and paid staff. Craig Chandler has also managed to unite many on the conservative right behind him. Link Byfield of the Wildrose Party has endorsed Craig Chandler. David Crutcher who received 1,657 votes for the Alberta Alliance in Calgary Egmont has joined the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party and is now serving as their President in Calgary Egmont.

“We are taking nothing for granted. We are working very hard and know that it takes a substantial amount of memberships and money to win the nomination. We will always be campaigning like we are 30 votes behind” said Harley Shouldice, Campaign Manager / Whip for the Craig Chandler Campaign.

– 30 –

For More Information contact Harley Shouldice or Craig Chandler at 203-3456

www.craigchandler.ca www.oneridingatatime.com

It also looks like Chandler’s PGIB group is going to start hijacking Progressive Conservative nomination meeting through oneridingatatime.com.

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Alberta Tories Calgary-Egmont Craig Chandler Ed Stelmach

if you move to alberta – adapt or leave: craig chandler.

Alberta PC nomination candidate Craig Chandler has eloquently declared his feelings towards new Albertans who choose to exercise their constitutional right to vote for a political party other than the 36-year old ruling Progressive Conservative Party of Ed Stelmach.

I wonder which point in Ed Stelmach’s five-priority plan Chander is promoting when he wrote this:

To those of you who have come to our great land from out of province, you need to remember that you came here to our home and we vote conservative. You came here to enjoy our economy, our natural beauty and more. This is our home and if you wish to live here, you must adapt to our rules and our voting patterns, or leave. Conservatism is our culture. Do not destroy what we have created.

Considering that Stelmach’s Tories haven’t been doing too well in Calgary lately, I wonder how excited Ed Stelmach will be with Craig Chandler carring the PC banner in Calgary Egmont?

I know I’m looking forward to the daily entertainment.

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