Categories
American Politics Daveberta à Quebec

liberal v. progressive.

Well, it`s a beautiful balmy +31C in the Saguenay today – a nice change from the rain and cloudy weather from the past three weeks.

Though I`ve been mostly cut off from the world outside of the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region for the past three weeks, I was able to catch some of the CNN-YouTube debate between the Democratic Presidential candidates yesterday.

It was an interesting debate and I found the unscripted answers in response to the YouTube questions to be quite telling. I particularily found that Senator Hillary Clinton`s response to the `do you consider youself a liberal?` question by declaring that she is a `progressive` was interesting. It just shows how well the Republicans have been able to change the political language in the United States by making the word `liberal` a negative word. I personally like the term `progressive,` but it also has different conotations in different political environments.

But in the end, it`s all sematics. It`s just a name. Parties and politicians should be judged by their actions and policies, not by their brand name.

Categories
Alberta Tories Daveberta à Quebec Ed Stelmach Murray Smith

living the high life in d.c.

I may be all the way in Chicoutimi, Quebec but this still caught my attention. It looks like the Alberta Tories Ambassador to the United States of America isn`t having many problems enjoying a taxpayer funded high life in the District of Columbia…

Bills detail lavish perks for Alberta’s D.C. envoy
Taxis cost $6,000 despite car; annual allowance of $15,000 added to $223,000 salary
Darcy Henton, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 1:50 am

EDMONTON – Alberta’s man in Washington had just the right pitch to get the taxpayers to pay for a GPS for his $42,500 government fleet car.

Murray Smith told provincial officials he needed the global positioning system because he’d been lost for an hour chauffeuring premier Ralph Klein around Maryland during the premier’s visit last year.

“Don’t want to do that again,” he wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Journal under Freedom of Information legislation.

But the Canadian Taxpayers Federation expressed shock at the Washington office expenditures, especially the GPS.

“That’s unbelievable,” said Alberta director Scott Hennig. “What does it cost to buy a map? $5? What about a Google map? That’s free.”

Indeed…

Also, Jeffery Simpson has some thoughts on Ed Stelmach`s Alberta Tories 34% approval rating

Categories
Daveberta à Quebec

daveberta à qc.

Yes, I`m still alive and well here in la belle provence.

I was in Quebec City over the past couple days for the festival d`été (with musique) and had a lot of fun. I`ve actually been enjoying the Québec music scene quite a bit. On Friday night, Xavier Rudd played a show at the festival and it was great. I would recommend to anyone in the area during that time to check out that festival.

Nothing else to report. The Saguenay is still beautiful, but I`m longing to gaze across the Alberta prairies once again… soon enough.

Categories
Daveberta à Quebec

salut!

Bonjour! I just wanted to write a quick message to let everyone know that I`m still alive. I`m enjoying myself in Quebec (I am in Chicoutimi right now and was able to find a computer with les internets).

Since I haven`t been paying much attention to the Alberta scene since I`ve come to Quebec I`m not totally up to speed on the newest news of the day. I was able to do a bit of a blog scan in the past couple minutes, so I would recommend that you check out CalgaryGrit as Dan has had some good posts over the past couple days.

For those of you wondering, the Montreal Jazz Festival was lot of fun. I would recommend it to anyone who just enjoys fun in general.

If I reach another location with access to les internets in the next month I`ll try to post again, but if not, Daveberta will return to regularily scheduled postings in August 2007.

PS: Also, comment dit-ton free fall en francais?

Categories
Daveberta à Quebec

happy canada day!

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Canada Day!

(I’m in Montreal enjoying the amazing Jazz Festival)