Category: Ed Stelmach

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election Conflict-of-Interest Legislation Ed Stelmach Elections Alberta

"they come right from the premier’s office."

Can someone please explain to me how the Premier of Alberta recommending appointments of election Returning Officers is appropriate on any level?

Conservative Leader Ed Stelmach said he doesn’t believe the Tory connections are a problem, especially since all returning officers are picked by the chief electoral officer.

“They’re all interviewed by the chief electoral officer and were selected by the electoral officer,” Stelmach said Tuesday in Strathmore.

But Jacqueline Roblin, spokeswoman for Elections Alberta, said the names of returning officers actually come directly from Stelmach.

“They come right from the premier’s office with these names that they are recommending that they be appointed,” she said Wednesday.

…

Roblin said candidates for returning officer jobs are interviewed by the chief electoral officer to ensure they follow provincial law. She said about half of the returning officers questioned have connections to the Tories, while the other half said they don’t have ties to any political party.

I wish someone could explain to me how Ed Stelmach doesn’t think this is an issue?

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election Change that works for Tory Insiders Conflict-of-Interest Legislation Ed Stelmach Ralph Klein

more on change that works for tory insiders.

As I wrote earlier this week, only hours before the March 3 election was called Tory leader Ed Stelmach and his cabinet changed the date that Alberta’s new conflict-of-interest legislation take effect. This change means that the tougher conflict-of-interest rules don’t apply to retiring or defeated Tory cabinet ministers and MLAs.

A quick look back in time shows that when former Tory leader Ralph Klein implemented new conflict-of-interest rules he did so over three months before the 1993 election, instead of waiting until after the election. I didn’t think that this is what Ed Stelmach meant when he started trying to distance himself from Klein…

The timing of the change raises some important questions:

Which cabinet ministers supported this decision? Did retiring cabinet ministers Lyle Oberg and Greg Melchin participate or influence this decision?

Which cabinet ministers believed that their fellow Tories shouldn’t been held to account under the new rules?

Does 37-years in power give you the right to decide that your friends are above the rules?

These are only some of the questions that Albertans shouldn’t hesitate to ask their Progressive Conservative candidates, MLAs, and cabinet ministers. Albertans deserve to know the answers.
Albertans deserve better from their elected representatives. Albertans deserve better from their government.

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election Conflict-of-Interest Legislation Ed Stelmach

change that works for tory insiders.

Hours before the election was called on Monday, Tory leader Ed Stelmach and his cabinet amended the newly adopted conflict of interest rules so that they wouldn’t apply to Tory Ministers or MLAs who are retiring or are defeated in the March 3 election.

…the Tory cabinet approved an order-in-council to have the Conflicts of Interest Amendment Act take effect on April 1, nearly a month after the March 3 vote. A government worker had earlier told The Journal the rules would be in place before the campaign began.

It means retiring finance ministers Lyle Oberg and Greg Melchin don’t have to wait 12 months before they can start lobbying their former government on behalf of auto insurers or oilsands companies — only the six months for ex-ministers under the old law.

And the premier’s chief of staff, his deputies and all ministers’ senior aides have no restrictions on their dealings if they hit the exits following the election, which they traditionally do in droves.

Ed Stelmach introduced the new conflict of interest legislation last year as part of his then-commitment to Albertans be open and accountable (maybe he meant after he got re-elected). Here’s a list of retiring Tory Ministers and MLAs who are getting a pass on Alberta’s conflict-of-interest laws:

* Tony Abbott, Drayton Valley-Calmar
* Mike Cardinal, Athabasca-Redwater
* Harvey Cenaiko, Calgary Buffalo
* David Coutts, Livingstone-Macleod
* Victor Doerksen, Red Deer South
* Denis Ducharme, Bonnyville-Cold Lake
* Clint Dunford, Lethbridge West
* Gordon Graydon, Grande Prairie Wapiti
* Carol Haley, Airdrie-Chestermere
* Denis Herard, Calgary Egmont
* LeRoy Johnson, Wetaskiwin-Camrose
* Rob Lougheed, Strathcona
* Greg Melchin, Calgary North West
* Richard Magnus, Calgary North Hill
* Lyle Oberg, Strathmore-Brooks
* Hung Pham, Calgary Montrose
* Ivan Strang, West Yellowhead

Ten of these Tory MLAs are former Tory cabinet ministers (in bold) and two were in Ed Stelmach‘s cabinet when the amendment was made on Monday.

Here’s a question for Albertans to ask Ed Stelmach and local Tory candidates:

Why don’t Alberta’s conflict-of-interest rules apply to Tory insiders?

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election Ed Stelmach

alberta election 2008 almost here…

With platforms being released, campaigns being launched, and final candidates being nominated it’s pretty clear that a provincial election is nearly upon us in Alberta.

At 3:00 P.M. today, Lieutenant Governor Norman Kwong will read the Speech from the Throne that will highlight the legislative agenda of the Spring 2008 session of the Legislature that might not start until Fall 2008. With a writ drop expected following the Speech from the Throne (either today or tomorrow) watch for Kwong’s speech to have an uncanny similarity to the platform of the 37-year-old Progressive Conservative government of Ed Stelmach. 
It will be an exciting afternoon at the Alberta Legislature and I will be there to report back on all the the drama and intrigue of the afternoon.
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Ed Stelmach edstelmach.ca governing myself accordingly

edstelmach.ca: governing myself accordingly. day 23.

I’ve been asked by a number of daveberta.ca readers for an update on the edstelmach.ca fiasco that became public 23 days ago. So, by popular demand, here is an update on the continuing legal saga of edstelmach.ca and my accused misappropriation of Ed Stelmach‘s personality.

As I have previously written, Premier Ed Stelmach‘s Chief of Staff Ron Glen called me on the evening of January 9, 2008 asking if there might be a way to amenably resolve this issue. Understandably, I was a little surprised to get a phone call from the Premier’s Chief of Staff, so I told Mr. Glen that I would return his call in a couple of days after I took some time to weigh my options. On January 11, 2008, I returned Mr. Glen’s call and left a message on his voice mail (Mr. Glen was in Ottawa with Premier Stelmach at the First Ministers’ Conference). My call was quickly returned by Mr. Glen’s assistant who assured me that she would try to set up a phone meeting between myself and Mr. Glen to discuss a resolution to the edstelmach.ca domain name issue.

This began what can only be properly described as a game of “phone tag” which ensued over the next week. Mr. Glen had an uncanny ability to return my phone messages while I was in classes and had my cell phone turned off (I am a full-time student at the University of Alberta). Each time Mr. Glen left a message on my voicemail, I returned his call and left a message on his (I was surprised that no one seemed to pick up the phone in the Premier’s Office). Then, roughly two weeks ago, Mr. Glen didn’t return my call, which was bizarre considering that I had indicated that I was interested in resolving this situation.

As it’s been almost two weeks since Mr. Glen or a representative of Ed Stelmach has attempted to contact me, I can only assume two things:

a) They have found Ed Stelmach‘s personality.
b) They are acting like nice guys because of next week’s impending election call.

I’m sure Albertans across the province would be happy if “a” were the answer, but I can’t help but be concerned that they still haven’t withdrawn the threat of a lawsuit against this blogger.

It seems as if the moment the media coverage began to die down on this issue, Ed Stelmach‘s representatives went silent on the issue, leaving me with the very real concern that Premier Stelmach and his crew are putting on their nice guy faces until after the election when they could follow up their threat and slap me with a lawsuit. Even with cyber-law experts from Michael Geist to David Hicks and Cameron Hutchison having pointed out the shaky legal ground that Premier Ed Stelmach is standing on, the Premier still hasn’t withdrawn his legal threat towards me. And even after Edmonton-Riverview PC candidate Wendy Andrews assured me on the evening of January 23, 2008 that she was going to contact Mr. Glen to see if he was going to return my call, I still haven’t heard back from Mr. Glen.

You can read the full daveberta.ca coverage of the continuing edstelmach.ca fiasco below:

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election Arts and Culture in Alberta Ed Stelmach Hector Goudreau Kevin Taft

alberta not civilized – tory minister.

With a provincial election call potentially less than 10 days away, both of Alberta’s main political parties are presenting their ideas and plans for the future. As a fan and follower of the arts community in Edmonton (and more specifically L’Unitheatre and the Varscona Theatre) I took notice of when both the Alberta Liberals and Tories made arts and culture announcements this week.

On Wednesday, Kevin Taft’s Alberta Liberals announced of a new policy titled Fuelling an Alberta Renaissance: Policies to Invigorate Arts and Culture in Alberta, proposing some key changes to how the Alberta Government interacts and provides support to Alberta’s struggling arts community. Ed Stelmach’s Tories followed their lead with an Arts announcement two days later. Much like Ed Stelmach’s environment announcement earlier in the week, the Stelmach Tory arts announcement was short on substance and big on pictures.

I heard through a media source in Calgary that at the media scrum following the announcement, Ed Stelmach struggled to answer the straight forward question of “who are your favorite Alberta artists, Mr. Premier?” (couldn’t even name Corb Lund?).

As if it wasn’t indicative enough of the Tory Government’s attitude towards the arts that the Premier had a hard time naming an Alberta artist, but I was blown away when I read Peace River Tory MLA and Tourism, Parks, and Culture Minister Hector Goudreau’s speaking notes from the policy launch:

“We can build a civilized society that aspires to excellence and beauty…”

Wow. Thanks, Hec.

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election Climate Change Ed Stelmach Nuclear Power

alberta’s green plan: what’s the point?

After taking a look at the recently released Alberta Tory green plan, it’s pretty clear that only a trained monkey (or the staunchest Tory partisan) would be running to the front lines to defend and promote it as the great green hope of the Province of Alberta. Here’s what I’ve gathered from a look at the report released by Ed Stelmach yesterday:

1) Alberta will allow greenhouse gas emissions to rise until 2020 (for another 12 years).

2) Alberta will deliver a 14-per-cent cut in emissions over 2005 levels by 2050 (something for Ed Stelmach to celebrate at his 99th Birthday party!)

3) The Tories will create a council of government and industry officials to to study studies which have been studied by government and industry study groups before before, which they will use to create a new study.

4) Ed Stelmach‘s Tories like pretty pictures, because this document is 70% pretty pictures.

5) The announcement also mentioned future investment in wind and solar power, but failed to mention anything about the Tories recent love-in with Nuclear power and the controversial proposed Nuclear power facility in Peace River. Why was this left out?

6) And lastly, it says quite a bit about the Stelmach Tories’ green plan when Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper is taking a stronger stance on climate change…

Alberta’s greenhouse gas targets lag far behind the federal government’s commitment to cut emissions 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020, and 60 to 70 per cent by 2050.

Ottawa plans to stop the rise of greenhouse gas emissions within five years, whereas Alberta is looking at 12 years.

If you’re going to the job seriously, why bother at all? Today’s Edmonton Journal editorial said it all:

The government’s vague announcement sets weak long-term targets, proposes little concrete action and calls for yet another industry-government council to figure out how to build a carbon-capture-and-storage network.

Alberta can and should be a leader in fighting climate change, instead, our Tory government has chosen quiet complacency and mediocrity. Maybe this is what happens after 36-years in power?

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Calgary-Buffalo Calgary-Egmont Cathie Williams Ed Stelmach edstelmach.ca Kent Hehr

don’t sue me bro.

Good grief…

Web war between political parties

Two Liberal candidates, for the next provincial election, have had their domain names purchased by an apparent Tory supporter.

When you go to www.kenthehr.ca and www.cathiewilliams.ca users are redirected to the Conservative party website.

CTV News has learned that Andrea Kirby, for the Kirby Financial Group, purchased the domain names. Kirby did not return CTV’s calls, or emails, asking about the purchase.

This latest development comes as the premier threatens to sue a former Liberal communications worker who purchased the domain name www.edstelmach.ca.

Kent Hehr says he will not be suing anyone over the matter. In fact, he says he appreciates the attention being drawn to his campaign.

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Ed Stelmach edstelmach.ca governing myself accordingly

edstelmach.ca: governing myself accordingly. day 10.

Well, it’s been 10 days since the edstelmach.ca fiasco began last week and I’m still surprised that it’s still getting the media attention that it is. As I’m in and out of classes at the University of Alberta this week, I seem to be unintentionally playing a game of phone tag with one Mr. Ron Glen (who’s .ca domain name is apparently still available…).

It’s been a little quieter this week, which is good because I have now had a chance to catch up on the reading that I didn’t get done last week because of edstelmach.ca. I’m looking forward to things dying down a little so I can concentrate on my courses before the expected provincial election begins in February (two new interesting classes I’m taking include POLS 419: Politics of the Canadian Constitution and HIST 460: Water History: Local, National, and Continental).

Here is some of the media coverage from this week:

– Is Stelmach made of Velcro or Teflon? (Graham Thomson in the Edmonton Journal)
– Stelmach’s legal threats against blogger spawn backlash (Globe & Mail)
– Web-savviness not PC’s domain (The Gateway)
– Stelmach’s seeming lack of foresight unsettling (Letter to the Gateway)
– Will the real Ed please stand up (Calgary Sun)
– I was on CBC Radio’s Search Engine radio show which aired this morning.

And to echo the Edmonton Journal’s editorial “Tuppence for a smile,” I think some people might need to take a breather and lighten up a bit…

Appropriation of premier’s name for website an invasion of privacy
The Edmonton Journal
Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Re: “Tuppence for a smile,” Editorial, Jan. 11.

The Journal calls the controversy over the website www.edstelmach.ca “a truly magnificent prank”? Horse manure.

How about invasion of privacy — with an ulterior motive? Cournoyer sets up the domain, worsens the problem by pointing it to an Internet article about former Social Credit leader Harry Strom name, and then suggests that Stelmach should have registered his name first.

Cournoyer did not outsmart anyone. His actions have done nothing to enhance the Liberal party of Wilfrid Laurier and Louis St. Laurent.

Stelmach carries the very responsible position of premier. I expect he does more work in a day than Cournoyer has done in the last year. Stelmach concentrates on important issues and already has addressed teachers’ pensions and royalties, among other issues.

I am an emeritus professor at the University of Alberta. My position has been debased by Cournoyer’s actions, as he is a U of A student.

There are some jobs to be done: Kevin Taft should throw him out of the Liberal party. The president of the U of A should take away his student registration. Who can teach him some manners?

D.J. Laurie Kennedy, Edmonton

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Ed Stelmach edstelmach.ca governing myself accordingly Malcolm Mayes

edstelmach.ca: governing myself accordingly. day 4.

A bit of a media update…

Full credit to Edmonton Journal editorial cartoonist Malcolm Mayes for this one.

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Ed Stelmach edstelmach.ca governing myself accordingly

edstelmach.ca: governing myself accordingly. day 3.

Well, I’ve spent the last three days governing myself accordingly on this issue and edstelmach.ca. Here’s a bit of an update of what’s going on…

As was reported in the newspapers today:

Stelmach‘s chief of staff, Ron Glen, called Dave Cournoyer on Wednesday in search of a resolution to the fight over the domain name edstelmach.ca. Glen had heard Cournoyer might be amenable to settling the issue if he got a call from the premier.

Now, I’m still a little confused about who exactly I’m dealing with. Let me try to work this out:

1) Right before Christmas, I receive a letter from a lawyer representing Premier Ed Stelmach threatening me with litigation for misappropriating Premier Stelmach’s personality by owning edstelmach.ca.

2) January 8 – The Premier’s Office refuses to comment or become publicly involved with the issue. Alberta Progressive Conservative Executive Director Jim Campbell comments on it, saying the domain issue is theirs.

3) Afternoon, January 9 – I receive an email from the Premier’s lawyer saying that he is still waiting to hear from me or my legal representation.

4) Evening, January 9 – I receive a friendly phone call from Ron Glen, the Chief of Staff of the Office of the Premier (which didn’t want to comment or be involved with the issue the previous day), asking if there might be a way to amenably resolve this issue.

Understandably, I was a little surprised to get a phone call from the Premier’s Chief of Staff. I know that Mr. Glen is a good friend and long time adviser to Premier Stelmach, but I can’t help but be a little confused about who is handling the issue on their side of things.

Like I’ve said before, this has always been something that probably could have been resolved a lot quieter by a friendly email or phone call and not through a threatening legal letter (it’s kind of like shooting first and asking questions later). This said, I’ve never been interested in personally or financially profiting from this, so I will be taking a couple of days to weigh my options.

Here is some recent stories from bloggers and in the news about this story…

– Stelmach the bully in this web prank (Graham Thomson at the Edmonton Journal)
– Province threatens Cournoyer (The Gateway)
– Premier of Alberta threatens to sue blogging uni student for registering a domain with his name in it (BoingBoing)
– Premier Stelmach seeks truce over domain name spat (Edmonton Journal)
– Political Analysts tell Stelmach to ‘back off’ on domain name dispute (Calgary Herald)
– Expert expects preem to lose domain lawsuit (Edmonton Sun)
– Premier defends efforts to control internet address (Canadian Press on CBC Edmonton)
– Edmonton Sun Letter to the Editor
– Davberta punk’s Premier Ed. I love it! (Ken Chapman)
– edstelmach.com (Everybody has to live somewhere)
– Hard not to feel some sympathy for the Premier (David Climenhaga)
– Ed Stelmach threatens lawsuit over domain name (Ben Co.)
– Not an HRC issue, but blogger may be sued (timeimmortal)
– Alberta Premier vs Alberta Blogger (p2pnet.net)
– Alberta Premier threatens to sue blogger over cybersquatting ( The Agenda)
– On making Ed Stelmach look stupid (Cowboys for Social Responsibility)
– Unless you live under a rock (Alberta Tory)
– Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach vs. blogger (Alice the Camel)
– Craig Chandler bids for Stelmach’s domain name (La Revue Gauche)
– Hey Ed your domain is available (La Revue Gauche)

The Premier was also questioned about edstelmach.ca during his press conference this morning before he left for the First Ministers’ Conference in Ottawa.

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Ed Stelmach edstelmach.ca governing myself accordingly

edstelmach.ca: governing myself accordingly. day 2.

First, I’d like to thank everyone who has commented, left phone messages, or sent emails of support (or disapproval for that matter). I’ve been trying to govern myself accordingly, but this story has been keeping me pretty busy since yesterday. I have classes this afternoon and evening, so I will try to start responding to emails after that.

I’d also like to thank Rob Breakenridge, Dave Rutherford, Ron Wilson, Jim Brown, and CityTV Edmonton’s Breakfast Television for having me on their shows to talk live about the this issue.

Second, I have yet to hear from Premier Ed Stelmach or the lawyers representing him. The threat letter from Premier Stelmach‘s lawyer was the first time I was contacted and I haven’t heard anything since their imposed deadline passed.

Third, here are some interesting links to bloggers and reporters covering this story:

– “I don’t know where Ed Stelmach’s personality is but I didn’t take it” (Calgary Grit)
– Stelmach threatens to sue blogger (Edmonton Journal & National Post)
– Alberta Premier threatens to sue over domain name (CBC)
– Lawyers for Premier threaten to sue blogger who owns edstelmach.ca (Canadian Press)
– Stelmach threatens to sue over web address (Front page of Calgary Herald)
– Lawfirm says blogger stole Stelmach’s personality (Edmonton Sun)
– Alberta Premier to blogger getlost.now (Globe & Mail)
– Alberta have a lot of lawyers or something? (Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy)
– Premier of Alberta sues Alberta blogger (Grandinite)
– A cybe-bully? (Jafo’s Journal)
– The Electronic Battleground (Ken Schmidt)
– “Lame and Childish” (Thought…interrupted by typos
– https://edstelmach.ca: tort of misappropriation of personality? (Cameron Hutchison on the U of A Law Blog)

Also, I was understandably surprised to find some support in what I thought would have been an unlikely place:

Ed Stelmach vs edstelmach.ca (Ezra Levant at the Western Standard Shotgun blog)

Fourth, I plan to return to regularity scheduled blogging soon. As you can imagine, I have a lot to say about this.

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Ed Stelmach edstelmach.ca governing myself accordingly

premier ed stelmach threatens to sue alberta blogger over edstelmach.ca.

Right before Christmas, I received a letter in the mail from Tyler Shandro, a lawyer from the Calgary-based law firm Walsh Wilkins Creighton LLP, representing Alberta Premier Edward Stelmach.

This letter was sent to me regarding my ownership of the domain name edstelmach.ca, which I purchased for approximately $14.00 on April 4, 2007 (four months after Mr. Stelmach became Premier of Alberta). The letter accuses me of interfering with and misappropriating Ed Stelmach’s personality (I’m really not sure where Ed Stelmach’s personality is, but I certainly didn’t take it).

The letter also states that because there are advertisements placed on this blog, Premier Stelmach “is entitled to the amount he would reasonably have received in the market for the permission to use his name.” This makes me wonder how much the owners of a local Edmonton business paid to use Premier Stelmach’s personality last Halloween or how much Rick Mercer paid to use the domain name of another Alberta political personality.

For the majority of the time I have owned edstelmach.ca, I have had the domain name forward to this blog. A week before I received the letter from Premier Stelmach’s lawyer, I changed the forwarding to the wikipedia biography of another Alberta Premier (who also probably would have not thought to register his domain name).

The letter requests that I:

(a) make arrangements with my service provider by December 21, 2007, to ensure that the Website no longer forwards to the blog; and
(b) make arrangements to with my service provider and/or registrar to have the Website registered in their client’s name.
(c) govern myself accordingly (I added this one).

If I chose not comply by their imposed deadline, the letter states that they “have been instructed by our client to commence litigation.”

As someone who has never shied away from criticizing the 36-year old Progressive Conservative government, I have always faced harsh criticism from those who don’t appreciate the views espoused on this blog or agree with my political beliefs. I accept this reality.

Though I am still surprised that the +150 staffed Public Affairs Bureau failed to complete the simple task of registering a $14.00 domain name, I am even more surprised that Premier Ed Stelmach’s first reaction in this situation was to threaten to sue an 24-year old blogger and debt ridden University of Alberta student. As a born and bred Albertan, I do not take well to threats from politicians. Therefore I will be seeking advice from legal counsel on how to proceed with this threat.

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A look back at 2007 Ed Stelmach Kevin Taft

alberta politics in 2007.

Using Alberta political measurements, 2007 was probably the most interesting year in nearly a decade. With a new Premier and shifting political winds, 2007 presented Albertans and political watchers with no shortage of entertainment and material to talk about. In no particular order, here is a short list of what Alberta politics brought forth in 2007:

Notable Ed Stelmach quotes of 2007 –

“Welcome to the Alberta Stampede“

“Mr. Suzuki’s comments reflect the unproductive emotional rhetoric and personal attacks that distract from efforts to find constructive solutions.“

“I wasn’t aware of anybody getting a $1,000 increase“

“There’s a lot of push by Quebec and Ontario to do something on interest rates, encourage the governor of the Bank of Canada to increase interest rates.“

Biggest missed opportunity of 2007 – Though you’ll probably hear Ed Stelmach, Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft, ND leader Brian Mason, and Alberta Alliance leader Paul Hinman claim they came out on top after this debate, no political leader or party was able to capitalize on Alberta’s royalty review debate. The brass ring was there for the taking and no one grabbed it before it drifted off.

Most entertaining nomination scandal of 2007 – Craig Chandler’s short-lived candidacy for the Progressive Conservatives in Calgary-Egmont.

Shifting winds of 2007 – Calgary-Elbow by-election. Alberta Liberal Craig Cheffins scooped up a win in Ralph Klein’s former constituency of Calgary-Elbow in June 2007.

Most ridiculous political quote of 2007 – “I’d choke our premier.” Calgary-Elbow Tory by-election candidate Brian Heninger on his working relationship with Tory Premier Ed Stelmach.

Best campaign headquaters of 2007 – Calgary-Elbow PC candidate Brian Heninger.

Most impressive MLAs of 2007– There are a number of MLAs in the Alberta Legislature that have stuck out and impressed me in their performance over the course of 2007. If I have to break it down to three MLAs, the list would include Edmonton-Rutherford MLA Rick Miller, Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman, and Edmonton-Calder MLA David Eggen.

Biggest upset of 2007 – On October 15, 2007, underdog candidate Don Iveson surprised political watchers across Alberta by defeating high-profile Councillor Mike Nickel in Edmonton City Council’s Ward 5.

Best political feature articles of 2007 – I have to give credit to Darcy Henton and Jason Markusoff of the Edmonton Journal for their two-part feature article on the ridiculous amount of partisan political patronage under Alberta’s 36-year old Progressive Conservative government.

Best media website of 2007 – This one easily goes to CBC Edmonton for their comprehensive website coverage of Alberta’s royalty review issue. If you want information on Alberta’s royalty review, this is the website for you.

Most creative use of taxpayers dollars in 2007 –
1) The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board using taxpayers dollars to hire private investegators to spy on rural landowners and their lawyers.
2) Former Alberta Ambassador to Washington D.C. Murray Smith’s $105,000 bonus for quitting 6 months before his contract was to end. The contract was signed by Ed Stelmach when he was Intergovernmental Affairs Minister.

Best political names of 2007 – This is a clear tie between Calgary-Varsity Alberta Liberal MLA Harry Chase and Red Deer-South PC candidate Cal Dallas.

Least work done by a government task force in 2007 – This was a tough one because there seemed to be many provincial government task forces struck and then forgotten in 2007. Tory MLAs Cindy Ady of Calgary-Shaw and Barry McFarland of Little Bow for their $19,000 bonus for their world on the Alberta-Idaho Task Force. It was later admitted by Premier Ed Stelmach’s office that:

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.

Worst political showing of 2007 – This has to be a tie between the Alberta NDP and the Alberta Alliance in the Calgary-Elbow and Drumheller-Stettler by-elections. Brian Mason’s NDP gained a stunning 3% and 1% in these two by-elections that were completely based on protesting Ed Stelmach and the state of affordable housing and the environment. Paul Hinman’s Alberta Alliance placed a dismal fifth place in Drumheller-Stettler, which is arguably the most rural and conservative constituency in Alberta. Signs of things to come?

Most appropriate quote describing Alberta’s political environment – “Money is like manure. If you spread it around, it does a lot of good; but if you pile it up in one place, it stinks like hell.” – Clint Murchison

An issue that deserves more attention in 2008 – Democracy in Alberta. The unequal distribution of constituencies between urban and rural Alberta.

As of December 30, 2007, the two-thirds of Albertans who live in urban Alberta are represented by less than half of the seats in the Alberta Legislature. Rural Alberta, with one-third of Alberta’s population holds the majority of seats in Alberta’s Legislature. This isn’t something that will change easily with the large majority of Ed Stelmach‘s cabinet ministers coming from those very same rural constituencies, but it is a clear and simple question of democracy and fair representation.

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Ed Stelmach Graham Thomson Kevin Taft

capturing alberta’s hot air.

Graham Thomson had some pretty interesting columns this past Wednesday and Thursday as he interviewed Premier Ed Stelmach and Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft for the year-end editions of the Edmonton Journal.

Here is Ed Stelmach presenting his expert knowledge of climate change and his government’s strategy to capture it…

One Christmas present I’ll give politicians in their year-enders this week is a chance to make their argument without being edited down to a 10-word quote. Here, for example, is Stelmach on the issue of climate change and Alberta’s intent to store carbon dioxide emissions underground:

“There’s a fair amount of research now — there’s no sense capturing it in a way that it’s going to escape. So what is the appropriate geography, or geology, to capture it? So how deep do we have to go? Is it in shallow gas wells or deep gas? Deep oil? Will it make sense to capture that CO2, let’s say, in the Redwater field, or do we have to pipe it to Medicine Hat? These are all questions, research that’s being done today. Once those decisions are made, then the next step is to build infrastructure, because you have to pipe it to those locations. And the efficiency gains, for instance, in the Redwater fields, if you’re sequestering and pressurizing the existing oil and wells, you will then draw much more production out of those wells. So there’s rather than creating a new footprint someplace in the province of Alberta, drilling a new gas well, we would of course bring about much better efficiency. Because they say, about 60 per cent of the gas is still in the old wells.”

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