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Alberta Liberals Kevin Taft The Western Tiger

kevin taft on the western tiger.

Earlier this week, Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft delivered a
major policy announcement
while speaking to the Calgary Rotary Club. As Premier, Taft said he would call for a meeting of western provinces, with an agenda of turning western Canada into an energy superpower.

You can now watch the speech on YouTube:

Western Tiger Speech Part 1

Western Tiger Speech Part 2

Western Tiger Speech Part 3

Categories
Alberta Oil Sands Kevin Taft

the western tiger.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft made a major policy announcement yesterday while speaking to Calgary’s Rotary Club.

Turn West into energy superpower, Taft urges
Upgrade oilsands in western provinces instead of south of border, Liberal leader proposes

CALGARY – Alberta could forfeit a major economic opportunity worth billions of dollars if the province does not do whatever it can to ensure that more oilsands bitumen is processed here at home, Kevin Taft said Tuesday.

In a speech to Calgary’s Downtown Rotary Club, the Alberta Liberal opposition leader proposed an inter-provincial strategy to turn Western Canada into what he called an economic “tiger” by attracting more oilsands upgraders to the region.

Though industry officials say 70 per cent of bitumen is already processed in the province, Taft said it’s time for Alberta to call a summit of western governments to explore the possibilities of upgrading more bitumen in Western Canada.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft speaks to members of the Rotary Club during a luncheon meeting at the Fairmont Palliser Hotel in downtown Calgary on Tuesday.View Larger Image View Larger Image

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft speaks to members of the Rotary Club during a luncheon meeting at the Fairmont Palliser Hotel in downtown Calgary on Tuesday.

He noted estimates project that one million barrels of unprocessed bitumen will be exported for upgrading to the U.S. every day within eight years.

“I believe we now have an opportunity — an opportunity unlike any other in our history,” Taft told his audience. “A once-in-several-lifetimes opportunity to transform ourselves forever.”

You can read Kevin Taft’s full speech to the Rotary Club here.

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Alberta Liberals Kevin Taft Laurie Blakeman Women in Politics

alberta liberals reach for the TOP.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft was joined by Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman in lauching the ‘Take Our Place’ program yesterday. The TOP initiative is geared towards getting more women involved in provincial politics.

From the media release:

The Take Our Place program brings together a mentor team of dynamic women, including current and former Alberta Liberal MLAs, to support and encourage new candidates, as well as to identify barriers to political participation and find ways to eliminate or reduce them. While the program is currently focused on creating opportunities for women in the upcoming election, it will continue in the post-election period.

“There are so many issues important to women and families in Alberta,” Blakeman notes. “Our perspective is critical if real progress is to be made. It’s time we had more women at the decision-making table.”

In 1998, eight of the then-eighteen member Alberta Liberal Caucus were women.

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Kevin Taft Stephane Dion Victor Doerksen

monday mornings…

Just some quick links for your Monday morning reading…

– Sheila Pratt had an interesting article on Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft this weekend.

– It looks like Ken Chapman had the scoop on Red Deer – South Tory MLA Victor Doerksen’s retirement.

– I’m not sure how many people saw Stephane Dion’s interview on Sunday’s CTV Question Period, but it seriously had to be one of the worst media interviews that I’ve seen any politician do. Dion is leaving a lot to be desired, but obviously has time to work on his communication skills before the next federal election.

– It’s an ALL ALBERTA western showdown in Calgary Grit’s ‘Best Premier‘ competition. Peter Lougheed v. Ernest Manning.

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Alberta Liberals Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Kevin Taft

what is ed stelmach really up to?

The results of the latest daveberta poll are out:

When will the next Provincial General Election be called in Alberta?
Fall 2007 – 41% (53 votes)
Winter 2008 – 9% (12 votes)
Spring 2008 – 33% (43 votes)
Summer 2008 – 2% (2 votes)
Fall 2008 – 9% (12 votes)
Winter 2009 – 1% (1 vote)
Spring 2009 – 4% (5 votes)
Summer 2009 – 0% (0 votes)
Fall 2009 – 2% (2 votes)

This leads me to two specific theories that I have heard about when the next provincial election will be held…

Theory One: Spring 2008

Finance Minister Lyle Oberg has already set the date for the 2008 Alberta Budget for February 14, 2008. With Ed Stelmach‘s Tories having a very hard time gaining traction on the announcements they’ve made since December 2006, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Stelmach attempt to pull a page from the 1997 Election playbook and drop the writ minutes after tabling the budget and run on the budget.

A Spring 2008 election would also give all the parties time to organize over the next five to six months.

Theory Two: Fall/Winter 2007

There are four points that lend support this theory:

a) The Stelmach Tories should be concerned about how much further they could fall in the polls by Spring 2008.

After 36 years of Tory government, Albertans moods and political attitudes are shifting. With the election of Craig Cheffins in the Calgary Elbow by-election in May 2007, Stelmach must be worried about growing support for Kevin Taft‘s Alberta Liberals in Calgary.

The Tories only need +42 of the 60 seats they already hold to form a majority government – and with there only being half a dozen opposition held ridings likely to be hotly competitive for the Tories it is not unimaginable that they will only mount strong campaigns in these ridings (including already nominated PC candidates in Edmonton Meadowlark, St. Albert, and Cardston-Taber-Warner).

The Tories may also need to concentrate on gaining seats in Edmonton and area in order to offset expected losses to the Alberta Liberals in Calgary.

b) Stelmach has lined up a number of high profile speaking engagements across Alberta in September and October (Premier’s Dinners in Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer, and Fort McMurray along with PC policy conferences in Edmonton and Calgary) to raise his profile.

c) A pre-campaign memo sent by the Tories to their constituency associations, MLA’s, and members was widely distributed and made very public – which could be an attempt to throw off the opposition parties in their election timeline planning. The Stelmach Tories have also appointed a Campaign Manager (Randy Dawson) and Camapign Co-Chairs (Doug Goss and Douglas Black).

d) The Tory candidate nomination timeline requires all PC-incumbent ridings to have candidates nominated by October 31, 2007 and non-PC-incumbent ridings to have candidates nominated by November 30, 2007. These are deadlines, so it is possible that the Tories could have all their candidates nominated by the end of October, leaving enough time to avoid a Christmas election and call an election similar to 2004 (immediately following the October municipal elections).

Categories
Alberta Liberals Kevin Taft

shuffling the political deck.

From Andrew Cohen in today’s Ottawa Citizen:

If Saskatchewan is poised for change, so is Alberta, where the Conservatives have been in office since 1971. The loss of Ralph Klein’s seat — which the Conservatives held for years — in a recent byelection in Calgary may well be the first knock on the door of their undoing.

Led by the intelligent Kevin Taft, the Liberals offer a government-in-waiting. Mr. Taft’s provocative new book, Democracy Derailed, is a searing indictment of a government that he calls unaccountable and unimaginative in a province coping with explosive growth.

Alberta, like Saskatchewan, is on the cusp of change.

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Calgary Elbow By-Election Kevin Taft

kevin taft on calgary-elbow.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft with Calgary Elbow MLA-elect Craig Cheffins on Tuesday night.

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Alberta Liberals Kevin Taft

kevin taft offers albertans a plan.

I know I already posted one of the videos already, but four new online videos have been released with Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft speaking about the Alberta Liberal plan for affordable housing, Alberta’s Creative Economy, Alberta’s Water, and Sustaining Alberta’s future.

Categories
Affordable Housing Alberta Liberals Kevin Taft

kevin taft on affordable housing.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft on Affordable Housing

Categories
Alberta Liberals Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Joe Ceci Kevin Taft Michael Phair

everyone needs a place to live.

Only a week after Premier Ed Stelmach ruled out using rent control to deal with the skyrocketing cost of housing and then changed his mind, PC Party delegates forced Stelmach to change his position another 180 degrees to turn against the use of rent control (again):

In the [PC] party’s annual general meeting, delegates rejected a motion to adopt the resolutions of an all-party legislature committee that had urged Premier Ed Stelmach’s Tory government to adopt rent controls.

Meanwhile, as Stelmach continues to not act on the issue, it seems like Albertans are being left to dry in a climate of skyrocketing rent costs.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft
has been continuing to hammer the Stelmach Tories on the issue.

Liberal Leader Kevin Taft says both Premier Ed Stelmach and Housing Minister Ray Danyluk got farm support payments last year.

Taft says its ironic that they take farm support cheques but wont help people struggling with soaring housing costs by imposing rent controls.

He says some Albertans are being forced to sleep in their cars and trucks because soaring rents and a shortage of housing.

Edmonton City Councillor Michael Phair responded

“It’s very misguided,” Phair said. “There are many people who rent across the province who will be quite disappointed that the [PC] party didn’t take a different course of action.”

Long-time Calgary Alderman Joe Ceci responded:

“I think it’s indicative of the fact that the grassroots of the Tory party doesn’t have the best interests of low-income people in mind,” he said.

It seems that the Stelmach Tories have found themselves squarely on the wrong side of an explosive issue.

As someone who presented recommendations to the Affordable Housing Task Force earlier this year, it’s disappointing to see that the Provincial government hasn’t taken a strong leadership role on the issue.

Categories
Alberta Liberals Kevin Taft

sweet sweet calgary.

Dan and I drove to Calgary this weekend to spend some time with +200 fellow politicos at the Alberta Liberals election readiness convention.

It was a good weekend and was probably one of the best organized Alberta Liberal conventions I’ve been to since I started going to these things way back in 2000. It was a good chance to meet with MLA’s, candidates, and other volunteers from across Alberta. Other than the training sessions, there were some good speeches from Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft, Mount Royal College Political Science Professor Keith Brownsey, and other MLA’s- rallying the troops, etc.

I also had the chance to meet both Liberal candidates nominated to run in the upcoming by-elections: Craig Cheffins from Calgary Elbow and Tom Dooley from Drumheller-Stettler.

In Calgary Elbow, Craig Cheffins – former President of the Lakeview Community Association and Work Experience Coordinator for the Bachelor of Applied Justice Studies program at Mount Royal College – will be facing PC candidate Brian Heninger – longtime President of Heninger Toyota – and it’s shaping up to be a fight with both candidates having a chance of taking this riding.

Other nominated candidates include Alberta Green Party leader George Read and Trevor Grover – sacraficial lamb from the Social Credit Party.

Calgary Elbow will be a litmus test to gauge rural-based Ed Stelmach’s curb appeal in Calgary. This comes only months after Stelmach’s near shut out of the Jim-Dinning-loyalist-Calgary-Tory caucus from his cabinet in December.

In Drumheller-Stettler, Liberal candidate Tom Dooley – rancher and former County Councillor – has been nominated. As for the Tories, municipal consultant Jack Hayden is making his move. Other nominated candidates in Drumheller-Stettler include Socred Larry Davidson and Alberta Green Jennifer Wigmore.

This riding was Shirley McClellan’s stronghold for 20 years – which she won in a by-election in 1987 following the death of longtime Tory Minister Henry Kroeger. Though it’s much more likely that Calgary Elbow will be the more competitive race, weirder things have happened – in a 1992 by-election, Liberal Don MacDonald was elected in the Tory strong-hold of Three Hills a landslide with 26% margin. Even if the Liberals don’t win in Drumheller-Stettler, a strong second place finish in a deep rural riding like this one would boost momentum for Kevin Taft’s Liberals in rural Alberta.

With both major parties putting up a full court press for these seats it should be an exciting summer!

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Calgary Elbow By-Election Drumheller-Stettler By-Election Jack Hayden Kevin Taft Ralph Klein Shirley McClellan

nomwatch – march 9, 2007

With two upcoming by-elections in Alberta, the Spring Session of the Legislature could play a big role in determining the direction voters in these two ridings end sailing towards. The seats were vacated by former Premier Ralph Klein and former Finance Ministry Shirley McClellan.

In Drumheller-Stettler, consultant and former President of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties Jack Hayden is lining up for the PC nomination. Hayden had previously ran for the PC nomination against former MLA Judy Gordon in the former riding of Lacombe-Stettler in 2000. The Alberta Greens have scheduled a nomination meeting for March 5. Kevin Taft’s Alberta Liberals have yet to set a nomination date, but word through the grapevine is that a credible local candidate will step up to the plate.

There should be a full slate of candidates in Drumheller-Stettler, but being one of the deepest backwater conservative strongholds, it will take a strong camapaign to move Drumheller-Stettler any closer to the centre than a deep blue conservative. Look for the main opposition parties to be gunning for strong showings rather than victory.

Calgary Elbow presents a different picture. Located in what some political observers have coined the “Latte Belt,” Calgary Elbow showed strong support for the Alberta Liberals in 2004 against-the-odds of an incumbent Premier. There will likely be a full slate of candidates including Social Credit candidate Trevor Grover (I’m sure Social Credit will hit a highwater mark of 200 votes this time around). The Alberta Liberals have scheduled their nomination meeting for March 22. The Tory nominations in both ridings will occur in mid- to late-April.

I’m predicting both by-elections to occur sometime in June.

Categories
Alberta Liberals Alberta Tories Democracy Ed Stelmach Kevin Taft The Departed

vanuatu.

First of all, I would just like to say that I was very glad to see The Departed emerge victorious during last weekend’s Academy Awards as Best Picture and Best Director for Martin Scorsese. Well deserved.

If you’ve noticed a break between posts, it has everything to do with the other stuff I keep myself busy with in my other life. I’m actually the campaign manager for a campaign of which I will not mention here. Ask me on March 9.

I’m looking forward to the upcoming Spring session of the Alberta Legislature. Just as I was excited when Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft announced an aggressive legislative agenda in the face of the “Conservative oppositon” as Taft called the Stelmach Tories, my good friend Duncan seems just as excited about Stelmach. It should be interesting to see how the session plays out. Rookie Premier, rookie Ministers, new dynamic within the Tory caucus. Power politics at play. Does the opposition smells blood? All-party committees? Two upcoming by-elections!

Will Alberta be raised to the level of legislative democracy shared by such beacons of democracy as the Republic of Vanuatu and the Federated States of Micronesia? We shall see.

Also, on another note, municipal politics are heating up in Edmonton as Councillors and Councillors-to-be are buying new walking shoes and warming up their campaign engines for an October 2007 election…

Categories
Alberta Liberals Alberta Tories Democracy Ed Stelmach Kevin Taft

democracy derailed.

“With political change so rare, one-party politics has become entrenched in Alberta. The forces that drive political change in other jurisdictions – the legislature, public inquiries, interest groups, opposition parties, the media, and so on – have adapted to this reality in order to cope, or have been deliberately gutted, or have simply deteriorated to the status of a sideshow. As a result of this one-party dominance, democracy in Alberta has been pushed off the rails. It’s time to get it back on track.”

This is how Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft finishes the introduction of his new book “Democracy Derailed: The Breakdown of Government Accountability in Alberta – and How to Get it Back on Track.” I’ve had the chance to read through an advanced copy of the book and I have some thoughts as it is released today.

Democracy Derailed covers a wide range of political and ethical transparency and accountability issues in Alberta’s long-time Tory-dominated political scene. Throughout the 110-page book, Kevin Taft recounts his experiences as an MLA and leader of the Official Opposition in dealing with Alberta’s democratic deficit as well as presenting positive solutions on how to make democracy better in Alberta.

The issues addressed in the book range from Alberta’s lack of whistle-blower protection for public servants and the devolution of power from the elected Legislative Assembly to the lack of power held by Alberta’s Auditor General and the irresponsible use of FOIPP legislation to block opposition research and the lack of resources allotted to Opposition Caucus Offices in Alberta compared to those allotted to the PC Members Caucus and opposition caucuses in other provinces.

One of the interesting facts that Taft highlights is the lack of power held by Alberta’s Public Accounts Committee:

“Alberta’s Public Accounts Committee can meet once a week only when the legislature is sitting, which is all of three months per year. During approximately a dozen 90-minute meetings, the committee must review the spending of 24 provincial government departments with a combined budget of $24 billion.

That’s not all. Unlike the federal Public Accounts Committee, Alberta’s Public Accounts Committee cannot submit a report to the legislature. Legislators outside of Alberta find this restriction hard to fathom. Conservative Member of Parliament John Williams said “It’s shocking. I cannot believe a government majority would use their capacity to set the rules like that.””

According to Taft, underlying many of these problems is the near merger between the Government of Alberta and the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta (which formed government in 1971). This is problem which would occur after any political party has governed for over 30 straight years. Examples Taft uses include the appointments of partisan Tories as elections officials, the Calgary Ward 10, Kelley Charlebois, and Alberta Securities Commission scandals, the partisan nature of the Public Affairs Bureau, and the fluid movements of Rod Love and Peter Elzinga through Government, business, and the PC Party.

The book is also complemented by a website (www.democracyderailed.ca) which includes links and pdf documents sited in the book (such as Ralph Klein’s infamous plagiarized Chile paper), along with an online interactive message board and an online quiz.

The timing of the book is probably better than Taft and the Alberta Liberals had originally planned. With new and untested Tory Premier Ed Stelmach still learning the ropes, a March/April 2007 sitting of the Legislature, and a potential Fall 2007/Spring 2008 provincial election, Democracy Derailed will hopefully raise some much needed attention and debate on some serious problems facing democracy in Alberta.

Categories
Alberta Liberals Alberta NDP Kevin Taft

opposition parties shuffle their teams.

The Alberta Liberals shuffled their shadow cabinet this week. Big changes include Dave Taylor’s move from Advanced Education to Municipal Affairs & Housing, Mo Elsalhy’s move to Justice & Attorney General, and Bruce Miller’s move to Employment, Immigration & Industry.

Kevin Taft (Edmonton Riverview) – Leader
Dave Taylor (Calgary Currie) – Deputy Leader, Municipal Affairs & Housing
Laurie Blakeman (Edmonton Centre) House Leader, Health and Wellness,
Rick Miller (Edmonton Rutherford) – Treasury Board, Service Alberta and Finance, Caucus Whip
Mo Elsalhy (Edmonton McClung) – Deputy House Leader, Justice & Attorney General, Solicitor General
Bruce Miller (Edmonton Glenora) – Employment, Immigration & Industry, Deputy Whip
Weslyn Mather (Edmonton Mill Woods) – Children’s Services
David Swann (Calgary Mountain View) – Environment
Hugh MacDonald (Edmonton Gold Bar) – Energy, and Agriculture & Food
Bridget Pastoor (Lethbridge East) – Seniors and Community Supports
Bharat Agnihotri (Edmonton Ellerslie) – Tourism, Parks, Recreation & Culture
Bill Bonko (Edmonton Decore) – Sustainable Resource Development and International, Intergovernmental & Aboriginal Relations
Maurice Tougas (Edmonton Meadowlark) – Advanced Education & Technology, and Chair of the Edmonton Caucus
Harry Chase (Calgary Varsity) – Infrastructure & Transportation
Jack Flaherty (St. Albert) – Education

The NDP shuffled their caucus critics before Christmas:

Brian Mason (Edmonton Highlands-Norwood) – Leader, Treasury Board and Service Alberta, Energy, Finance and Municipal Affairs and Housing.
Ray Martin (Edmonton Beverly-Clareview) – Employment, Immigration and Industry, Health and Wellness, Infrastructure and Transportation and International, Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Relations critic areas.
David Eggen (Edmonton Calder) – Education, Agriculture and Food, Environment, Sustainable Resource Development and Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture.
Raj Pannu (Edmonton Strathcona) – Advanced Education and Technology, Justice and Attorney General, Children’s Services and Seniors and Community Supports.