Category: Uncategorized

– I will be posting profiles of Alberta Liberal leadership candidates Mo Elsalhy, David Swann, and Dave Taylor this week (CalgaryGrit has already posted profiles of Swann and Elsalhy). ALP members will be voting by mail over the next couple weeks and the results will be released on December 13. The final leadership candidate forum will be held in Calgary on November 28 (pdf).

– For all the folks who called me a naysayer when I shook my head as just a year ago as they boasted of a world of permanent $200 barrels of oil, take a look at it now (at $57). If you can say anything about economic booms in Alberta, it’s that it really helps people who should know better lose all perspective and objectivity. Pay attention to what PC Finance & Enterprise Minister Iris Evans does in the next couple weeks to react to this drop.

– The 2006 Federal Liberal leadership race saw Gerard Kennedy elect the most convention delegates from Alberta (117), followed by Michael Ignatieff (115) and Stephane Dion (81). Bob Rae placed distant fifth with 37 delegates elected (behind Joe Volpe). With Kennedy out of the race, and some former Kennedy supporters backing Ignatieff, it should be interesting to see whether it translates into a rout for Team Iggy in Alberta. There’s also no shortage of bloggers lining up to board the Ignatieff train (Scott Tribe has a living list).

– I’m looking forward to heading to a reception for Preston Manning this week at the University of Alberta, where he will be receiving an honourary degree. More comment on this Alberta political icon to come.

Though I will unfortunately be unable to attend, I am excited to hear that the Parkland Institute‘s 2008 Fall Conference will be focusing on the the role of art, culture and media in political discourse while the conference discussions will focus around two main questions: “Why do we talk about what we talk about?” and “How can ideas with social justice values become the dominant discourse?”

The conference will take place from November 14-16 on the University of Alberta campus and speakers will include Tariq Ali, Megan Boler, and Nora Young, among others.

Registration and tickets are still available.

Last week, I received an email from a friend asking me if he knew how an Alberta Liberal leadership candidate could have got his email address. As a former PC supporter, my friend had never held a Liberal membership and was understandably a little confused when he found himself on Dave Taylor‘s email list.

It seems that my friend isn’t the only one in this situation.

As Premier Ed Stelmach jets off to the old Continent to hobnob with European businessmen, he is skipping this weekend’s First Ministers’ meeting on economic issues called by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Now, I can sympathize why Stelmach wouldn’t want to attend this meeting. Can you imagine how awkward the first post-election meeting between Harper, Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, and Quebec Premier Jean Charest will be? Probably not very fun, but that’s not the point. As Alberta’s First Minister, Stelmach has a responsibility to represent Albertans at First Ministers’ meetings.

After officials in the Prime Minister’s Office rightfully rejected Stelmach’s bizarre request to join the meeting by phone, he announced that he will be sending his (arguably most competent) Minister, Dave Hancock, in his place. But, Stelmach should not be quickly forgiven for his absence. He may be miles above Stelmach in competency, but as Minister of Education, Hancock is in no position to make the types of commitments on economic policy that a Premier can. Hancock is not the leader of the Government, and does not have the authority to fill the role of a Premier at that table.

When it comes down to it, Stelmach’s absence from the meeting is embarrassing for Alberta. It’s embarrassing that the leader of the most economically powerful province in Canada doesn’t grasp the important role that Alberta should have at the big table. After all his big talk about protecting Alberta’s energy interests against Ottawa during the federal election campaign and recent demands about wanting to attend future meetings between Harper and incoming American President Barack Obama, Stelmach shouldn’t have thought twice about taking Alberta’s seat at the table.

(h/t Elle Bee)

In what should be described as one of the more light-hearted moments of the Fall Session of the Alberta Legislature, Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft will be introducing a motion into the Legislature calling on the Government of Alberta to adopt rodeo as this province’s official sport.

I kid you not, this is from an exchange between Liberal Leader Kevin Taft and PC Premier Ed Stelmach during Question Period at the Alberta Legislature on October 22, 2008:

Dr. Taft: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government can’t control the price of oil, but it could have controlled the rampant increases in costs by simply managing growth. Will the Premier admit that by ignoring industry requests, requests from former Premier Lougheed, and just about everyone else to manage growth, this government has made a serious mistake?

Mr. Stelmach: Obviously, now we see the true colour of the Leader of the Opposition. He sure as heck isn’t a capitalist, talking about managing growth through the government. Sounds more like what they were doing in the former Soviet Russia.

Dear Americans,

Please vote for Barack Obama today.

Also, Californians please Vote NO on Prop. 8!

Thanks,

Dave

Never mind the public hearings scheduled for February 17, 2008, the Edmonton Journal seems to have framed Edmonton City Council’s proposed Ward changes as a fait accompli.

Though I support changing Edmonton City Council representation from the current 6-Ward/2-Councillor system to a 12-Ward/1-Councillor system (for various reasons including size, population, etc), I also believe that public hearings are an important part of this decision-making process and should not be overlooked as a formality.

Also, this isn’t the first time that the Ward debate has come up…

“The ward issue languished until shortly after the 1986 election, when two city council members, Ron Hayter and Jan Reimer, announced the ward system was totally inadequate and called for changes to be made. After Reimer moved that the wards be increased from six to twelve, with one member elected from each, council referred the proposal to a committee chaired by Hayter. Although he made a concerted effort to obtain support for ward reform, public response was unenthusiastic, and reform efforts collapsed when Mayor Decore, who had just been re-elected with one of the largest majorities in the city’s history, announced that he needed a lot of convincing that “we should shake up the system” and he had “difficulties” accepting the idea of single-member wards. In September 1987 council narrowly defeated a proposal calling for twelve wards with a single member elected from each. Alderman Lilian Staroszik explained that, in her opinion, Edmonton already had “probably the best possible representation.”*

*Masson, Jack; Edward C. LeSage Jr. (1994). Alberta’s Local Governments:Politics and Democracy. University of Alberta Press, pp. 297

Care of the Edmonton-based Ukulele rock stars, The Be Arthurs, here’s Ghostbusters…

I’m not sure if this October 29 answer from Ed Stelmach says more about the PC government or the opposition, actually, I really don’t have a clue what it says because I don’t think it actually makes any sense.

Mr. MacDonald: … The Canada Health Act is based on a set of five principles. My first question is to the Premier. Why are four principles of the Canada Health Act – comprehensiveness, universality, portability, and public administration – ignored by the board that this government created to run health in this province?

Mr. Stelmach: Mr. Speaker, you know, we can debate about these principles back and forth for the next 10 years. Our main goal here as a government is to make sure that this publicly funded health system is sustainable for the next generation. The way this opposition is going, we’re going to lose it over the next year not only in this province but right across this country.

Any guesses as to what he could have meant? Anybody have a Rosetta Stone handy?

More here.

I almost completely missed this post until someone of a more articulate nature pointed me in its direction (ht IP). With all the talk of renewal and reform of the somewhat directionless Liberal Party of Canada, Jeff Jedras hit the nail on the head in a recent post:

The question we, as Liberals, should be asking ourselves is not do we need to be centre or left, but what do we stand for? What does being a Liberal mean? What are Liberal values?

We’ve become, or rather, had become, so good at the strategic game, at morphing to suit political changing winds, that we’ve lost touch with just what the heck we’re all about in the first place.

I’m in the midst of doing a bit of analysis into the Alberta results of the October 14, 2008 federal election, but in the meantime, here’s a look at the popular vote results over the past 24 years (partially to show off my excel skills and partly to impress my statistician friend).

*Imaged edited since posted.

I posted this on Twitter, but in case you missed it, Edmonton City Council is in the midst of hosting a number of open Town Hall Meetings on the 2009 City Budget.

The meetings in Ward 5 and Ward 4 will be held tonight and Thursday for people in those areas wanting to have a say about anything from taxes to bike transportation plans. My understanding is that the Mayor and Ward Councillors will be attending these meetings, so take advantage of it!

WARD 5 – Tuesday October 28, 7:30-9:30pm, Pleasantview Community Hall, 10860 – 57 Avenue.

WARD 4 – Thursday October 30, 7:30-9:30pm, Riverdale Community Hall, 9231 – 100 Avenue.