Category: Uncategorized

In conversations over the past couple weeks, I’ve encountered a shocking amount of people who have admitted that they haven’t decided whether or not they will actually vote in the October 2008 federal election. With dropping voter turnout levels becoming the norm (I’m actually surprised there aren’t more mainstream media stories about this yet), an interesting question comes to mind…

With Parliament dissolved and no candidate having received a mandate to join the Commons, would Governor General Michaëlle Jean take emergency powers and rule from Rideau Hall? What of the Senate? Who would General Walter Natynczyk report to? Would Stephen Harper barricade the doors of 24 Sussex Drive or would he become Canada’s Leviathan? Would the ten Premiers appoint an interim-Prime Minister? Would Alberta annex Saskatchewan? The North West Territories? Would Denmark take this as a chance to invade Hans Island? Would there be anarchy in the streets? Would Canadians even notice?

In all seriousness, as unlikely a situation as it may be, what would a contingency plan for this look like?

Alberta’s opposition parties are taking aim at the $300,000 summer travel bug caught by Alberta Tory MLAs.

$300,000 could be a bit a bit excessive, but I don’t have a large problem with our elected officials traveling to international conferences (if anything, there is the off-chance that some of Alberta’s Conservative MLAs might become a little more well-rounded because of it — and that would be a better thing for everyone). Though I disagree with much of this current government’s agenda, I believe that it’s important to understand the realities of the increasingly global world we are living in, and we won’t do that by cloistering our elected officials inside provincial borders.

As long as Ed Stelmach and Lloyd Snelgrove aren’t spending their time hanging out beside the hotel pool wearing speedos and sipping mohitos (there’s a mental image for the start of your week), I believe that there are a lot more obvious cases of government misspending or mismanagement that could be taken aim at.

Archie McLean wrote a piece in today’s Edmonton Journal on the state of local online campaigning in this election and gives shout outs to Alberta bloggers Idealistic Pragmatist — the mastermind behind Linda Duncan‘s website (IP is also the Edmonton-Strathcona blogger on democraticSPACE) and Enlightened Savage.

Archie also gave a shout out to daveberta.ca for the updated 2008 federal election candidates list — which was just updated this morning following the nomination of Medicine Hat Conservative candidate LaVar Payne.

I feel like such a socialite sometimes…

…last night I popped by ACTVs launch party at Latitude 53. If you haven’t heard of it, ACTV is a not-for-profit new media initiative aimed at educating and motivating Albertans to discover and pursue sustainable living practices and promote ecological consciousness. It’s a great initiative and I hope it’s successful!

Slate Magazine has an interesting take on our election from south of the border.

Later this month, Professor Guy Laforest will be speaking at the University of Alberta as part of the 20th Annual McDonald Constitutional Lecture from the Centre for Constitutional Studies.

Laforest is well known for his writings on Canadian constitutional issues, comparative federalism, political theory, and intellectual history in Quebec and English-speaking Canada He is also the former President of Action Démocratique du Québec.

Speaking during the middle of the federal election, I’m sure that Laforest will have some interesting things to say about the Stephen Harper–Gilles Duceppe battle for votes in Québec.

As a blogger who has been the target of a politician’s legal threats, I can sympathize with the ridiculousness of Buckdog‘s situation.

UPDATE: Some politicians learn from their mistakes faster than others.

The list of nominated federal election candidates in Alberta has been updated to include some new additions:

Edmonton-Strathcona: Jane Thrall, Green
Peace River: Liliane Maisonneuve, Liberal
Vegreville-Wainwright: Adam Campbell, Liberal
Westlock-St. Paul: Aden Murphy, Green

UPDATE*S*: Doug James is the Liberal candidate in Calgary-Centre North. James will face off against Conservative incumbent Jim Prentice, New Democrat John Chan, Green Eric Donovan, First People’s candidate Doug Dokis, and the Canadian Action Party’s John Kohut.

Last week, I wrote that Alberta Sheriff Ali Haymour was seeking the NDP nomination in Edmonton-Sherwood Park. I’ve just been informed that Haymour has had to unfortunately decline the nomination for professional reasons. Brian LaBelle is now seeking the NDP nod in that riding in a nomination meeting set for next week. If nominated, LaBelle will face Tory Tim Uppal, Liberal Rick Szostak, and Independent James Ford.

I joined over 300 folks at Pecha Kucha 2 in Edmonton tonight and the presentations were fascinating. Though I have reservations about the group who organized the event, I was pretty amazed at the out-of-the-box creativity and ideas about design brought forward by the presenters.

Mastermaq has a run down of the evening’s events.

A Jack Layton NDP government will make our cities, our communities, and our schools safer by getting soldiers, tanks, and oil wells off our streets.

(h/t Duncan W.)

Former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein is predicting a Conservative Majority Government for Stephen Harper on October 14.

During the 2006 election, Peter Mackay suggested the use of “duct tape” to keep Klein from characterizing Harper as unelectable while predicting that Paul Martin would form another Liberal Minority Government.

(h/t U of A Law Blog)

If so, it’s good news…

The political path has been cleared for Elizabeth May to participate in the televised leaders debates after first NDP Leader Jack Layton and minutes later Conservative Leader Stephen Harper withdrew threats to boycott.

A contested NDP nomination in Red Deer is not something that I imagined would happen during this election (or during my lifetime for that matter…). Farmer and Teacher Stuart Sommerville will be duking it out against recent Red Deer Mayoral candidate Matt Chapin (who was 21-years old when he faced off against Mayor Morris Flewwelling in the October 2007 election) for the September 14 nomination meeting.

The nominated candidate will face off against first-time Conservative candidate Earl Dreeshen and Liberal Garfield Marks in the riding vacated by longtime Conservative MP Bob Mills.

The list of nominated federal election candidates in Alberta will be updated as more candidates are nominated.

Former Prime Minister Joe Clark has waded into the debate and is asking some pretty tough questions about why Green Party leader Elizabeth May is being left out of the televised Leaders’ Debate.

Clark also made a point that I can imagine a lot of Canadians would agree on (this Canadian included):

The tone of federal politics today is the worst I can remember in my 50 years in public life. Of course, there were angry partisan differences before, but they were tumultuous exceptions to a general rule of common public purpose, even civility. By contrast, the standard today has become consistently bitter and negative – personal invective routinely displaces any serious discussion of issues or differences.

This low standard helps corrode respect for the democratic institutions in which this mean drama plays out. It comes at a bad time, because there has been a general decline in the reputation of politicians, parties, legislatures and other institutions. Cynicism grows. Candidates are hard to attract. Citizens turn away from politics – especially young people, who see nothing to attract or inspire them. That constitutes a long-term threat to the authority of the pan-Canadian political institutions that have always been essential for citizens of this diverse democracy to act positively together.