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Two candidates have stepped forward to replace Medicine Hat Conservative MP Monte Solberg. Riding association President LaVar Payne and businessman Dean Shock have both declared their intentions to contest the nomination. Former Medicine Hat Alderman Darren Hirsch and current Alderman Jeremy Thompson are said to be interested in the nomination, but have not yet declared their intentions. The Conservative nomination meeting will be held on September 13.

Solberg was first elected as Medicine Hat’s MP while carrying the Reform Party flag in the 1993 Federal Election and most recently served as Minister of Human Resources and Social Development. In 2006, Solberg was re-elected with 79.7% of the popular vote.

The nominated Conservative candidate will face Liberal Beverly Botter and New Democrat Wally Regeher.

Hill & Knowlton’s online election predictor is back.

(via Kady O’Malley via twitter)

The ruling group of media outlets will not allow Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May to join the 2008 televised Leaders Debate because of opposition from Stephen Harper and Jack Layton. Both Harper and Layton have apparently threatened not to participate in the debate if May was allowed to debate. The Conservative and NDP leaders appear to have an issue with May’s support of Stéphane Dion‘s positions on environmental issues.

The idea that two political leaders would cut out a debate because one political leader agrees with another highlights a major flaw in the mentality of Canada’s partisan political system. As admitting that someone else may have a better idea than you is a reality that millions of real Canadians have to come to grips with on a daily basis, perhaps our political leadership should not act so infallible.

Also, at what point in time did Canadians grant private media outlets (with the exception of the CBC, being public) control over deciding which political leaders voters would have access to in a nationally televised debate?

UPDATE: Jason Morris at Gauntlet.ca is blogging in green to protest the media consortium’s decision.

Just in time for a Federal Election, Craig Chandler has decided that it was a good time to set sail for Ontario by blazing his way into Conservative MP Helena Guergis‘ riding of Simcoe-Grey to do some anti-Mayoral campaigning in the Town of Collingwood (something that I can only imagine Guergis is ecstatic about — read: sarcasm).

A right-wing talk radio host and Executive Director of the Calgary-based Progressive Group for Independent Business, Chandler fell into the national spotlight a year ago when he was dumped as the Conservative candidate in Calgary-Egmont after writing a controversial rant against new Albertans on an online webboard and getting into trouble with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Known for his less than mainstream views, Chandler has previously run for the Reform Party in Hamilton-Mountain in 1993 and for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003.

Now in Ontario, Chandler and PGIB affiliate David Crutcher are running a media smear campaign and mass phone attack against Collingwood Mayor Chris Carrier. According to the Collingwood Enterprise-Bulletin, PGIB has accused Carrier of being “anti-business” following the Town’s decision to fine two companies who were dumping more waste into the local sewage system than local bylaws permitted. One of the two companies, Collingwood Ethanol, is connected to Chandler’s father, Bruce Chandler. Ontario’s Ministry of Environment has also laid 17 charges against the company.

PGIBs accusations against Mayor Carrier have confused Collingwood blogger and businessman Rick Crouch, who offered these comments:

“You must ask yourself, is it realistic or sensible for any of us to believe that a Mayor or any politician for that matter would have an “anti-business” mandate. Hardly and that’s where the hilarity in PGIB’s accusations begin and end.”

Radio Free Collingwood has also been following the story and offers a couple of posts detailing PGIBs activities in the Ontario town.

Though I’m not sure what effect, if any, Chandler’s campaign could have on the Conservative campaign in the Simcoe region, I’m sure that even the thought Chandler being within 100 kilometers of battleground Ontario could make even the most seasoned Conservative veteran organizer a bit nervous.

…and after weeks of exciting televised conventions, I’m really looking forward to voting for Barack Obama and change I can believe in… oh, wait…

Damn.

Elections Alberta financial statements from the March 3, 2008 election campaign now show that Ed Stelmach‘s Progressive Conseravtives spent a record $3 million to sustain their 37-year old majority in the Alberta Legislature (with $1.7 million sitting in their coffers).

The four opposition parties raised and spent much less than the Tories. During the campaign period the Alberta Liberals netted $440,000 in contributions and spent $650,000, the New Democrats netted $465,000 in contributions and spent $816,000, the Wild Rose Alliance netted $513,000 in contributions and spent $464,000, and the Alberta Greens netted $27,000 in contributions and spent $50,000. The 2008 campaign left both the Liberals and NDP in some pretty deep financial debt.

Though I knew it was coming, I was sad to read that my former boss, Kieran Leblanc, will be let go by the Alberta Liberals due to lack of funds. A former public education advocate, Leblanc jumped into politics before the 2001 provincial election when she sought the Edmonton-Mill Creek Liberal nomination against Bharat Agnihotri. She later joined the Liberal central campaign and became Executive Director in 2001 and saw the Liberal Party through the 2004 and 2008 election campaigns. Leblanc, who Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid described as an “excellent executive director“ was a great boss and has been a great friend to me over the years. She is a passionate fighter and the Liberals will feel her loss.

The loss of Leblanc will leave the Alberta Liberals with a skeleton staff of two in the party office. With an election loss fresh in their minds and a leadership race underway, candidates Mo Eslalhy, David Swann, and Dave Taylor are going to have to figure out how to raise a lot of money to fix this sinking ship if they are serious about challenging the current Tory dynasty in the next election.

A friendly reader close to the Alberta NDP passed along these upcoming nomination candidates in Alberta. The nominations will most likely be held between next Tuesday and Sunday.

Edmonton Sherwood Park – Provincial Sheriff and recent provincial Edmonton-Castle Downs candidate Ali Haymour.

Peace River – Alternative Energy/Anti-Nuclear Activist and recent provincial Peace River candidate Adele Boucher Ryhms.

Red Deer – Farmer and Teacher Stuart Sommerville is running for the nomination to replace former candidate Kelly Bickford.

Westlock-St Paul – Catholic School system curriculum coordinator Jason Porteous.

The list of nominated federal election candidates in Alberta will be updated as these candidates are nominated next week.

Alberta Liberal leadership candidate Dave Taylor announced an addition to his campaign team yesterday with the appointment of former Mount Royal College Students’ Association President Jonathan MacPherson as Assistant Deputy Campaign Manager for Calgary. In his media release, Taylor described MacPherson as “an excellent spokesperson for a number of pressing issues.”

In March 2007, MacPherson was less of an excellent spokesperson for his organization when he created and became the centre of a public scandal at his college:

Current Mount Royal Students’ Association president Jon MacPherson, who was re-elected to a second term Sat., March 7, was punished by the MRC students’ council for sending an email to U of C SU president Emily Wyatt defaming his competitor, current vice-president student life Tami Rothery.

MacPherson ended up winning the election over Rothery–his only other competitor–by 428 votes. As part of his punishment, he is required to write letters of apology to both Wyatt and U of C VP external Julie Labonte.

Wyatt said she was surprised to receive an email from MacPherson asking her to support his election campaign. She responded to the email by telling MacPherson she had to remain neutral and forwarded the email to Labonte. Somehow the email got into the hands of an MRC VP who brought it to the attention of council. Then the Calgary Herald also reported on the story.

MacPherson will also lose his spot on the MRC board of governors as well as any remaining vacation time. He cannot hold leadership positions on any external lobby groups and is required to pay a $1,000 fine to the students’ association.

No word if MacPherson will be given access to a campaign email address.

During the Spring sitting of the Alberta Legislature, MLA Rachel Notley gave an interesting statement in support of Dave Taylor‘s amendment to Bill 7, which would oppose the introduction of the phrase “for the economic prosperity of Alberta” into Alberta’s Post-Secondary Learning Act.

MS. NOTLEY: We acknowledge that within the system of post secondary education delivery is a process which relies on partnerships. It relies on partnerships historically between students, between education providers, between the community as a whole, between, in my view, business — and when I say business, I include the labour movement in that, you know, the economy as a whole — and then, of course, as I say, our community. So there is a balance that needs to be struck in the delivery of our post secondary education system and the education within the province.

My concern is that the amendment that’s being proposed here in essence unstrikes the balance and that it rather puts in place a priority system. The first priority is, in fact, the economic interests of the province and the economic prosperity — as defined by who I’m not exactly sure, but nonetheless the economic prosperity — of the province. I have to say that I think if you were to look historically at all of the most venerable post secondary education institutions in the world, they did not premise their reputation or their service on how well they were able to contribute ultimately to the economic prosperity of the given government of a given day. Rather, they were more focused on providing a true academic opportunity and education outside of the day-to-day influences that might be brought to bear by any particular political government of the day.

A big concern that we have relates to what the impact of this change would have on research and research initiatives in the future. Sponsored research is a type of research that occurs within the post-secondary institution that, frankly, we have some very significant concerns with. Sponsored research fundamentally compromises academic integrity in a number of cases. It can result in a skewing of the research choices, the topic choices, and the outcomes that are widely reported with respect to the research that is undertaken. […]

We know that the roles and mandate framework actually identifies as an objective the goal of making Alberta have the highest level of sponsored research in the country. I would suggest that that is a direction that we should not pursue and that we should change direction. I am all for, you know, considered economic development and integration in certain cases with respect to the post secondary education system where it works. I have concerns about a legislated direction that economic prosperity be the priority consideration for boards of post secondary institutions when they are considering how and where to allocate their resources.

(h/t Alberta Views Blog)

As Alberta isn’t exactly set to be anything close to an exiting political battleground in the upcoming federal election, I expect the Alberta-wing of the Conservative Party machinery in this Conservative MP heavy province to be spent a) increasing vote tallies to take advantage of the funding-per-vote finance scheme, b) transferring funds to lesser well-off campaigns in other Provinces and Territories, c) sending weekly bus loads of Calgary Conservatives out to Wascana to campaign against Ralph Goodale.

Other than the more interesting races in Edmonton-Centre and Edmonton-Strathcona (which I will focus on more later), the rest of Edmonton and Alberta looks like a wash for the Conservatives. With Reform-era MP John Williams retiring, former Tory MLA Brent Rathgeber has been nominated as the Conservative candidate in Edmonton-St. Albert and will be facing off against Liberal Sam Sleiman, New Democrat Dave Burkhart, and Green Peter Johnson. Rathgeber served as the MLA for Edmonton-Calder from 2001 until 2004, when he was defeated by New Democrat David Eggen. My only memorable encounter with Rathgeber was at the Legislature Press Gallery Christmas Party in December 2007, during which we had an overly jovial conversation about door knocking during the winter.

In Edmonton-Sherwood Park, Tim Uppal is the Conservative candidate replacing C-484 advocate Ken Epp. Uppal, who nearly defeated former Liberal MP David Kilgour in Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont in the 2004 election, was rumoured to have been convinced to run in Edmonton-Sherwood Park to avoid a nasty nomination battle with MP Mike Lake. Lake is seeking re-election against Liberal Indira Saroya in Kilgour’s former stronghold. Since former candidate Neal Gray stepped aside earlier this year, the NDP are in the processes of renominating a candidate to run against Lake and Saroya (recent Edmonton-Rutherford provincial candidate Michael Butler is seeking the nod).

In Edmonton-East, former NDP MLA Ray Martin will be taking a second run at Conservative MP Peter Goldring. The two men last met in clutches of electoral battle in 2000, when Martin placed third behind Goldring and former Liberal MLA Sue Olsen. This time, Martin will be joining Liberal Jim Jacuta and Green Trey Capnerhurst. The two remaining races in Edmonton are expected to be much less exciting as MPs Rona Ambrose and James Rajotte should have no problem facing their competition in Edmonton-Spruce Grove and Edmonton-Leduc.

Across the province, a number of Conservative incumbents won’t be seeking re-election. Among the new candidates who will more than likely become MPs are Devinder Shory in Calgary-Northeast, Blake Richards in Wild Rose, and Earl Dreeshen in Red Deer.

David Emerson chooses retirement over running in Edmonton-East.

Amy Goodman and two Democracy Now! producers were arrested while reporting on protests outside the Republican Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota today.

I’ve updated my list of nominated candidates in Alberta, and here are the totals of nominated candidates across the province (that I am aware of) If I’ve missed any updates, feel free to post them or send me an email – daveberta.ca@gmail.com.

Conservative – 28 candidates
Liberal – 24 candidates
NDP – 20 candidates
Green – 13 candidates
Canadian Action – 5 candidates
Christian Heritage – 5 candidates
Libertarian – 4 candidates
First Peoples National Party – 2 candidates
Independent – 2 candidates

The Conservatives have nominated a full slate of candidates and I expect the Liberals, NDP, and Greens to round up their slates by the first week of the apparently imminent election. Though it’s extremely likely that the Conservative Party will sweep all 28 ridings in the Wild Rose Province, expect most of the media attention to be focused on the race between Laurie Hawn and Jim Wachowich in Edmonton-Centre, and Rahim Jaffer and Linda Duncan in Edmonton-Strathcona.

It may not have gained as much media attention as the giant glass pyramid, but Edmonton’s long-awaited Public Art Master Plan (pdf) was presented to City Council’s Community Services Committee on August 25 by Edmonton Arts Council Executive Director John Mahon and Public Art Director Kristy Trinier.

The plan includes three key recommendations that range from funding of staff positions to prevent the further deterioration of current public art, creating an endowment to stabilize long term conservation funds, and modernizing many of Edmonton’s public art and programming policies to meet national standards (including increasing support to community public art programs). The plan also calls for Edmonton to spearhead a number of initiatives including an Art Bank, a Public Art System, a Public Arts Ideas Lecture Series, Graffiti Zones, and a Biennial International Commission to recognize contemporary artists in Alberta’s Capital City.

The plan also calls for the creation of a Percent for Art plan for the public and private sectors which would have the City allocate one percent of its qualifying construction budget of various projects for the procurement of publicly displayed art. The private sector portion of the plan would create incentives for private developers to increase the amount of public art while constructing new developments.

Committee members Karen Leibovici, Don Iveson, and Tony Caterina moved that the plan be approved when presented to City Council on September 17th, 2008.

As other levels of government have been much less supportive of Canada’s creative economy in recent years, I am impressed by the innovative action and refreshing ideas that continue to emerge from municipalities across Canada.

Avenue Magazine has a great piece in this month’s edition on Edmonton City Councillor Don Iveson.

Lisa Gregoire wrote the article after following Iveson around Edmonton in the months following his high profile victory over incumbent Councillor Mike Nickel in the October 2007 municipal election that brought him to City Hall.

Iveson, a strong advocate for public transit and smart growth initiatives, was voted most effective City Councillor in SEE Magazine‘s 2008 Best of Edmonton and has been credited by Edmonton Journal columnist Scott McKeen as being the coolest head on City Council.