Category: Uncategorized

After picking up Discovering the Unknown Landscape: A History of America’s Wetlands by Ann Vileisis while I continue my research on wetlands habitat protection, I stumbled upon an online video interview Vileisis gave on her newer book, Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get it Back.

Kitchen Literacy sounds like a fascinating book and as I am planning to spend part of my summer seeing how long I can last on the 100-mile diet, I plan to pick up Vileisis’ book and give it a read.

Tory Premier Ed Stelmach released his new cabinet list today.

A quick look over the list doesn’t reveal too many surprises, but I will have more in depth commentary later today (the reality of being a University student sometimes overtakes the fun of being a blogger).

Though it is interesting to see Iris Evans as the new Minister of Finance and Enterprise.

Make it so.

UPDATE: As promised, here is my take on the cabinet shuffle.

It almost caught me off guard, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at how much attention Canada’s mainstream media is paying to the Elliot Spitzer sex scandal. If you haven’t already heard, New York Governor Elliot Spitzer has been caught in the middle of a sex scandal involving his alleged employment of a $1,000-an-hour Washington D.C. call girl (you can read a breakdown of the affidavit here).

A quick scan of the exciting Canadian political scene makes it pretty evident why the Canadian media are hopping on board the Elliot Spitzer-sex-scandal-train-from-New York. What kind of exciting political debates that our elected representatives are having in Canada?

– The epic struggle between Dan McTeague and Jim Flaherty continues in the great RESP debate of 2008.

– The Alberta Tories have just won their 11th consecutive majority government since 1971. 41% of Albertans bothered participating.

– Stephane Dion’s Federal Liberals back down again, leaving Canadians wondering why Dion even wanted to be the leader of that party in the first place.

At least the Obama-Harper NAFTA-gate leak has provided some sort of excitement in a Canadian political scene that could be otherwise disappointingly described as colourless, insipid, and platitudinous.

I usually prefer Get Fuzzy, but Brian Mason’s strip was pretty funny this morning…

The NDP would reopen the divisive debate on royalties if it wins the next the next election, Leader Brian Mason said today.

Since I first began blogging in January 2005, all sorts of interesting reactions have found their way into my email inbox. For the most part, the feedback is good (so keep on sending it). Many people disagree with me, which is fine, but the yusually remain civil about it. Even when the negative and mean-spirited stuff makes it into my email inbox I usually ignore it.

But last night I feel that someone out there crossed a line, and now I will share it with the world.

After going through the trouble of finding my facebook profile (which I feel might be somewhere on the other side of the line), this person sent me what can only be described as a less than coherent message. The message was from Mr. Brad Janzer, who, according to his facebook profile is a single male conservative Christian from Medicine Hat interested in women.

Here is Brad’s contribution to Alberta’s great political debate that found its way into my facebook inbox last night:

you guys are a bunch of whiny babies, get a real job and pay some taxes instead of just whining about not gettin your fair share of what other albertans have worked so hard for.
get a life you fuking loser

Putting the spirit of the message aside, I really worry about the state of political debate in Alberta when a person can’t even spell the *f* word right…

I have updated the list of Alberta’s provincially nominated candidates for the next provincial election (most likely now in Spring 2008).

On that note, there’s one current Tory MLA looking for a new constituency to call home.

I think I’m going to write a very nice thank you card to Mr. Turner for not allowing what is quite arguably one of the nicest blocks in Edmonton (which includes my favorite bistro) to be turned into generic condos towers…

Iconic eateries dodge wrecking ball
Owner sells High Level Diner, Sugarbowl to operators at half the assessed value
Todd Babiak, The Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON – There are few corners more resonant and soulful in Edmonton than 109th Street and 88th Avenue. The commercial buffer between the university and Old Strathcona includes a bike shop, a fitness company, a travel outlet and two of the city’s finest spots to eat, drink and write the great Canadian novel — the Sugarbowl and the High Level Diner.

Read the rest…

Apologies for the interruption in regular blogging over the past couple of days. Work, studies, and campaign volunteering has kept me quite busy this week.

Get ready for upcoming posts on the 2007 Edmonton Municipal Election, Alberta’s Royalty Review (and secret royalty reviews under the previous Tory Premier), the continuing AEUB scandal and maybe some links to some of the great YouTube vids coming out of the Ontario Provincial Election. Here’s a fun one:

Just like years past, the Folk Fest Blog is back up and running for this weekend’s Edmonton Folk Music Festival.

Thanks to Larry Johnsrude for emailing me a link to this earlier this week…

Not that I totally agree with the video, but it is cleverly made and reflects a setiment that I’m hearing quite a bit these days from my Tory voting friends (particularily those of the Jim Dinning and Ted Morton variety). I also think that comparing Ed Stelmach to Stephane Dion is an interesting approach…

(I also don’t quite understand the comparison to Kermit the Frog)

PS: I am not davefromalberta. I am daveberta.

A while back, Derek Raymaker tagged me for 8 random facts. So, because I’m original (or I could only think of 6, here are five random facts about myself…):

– I’m a huge Johnny Cash fan. I have 11 Johnny Cash CD’s and saw Walk the Line in theatres 3 or 4 times (I own the DVD).

– I was nominated the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal by Cliff Chadderton Chair of the National Council or Veteran Associations of Canada (and I was awarded the medal…)

– I just returned from spending 6 weeks in Quebec.

– I was once almost kicked out the Alberta Legislature for being part of an impromptu media scrum in front of the Premier’s Office on the fourth floor (Ralph Klein actually walked by during the scrum). Apparently you’re not allowed to do that.

– I’ve visited the Big Valley Creation Science Museum…

– I was once in Amersterdam’s Schiphol Airport during a bomb threat.

And because it’s only fair, I’ll have to tag Dan, Blake, and Ken.

Last weekend, I spent the last days of my six weeks in la belle provence of Québec on the island of Montreal.

Along with going to check out the Tamtams, I also took a walk through the streets of Outremont, where a federal by-election happens to be occuring.

Being a good political blogger, I tried to play the game of “spot the campaign sign.” Unfortunately, I was only able to spot two candidate’s campaign signs on the streets of Outremont…

NDP candidate Thomas Mulcair

Bloc Quebecois candidate Jean-Paul Gilson

I found it quite interesting that neither Federal Liberal candidate Jocelyn Coulon or Conservative candidate Gilles Duguay had signage posted for their candidacy, especially since the riding was vacated by former Liberal MP Jean LaPierre (then again…). The 2006 election saw Jean LaPierre gain 35% of the vote compared to 28% for Bloc Quebecois candidate Jacques Leonard, 17% for NDP candidate Leo-Paul Lauzon, and 12% for Conservative candidate Daniel Fournier. With this kind of vote split in a General Election, it should be interesting to see how voters in Outremont will vote in the September 17, 2007 by-election.

Also, having spent the past 5 weeks in the Saguenay-Lac-St. Jean region of Quebec, I think we could see some interesting results from the Roberval–Lac-St-Jean by-election to replace former Bloc MP Michel Gauthier. More on this in another post.

(and yes, I can see that the Thomas Mulcair sign is sideways)

Because I`ve spent the last 4 weeks in Chicoutimi, Quebec I thought it would be interesting to look at the past federal election results for the city over the past 15 years. So, here they are for your reading pleasure…

Chicoutimi
1993
Gilbert Fillion, BQ – 29,392
André Harvey, PC – 11,038
Georges Frenette, Lib – 4,958
Christine Moore, NDP – 541

1997
André Harvey, PC – 18,598
Gilbert Fillion, BQ – 18,281
Eric Delisle, Lib – 4,839
Anne-Marie Buck, NDP – 853

Chicoutimi-LeFjord
2000
André Harvey, Lib – 20,105
Noel Tremblay, BQ – 15,073
Mauril Desbiens, Ind – 3,797
Douglas Schroeder-Tabah, AC – 2,001
Alaine Ranger, NDP – 689

2004
Robert Bouchard, BQ – 20,650
André Harvey, Lib – 19,787
Alcide Boudreault, C – 2,385
Éric Dubois, NDP – 1,699
Paul Tremblay, Grn – 1,038

2006
Robert Bouchard, BQ – 19,226
André Harvey, Lib – 14,581
Alcide Boudreault, C – 12,350
Éric Dubois, NDP – 2,571
Jean-Martin Gauthier, Grn – 1,226

(André Harvey has run in every federal election in Chicoutimi since 1984 – he served as the Member of Parliament for Chicoutimi from 1984-1993 and 1997 to 2004 – as a Progressive Conservative from 1984-1993 and 1997-2000, and as a Liberal from 2000 to 2004).

For those of you wondering about my absence in the wake of this and this, don’t despair. I’ll be posting something soon. Busy with real life today.

In the meantime, keep on voting in the poll on the sidebar. 145 votes so far…

Apparently it’s like buying schools at Costco…