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Yesterday, Tory Advanced Education Minister Denis Herard appointed failed Edmonton Riverview PC candidate Fred Horne to the Governing Council of Athabasca University. Only one more indication that the sky is the limit for political patronage opportunities if you invest in an Alberta PC membership…

As well, apparently the sky is also the limit for Jim Dinning supporters interested in becoming Alberta’s next Minister of Agriculture… any bets on which Tory MLA’s were promised what?

In my previous post regarding the retirement of NDP MLA Raj Pannu, I noted a rumour that lawyer and labour activist Rachel Notley would be running for the NDP nomination in Edmonton Strathcona for the next election (I originally noted the rumour back in January).

Well, with the floodgates barely open, it looks like her candidacy for the nomination has been confirmed (with my rumour noted on her site).

UPDATE: It seems that a clever webmaster has discovered that I have prematurely announced Ms. Notley’s candidacy.

As such, her site has been taken down until the official announcement is made. Even though I did have the foresight to see this coming and captured screenshots and copied her announcement speech and press release (dated June 16), I’m really not cruel enough to post stuff like that (this early in the nomination game).

So, you’ll just have to wait until Friday to see what she has to say…

June 16 Update…

Ms. Notley’s site has been officially launched, along with this little note in the news section of her website…

Liberal blogger Daveberta wins the prize as the first observer to note Rachel’s Candidacy. Dave noted Rachel’s cadidacy back on January 12th and on June 14th. In his June 14th posting, he argues that the riding is now a wide open contest with the retirement of Raj Pannu.

Kudos to Daveberta for cleverness and moxie. In Daveberta’s second June 14th post, he caused this webmaster to scream panicked obsenities when he found Rachel’s development website and linked to it! A quick trip to the ER for treatment with the defibrillator helped calm me down.

Edmonton Strathcona NDP MLA Raj Pannu announced today that he will not be seeking re-election in the next general election. Pannu has served Edmonton Strathcona since first being elected in 1997 and was the leader of the Alberta NDP from 2000 to 2004.

I like Raj Pannu. He’s a hard worker and is passionate about bringing social justice issues to the forfront in Alberta politics (he’s also my MLA). Though some people liked to argue that it wouldn’t be true, I’ve long predicted that the 70+ MLA would not seek re-election.

In my mind, this opens Edmonton Strathcona up as a key battleground between the three-main parties in the next election. Since 1997, Pannu’s personal popularity has gained him support from many traditional non-NDP voters and has more than definately been the cause of many high-profile Liberals and Tories declining to run against him.

As for high-profile candidates that may run in Stathcona, here are some potentials…

Liberal – Don Fleming, Ben Henderson, (and I think Nic would make an awesome candidate!)

NDP – Rachel Notley, Larry Booi

PC – Eric Young, Kim Krushell, Janet Riopel

As for past Edmonton-Strathcona election results, here you go…

1989
Gordon Wright, ND- 6,696
Philip Lister, Lib- 4,237
Jack Scott, PC- 3,724

1990* By-Election
Barrie Chivers, ND- 4,927
Nadene Thomas, Lib- 2,252
Eric Young, PC- 1,512
Betty Paschen, Grn- 424
Robert Alford, SC- 224

1993
Al Zariwny, Lib- 6,542
Barrie Chivers, ND- 5,121
Don Grimble, PC- 4,071
Patrick Ellis, SC- 460
Betty Paschen, Grn- 253
Ben Toane, NLP- 108
Noami Rankin, Com- 47

1997
Raj Pannu, ND- 4,274
Mary MacDonald, Lib- 4,214
John Logan, PC- 4,096
John Forget, SC- 552
Myles Kitagawa, Grn- 236
Eshwar Jagdeo, NLP- 47

2001
Raj Pannu, ND- 6,998
John Logan, PC- 4,749
Jim Jacuta, Lib- 1,944
James Lakinn, AFP- 136

2004
Raj Pannu, ND- 7,430
Shannon Stubbs, PC- 2,256
Steven Leard, Lib- 1,850
Adrian Cole, Grn- 287
Jeremy Burns, AA- 275
Kelly Graham, SC- 162

For those of you who haven’t noticed, I’ve put up a Bloggers for Gerard Kennedy icon on the sidebar because, as I’m sure is obvious by now, I’m supporting Gerard Kennedy for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Looks like Mr. Jiminy Dinning is going to be keeping himself busy over the next while.

Any bets that his platform will look anything like this?

Hints says so…

CBC has declared a minority Tory Government in Nova Scotia…

PC leader Rodney MacDonald was re-elected in Inverness with 70%.
NDP leader Derrel Dexter was re-elected in Cole Harbour with 59%.
Liberal leader Francis MacKenzie was defeated in Bedford with 34%.

Here were the results from three years ago…

PC leader John Hamm was re-elected in Pictou Centre with 54%.
NDP leader Derrel Dexter was re-elected in Cole Harbour by 55%.
Liberal leader Danny Graham was elected in Halifax-Citadel with 33%.

According to CBC, these are the results that are rolling in…

PC leader Rodney MacDonald and NDP leader Derrel Dexter have both been re-elected, but Liberal leader Francis MacKenzie is trailing in Bedford.

Pardon the stereotype, but the Nova Scotia Provincial Election is today!

Alberta Liberals cashing in on Klein’s legislative toss

Edmonton — An infamous piece of Alberta’s political history is being put on the auction block.

The Alberta Liberal Party has announced plans to sell on eBay the copy of their health-policy booklet that Progressive Conservative Premier Ralph Klein hurled at a 17-year-old legislative page earlier this year.

The 63-year-old Premier later apologized for the outburst, which garnered national attention.

They even toured it around Alberta for people to sign. My signature is on page 7…

(props to CG for the news linkage…)

Check out this video on Pig v. Swine… too funny…

The Alberta Liberals held their Policy Convention & AGM yesterday. It was interesting to see all the different types of discussion going on – there were four main discussion sessions based on the Alberta Horizon’s documents that the Liberal Caucus put together – Social Development, Democratic Reform & Governance, Economic Sustainability, and Environmental Protection & Enhancement.

It’s really amazing to see how far the Alberta Liberals have come under Kevin Taft‘s leadership over the past two years.

Two years ago, the Alberta Liberals were a broken and battered party facing an election with a $1 million debt and only three incumbents. Now, the Alberta Liberals are organizing, the money is rolling in (after two years, their debt is now down to $600,000), they have 16 MLA’s, 21 candidates nominated, and a ton of people showing up to their policy conventions.

It’s also quite funny to hear that Alberta PC Leadership candidate Jim Dinning has to raid the 2004 Liberal campaign platform in order to find good ideas. Way to be innovative, Jim…

Yesterday afternoon, I met Federal Liberal leadership candidate Martha Hall Findlay during her stop in Edmonton on her cross-Canada bus tour.

Not knowing much about Findlay before-hand, I was very impressed about her ideas and thoughts on Canada, Federal Politics, and the Liberal Party.

Unlike many leadership-type events, this event was more of a discussion than pontification. I felt she was really interested in getting Canadians and Liberals to have a national discussion on hard-hitting issues like the environment, urban issues, and Afghanistan and Canada’s commitment abroad. Had I not only had 2 hours of sleep in the 36 hours before the meeting, I probably would have engaged more deeply in the conversation.

She’s no doubt a long-shot in that race, but I do hope she runs for a seat in Parliament in the next election. I get the feeling that she would be a dedicated Minister or a fireball of an Opposition Critic.

On another note, Kevin Taft and the Alberta Liberals will be holding their Policy Convention and Annual General Meeting this weekend in Edmonton. I will be sporatically attending and checking out the policy discussions.

Tonight, the guest speaker at the opening reception of the Convention is Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. Though I won’t be able to make it tonight, I hear there will be nearly 400 delegates attending from across Alberta. It’s clearly an exciting time on the Alberta political scene.

I’m sure I’m not the only one out there, but for the past week I’ve had the “Hands in my Pocket” (click here to listen to a preview of the song) song from a Capital One commercial stuck in my head. It’s a clever commercial with a catchy theme song, but wow is it annoying…

The song is performed by Canadian artist Jim Guthrie. According to wikipedia…

He records both as a solo artist and as the guitar player for Islands. He used to be in the band Royal City until they disbanded in 2004.

He was born and raised in Guelph, Ontario, and currently lives in Toronto.

Guthrie first made a name for himself by releasing a series of self-produced cassettes, and subsequently released albums on Three Gut Records. He was nominated for a Juno Award for his album Now, More Than Ever.

On a related note, Rick Mercer put out a great parody of the commercial.

Hands in my pockets, hands in my pockets, hands in my pockets…

Yesterday, Alberta’s Advanced Education Minister Denis Herard, released the results of the Tory Government’s year-long consultation process on post-secondary education. The process, titled A Learning Alberta, was created to review Alberta’s post-secondary education system following Tory Premier Ralph Klein’s statement in his 2005 State of the Province Address that…

“By the time post-secondary students head back in September 2006, Alberta will define a new tuition policy for the 21st century. It will be the most affordable, entrepreneurial, and affordable tuition policy in the country. We will do whatever it takes to make sure money isn’t a barrier to attending Alberta’s post-secondary institutions.”

As groundbreaking as his promise sounds, the lacklustre recommendations of the review clearly do not deliver on the Premier’s promise to Albertans.

What the 24-page report recommends is the continuation of the status quo – keeping Alberta’s post-secondary tuition levels at 2004/2005 levels, the exact same level that Alberta students have been paying since the Premier made his promise a year ago.

For the past year, students have been advocating for a substantial and real tuition rollback. The most affordable tuition in Canada is Quebec, at $1900 per year, Newfoundland is next with $2,606. At 2004/05 levels ($4,536 plus other fees at the U of A) Alberta will still exceed even the national average of $4,214 the national tuition average.

The shadowy wordsmiths of the Public Affairs Bureau may be calling the recommendation a “rollback,” but it’s clear that the Tories may be opting for the second definition of the word…

roll·back (rōl’băk’) pronunciation
(noun)

1. A reduction, especially in prices or wages, to a previous lower level by governmental action or direction: a price rollback; a rollback of military supplies.
2. A turning back or retreat, as from a previously held position or policy: hoped for a rollback of support for the opposition’s proposed legislation.

The Province of Alberta has an incredible opportunity to create an amazing post-secondary education system – I just wish we had a government with the will to step up to the plate and seize that opportunity.