Category: Uncategorized

well, what do you think about the overhaul?

New colours.
New header.
More funk?

Ignore the last post please… i’m back… i never really left…

I decided that I wanted to “funk” up my blog a bit, the funky ‘897’ above is the result… once I finally figure out HTML, then watch out…

Now… to politics…

Rich Vivone, the publisher of Insight into Government suggests that the PC Leadership race to replace Ralph Klein would be a little more interesting if 3 new people would join.

The names Vivone suggests are:

– Former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning.
– Current Finance Minister & Drumheller-Stettler MLA (since 1987) Shirley McClellan (awful, awful picture…).
– Calgary Southeast Conservative MP Jason Kenny.

I must say, I agree with Vivone. The current race, though it may have the potential to be nastily entertaining, looks pretty boring. Woo hoo. Jim Dinning… (insert extreme sarcasm here)

I get the feeling that Mr. Dinning is going to be the ‘Paul Martin’ of the Tory Leadership race – the former Finance Minister who ‘tamed the budget’ and ‘will reinvest in our province’ – the ‘it’s time to do politics differently’ establishment candidate. (Plus, a minority government would do Alberta good!)

The 26th Session of the Alberta Legislature continued this week with Premier Klein and Transport Minister Lyle Oberg ducking and dodging opposition questions about the Governments privately owned fleet of airplanes. According to Oberg, Ministers, who are all free to use the planes, operate on the honour system when filing in the flight logs…. no accountability, no transparency…only the honour system….

It got even more interesting this week when Liberal Opposition Leader Kevin Taft questioned whether the Government was using the planes to jet corporate lobbyists around the province.

According to Taft’s Press Release:

“information obtained from the government’s flight manifests which details one R. Love flying from Calgary to Edmonton and Edmonton to Fort MacMurray on March 29, 2004. These flights were taken the same day as a press conference about the Fort MacMurray oilsands railway service in Fort MacMurray.

Rod Love was working as a consultant at the time for the Athabasca Oilsands Transportation Corporation. His primary role was lobbying the government to invest over $300 million into the project.”

Of course, this is referring to Premier Klein’s longtime political advisor and current Chief of Staff, Rod Love.

Wow, who knew that being Premier of Alberta meant you could fly your buddies around in taxpayer funded planes?!?!

taking a break from posting for a bit, hope to post more soon.

D : )

Thanks to Holly for the link!

I thought that some of you may appreciate this.

wow, does this suprise anyone???

Today, at the risk being showed up by another wonderful blog (click here), I’ve added some new features to daveberta (consider it my centennial gift to you!).

One of the new features I’ve added is what I call ‘unresponsible polling’ (on the sidebar). I plan to change the topic every couple of weeks. If you have any good ideas for new polls, feel free to email me and let me know! Vote early and vote often!

Also, I’ve added a new ‘counter’ to my website. So, I know that you’re watching! (or not watching :P)

For those of you interested in hearing about last weekend’s Federal Liberal Policy Convention in Ottawa:
Nic at GoPolitical, and CalgaryGrit both have some great stories. Enjoy!

D 🙂

okay… some of you may disagree with this…

You are 9% geek

OK, so maybe you ain’t a geek. You do, at least, show a bit of interest in the world around you. Either that, or you have enough of a sense of humor to pick some of the sillier answers on the test. Regardless, you’re probably a pretty nifty, well-rounded person who gets along fine with people and can chat with just about anyone without fear of looking stupid or foolish or overly concerned with minutiae. God, I hate you.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

The first session of the 26th Alberta Legislature began last week with a showing of the deep split within the Rural and Urban MLA’s in the Tory Caucus.

March 1 – MLA’s from all parties acclaimed rural Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Ken Kowalski as the Speaker. But suprise came when the majority Tories dumped incumbent Deputy Speaker and urban Calgary McCall MLA Shiraz Shariff in favour of rural Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Richard Marz.

March 3 – The majority rural Tory Caucus denied the lone Alliance MLA, Paul Hinman, the permission to make a statment in the Assembly (All MLA’s who are not members of the governing party or the Official Opposition require the unanimous concent of the Legislature in order to make statements, which is usually agreed to). The Liberal and ND Caucuses along with some members of the Tory caucus voted in favour of allowing Mr. Hinman to speak, but the loud shouts of “nay” from the majority rural Tory drowned out any “yea” sayers. It seems they are pretty committed to keep him from speaking in the House – to the detrement of the voters of Cardston-Taber-Warner, who elected him.

The strength of the rural Tories was bolstered following last November’s provincial election, when Kevin Taft‘s Alberta Liberals routed the Urban Tories in Edmonton, Lethbridge, and 3 downtown Calgary ridings.

Tory Urban/Rural Split

Pre-2004 Election (73 Tory MLA’s)
Rural MLA’s – 36
Urban MLA’s – 37

Post-2004 Election (62 Tory MLA’s)
Rural MLA’s – 32
Urban MLA’s – 28

It seems like this could just be the begining of a nasty show-down between the ‘city tories’ and ‘country tories’ leading up to the expected leadership race to replace 13-year leader Premier Ralph Klein. Two of the rumoured front-runners in the race include the very urban former Calgary MLA and current Transalta Power Executive Jim Dinning; and the right-wing former ‘Senator-in-waiting’ and current MLA for Foothills-Rocky View Ted Morton (Morton ran on the slogan ‘More Alberta, Less Ottawa).

Final Note – I attended the first Question Period of the new Legislature last Thursday and I’d like to thank Edmonton Rutherford MLA & Liberal Finance Critic Rick Miller for the kind introduction. Thanks Rick!

for all you U of A students out there – Student Union Elections are on Wednesday, March 9 & Thursday, March 10 – POLLING STATIONS ALL OVER CAMPUS! VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!!!!!!

Check out info on ALL the candidates and the Health Plan Referendum HERE!!!!

well, this is looking like it’s gonna be my 3rd ‘all nighter’ in a row this week…. can’t…wait…until…saturday…when….i…can….sleep….in…..

and the winner of the ‘most bizarre thing I saw this week award’ is…

Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day by the Young Conservatives of Texas….

i had to post this – it’s from NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division website – very cool interactive map! found it during my research on eastern european security issues.

taking a break from paper writing… almost done the one on regional and domestic security issues in Eastern Europe… another one due next week on John Locke and property rights… can’t wait until they are done….

going to the first QP of the new Legislative session tomorrow afternoon. looking forward to it, should be fun to watch… I can’t wait until Ted Morton says something crazy! it’s only a matter of time and when he does – it will be posted on daveberta!

Cheers.

D : )

Well, the new session of the Alberta Legislature began today with the election of a new Speaker. I haven’t heard, but it was expected that long long long long time Tory MLA Ken Kowalski would be acclaimed as Speaker. Kowalski, who was elected the same year dirt was invented, is the current MLA for the riding of Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock.

This session will see a new beefed up opposition ready to take on the Tories! Kevin Taft and the Liberal Official Opposition have 16 members (3 incumbents & 13 rookie MLA’s), Brian Mason’s perpetual third place New Democrats will be bringing 4 MLA’s (2 incumbents, 1 rookie, & a former MLA). Also joining the Legislature for the first time will be the Alberta Alliance, represented by Cardston-Taber-Warner MLA Paul Hinman.

Let’s hope the opposition gets under the Tories skin!

This new Legislature has 21 Opposition members (out of 83 seats – the Tories hold 62 seats).

Alberta’s new opposition MLA’s are:

Liberal Caucus
Bharat Agnihotri – Edmonton Ellerslie
Dan Backs – Edmonton Manning
Laurie Blakeman – Edmonton Centre*
Bill Bonko – Edmonton Decore
Harry Chase – Calgary Varsity
Mo Elsalhy- Edmonton McClung
Jack Flaherty – St. Albert
Hugh MacDonald – Edmonton Gold Bar*
Weslyn Mather – Edmonton Mill Woods
Bruce Miller – Edmonton Glenora
Rick Miller – Edmonton Rutherford
Bridget Pastoor – Lethbridge East
David Swann – Calgary Mountain View
Kevin Taft – Edmonton Riverview*
Dave Taylor – Calgary Currie
Maurice Tougas – Edmonton Meadowlark

ND Caucus
David Eggen – Edmonton Calder
Ray Martin – Edmonton Beverly Clareview
Brian Mason – Edmonton Highlands-Norwood*
Raj Pannu – Edmonton Strathcona*

Alberta Alliance Caucus (of one)
Paul Hinman – Cardston-Taber-Warner

*Incumbent MLA’s.

Went on a last minute road trip yesterday with some great people to the great little town of Rocky Mountain House. Was a 2 hour ride there and 2 back from Edmonton. Had never been to RMH before…

I love going to these small towns, they’re fun! Ended up in the “Saddle Sore Saloon” at 4 in the afternoon (yes, it’s as classy as it sounds…). interesting crowd…. my buddy and I stuck out like sore thumbs… didn’t sell any Liberal Party memberships there… ; )

Had dinner at the Chef’s Cafe – a really nice little resturant – if you are ever in RMH you have to go!

Just an interesting RMH fact – in the 2004 Provincial Election, Liberal Candidate Susan Scott (who is an awesome lady!) placed second. This was the first time a Liberal placed second in RMH in 49 years!!! The results looked like….

Rocky Mountain House Constituency 2004 Provincial Election
(47.7% Voter Turnout)

Ty Lund, PC – 5,773 (57%)
Susan Scott, Liberal – 1,266 (12%)
Lavern J. Ahlstrom, Social Credit – 1,265 (12%)
Ed Wilhite, Alliance – 807 (8%)
Bruce Hutton, Seperatist – 503 (5%)
Jennifer Issac, Green – 335 (3%)
Anthony Jones, NDP – 300 (3%)

to put this into perspective, here are the results from the 2001 election (55.5% Voter Turnout):

Ty Lund, PC – 7,820 (70%)
Lavern J. Ahlstrom, SC – 1,705 (15%)
Winjand Horemans, Liberal – 1,171 (11%)
Doug MacAngus, NDP -408 (4%)

so… all the power to those right-wing fringe/spilt the PC vote parties!