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Alberta Politics

missed opportunity or fertile soil in medicine hat?

Last week it was revealed that Premier Ed Stelmach left on a vacation to Portugal as flood levels were dramatically rising in south east Alberta.

While Premier Stelmach relaxed in Portugal, no opposition leader – David Swann, Danielle Smith, Brian Mason – took advantage of the Premier’s absence. Was it responsible for the opposition leaders not to show up as to not interfere with any of the emergency responses or was it a missed opportunity to present a political alternative to a region of Alberta that is growing into a hotspot of alienation and local discontent with the Premier?

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what a beautiful province.

I spent the weekend with some great friends hiking and whitewater rafting in Jasper National Park. What an amazing gem. The first three photos were taken from the top of the Sulphur Skyline at around 2300 feet above sea level. The last photo was of our raft taking on some water on the Sunwapta River.

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Alberta Politics

premier stelmach vacationed in europe while medicine hat was treading water.

While water flood levels of the South Saskatchewan river rose around Medicine Hat and heavy rain continued to pour,  Premier Ed Stelmach was leaving for a European vacation. In a recent interview on My96fm radio, Premier Stelmach fumbled his way through an explanation of why he and his wife left to vacation in Portugal as the flooding disaster in southeastern Alberta intensified. (Click on the link below to listen to the interview and skip to 1:17 point in the interview).

Listen to the radio interview with Premier Ed Stelmach

I do not begrudge the Premier for taking a vacation, but there are significant symbolic reasons why political leaders show up at disaster areas. Dispatching cabinet ministers to view the damage is not enough. It is a political problem that Premier Stelmach still has not visited the affected areas of southeastern Alberta. As Don Braid wrote, people affected by disasters notice when their elected leader does not even showed up to see it with through his own eyes. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has already made a number of trips to the affected areas on his side of the provincial boundary.

This is not the first time that an occupant of the Premier’s Office has been away on leisure while Albertans were waiting for leadership. Premier Ralph Klein went on a fishing trip while Mad Cow Disease was causing Alberta farms to be put under quarantine in 2003 and former Premier Don Getty was discovered to have been “working out of the office” at a golf course during the height of the Principal Group collapse in 1987.

Premier Stelmach’s absence has been noticed and is producing some harsh criticism from the Albertans in this region who have overwhelmingly voted for the PC Party since the mid-1970s.

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Alberta Politics

alberta politics notes 7/09/2010

– The Government of Alberta has purchased +$50,000 newspaper advertisements in Washington DC and written a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defending the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas. The pipeline is facing opposition from Democratic Representative Henry Waxman, who currently Chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The provincial government also employs former cabinet minister Gary Mar as a permanent envoy in the American capital and frequently sends cabinet ministers and MLAs to conferences and trade meetings in the United States.
– Members of the United Nurses of Alberta have voted to ratify a new collective agreement that includes a 6%-pay increase over three years. Both the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald editorial boards have praised the agreement.
– At the age of 40-years, two-term Wood Buffalo Mayor Melissa Blake is a hot political commodity.
– The Alberta PC Party has hired Brent Harding as their Director of Communications.
– The Liberals purchased newspaper ads calling for cooperation with other parties and received cool responses from the NDP and Alberta Party.
– Former MLA Dan Backs is gearing up to run for City Council against Councillor Ed Gibbons. Both men are former MLAs for Edmonton-Manning. Mr. Gibbons sat as a Liberal MLA from 1997 to 2001, and Mr. Backs sat as a Liberal from 2004 until he was ejected from the Opposition caucus in 2006. After being defeated by Peter Sandhu when seeking the PC nomination in 2007, he placed third in his bid for re-election as an Independent in 2008.
– Jim Hillyer has been nominated as the Conservative candidate in Lethbridge for the next federal election. The federal Liberals held their candidate nomination in Edmonton-St. Albert last night.
– Jim Silye has been appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as chair of the board of the Museum of Science and Nature in Ottawa. Mr. Silye served as the Reform Party MP for Calgary-Centre from 1993 until 1997. Mr. Silye was defeated by Wayne Cao in the Calgary-Fort Progressive Conservative candidate nomination in 1997. In 2000, he ran as the PC candidate in Calgary-West against Canadian Alliance MP Rob Anders and Liberal candidate Frank Bruseker.

Read more in the Alberta Politics Notes archive.

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Alberta Politics

new ad: liberal party seeking single, progressive partners.

The Liberal Party ran this ad in today’s Calgary Herald and Edmonton Journal.

It is nice to see David Swann and the Liberals taking a public stance on this issue. I was among a group of delegates who raised this idea at the 2008 party convention and were given a cold shoulder by party loyalists for suggesting that the party needed to start something new. Most members of that group of delegates have since left the Liberal Party and some are now members of the Alberta Party.

They might hold Official Opposition status in the Assembly, but it is a little late for the Liberals to try to position themselves as the leadership figures among progressives in this discussion. It really is too bad that the Liberal Party took so long to join the conversation because they could have had a big impact if they would have been more open-minded to the possibilities two years ago.

UPDATE: I have to say that I am disappointed with the NDP and Alberta Party for their unwillingness to be open to discussions with the Liberal Party. Dr. Swann has taken a big political risk by offering to talk and in the low-stakes of opposition politics in Alberta it would cause negligible political harm to kindly accept the offer.

Alberta Party-supporter David King has written some thoughtful commentary on how the letter was framed. I do agree that it was unnecessarily adversarial towards the governing Progressive Conservatives. As a friend of mine pointed out after reading the Liberal Party ad, if you remove the anti-Conservative section of the letter, there is very little that most Albertans would disagree with. Perhaps Dr. Swann should have opened the same invitation to the PCs, and even the Wildrose Alliance.

It was not a shock that NDP leader Brian Mason is not interested in cooperating with the Liberal Party, but his political cheap-shot response was rude and not helpful. While many Albertans would probably agree with Mr. Mason that the Liberal Party is a “train-wreck,” the Alberta NDP, sitting at ~10% in the polls, is hardly an example of a relevant modern political machine.

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Alberta Politics

the spies among us.

Some find humour in it and some find none, but claims by CSIS Director Richard Fadden that elected officials in Canada are under the influence of foreign powers are not unreasonable.

Think about it. At the least, all it could take is an unknowing politician caught in a compromising situation on a trip overseas. A few drinks in a hotel bar, a flirtatious young lady, some embarrassing photos, and all of a sudden a cabinet minister is an intelligence asset to a foreign government or corporation. Money, ideology, ego, and compromising situations are powerful motivators.

Alberta MLAs and cabinet ministers regularly travel on worldwide junkets and I would imagine that our province’s wealth of natural resources would make our elected officials targets to influence.

Of course, being “under the influence” does not necessarily translate into the cloak and dagger intrigue of a Cold War Manchurian Candidate. Perhaps all that keeps those compromising photos secret is an advance tip about a regulatory change or announcement, an equivalent to insider-trading on the stock market. Maybe it is more.

It is not a stretch to imagine this happening.

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Alberta Politics

ernest manning on alberta’s oil sands.

Former Premier Ernest Manning spoke on television about Alberta’s oil sands in the 1960s.

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smooth bc highways.

After spending the past four days driving through the Cariboo, I can say with certainty that the highways in British Columbia’s interior were much smoother than any highway between the BC-Alberta boundary and Edmonton.

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Alberta Politics

time to reboot, reboot alberta?

It has become fashionable among many groups of progressives to attack the growth of the Wildrose Alliance as a scary oil-sector conspiracy or an evil paleoconservative movement. This sentiment was highlighted in two recent blog posts by Reboot Alberta co-founder Ken Chapman (here and here).

You can disagree with the Wildrose Alliance, their policies, and their politics – to disagree and debate is healthy in a democracy – but playing the “be afraid of the hidden agenda card” reeks of old school politics.

These kind of old school politically-charged accusations defeat the purpose of what I was trying to achieve by participating in groups like Reboot Alberta, which were created to foster “a new kind of politics.” I disagree with many of the policies of the Wildrose Alliance, but I respect that we live in a democratic society.

Progressive-thinking Albertans need to wake up and realize that elements of the Wildrose Alliance pose a threat to how we want our province to be shaped in the future, but if we respond by using the same old style political tactics, then we are no healthier a democracy. Nothing will have changed.

Let’s not fall into the old style political trap of name-calling and character-assasination. Let’s pick up our game and prove that we can define our politics not through cheap-shots, but that politics can actually be based on integrity, honesty, accountability, and transparency.

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Alberta Politics

wildrose wildfire.

While the sacking of Toronto grabbed national attention this weekend, another event captivated political audiences in Alberta. The Wildrose Alliance policy conference in Red Deer drew the kind of crowds that opposition parties in Alberta have not seen since Laurence Decore led the Liberal Party twenty years ago. Around 700 delegates traveled to central Alberta to debate and vote on party policy and an estimated 900 to 1000 people packed the conference hotel to hear leader Danielle Smith deliver her keynote speech on Friday night (video and text).

Premier Ed Stelmach embraces Speaker Ken Kowalski.

Starting her speech, she took a direct shot at Speaker Ken Kowalski, who Ms. Smith claimed has been “running roughshot over Alberta’s democracy” for blocking increased funding to the Wildrose caucus. Ms. Smith also directly challenged the integrity of the current government, led by Premier Ed Stelmach.

In what must have been a carefully managed production, delegates rejected some of the more controversial policies (including the right to bear arms). There is no doubt that more extreme conservative elements exist in this party, but under Ms. Smith’s leadership they are very tactfully creating a new image as a moderate conservative alternative to the current governing party.

Danielle Smith with three of the now four Wildrose MLAs.

The Wildroses also announced that it has organized local associations in all 83 constituencies, which is a status that the Liberals and New Democrats would have a difficult time legitimately claiming. With organizations being built on the ground, a large challenge will be for the party to prove that it can attract strong candidates across the province (in 87 new constituencies).

Ms. Smith has yet to convince Albertans that she is ready to lead a government, but she has taken an important step this weekend by grabbing their attention. Let us see if she can hang on to it.

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Alberta Politics

alberta politics notes 6/25/2010

– The Government of Alberta is only running a $1 billion deficit, according to yesterday’s fiscal update. It is no reason to start more spending, says Finance Minister Ted Morton.
– The Wildrose Alliance are holding their Annual General Meeting this weekend in Red Deer. Read the proposed policy document here. That party is expected to launch their new website soon after the convention.
– As expected former PC MLA Guy Boutilier has joined the Wildrose caucus.
– Liberal leader David Swann and some of his party’s MLAs were also in Red Deer this week, meeting with City Council and Chamber of Commerce.
– Spotlight Strategies, a consulting firm with very strong ties to the PC Party, has released a new poll showing PC support is holding steady among voters.
– It is a bad week for Edmonton-Rutherford PC MLA Fred Horne. The MLA is not impressing many Albertans as he travels the province holding consultation meetings about the proposed Alberta Health Act.
– Alberta is a key part of the Federal Liberal Party‘s future, according to Michael Ignatieff.
– The final report from Alberta’s Electoral Boundaries Commission has been released. For more: commentary and the 2008 results transposed on the new maps.

Read more in the Alberta Politics Notes archive.

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Alberta Politics

guy boutilier goes wildrose.

After months of speculation, Independent MLA Guy Boutilier has joined the Wildrose Alliancecaucus. After 12 years as a Progressive Conservative MLA, Mr. Boutilier was ejected from the PC caucus in 2009.

The move reminded of a blog post that I wrote about some of Mr. Boutilier’s bizarre adventures as a cabinet minister.

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Alberta Politics

new electoral boundaries transposed with 2008 results.

A big thanks to reader Alan Hall for collecting the data and creating these maps from the Final Report of the Electoral Boundaries Commission transposed with the poll-by-poll results from the 2008 election (in March, Alan created maps for the interim report). Read my previous post for more information and commentary on the Final Report.

Edmonton: The new electoral boundaries transposed with the poll-by-poll results from the 2008 election.

Calgary: The new electoral boundaries transposed with the poll-by-poll results from the 2008 election.

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Alberta Politics

final report of the electoral boundaries commission.

Enilghtened Savage may have beat me to the punch with the link to the report, but posted below are the Alberta, Calgary, and Edmonton maps from the Final Report of Alberta’s Electoral Boundaries Commission (pdf). It appears the sleuthing author of the aforementioned blog discovered the link to the report which had been loaded online before it has been officially posted on the Boundaries Commission website. You can download the full report here (pdf). Score 1 point for the citizen media.

UPDATE: The EBC appears to have removed the original link to the report, so I have replaced the above links with new ones provided by Enlightened Savage. You should be able to download the final report now.

COMMENTARY
Overall, I believe that the members of the Electoral Boundaries Commission have presented a fair report given the guidelines and political environment in which they were operating. I would have liked to see the commission merge some of the larger sparcely populated rural constituencies in the north of the province, but I understand the arguments for allowing exceptions in special circumstances.

Airdrie/Foothills-Chestermere: Large areas of Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson‘s former Airdrie-Chestermere constituency have been merged with Fiance Minister Ted Morton‘s Foothills-Rockyview riding to create Rockyview-Chestermere. It is unlikely that Mr. Anderson will challenge Minister Morton in the next election, so he may opt to run in the new Airdrie constituency.

North Calgary: There is a significant amount of shuffling in this area of Calgary. I’m not familiar enough with the area to say if it reflects communities of interest. I imagine that there will be an ample amount of confusion created when anyone talks about either Calgary-North Hill (singular) and Calgary-Northern Hills (plural). Anyone?

Edmonton-Centre: I was pleased to see that my riding remains intact. The boundaries make sense for Edmonton’s downtown constituency.

Edmonton-Glenora: Glenora has been shifted further west than was proposed in the interim report, moving more Tory polls into the constituency. They new boundaries also remove the NDP-voting polls north of downtown that were included in the interim boundaries report and cut out the Liberal-voting polls west of Mayfield road that were included in Glenora during the 2008 election. It could create a more favourable electoral situation for PC MLA Heather Klimchuk, who will face strong challenges from the Liberals and former NDP MLA David Eggen.

Edmonton-McClung: McClung has been split in two. I believe that the northern half is where former Liberal MLA Mo Elsalhy‘s stronger polls were located, so David Xiao might run for re-election in the new Edmonton-Southwest constituency in 2011. Elsalhy is planning on running again, so these changes could be good news for him.

Edmonton-Riverview: There was speculation that Liberal MLA Kevin Taft‘s constituency could be on the chopping block. It remains largely intact.

Fort McMurray-Conklin/Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo: Independent MLA Guy Boutilier will have the choice of running in one of these two constituencies in the next election. Mr. Boutilier is widely expected to join the Wildrose Alliance at this weekend’s policy convention in Red Deer. Mr. Boutilier was elected as the PC MLA for Fort McMurray in 1997, 2001, 2004, and 2008.

St. Albert/Sturgeon: I am surprised that St. Albert has not reached the size to have two constituencies of its own. I was not surprised to see that the towns of Morinville and Legal are still included in Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock, though it would make much more sense for those communities to be included in a Sturgeon Valley riding that lumped in with a constituency that stretches all the way to Swan Hills.

Minority Report: Commissioner Allyson Jeffs wrote a minority report arguing for Edmonton and Calgary to receive more than the three additional constituencies awarded in this Final Report. The politically uncomfortable necessity of removing large numbers of rural seats in favor of new urban ones was solved when Justice Minister Alison Redford introduced legislation that increased the number of MLAs from 83 to 87. In 2003, Commissioner Bauni Mackay
penned a minority report opposing Edmonton’s loss of one-seat in that Final Report.

Political Responses:
Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman (media release):

“The Stelmach administration’s sticky fingerprints are all over this report,” Blakeman says. “There’s been major tinkering with boundaries in Edmonton to reflect personal requests from Tory MLAs. Edmonton-Southwest, for example, is a mess.”

Wildrose MLA Paul Hinman (media release):

“…once again they displayed their disrespect for democracy in Alberta and fear of losing the next election by pressuring the Commission to make the changes that they believe will favour the PC Party.”

NDP MLA Brian Mason (media release):

“Generally the boundaries make sense. The NDP has a solid chance in several Edmonton ridings, and we plan to run a full slate of candidates in the next election.”

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Alberta Politics

climate crossfire.

Produced by Jeremy Hunka and Mike Waterhouse from CHAT TV, this documentary gives an interesting view of Alberta energy issues from Medicine Hat.

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