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liberal party convention (losers can’t be winners).

Cramped in the dark and cavernous halls of the Mayfield Inn this weekend are some of the most dedicated card carrying partisans in the province of Alberta. Despite recent internal conflict and a third place showing in the polls, around 200 delegates traveled from across the province for this weekend’s Liberal Party Policy Convention and Annual General Meeting.

I was only able to attend the convention for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon (before the +25C weather lured me back outdoors), but the convention appeared to be well organized and had a more professional look to it than Liberal conventions I have attended in the past.

TIME TO SCRAP THE OLD MODEL?
The convention provided evidence of the difficult road ahead for the Liberal Party in Alberta. Party organizers created some buzz by soft launching their new party logo and policy material, but the 200 convention delegates were largely over the age of 50, likely annual attendees, and felt sleepy.

In contrast, over 200 high school students and 100 teachers gathered in the next convention hall for what sounded like a much livelier meeting at the Speak Out conference. Generational renewal is a challenge faced by all political parties and our traditional democratic institutions in general.

If parties are not able to attract large numbers of new Albertans to their conventions, perhaps the traditional “policy conference” model is no longer viable? Perhaps the same could be said about how our political parties are organized? From a simple survival perspective, these are important questions that the organizers in all political parties should be discussing.

WARREN KINSELLA SPEAKS
Generating buzz was the proposal to award $50 tax credits to voters in an attempt to boost the low voter turnout in Alberta (which was around 40% in the 2008 election). During his keynote address, federal Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella took a direct shot at the Edmonton Journal for criticizing the policy. It is very easy to question the effectiveness of this policy proposal, but I believe that it is a part of a larger debate around democracy in Alberta.

Overall, Mr. Kinsella delivered a pretty typical political speech that attempted to rile up the crowd over the lunch hour. He did offer some good advice to convention delegates though, urging them to be ruthless, tough, and creative in taking advantage of the potential split between the two conservative parties in the next election.

It is true that the potential vote split between the two conservative parties could give the Liberals an edge in some marginal races in the next election. The challenge will be for the Liberals to actually have well-organized campaigns and credible candidates in 87 new constituencies (or at least 55) that can take advantage of this opportunity. If they want to make this a reality, they need to take advantage of every opportunity presented to them to organize (hint hint, the municipal elections are only five months away…).

MY ADVICE
Take it or leave it, but here is some advice for the Liberal Party. Many Liberal Party activists have become comfortable with electoral defeat and as perennial martyrs to their party banner (or the spirit of Pierre Trudeau). I know that there are Liberal Party members who are serious about rebranding their party, but it will more than just a new logo or typeface a website. A big step would be to take a look at who was at their convention this weekend and determine who has become too comfortable with losing and show them the door.

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clean government initiative.

Just days before their party policy convention, the Alberta Liberals unveiled a new package of democratic reform proposals branded as the “Clean Government Initiative.”

1) Establish an independent commission with binding powers to set MLA pay, benefits and bonuses.
2) Make all MLA expenses and compensation publicly available online.
3) Lengthen and strengthen cooling off periods to prevent senior civil servants from flip-flopping between high-level public and private sector jobs.
4) Strengthen the Lobbyist Act.
5) Strengthen the power of Officers of the Legislative Assembly.
6) Reduce power of the Premier’s Office.
7) Protect whistleblowers.
8 ) Ban all corporate and union political party donations.
9) Lower election donation limits for individuals.
10) Reform elections.
11) Increase ministerial accountability
12) Establish fixed election dates.

Most of these ideas are not new, and many of these policies have also be found in the manifestos of the New Democrats, the Wildrose Alliance, and the Conservative Party of Canada, but I believe that the Liberals have done a good job packaging them.

Not surprisingly, the most controversial proposal is included in step 10, which proposes offers tax credits of $50 per election to Albertans who vote. I do not necessarily agree that monetary incentives would be the best way to increase meaningful engagement in our electoral system, but could does help spark the debate about creating incentives to vote – a debate that the governing Progressive Conservative Party appears reluctant to participate in.

I also noticed that while releasing this policy package, Liberal leader David Swann has spruced up his wardrobe, abandoning the older worn suit for a more crisp and professional looking image. I get the distinct feeling that recent changes inside the Official Opposition caucus may have allowed Dr. Swann more time to focus on other things, like improving his and his party’s image.

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alberta politics notes 5/13/2010

– Alberta’s new Lieutenant Governor was officially installed this week. Colonel (Retired) Donald Ethel is one of Canada’s most decorated Peacekeepers.
– Alberta’s three remaining Senators-in-Waiting have voiced their opposition to Premier Ed Stelmach‘s decision to suspend the Fall 2010 Senate elections.
– Premier Stelmach is travelling to Asia with BC Premier Gordon Campbell and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall. Liberal leader David Swann will be in Edmonton for his party’s policy convention this weekend. NDP leader Brian Mason is travelling to Calgary.
– Former PC Finance Minister Jim Dinning was recently interviewed by the Globe & Mail.
– Edmonton Councillor Dave Thiele will not seek re-election in the October Municipal elections. Councillor Thiele was first elected in 1998. In the 2007 election, Councillor Thiele was re-elected with 23.4% of the vote in the hotly contested race between five candidates.
– I have been told that Harvey Voogd is collecting signatures to run as a candidate in the new Ward 7. In 2007. Mr. Voogd was the third place candidate in Ward 3. If he does run in Ward 7, Mr. Voogd will face off against Brendan Van Alstine, who has been campaigning for almost a year.
– Heather Mackenzie has announced her candidacy for the Edmonton Public School Board in Ward G. Sadly, one-term Ward C Trustee Sue Huff will not seek re-election.
– Former Saskatchewan MLA Gordon Dirks and former Calgary-West PC MLA Karen Kryczka will not run for re-election to the Calgary Board of Education.
– Edmonton-Strathona NDP MP Linda Duncan has been voted Edmonton’s “Most effective politician” in his year’s SEE Magazine rankings. Runners up are City Councillor Don Iveson (who has placed in the top three since being elected in 2007) and Edmonton-Centre Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman.
– Congratulations to CBC Edmonton Reporter Kim Trynacity, who has been nominated for a Canadian Journalism Award (h/t @PABsurvivor)

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alberta liberals up in the air.

Even if someone were to offer me good odds, I would be hesitant to bet on who the real players will be in the next provincial election.

As David Climenhaga recently pointed out, although credible polls continue to show the Progressive Conservatives ahead in voter support, the media has continued to frame Danielle Smith’s Wildrose Alliance as the heir’s to the Legislative throne. For the most part, the free ride has continued.

Young Liberal Vincent St. Pierre has written a blog post ahead the Liberal Party’s May 14-16 policy convention disputing the Wildrose’s claims to be “ready to govern.” While I would also dispute those claims, the Liberals also have a difficult time claiming that they are “ready to govern.”

David Swann and the Liberal caucus.

The focus of the weekend convention is policy, but the big news could be financial. The Alberta Liberal Party is expected to announce shortly that their outstanding debt, much of which was accumulated during their disastrous 2001 election campaign, will finally be paid off. This is a big step for the Liberals, but it is only one of the many challenges facing their organization.

I have been accused by both MLAs and some party loyalists of having an anti-Liberal bent on this blog (one MLA even accused me of conspiring with the NDP) and while I admit to being critical of the Liberal Party, I believe that my assessments have been fair. As someone who was involved with the Liberal Party for many years, including time as a constituency vice-president and a political staffer, I am aware of the political strengths and psychological weaknesses of that organization.

The Liberal Party is in an interesting situation. They might be a beneficiary of a PC-Wildrose vote split in some Edmonton and Calgary constituencies in the next election, but their membership has not exactly been flooded by progressives afraid of the two conservative parties. The departure of MLA Dave Taylor and Kent Hehr‘s decision to run in Calgary’s Mayoral election is not a ringing endorsement of the party’s current fortunes. Can the party attract back into their ranks the sizeable group of Liberals who joined disenchanted Red Tories, moderate New Democrats, and former central Albertan Greens under the new Alberta Party banner? They have been low key, but since March, the Alberta Party has held almost 100 Big Listen meetings across the province.

You do not have to spend too much time inside the Liberal Party to become aware of how iconized the 1993 election is in the minds of party activists. As many Albertans will remember, that election saw former Edmonton Mayor Laurence Decore lead the Liberals to their best showing in decades by winning 39% of the vote and forming official opposition by electing 32 MLAs.

Much of the traditional Liberal motto against large-scale change within their party – especially a name change – has centered around the 1993 vote. “We won 32 seats under Decore and we can do it again,” is something that I have heard countless times. There is no doubt that 17 years ago the Liberals launched an impressive campaign with a slate of candidates who were “ready to govern.” It would be difficult to argue that has been the case since. The Liberals have cultivated reliable support in a handful of constituencies in Calgary, Edmonton, and Lethbridge, but they have had a very difficult time growing their base of support. In most rural areas, the Liberals have run paper candidates in the past three elections, ceding a growing number of constituencies to the PC hegemony.

The decision by the Liberal Party years ago to focus resources on urban areas has opened up the potential of rural success to the Wildrose Alliance, whose leader Ms. Smith has spent months traveling to rural communities and smaller cities meeting with any group that will have her. Her party is now reaping the benefits of gaining media attention from local weekly newspapers, organizing constituency associations, and attracting large crowds to their town hall meetings. Imagine what the political map would look like after the 2011/2012 election if Alberta had an opposition party that could elect candidates in both rural and urban constituencies.

Both the Liberals and NDP have been frustrated by their lack of traction in the polls (and in elections), but neither party appears prepared to change gears to face this reality. Liberal leader David Swann has held town hall meetings across Alberta, as has NDP leader Brian Mason, but there is little evidence that this will lead to an even mediocre rural breakthrough for either party. This is probably less the fault of the current leadership and more the fault of a tradition of political tactics focused on weekly issues and electoral strategies focused on urban enclaves (and the influence of their federal party cousins).

It is difficult to believe that these parties once had long-time MLAs who represented rural constituencies. NDP leader Grant Notley represented the sprawling Spirit River-Fairview from 1971 to 1984. Liberal leader Nick Taylor represented Westlock-Sturgeon and Redwater from 1986 to 1996. Premier Ed Stelmach defeated two-term Vegreville NDP MLA Derek Fox in 1993. The last time either of these two parties elected a candidate in rural Alberta was in 1997 when Liberal MLA Colleen Soetaert was re-elected in Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert.

If the Liberal Party is successful in building a policy platform that appeals beyond their traditional base of supporters, will they have an organization on the ground that can translate it into electoral results? Even if they have all the best policy ideas in the world, without  feet on the ground it will be very difficult – even with a potential vote split on the right – to reach beyond their traditional base of supporters in this province.

(I will be attending parts of this weekend’s Liberal convention as a media observer, including federal Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella‘s keynote address. Look for updates on this blog and on twitter at @davecournoyer)

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homeless connect iv. a rewarding experience.

On Sunday, I spent the day volunteering with the Homeless Connect IV at the Shaw Conference Centre. Homeless Connect is a community event that brings together agencies, businesses, and volunteers one day at one location, to provide a range of services which can help homeless people out of homelessness.

I found it to be an extremely rewarding day and am still reflecting on the experiences. I am told that over 1,200 guests accessed the services available today. As a volunteer at the registration desk, I interviewed many of the guests and had a chance to share a conversation with them.

As someone who lives in the urban core of Edmonton and regularly sees homeless people on the street, it has become shockingly easy to pass each day without really thinking much about it. Volunteering for Homeless Connect IV gave me an opportunity to meet Edmontonians who’s lives are very different than mine and those in my social circles. It really opened my eyes to how many homeless people actually live in our city and the complex challenges they are facing. I am looking forward to volunteering for Homeless Connect V in October 2010.

Related:
Alex Abboud: Photo Essay: Homeless Connect IV
CTV Edmonton: Edmonton’s homeless get a caring boost
Edmonton Journal: Homeless Connect draws large crowd in Edmonton
Edmonton Sun: Edmonton’s homeless, volunteers connect

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the katz group has its big block of cheese day.

I like to believe that most of the things worth writing about in this world have already been covered in an episode of the West Wing. While the topic of this video clip of Big Block of Cheese Day may be slightly more outlandish than the idea of a downtown arena district, it is the last 2:26-3:10 point that reminds me of this debate.


Last night I attended the Katz Group‘s open house at the Art Gallery of Alberta promoting the concept of a new Downtown Arena District. While I do not oppose the idea of a downtown arena, I have become frustrated with the lack of details in the Katz Group public proposal. I had hoped that by attending the open house that some of my questions about costs, funding models, and zoning would have been answered. Unfortunately, I walked out of the exhibition with more questions than answers.

The minute I walked into the lobby of the Art Gallery it became very clear that the Downtown Arena District is a political campaign. The professional branding, warm colour patterns, the drawings of futuristic downtown starchitecture, and the focus-group-tested-sounding talking points of the hosts signaled to me that the Katz Group was clearly delivering a political sales pitch. Rather than actually providing new information on costs, funding models, and zoning, guests were welcomed by Katz Group executives or associates dressed in $3,000 suits who testified to the virtues of a new Downtown Arena District. “Why downtown? It has to be downtown.”

As obvious as it was to me that this was an unbridled exercise in persuasion, I worry that it may be working. As a good friend of mine pointed out, with the municipal election less than six months away, the Katz Group may be on their way to convincing Edmontonians that the Downtown Arena District is such a good idea that no cost – even the $400 million handout that they are seeking from the City – is too much for such a well-marketed idea.

I was very pleased to read that most of City Council, including both of my City Councillors (Jane Batty and Ben Henderson) remain skeptical of the Katz Group proposal. I hope that our elected Councillors do not give into the flashy marketing of this well-financed campaign and continue to demand answers from a group that is acting as if it already has its hands on the City of Edmonton’s cheque book.

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alberta politics notes 5/06/2010

– Calgary-Buffalo Liberal MLA Kent Hehr has announced that he is running for Mayor of Calgary. Mr. Hehr does not have to resign his seat in the Assembly unless he is elected in the October 2010 election. If he does resign, a by-election will be triggered within six months (a Facebook group has been created to draft Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith to seek candidacy in a Buffalo by-election).
– There had also been rumours that Lethbridge-East Liberal MLA Bridget Pastoor would run for Mayor in her city, she recently announced that she would not.
– The Liberal Party will be holding its annual convention in Edmonton – this year with a policy focus – and are slated to have political strategist and micro-celebrity Warren Kinsella as their keynote speaker.
– Community organizer Michael Janz has announced that he is running for the Edmonton Public School Board in Ward F. Over in Ward G, NDP Caucus Research Director Sarah Hoffman is running.
– Deron Bilous was nominated as the NDP candidate in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview last night. Supporter Denny Holmwood blogged about Mr. Bilous’ candidacy.
– Calgary-Northeast Conservative MP Devinder Shory has been named in a lawsuit alleging a $70-million mortgage scam at the Bank of Montreal.
– Ihor Broda was disbarred from the Law Society of Alberta. Mr. Broda ran unsuccessfully as the PC candidate in Edmonton-Castle Downs in 1997 and placed third in the race for Mayor of Edmonton in 1998.
– Premier Ed Stelmach‘s decision to suspend the fall Senate elections this year is being criticized by Red Deer Mayor Morris Flewwelling.
– While his cabinet tours the province, Premier Stelmach kicked off an overseas summer tour in Washington DC this week.
– The Pembina Institute is disputing Government of Alberta claims about provincial regulation of emissions generated from the oilsands.
– It is a bad week for private health care in Alberta. The Health Resources Centre (HRC) in Calgary and two private seniors homes in Red Deer have filed for bankruptcy protection. Alberta Health Services will pay the cost of the interim receiver for HRC, which could reach $250,000.
– And finally, in the “it’s about time” category: The city of Edmonton’s transportation committee approved a plan to fast-track the construction of three LRT lines.

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ken kowalski’s golf tournament conflict?

Is Assembly Speaker Ken Kowalski using his Constituency Office to fundraise for the Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock Progressive Conservative association?

A registration form for the 24th Annual Ken Kowalski “The Classic” Golf Tournament (see PDF registration form) directs readers to mail cheques payable to the local PC association at Box 4576, Barrhead, Alberta T7N 1A4.

A quick Google search shows that the post office box is also listed as Speaker Kowalski’s Constituency Office mailing address on many websites, including the Town of Barrhead website.

If the internet is correct, it appears that the local PC association and the Constituency Office are sharing a mailing address. If this is the case, are political funds or public funds paying for this post office box? If they are indeed sharing a mailing address, it would suggest that correspondence from constituents of all political stripes to Speaker Kowalski’s Constituency Office would also be accessible to the local PC association.

It would be highly inappropriate for any elected official, especially one in Speaker Kowalski’s position of responsibility, to be using a publicly funded Constituency Office as a location to collect political donations.

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kent’s in.

Calgary-Buffalo Liberal MLA Kent Hehr is running for Mayor of Calgary.

From the Calgary Sun:

“I looked around and saw the cast of characters and I couldn’t support any of them,” says Kent, a man not known for playing pretty with the lingo, who thinks it is time someone who has not been on city council takes a crack at calming the craziness downtown. “Council is broken. For better or for worse, council has become a dysfunctional place in the eyes of Calgarians. What they’re doing right now, when a decision is made, is most of them are running outside to quickly call members of the press and throw someone under the bus.”
“It’s now a culture of who are we going to blame for this decision so we can save our own hide and score a few political points.”
Kent says he’s been fielding offers of support in the last month from individuals fed up with the near-toxic atmosphere in the big blue playpen.
The MLA says he’ll continue to represent his riding but will soon have more details on what he will do in the last couple months of the campaign.

In a March 2010 post, I reportered that Mr. Hehr had been meeting with organizers from retiring Mayor Dave Bronconnier’s past campaigns.

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kevin taft asks: where did alberta’s money go?

Edmonton-Riverview MLA Kevin Taft wrote a interesting article this weekend in the Edmonton Journal. It is a detailed read, but Dr. Taft asks some very important questions about how and where our government has been spending pubic money over the past 20 years.

Public spending stayed flat as Alberta economy grew: From 1989 to 2008, economic pizza expanded, but who was eating it?

“Follow the money.” It’s a tried and true way to explain a lot of politics and government and, in recent months, I’ve been reminded why.

It started with a mystery and ended with an answer I hadn’t expected.

The mystery? If Alberta government spending on public health care is “out of control” and “skyrocketing” and “unsustainable,” as we are told, why do we have such crowded hospitals and such a shortage of doctors and nurses? If spending on public health care has climbed so much, where’s the real-life evidence?

Read the rest of the article.

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the new western bloc.

The Premiers of Canada’s three western provinces declared a new economic agreement last week – the New West Partnership. Premiers Gordon Campbell, Ed Stelmach, and Brad Wall – all leaders of conservative parties – flexed their combined political muscles in a joint opinion-editorial heralding the agreement in the weekend edition of the Globe & Mail.

Just over a year ago, the governments of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan met for our inaugural joint cabinet meeting. We knew then that it is critical that we break down unnecessary barriers between our provinces. Yesterday, we transformed words into action by announcing The New West Partnership. The New West Partnership recognizes the strong economic foundation of the West and the benefits of co-operation – co-operation that will foster lasting prosperity for the region, our people and our businesses.

Once you wade through the political language and buzz words of the op-ed, there appears to be little that is really “new” about this western partnership agreement. New West appears to be little more than an eastward expansion of the already existing Alberta-BC TILMA agreement, which the Premier of the bloc’s newest member denied being interested in joining only two years ago. I imagine Saskatchewan’s economy will benefit greatly by opening up to its western neighbours, but Premier Wall remains coy on what the agreement will mean for his province (as he will likely face strong opposition to the agreement).

Removing these kinds of inter-provincial barriers to investment, trade, and labour mobility are positive steps, but there are strong arguments against the secrecy in which these agreements have been created. There are also some negative elements of TILMA that many citizens may not aware of. For example, in March 2009, PC MLAs voted against removing Section 5 of Bill 18: Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement Implementation Statutes Amendment Act, which allows Cabinet Ministers to suspend or modify sections of the TILMA Act without having to deal with public debate in the elected Legislature. (Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman spoke against Section 5 of TILMA in March 2009).

While I am not holding my breath, it would be very encouraging to discover that the “new” elements of the New West Partnership are more democratically inclined than its predecessor agreements.

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who’s next up, alberta?

I had the really cool opportunity this weekend to present a social media session and co-present a media training session with VUE Weekly News Editor Samantha Power to participants of the Next Up Alberta leadership program.

Next Up Alberta is a leadership program for 18-32 year old interested in social change and social action, and is modelled after the British Columbia Next Up program (which I am told has been a successful program). This is the first time the program has been offered in Alberta and it aims to educate and train the participants in advocacy, lobbying, and community organizing – skills to be effective politically engaged citizens.

It is fair to say that one of the largest challenges facing our democracy in Canada is generational renewal. The demographic gap in all of our major political institutions can been seen with plain eyes and it puzzles many people in the 50 and older crowd. Being an under 30 year-old politically engaged citizen, I can completely understand why people my age would be turned off by the concept of being involved in a political organization dominated by their parents and grandparents generations. While some people believe this is the signal of doom and democratic demise, I optimistically believe it part of the evolution of our civil society and one that many of our traditional political institutions have been very slow to react to.

After spending an afternoon with the participants, I was really impressed with the drive and commitment that they have and the information and skills that the Next Up Alberta program is arming them with. I sincerely hope that the program is successful and able to empower and engage more young citizens in the years to come.

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ed stelmach declares no need for elections, extends senate terms by decree.

December 3, 2004: “It is a worthwhile cause,” says Ed Stelmach, Alberta’s intergovernmental affairs minister. “We are going to continue to push for Senate reform and one way is to hold these elections.”

April 29, 2010: Premier Stelmach announced that Alberta will not hold a new round of Senate nominee elections, and will instead extend the terms for the province’s three senators-in-waiting through a cabinet decree.

While legislation exists governing Senate elections in Alberta, there is a regulation that allows the provincial cabinet to extend the terms of Senators-in-Waiting until cabinet ministers decide to hold another election (which could be indefinite), defeating the purpose of holding Senate elections in the first place.

UPDATE: Alberta’s Senators-in-Waiting have some harsh words for Premier Stelmach and the Calgary Herald says he “could use a refresher course on democracy.“

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alberta politics: 3 things more important than hal walker that happened today.

Today’s much hyped Wildrose Alliance news conference in Calgary did not live up to expectations. When announced yesterday that leader Danielle Smith would “be making an important political announcement” about the her party, the speculation was rampant. Was Preston Manning signing his endorsement pledge? Was Tom Flanagan going be their campaign manager? Was Calgary-Fish Creek MLA Heather Forsyth going to step down to let Ms. Smith to run in a by-election? Were more PC MLAs going to cross the floor?

The news turned out to be ever so underwhelming. Party president Jeff Calloway has stepped down to allow disenchanted former Ralph Klein advisor Hal Walker to enter the role. Last September, Mr. Walker let it be known to the world that he strongly disliked Premier Ed Stelmach when he widely circulated an email that oozed the with entitlement of a longtime-insder who no longer had the ear of the powerful. The underwhelming announcement sparked a some very entertaining social media satire from the political crowd on Twitter this afternoon (follow #waptopstory to see what I mean).

While the underwhelming story of Mr. Walker and the hilarious online reaction grabbed headlines, do not be convinced that nothing important happened today in Alberta politics. Here are three things that you should be paying attention to:

1) Edmonton-Rutherford PC MLA Fred Horne has announced the start of consultations for a new Alberta Health Act. The Act would seek to merge currently existing health care laws under one piece of mega-legislation. As was the case when the PCs created the Post-secondary Learning Act in 2003, the devil will be in the details of what is left in legislation and what will be moved into regulation (or just left out). In a media release, Friends of Medicare‘s David Eggen said: “The Alberta Hospitals Act, and the Alberta Health Care Insurance Act both provide core legal underpinnings for our public system. If they are repealed and not strengthened under the new legislation, it could open the doors wide for a full two-tiered, parallel private health market in the province immediately.”

2) Premier Stelmach announced on the Rutherford Show this morning that Alberta will not be holding a Senate election anytime soon. The terms of Alberta’s current three Senators-in-Waiting will expire in November 2010, but instead of holding an election to replace them, Premier Stelmach and his cabinet will decide in a closed door cabinet meeting to extend their terms. Aside from being anti-democratic, the move also undercuts the opposition parties who were preparing for a Senate election to coincide with the October municipal elections. The Wildrose Alliance began seeking Senate candidates last week and I am told that the new Alberta Party was also organizing a campaign to support a candidate this fall. At this point, Premier Stelmach might as well appoint the Senators-in-Waiting.

3) Alberta’s new Mental Health Patient Advocate is longtime PC-insider Fay Orr. Ms. Orr worked as a media relation advisor to now Senator Elaine McCoy in the early 1990s and in the 1993 election she was the PC candidate in Edmonton-Norwood (she placed third behind Liberal Andrew Beniuk and New Democrat Ray Martin). Following the election, she served as Premier Klein’s spokesperson and was appointed as managing director of the Public Affairs Bureau in 2000 (a position where current PAB Director of New Media and Internet Communications Tom Olsen described her as ‘the chief of all Alberta government talking heads‘). Soon after that, Ms. Orr served as Deputy Minister for a number of Departments, including Community Development; and Government Services, and until today, the Department of Children and Youth Services.

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the folly of a canadian culture war.

“Cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and homophobia, democracy versus autocracy. If the cranky old men in Alberta don’t like it, too bad. Go south and vote for Palin.” – EKOS Pollster Frank Graves‘ advice to the Liberal Party of Canada.

What a surprise, an Ottawa-based politico who called for a “culture war” in Canada shows his misunderstanding of western Canada. I generally try to avoid writing too much about the distant politics of Ottawa and I could really care less about what Mr. Graves thinks of Albertans, but it is the coverage by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on the above comments that concerns me. I am normally a defender of the CBC, but in this case, they got it all wrong.

During a taping of CBC’s Power and Politics with Evan Solomon last week, the broadcaster chose address Mr. Graves’ comment not by debunking them, but by perpetuating the myth of Albertans as a group of gun-toting crazy redneck oil barons by seeking a western response from an Albertan who is not just a conservative, but a fanatical conservative straw man. Enter Ezra Levant.


As a friend pointed out, none of the panelists on the program even discussed whether it was okay for the Liberal Party of Canada to use these kind of wedge issues in a “culture war,” as if to suggest that they simply accepted the idea that all Albertans were just as susceptible to these extreme wedge issues as Mr. Levant (to be fair, I did know Ian Capstick when he lived in Edmonton years ago and I hope that the politics of Ottawa have not diluted his memory).

Do Mr. Graves’ comments actually reflect an undercurrent within the Party he was advising? Whether or not it does, they do have an effect on that Party’s reputation in Western Canada. I am told that last week, the Liberal Party of Canada in Alberta cancelled a bus booked to travel from Edmonton to their upcoming annual convention in Lethbridge because they could not find 35 people in the 1 million person metro Edmonton region who wanted to make the trip.

Canada is a big country and it is easy, and dangerous, to allow regional divides define our already apathetic national politics. Just as most Ontarians are not latte drinking tax-loving socialists, most Albertans are not gun-toting crazy redneck oil barons. Mr. Graves’ “culture war” comments are not helpful for those he provides political advice for and they are not helpful for Canada.

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