daveberta.ca - Alberta Politics and Elections

I’m glad to see that the mainstream media has picked up this story. Still no peep from the suspiciously-silent Canadian Taxpayers Federation on this issue…

Timing of Goldring’s newsletter criticized
Incumbent defends mailouts, but opposition furious about ‘abuse’ of funds
Darcy Henton
Saturday, September 20, 2008

EDMONTON – Edmonton East Conservative incumbent MP Peter Goldring says it’s not his fault that his constituency newsletters are arriving in riding mailboxes during a federal election campaign.

And Albertans aren’t giving him or most Conservative candidates any reason not to.

With the exception of closer races in Edmonton-Centre and Edmonton-Strathcona, it’s a fair bet that Alberta’s parliamentary delegation will be draped in various shades of blue after the October 14 vote. Ken Chapman has shared some interesting thoughts on Alberta’s political burnout, and I can agree that after the 2006 PC leadership selection, the 2007 municipal elections, and the 2008 provincial election a lot of politically active Albertans are feeling the political overkill (I know I am…).

With the recent political past in mind, I thought it would be interesting to take a look what the Alberta numbers from the 2006 federal election and 2008 provincial election to see what they can offer.

Though it’s important to recognize the different contexts in which both these elections occurred, it is intereting to take a look at and compare the numbers.

It seems clear that Albertans were a lot more eager to elect Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in 2006 than they were to elect Ed Stelmach‘s Progressive Conservatives in 2008. This is indicative of many things, but after 37 years in office Alberta’s governing Tories aren’t exactly energizing and exciting political machine of Peter Lougheed‘s era. The low voter turnout can be blamed on a lot of thing, but I would gather that it had more to do with institutional mediocrity and predetermined outcomes (which isn’t wholly the PCs fault).

The numbers also show that many Albertans differentiate their provincial and federal political ballots, which isn’t much of a surprise — I’m one of those many Albertans (having voted federal NDP in 2006 and Alberta Liberal in 2008). I’m particularly interested to see which party takes the second place spot in Alberta on October 14. Depending on how Elizabeth May and Jack Layton perform during the October 2nd televised debate, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Greens and the NDP boost their numbers across Alberta. The Greens have a lot of potential to increase their tally in rural Alberta, where dissatisfied voters seem to have a natural gag reflex to the Liberals and NDP, as witnessed by Joe Anglin and Edwin Erickson‘s strong second place finishes in Lacombe-Ponoka and Drayton Valley-Calmar in the provincial election.

Also, though I’m willing to be $100 that the Liberals will not elect any MPs from Calgary, it will be interesting to see if the recent Cowtown Liberal gains in the provincial election translate into an increase in the Federal Liberal vote in Calgary-Centre, Calgary-Centre North, Calgary-Northeast, and Calgary-West (which overlap the seats held by Liberal MLAs Harry Chase, Kent Hehr, Darshan Kang, David Swann, and Dave Taylor).

I’ve added some updates to the list of 2008 candidates in Alberta…

Edmonton-East: Stephanie Laskoski has replaced Jim Jacuta as the Liberal candidate. I’ve met Stephanie a number of times and know that she will waste no time hitting the hustings in her epic election battle against Conservative Peter Goldring and New Democrat Ray Martin.

NDP Updates: The NDP almost have a full slate of candidates in Alberta. Calgary East – Ian Vaughn, Calgary Nose Hill – Stephanie Sundberg, Calgary Southeast – Christopher Willott, Westlock St.Paul – Della Drury.

It’s been a while since my last music post, so I am happy that I can mention Wednesday night’s Elliott Brood show at the Pawn Shop.

There’s not too many ways to put it, this amazing banjo/uke-riddled three piece alternative country band rocked the Pawn Shop. This show easily made it on my top 5 shows of 2008.

They played Calgary’s Warehouse last night and have four more stops in their Western Canadian tour…

September 19, 2008 – Canmore Hotel, Canmore, AB

September 25, 2008 – The Slice, Lethbridge, AB

September 26, 2008 – The Exchange, Regina, SK

September 27, 2008 – Pyramid Cabaret, Winnipeg, MB

If you have a chance to see them, do it.

Don Braid described it as low-key, and he was right.

The race to replace outgoing Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft continues to be a low-key affair as candidates Mo Elsalhy, David Swann, and Dave Taylor continue to slog away towards the December 2008 vote to lead Alberta’s Official Opposition.

The candidates received a number of endorsements over the past couple weeks. Swann received a stunning endorsement from retired Lt. General Romeo Dallaire, who said of Swann:

“There are those individuals in a society that not only recognized freely their responsibilities to their fellow humans in need and less fortunate, here and beyond our borders, but there are the exceptional individuals who actually do something concrete about it, including putting their personal resources and health towards that aim. Dr. Swann is one such person and is nothing less than exemplary and a solid citizen of the world. My confidence in him is limitless.”

Edmonton’s Poet Laureate, E.D. Blodgett has endorsed Elsalhy and Taylor has the support of former Calgary-Elbow MLA Craig Cheffins and current Calgary-Buffalo MLA Kent Hehr. Taylor also seems to be relying on support from Federal Liberal organizers — including his campaign manager, Corey Hogan, who ran Stéphane Dion‘s leadership campaign in Alberta in 2006. No word yet if Bob Rae will be stumping for Taylor.

If you’re interested in hearing more from the candidates, the Alberta Teachers’ Association will be hosting a forum on October 3. There will also be a candidates debate on the Sunday of the October 4-5 Alberta Liberal Convention in Edmonton.

Question: Who in the 21st Century would even think of stripping a basic democratic right such as voting from any Canadian citizen?

Answer: Apparently, the Conservative Party of Canada does.

Following yesterday’s the post on taxpayer-funded partisan advertising, a reader sent me this mail-out from Edmonton-East Conservative Peter Goldring (who will unfortunately not be replaced by David Emerson…).

While Canada’s justice system falls short in many areas, I’m sure that there are much more effective ways to reform our criminal justice system than removing this so-called “prison perk.“

I discovered THIS Magazine over the summer and this recent piece by Graeme McElheran is making it one of my regular reads:

It seems the Conservatives have been in power too long – in Alberta, at least. They’ve lost touch with their grassroots. The Reform movement that Harper and many of his cohorts were parts of – that gave rise to the current government – had a tightfisted ethos. One of its mainstays was for government to cut spending, and strict accountability for spending that could not be cut.

I wonder what Preston Manning would say about political advertisements for incumbent Conservative MPs being paid for not from Conservative party coffers, but with taxpayer funds.

The “non-partisan” Canadian Taxpayers Federation – traditionally a Liberal-bashing, Conservative-extolling lobby group with links to Manning, Reform and the Conservatives – clearly disapproves of taxpayers bearing the cost of campaign advertising. The CTF filed a formal complaint with Elections Canada over perceived Liberal indiscretions of this vein in Beaches-East York, saying a Liberal MP’s pamphlet “amounts to election advertising and its cost should not be borne by the taxpayers of Canada.”

In Alberta the CTF made similar comments – but alas, filed no grievance – when Conservative campaign propaganda circulated during the weeks just prior to and now following the election call.

– University of Alberta Professor David Kahane is involved in organizing a community conversation on climate change (h/t AGRDT)

– Alberta Senator and former PC MLA Elaine McCoy has some thoughts on climate change for Stephen Harper. (h/t Ken Chapman & James Curran)

– Billion dollar profits, but $1 billion is too much to protect Alberta’s wetlands?

– NDP leader Jack Layton will be in Edmonton on September 20. Somewhat ironically, Layton will be speaking at the Winspear Centre — named after Francis Winspear, who along with Preston Manning and Ted Byfield, was one of the founders of the Reform Party of Canada.

– Independent conservative James Ford versus official Conservative Tim Uppal in Edmonton-Sherwood Park. Outgoing MP Ken Epp blames the nomination process.

– Twittering leaders: @pmharper, @liberaltour, @jacklayton, @elizabethmay, @gillesduceppe.

In conversations over the past couple weeks, I’ve encountered a shocking amount of people who have admitted that they haven’t decided whether or not they will actually vote in the October 2008 federal election. With dropping voter turnout levels becoming the norm (I’m actually surprised there aren’t more mainstream media stories about this yet), an interesting question comes to mind…

With Parliament dissolved and no candidate having received a mandate to join the Commons, would Governor General Michaëlle Jean take emergency powers and rule from Rideau Hall? What of the Senate? Who would General Walter Natynczyk report to? Would Stephen Harper barricade the doors of 24 Sussex Drive or would he become Canada’s Leviathan? Would the ten Premiers appoint an interim-Prime Minister? Would Alberta annex Saskatchewan? The North West Territories? Would Denmark take this as a chance to invade Hans Island? Would there be anarchy in the streets? Would Canadians even notice?

In all seriousness, as unlikely a situation as it may be, what would a contingency plan for this look like?

Alberta’s opposition parties are taking aim at the $300,000 summer travel bug caught by Alberta Tory MLAs.

$300,000 could be a bit a bit excessive, but I don’t have a large problem with our elected officials traveling to international conferences (if anything, there is the off-chance that some of Alberta’s Conservative MLAs might become a little more well-rounded because of it — and that would be a better thing for everyone). Though I disagree with much of this current government’s agenda, I believe that it’s important to understand the realities of the increasingly global world we are living in, and we won’t do that by cloistering our elected officials inside provincial borders.

As long as Ed Stelmach and Lloyd Snelgrove aren’t spending their time hanging out beside the hotel pool wearing speedos and sipping mohitos (there’s a mental image for the start of your week), I believe that there are a lot more obvious cases of government misspending or mismanagement that could be taken aim at.

Archie McLean wrote a piece in today’s Edmonton Journal on the state of local online campaigning in this election and gives shout outs to Alberta bloggers Idealistic Pragmatist — the mastermind behind Linda Duncan‘s website (IP is also the Edmonton-Strathcona blogger on democraticSPACE) and Enlightened Savage.

Archie also gave a shout out to daveberta.ca for the updated 2008 federal election candidates list — which was just updated this morning following the nomination of Medicine Hat Conservative candidate LaVar Payne.

I feel like such a socialite sometimes…

…last night I popped by ACTVs launch party at Latitude 53. If you haven’t heard of it, ACTV is a not-for-profit new media initiative aimed at educating and motivating Albertans to discover and pursue sustainable living practices and promote ecological consciousness. It’s a great initiative and I hope it’s successful!