daveberta.ca - Alberta Politics and Elections

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!

Slate Magazine has an interesting take on our election from south of the border.

Later this month, Professor Guy Laforest will be speaking at the University of Alberta as part of the 20th Annual McDonald Constitutional Lecture from the Centre for Constitutional Studies.

Laforest is well known for his writings on Canadian constitutional issues, comparative federalism, political theory, and intellectual history in Quebec and English-speaking Canada He is also the former President of Action Démocratique du Québec.

Speaking during the middle of the federal election, I’m sure that Laforest will have some interesting things to say about the Stephen Harper–Gilles Duceppe battle for votes in Québec.

As a blogger who has been the target of a politician’s legal threats, I can sympathize with the ridiculousness of Buckdog‘s situation.

UPDATE: Some politicians learn from their mistakes faster than others.

The list of nominated federal election candidates in Alberta has been updated to include some new additions:

Edmonton-Strathcona: Jane Thrall, Green
Peace River: Liliane Maisonneuve, Liberal
Vegreville-Wainwright: Adam Campbell, Liberal
Westlock-St. Paul: Aden Murphy, Green

UPDATE*S*: Doug James is the Liberal candidate in Calgary-Centre North. James will face off against Conservative incumbent Jim Prentice, New Democrat John Chan, Green Eric Donovan, First People’s candidate Doug Dokis, and the Canadian Action Party’s John Kohut.

Last week, I wrote that Alberta Sheriff Ali Haymour was seeking the NDP nomination in Edmonton-Sherwood Park. I’ve just been informed that Haymour has had to unfortunately decline the nomination for professional reasons. Brian LaBelle is now seeking the NDP nod in that riding in a nomination meeting set for next week. If nominated, LaBelle will face Tory Tim Uppal, Liberal Rick Szostak, and Independent James Ford.

I joined over 300 folks at Pecha Kucha 2 in Edmonton tonight and the presentations were fascinating. Though I have reservations about the group who organized the event, I was pretty amazed at the out-of-the-box creativity and ideas about design brought forward by the presenters.

Mastermaq has a run down of the evening’s events.

A Jack Layton NDP government will make our cities, our communities, and our schools safer by getting soldiers, tanks, and oil wells off our streets.

(h/t Duncan W.)

Former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein is predicting a Conservative Majority Government for Stephen Harper on October 14.

During the 2006 election, Peter Mackay suggested the use of “duct tape” to keep Klein from characterizing Harper as unelectable while predicting that Paul Martin would form another Liberal Minority Government.

(h/t U of A Law Blog)