…and after weeks of exciting televised conventions, I’m really looking forward to voting for Barack Obama and change I can believe in… oh, wait…
Damn.
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rich tories, poor liberals, ndp.
Elections Alberta financial statements from the March 3, 2008 election campaign now show that Ed Stelmach‘s Progressive Conseravtives spent a record $3 million to sustain their 37-year old majority in the Alberta Legislature (with $1.7 million sitting in their coffers).
The four opposition parties raised and spent much less than the Tories. During the campaign period the Alberta Liberals netted $440,000 in contributions and spent $650,000, the New Democrats netted $465,000 in contributions and spent $816,000, the Wild Rose Alliance netted $513,000 in contributions and spent $464,000, and the Alberta Greens netted $27,000 in contributions and spent $50,000. The 2008 campaign left both the Liberals and NDP in some pretty deep financial debt.
Though I knew it was coming, I was sad to read that my former boss, Kieran Leblanc, will be let go by the Alberta Liberals due to lack of funds. A former public education advocate, Leblanc jumped into politics before the 2001 provincial election when she sought the Edmonton-Mill Creek Liberal nomination against Bharat Agnihotri. She later joined the Liberal central campaign and became Executive Director in 2001 and saw the Liberal Party through the 2004 and 2008 election campaigns. Leblanc, who Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid described as an “excellent executive director“ was a great boss and has been a great friend to me over the years. She is a passionate fighter and the Liberals will feel her loss.
The loss of Leblanc will leave the Alberta Liberals with a skeleton staff of two in the party office. With an election loss fresh in their minds and a leadership race underway, candidates Mo Eslalhy, David Swann, and Dave Taylor are going to have to figure out how to raise a lot of money to fix this sinking ship if they are serious about challenging the current Tory dynasty in the next election.
“…as much culture as a bowl of yogurt.”
That is how Federal Liberal leader Stéphane Dion described the amount of culture in Stephen Harper‘s Conservative Party following recent cuts to arts and culture funding. Dion was pre-campaigning in Edmonton yesterday and made an afternoon stop at the University of Alberta. This being Alberta, I was surprised to be packed in a 250 person lecture theatre filled with Albertans wanting to catch a glimpse of a Federal Liberal (with over 200 people listening from outside). Dion gave a short and quick stump speech which focused generally on the Green Shift, which is what I expect his upcoming campaign speeches to resemble — short and green.
The hour-long question and answer period was worth attending and included a wide-range of questions including an student affordability question from U of A Students’ Union Vice-President (External) Beverly Eastham, to which Dion replied that students would be very pleased when the Liberal’s released their Post-Secondary Education policy during the campaign (we shall see…). Other questions covered a broad-range of issues including Darfur, Afghanistan, climate change, affordable housing, free trade, culture funding, and education.
I found Dion’s response to a question about the Athabasca/Fort McMurray oil sands a little confusing, as I believe that he suggested that the oil sands could become sustainable. I’m not a scientist, but I’m fairly sure that a heavily exploited non-renewable natural resource does not easily fall into the “sustainable” category (but Dion did promise lots of research funding for the University of Alberta to make it so…).
On a final note, I very much enjoyed the two of militant young Campus Conservatives who were handing out anti-carbon tax sheets outside the event and donning their yellow anti-Dion t-shirts (they almost fit in with the Greenpeace Stop the Tarsands campaigners, who were there in force).
A friendly reader close to the Alberta NDP passed along these upcoming nomination candidates in Alberta. The nominations will most likely be held between next Tuesday and Sunday.
Edmonton Sherwood Park – Provincial Sheriff and recent provincial Edmonton-Castle Downs candidate Ali Haymour.
Peace River – Alternative Energy/Anti-Nuclear Activist and recent provincial Peace River candidate Adele Boucher Ryhms.
Red Deer – Farmer and Teacher Stuart Sommerville is running for the nomination to replace former candidate Kelly Bickford.
Westlock-St Paul – Catholic School system curriculum coordinator Jason Porteous.
The list of nominated federal election candidates in Alberta will be updated as these candidates are nominated next week.
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a new way forward?
Alberta Liberal leadership candidate Dave Taylor announced an addition to his campaign team yesterday with the appointment of former Mount Royal College Students’ Association President Jonathan MacPherson as Assistant Deputy Campaign Manager for Calgary. In his media release, Taylor described MacPherson as “an excellent spokesperson for a number of pressing issues.”
In March 2007, MacPherson was less of an excellent spokesperson for his organization when he created and became the centre of a public scandal at his college:
Current Mount Royal Students’ Association president Jon MacPherson, who was re-elected to a second term Sat., March 7, was punished by the MRC students’ council for sending an email to U of C SU president Emily Wyatt defaming his competitor, current vice-president student life Tami Rothery.
MacPherson ended up winning the election over Rothery–his only other competitor–by 428 votes. As part of his punishment, he is required to write letters of apology to both Wyatt and U of C VP external Julie Labonte.
Wyatt said she was surprised to receive an email from MacPherson asking her to support his election campaign. She responded to the email by telling MacPherson she had to remain neutral and forwarded the email to Labonte. Somehow the email got into the hands of an MRC VP who brought it to the attention of council. Then the Calgary Herald also reported on the story.
MacPherson will also lose his spot on the MRC board of governors as well as any remaining vacation time. He cannot hold leadership positions on any external lobby groups and is required to pay a $1,000 fine to the students’ association.
No word if MacPherson will be given access to a campaign email address.
During the Spring sitting of the Alberta Legislature, MLA Rachel Notley gave an interesting statement in support of Dave Taylor‘s amendment to Bill 7, which would oppose the introduction of the phrase “for the economic prosperity of Alberta” into Alberta’s Post-Secondary Learning Act.
MS. NOTLEY: We acknowledge that within the system of post secondary education delivery is a process which relies on partnerships. It relies on partnerships historically between students, between education providers, between the community as a whole, between, in my view, business — and when I say business, I include the labour movement in that, you know, the economy as a whole — and then, of course, as I say, our community. So there is a balance that needs to be struck in the delivery of our post secondary education system and the education within the province.
My concern is that the amendment that’s being proposed here in essence unstrikes the balance and that it rather puts in place a priority system. The first priority is, in fact, the economic interests of the province and the economic prosperity — as defined by who I’m not exactly sure, but nonetheless the economic prosperity — of the province. I have to say that I think if you were to look historically at all of the most venerable post secondary education institutions in the world, they did not premise their reputation or their service on how well they were able to contribute ultimately to the economic prosperity of the given government of a given day. Rather, they were more focused on providing a true academic opportunity and education outside of the day-to-day influences that might be brought to bear by any particular political government of the day.
A big concern that we have relates to what the impact of this change would have on research and research initiatives in the future. Sponsored research is a type of research that occurs within the post-secondary institution that, frankly, we have some very significant concerns with. Sponsored research fundamentally compromises academic integrity in a number of cases. It can result in a skewing of the research choices, the topic choices, and the outcomes that are widely reported with respect to the research that is undertaken. […]
We know that the roles and mandate framework actually identifies as an objective the goal of making Alberta have the highest level of sponsored research in the country. I would suggest that that is a direction that we should not pursue and that we should change direction. I am all for, you know, considered economic development and integration in certain cases with respect to the post secondary education system where it works. I have concerns about a legislated direction that economic prosperity be the priority consideration for boards of post secondary institutions when they are considering how and where to allocate their resources.
Just think how much of an international powerhouse Alberta could be if we looked beyond the oil rigs and tar sands? With $2 billion being spent on harebrained short-term solutions like carbon capture and sequestration, Albertans could get a better bang for their buck if we jumped ahead of the curve on other new innovative long-term solutions and technologies…
Dutch venture plans cheap, powerful electric cars
VIJAY JOSHI, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SHAH ALAM, Malaysia – A Dutch-based company announced plans Tuesday to produce affordable electric cars by the end of 2009, promising they will be much more powerful than existing models and have zero emissions.
As Alberta isn’t exactly set to be anything close to an exiting political battleground in the upcoming federal election, I expect the Alberta-wing of the Conservative Party machinery in this Conservative MP heavy province to be spent a) increasing vote tallies to take advantage of the funding-per-vote finance scheme, b) transferring funds to lesser well-off campaigns in other Provinces and Territories, c) sending weekly bus loads of Calgary Conservatives out to Wascana to campaign against Ralph Goodale.
Other than the more interesting races in Edmonton-Centre and Edmonton-Strathcona (which I will focus on more later), the rest of Edmonton and Alberta looks like a wash for the Conservatives. With Reform-era MP John Williams retiring, former Tory MLA Brent Rathgeber has been nominated as the Conservative candidate in Edmonton-St. Albert and will be facing off against Liberal Sam Sleiman, New Democrat Dave Burkhart, and Green Peter Johnson. Rathgeber served as the MLA for Edmonton-Calder from 2001 until 2004, when he was defeated by New Democrat David Eggen. My only memorable encounter with Rathgeber was at the Legislature Press Gallery Christmas Party in December 2007, during which we had an overly jovial conversation about door knocking during the winter.
In Edmonton-Sherwood Park, Tim Uppal is the Conservative candidate replacing C-484 advocate Ken Epp. Uppal, who nearly defeated former Liberal MP David Kilgour in Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont in the 2004 election, was rumoured to have been convinced to run in Edmonton-Sherwood Park to avoid a nasty nomination battle with MP Mike Lake. Lake is seeking re-election against Liberal Indira Saroya in Kilgour’s former stronghold. Since former candidate Neal Gray stepped aside earlier this year, the NDP are in the processes of renominating a candidate to run against Lake and Saroya (recent Edmonton-Rutherford provincial candidate Michael Butler is seeking the nod).
In Edmonton-East, former NDP MLA Ray Martin will be taking a second run at Conservative MP Peter Goldring. The two men last met in clutches of electoral battle in 2000, when Martin placed third behind Goldring and former Liberal MLA Sue Olsen. This time, Martin will be joining Liberal Jim Jacuta and Green Trey Capnerhurst. The two remaining races in Edmonton are expected to be much less exciting as MPs Rona Ambrose and James Rajotte should have no problem facing their competition in Edmonton-Spruce Grove and Edmonton-Leduc.
Across the province, a number of Conservative incumbents won’t be seeking re-election. Among the new candidates who will more than likely become MPs are Devinder Shory in Calgary-Northeast, Blake Richards in Wild Rose, and Earl Dreeshen in Red Deer.
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the dream is dead.
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federal candidates update.
I’ve updated my list of nominated candidates in Alberta, and here are the totals of nominated candidates across the province (that I am aware of) If I’ve missed any updates, feel free to post them or send me an email – daveberta.ca@gmail.com.
Conservative – 28 candidates
Liberal – 24 candidates
NDP – 20 candidates
Green – 13 candidates
Canadian Action – 5 candidates
Christian Heritage – 5 candidates
Libertarian – 4 candidates
First Peoples National Party – 2 candidates
Independent – 2 candidates
The Conservatives have nominated a full slate of candidates and I expect the Liberals, NDP, and Greens to round up their slates by the first week of the apparently imminent election. Though it’s extremely likely that the Conservative Party will sweep all 28 ridings in the Wild Rose Province, expect most of the media attention to be focused on the race between Laurie Hawn and Jim Wachowich in Edmonton-Centre, and Rahim Jaffer and Linda Duncan in Edmonton-Strathcona.
It may not have gained as much media attention as the giant glass pyramid, but Edmonton’s long-awaited Public Art Master Plan (pdf) was presented to City Council’s Community Services Committee on August 25 by Edmonton Arts Council Executive Director John Mahon and Public Art Director Kristy Trinier.
The plan includes three key recommendations that range from funding of staff positions to prevent the further deterioration of current public art, creating an endowment to stabilize long term conservation funds, and modernizing many of Edmonton’s public art and programming policies to meet national standards (including increasing support to community public art programs). The plan also calls for Edmonton to spearhead a number of initiatives including an Art Bank, a Public Art System, a Public Arts Ideas Lecture Series, Graffiti Zones, and a Biennial International Commission to recognize contemporary artists in Alberta’s Capital City.
The plan also calls for the creation of a Percent for Art plan for the public and private sectors which would have the City allocate one percent of its qualifying construction budget of various projects for the procurement of publicly displayed art. The private sector portion of the plan would create incentives for private developers to increase the amount of public art while constructing new developments.
Committee members Karen Leibovici, Don Iveson, and Tony Caterina moved that the plan be approved when presented to City Council on September 17th, 2008.
As other levels of government have been much less supportive of Canada’s creative economy in recent years, I am impressed by the innovative action and refreshing ideas that continue to emerge from municipalities across Canada.
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the suave councillor from ward 5.
Avenue Magazine has a great piece in this month’s edition on Edmonton City Councillor Don Iveson.
Lisa Gregoire wrote the article after following Iveson around Edmonton in the months following his high profile victory over incumbent Councillor Mike Nickel in the October 2007 municipal election that brought him to City Hall.
Iveson, a strong advocate for public transit and smart growth initiatives, was voted most effective City Councillor in SEE Magazine‘s 2008 Best of Edmonton and has been credited by Edmonton Journal columnist Scott McKeen as being the coolest head on City Council.
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blair wilson.
On the eve of a federal election call, Canada has found itself with its first Green Party MP: Blair Wilson.
After reading Scott Tribe’s latest post on why Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been scared into election mode, I felt the need to engage in some friendly dialogue and write a response to Scott’s post. In his post, Scott suggests that:
1) Harper knows the economy is going to tank in a few months, or he’s going to be in the red with his next Budget, so he prefers to go now then later, when he and his government and Mr Flaherty would take more heat over mismanaging a Liberal surplus into a deficit situation in less then 3 years.
2) The Committees looking at the in-and out scandal will be highly embarrassing for him, as perhaps will the actual court case result against Elections Canada.
3) He knows he’s faring crappy in the 4 byelections, knows he wont win any of them, and doesn’t want Liberal momentum going into the House this Fall.
First, I don’t see any evidence that Harper has been scared into election mode. It seems pretty evident that the Conservatives have succeeded in manufacturing a ‘crisis’ in parliament and framing the debate around an ‘impending’ election call. Is there really a crisis in Parliament? Of course not. Is there need for an election? No. It’s fairly clear that the Conservatives believe that, regardless of polling results which place the Conservatives in a tight race with the Liberals, they can increase their seat total in the next election, which is generally why political leaders at all levels have done the very same thing since Confederation in 1867. I don’t see any reason why Harper’s motivation is any different than that of say… Pierre Trudeau circa 1974.
The economic downturn in Ontario is hardly something that can be squarely pinned on the Conservatives, and after only two years in office it is reasonable to believe that the Conservatives could use their partisan spin machine to attempt to pin the downturn on “13 years of Liberal economic mismanagement…” If anything, the economic mess in Ontario’s auto sector has more to do with inefficiencies of the automobile manufactures than the policies of Conservative or Liberal governments.
Though the lack of respect towards Parliament that the Conservatives have shown towards committees such as the House Ethics Committee is reprehensible, I don’t believe that the In-and-Out scandal will have traction on the doorsteps. It may be a big deal inside the Ottawa bubble, but I have a hard time imagining that this will lead Conservative voters to change their minds in a 2008.
I’m also not sure how winning a handful of by-elections in constituencies which they already hold (minus St. Lambert of course) would give Stéphane Dion‘s Liberals any momentum. The financial and organizational mess within the Liberal Party isn’t likely convincing Harper to change his mind on calling an election. After sitting in the Opposition benches for two years, it seems that the Green Shift is the first solid policy announcement that the Liberals have proposed and though Dion’s messaging is getting stronger, it may be too little too late. It also may be that the Liberals are underestimating the bitter taste that Paul Martin and Adscam left in the mouths of Canadians just only two years ago. After two years in the dog house (and a pretty comfortable minority parliament-style dog house at that), it is hard to believe that the Liberals have spent enough time outside the Ottawa bubble to understand why Canadians didn’t trust them to govern in 2006.
Even though people aren’t jumping up to warmly embrace him on the street, I don’t believe that Canadians feel Harper has done an awful job as Prime Minister. With the lack of a credible or charismatic opposition leader to knock him off his Prime Ministerial pedestal, I don’t see anyone moving out of 24 Sussex Drive anytime soon. And though I strongly disagree with many of their policies — including the introduction of draconian copyright legislation, short-sighted cuts to federal arts funding, the lack of seriousness on climate change and environmental issues, and the politicization of MPs taxpayer funded resources — I have a hard time not predicting an increase in the Conservative seat total in the next election, and I can hardly believe that Stephen Harper is afraid of that.