daveberta.ca - Alberta Politics and Elections

As you can tell from the title of this post, last weekend’s trip to Sled Island in Calgary surpassed all my expectations.

Not only was the weather amazing, but with acts ranging from Broken Social Scene, Drive-By Truckers, The Cops, The Dodos, Carolyn Mark, Wire, Still Flyin’, Jose Gonzalez, The Secret Machines, the Gutter Twins, Jonathan Richman, Of Montreal, The Fellas, Mogwai, Heat Ray, The Ostrich, Fucked Up, Enablers, The Absent Sound, Spiral Stairs, Hot Little Rocket, Portastatic, and Katie Stelmans to name a few, Sled Island 2008 is in serious contention for one of the best music festivals I’ve been to!

Kudos to the organizers, volunteers, bands, artists, and sponsors for putting together this awesome festival. It will definitely be on my list of weeks not to miss in 2009!

And not content with complacency or afraid of controversy, Sled Island Festival Director Zak Pashak wasn’t afraid of controversy as he used his message to festival goers to start some debate on the state of Calgary and Alberta’s cultural scene (and also raised some interesting questions around the very subtle societal differences between being ‘rich‘ and being ‘wealthy‘). The following are exerts from Pashak’s letter in the festival guide:

Calgarians are searching. The city is gradually learning that pretending to be what you think another city is, is an empty path. Visit one of our various new $10-a-beer-resto-lounges to get a first hand experience of emptiness. I don’t think we really want pathetic interpretations of New York, what we want is that thing that New Yorkers have – we want real pride in where we live.

Calgarians want something vibrant, meaningful, and homegrown that holds up to anything in the world. Celebrating our creativity while hosting the best and most interesting music and visual art adds to civic pride. That is why Sled Island is successful.

Alberta could be so many things. We could be an unrivaled center of education. We could have free, high quality education for every citizen of this province. Money is there by the bucket load – but where is it going? How different would Calgary look if we focused on educating ourselves and attracting bright minds to our city? Would the epicenter of our greatest civic celebration still consist of drunk millionaires renting cocaine dusted barbie dolls at an outhouse smelling parking lot behind a downtown theme-bar? Is that really how we want to represent ourselves to the world? Is that at all real?

I’m headed off to Sled Island and will be enjoying the long weekend in Calgary.

Until I get back, have a great weekend and Happy Canada Day!

With Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft announcing that he will be stepping down by January 2009, a number of high profile contenders are stepping up for the challenge. Among the rumoured contenders are MLAs Laurie Blakeman, Dave Taylor, and MLA Bill Toycen.

Though not as well known as Blakeman or Taylor, Bill Toycen and his supporters have been at the forefront of a revitalization movement in the Alberta Liberals since the March 2008 election.

First elected in 2004, Toycen was narrowly re-elected as the MLA for Calgary-Gophercrotch in the March 3 election. Since his re-election, Toycen’s supporters have launched a vigorous online campaign under the promiscuous moniker “Old Liberal.” Having the support of many traditional Calgary-based Old Liberal supporters and a growing group of younger Old Liberals, Toycen’s platform for change calls for Alberta Liberals to put “our necks on the line” as part of a new third way political movement: “The Old Liberal Giraffe Party.“

“With our necks extended high above the trees, we can walk our own path. To be ready to appeal to the largest neck-section of Albertans, we must prepare to extend our necks so that when the spotlight shines on us we have policies rooted in our Old Liberal philosophy, but tailor-made for the long collars of our Alberta.“

– Bill Toycen, MLA Calgary-Gophercrotch

Citing the success of Tony Blair’s New Labour movement in the United Kingdom during the 1990s and the historical significance of this noble and populist animal in Alberta’s 100 year history, Toycen’s supporters feel that this move is a positive one that will allow the Old Liberal-Giraffe Party brand to develop a true connection with voters in Alberta.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft will be making an announcement at 11am this morning at the Alberta Legislature. It is widely expected that he will announce the time frame for his stepping down as Leader.

UPDATE: Kevin Taft has announced his intentions to step down as Party Leader by the end of January 2009.

Infrastructure Minister and Drumheller-Stettler Tory MLA Jack Hayden announced last week that the Government of Alberta will be renovating the long-empty asbestos-laced Federal Building.

Closed since 1989, it will cost an estimated $200 million to renovate the 1950s art-deco style building sitting on the northeast edge of Alberta’s Legislative Grounds. While I agree that renovating and reopening the Federal Building is a smart idea, I take issue with the proposed construction of a $156 million underground parkade to be built during the renovations. I have a hard time believing that building a 650 car parkade in Edmonton’s already traffic congested downtown core is a good idea on any level.

It seems to me that it could be a much smarter and more responsible use of $156 million for the Government of Alberta to work with the City of Edmonton to ensure that the redevelopment plans are coordinated with Edmonton’s already existing transportation demand management plans and Downtown revitalization plans. This could include directing this funding towards the expansion of public transportation so that Edmontonians working in the area could more efficiently use the Grandin LRT Station, which is directly attached to the Legislature Grounds (especially as the LRT expands southbound).

The $156 million could also go a long way towards the creation of a regional transit service in the Capital Region (eliminating the duplication of services that currently exist between Edmonton Transit Service, St. Albert Transit, and Strathcona Country Transit). With St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse chairing a regional committee on transit issues, this kind of investment in a regional transit infrastructure could do wonders in creating a more efficient transportation system in Alberta’s Capital Region (and maybe alleviate some of the tough financial situations that municipalities such as Edmonton and St. Albert are in).

There’s no shortage of blogosphere chatter surrounding Stéphane Dion’s Federal Liberal “Green Shift” and carbon-tax, so rather than joining the gawkfest over some fairly obvious partisan maneuverings and electoral calculations, I’m going to focus on something a little more real.

As my interest in urban issues continues to grow, I’ve spent some time thinking about the concept of the ‘front lawn.’ I continue to be surprised at the amount of energy and focus that some homeowners put into manicuring the perfect patch of synthetic pesticide-laced monocotyledonous green plants* in front of their houses, as it seems like quite the disappointing allocation of land resources (and water) to only use a front lawn for mostly ornamental (or social status) purposes. There’s also no shortage of studies linking the pesticides that many property owners use in their front lawns to health problems including cancer, leukemia, and birth problems, among others. This is why I was really interested to listen to the June 13 podcast of Public Radio International‘s Studio 360 in which Julie Burstein interviews author and architect Fritz Haeg.

Haeg’s book and project, the Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, promotes the replacement of traditional domestic front lawns by ripping up meticulously manicured sod and replacing it with an ‘edible landscape‘ that will produce harvests of varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Haeg first started the project in 2005 in Kansas, and it quickly spread to locations in California, New Jersey, London, England (read more here), Texas, and Maryland.

In the context of sustainability, the global food crisis, and increasing urban environmental concerns, this type of development could be a positive force in suburban and urban environments (and could help foster a sense of community in our sometimes hopelessly disconnected and individualistic society).

You can listen to Julie Burstein’s interview with Fritz Haeg here:

*Many of Canada’s largest municipalities, including Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Hamilton, have adopted by-laws (pdf) limiting the use of synthetic lawn & garden pesticides for cosmetic use on private property. Quebec enforces a province-wide ban and Ontario has proposed a similar ban through The Cosmetic Pesticide Ban Act (not without controversy, of course).

Edmonton has yet to adopt similar a by-law, but Calgary currently has a draft by-law waiting in the wings.

For some lighter summer blogging, I’m planning on posting a series of short book reviews from my summer’s reading (and re-reading) list. First up is the 1967 spy thriller novel Topaz by Leon Uris. I discovered Topaz at the Wee Book Inn on Whyte Avenue and for $2.50 it was mine.

Originally published in 1967, the story takes place in the tense years of the early 1960s in the deep dark depths of the Cold War. Uris’ story follows the life of French SDECE agent Andre Devereaux and CIA agent Michael Nordstrom. Stationed at the French Embassy in Washington DC, Devereaux is the top French Secret Service agent in the American capital in the lead up to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The lead up to the crisis sees Devereaux and his American CIA allies deal with the interrogation of a high-level KGB defector who informs his Devereaux and Nordstrom of an intricate Soviet spy ring deep within the French Security Services which had infiltrated the top ranks of the French Republic – including a mole, codenamed ‘Topaz’, in the Office of French President Pierre La Croix (a character based on Charles de Gaulle).

The story takes Devereaux from Washington to Paris to Cuba (to the chagrin of his wife, Nicole) and does an interesting job at explaining on the geo-political mess of agendas and egos that existed between the French-American and Soviet-Cuban alliances during this period. Though a historical fiction, the story leans a lot on the history between American and French tension within NATO dating back to the toxic relationship between the French Resistance, the Free French, and the United States Army during the Second World War.

Flashback scenes throughout the book tell the story of La Croix’s rise to power and his tensions with NATO during the 1960s (which in real life led to the French withdrawal from NATO command). Uris did a good job in highlighting the ambitions of the French President to return his Republic to the colonial world power that it was before WWII and the conflict that this created in a new Soviet-American dominated world power scene.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable and well researched summer read (and was well worth the $2.50).

(I haven’t seen it yet, but Alfred Hitchcock adapted the story to film in 1969).

I rarely find Michelle Malkin‘s blog palatable, but she wrote a pointed post yesterday on the Associated Press’ “quotation licenses” decision and backcharging to AP for quotes they’ve used…

As someone who rides his bike to work every morning, I’m glad to see that Bike Month in Edmonton is pushing forward at successful pedaling speeds. Not only is cycling the most energy efficient way to get around (other than walking, I suppose…), but it’s also a good way to stay healthy and get some fresh air…

– Edmonton’s bicycle-sharing network, the People’s Pedal is pedaling forward a social marketing survey to improve their service and identify barriers to cycling in the capital city. You can win cool prizes for taking their 10-minute survey!

– The City of Edmonton will be hosting an open house on the draft Bicycle Transportation Plan Report tonight from 4:00 – 8:00 PM at Stantec Centre (10160 – 112 Street). The draft Bicycle Transportation Plan Report will be presented to the public before heading to City Council in July for approval. All public input for the report must be received no later than Friday, June 20, 2008, so get your input in now!

– Edmonton Critical Mass meets for a ride at 5:30pm on the last Friday of every month.

– June 28, 2008 is Bikeology‘s velo-love in Wild Ride Festival will be at Beaver Hills House Park, Jasper Ave + 105th St. at 12noon.

– The Alberta Environment Network has a list of more Bike Month events.

As the fight around Bill C-61 and unfaircopyright reform continues in Canada, the Associated Press is now selling “quotation licenses” that will allow writers, bloggers, etc to use quotes from their articles…

In the name of “defin[ing] clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt” the Associated Press is now selling “quotation licenses” that allow bloggers, journallers, and people who forward quotations from articles to co-workers to quote their articles. The licenses start at $12.50 for quotations of 5-25 words. The licensing system exhorts you to snitch on people who publish without paying the blood-money, offering up to $1 million in reward money (they also think that “fair use” — the right to copy without permission — means “Contact the owner of the work to be sure you are covered under fair use.”).

It gets better! If you pay to quote the AP, but you offend the AP in so doing, the AP “reserves the right to terminate this Agreement at any time if Publisher or its agents finds Your use of the licensed Content to be offensive and/or damaging to Publisher’s reputation.”

Welcome to a world in which you won’t be able to effectively criticize the press, because you’ll be required to pay to quote as few as five words from what they publish.

(h/t Making Light via Boing Boing)

Continuing on the topic of Bill C-61 and Canadian copyright legislation reform, I’ve discovered a pretty good brief (pdf) written by the Canadian Federation of Students detailing the implications of certain types of copyright reform on students and the education sector. Here is part of the section on exemptions for educational institutions:

Asking for special institutional-based exemptions is the approach that was taken in the last round of copyright reform in 1997. It resulted in a complicated, and not very useful, set of narrow privileges for educational institutions. Unfortunately, this approach is still being pushed by groups representing a narrow band of university and college stakeholders: administrators. Seeking further special exemptions that are not available to the general public is a fundamentally flawed strategy. The better option is an expanded and open-ended definition in the Act of fair dealing that reflects the principles laid out in the CCH judgement.

As of today, it looks like only one of Canada’s national student advocacy organizations has publicly raised concerns about the implications of Bill C-61 and copyright reform on students and the education sector.

The other national student advocacy organization that my Students’ Union fees (and food court purchases?) go towards seems to have yet to say a peep…

(h/t Howard Knopf)

With Industry Minister Jim Prentice‘s introduction of Bill C-61: An Act to Amend the Copyright Act into the House of Commons this week, I am glad to see that strong opposition to legislation (which is similar to the United States Millennium Digital Copyright Act) is coalescing across Canada.

Not only does Bill C-61 seem to side with industry lobbyists over consumer protection rights, but it also poses a very real threat that could leave Canada with one of the most restrictive digital copyright laws in the world – posing a strong challenge for innovation, consumer rights, and free speech.

It has been suggested that this type of legislation would allow border guards and law enforcement officials to inspect laptops and iPods for music and videos that may violate copyright laws (which could even include the simple and very common transfer of DVDs to an iPod) and instituting stiff penalties, C-61 also poses a number of challenges to the education sector (which should raise red flags for University Presidents and Provincial Education Ministers across Canada).

The proposed legislation would limit the ability of post-secondary students and institutions to access copyrighted material for studies – including highly popular online exam banks and journal/periodical databases/e-braries that many post-secondary students use on a daily basis (the proposed legislation would limit the distribution of electronic library materials to less than five days) and could see an increase in copyright fees for institutions. I was glad to see that the Canadian Federation of Students has publicly raised questions about Bill C-61 and I hope that Canada’s other national student lobby group – the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations – won’t be too far behind in taking public action on this important issue.

I encourage you to read up on why this issue is important to Canadians. Check out Michael Geist, Digital Copyright Canada, Fair Copyright for Canada (and on Facebook), and Online Rights Canada to get up to speed. There’s a lot of good and accessible information online, so make sure to give it a read.

I’ve written a letter on the issue to my MP Rahim Jaffer, as well as Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Jim Prentice, Heritage Minister Josée Verner, and Industry Committee Chair James Rajotte. If you’re not a fan of letter writing use a sample letter, or check out Geist’s solid list of actions that any Canadian can take to raise their concerns about Bill C-61 and copyright issues.

Positive copyright reform is possible, but Bill C-61 does not include the ingredients of positive change that would recognize the growing role of the Internet and open source software, as well as emerging online tools and business models that Canadian are embracing.