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Alberta Greens Alberta Politics

memo for the alberta greens.

With Greens across Canada buoyed from their strong showings in the Vancouver-Quadra, Toronto-Centre, and Willowdale by-elections (but not quite so strong in Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River), Elizabeth May is probably getting her share of high fives left, right, and center. But on the provincial scene, with the March 3 provincial election only weeks in the past, the Alberta Greens still have a lot of work to do to solidify their place in Alberta’s political scene.

Though the Alberta Greens weren’t able to win any seats in the Legislative Assembly, they did succeed in almost doubling their province-wide popular vote from just over 2% in 2004 to 4.58% in 2008. They also achieved two strong second place finishes in Lacombe-Ponoka and Drayton Valley-Calmar, and strong third place showing in Banff-Cochrane. If I were to give some advice to the Alberta Greens, it would be to focus their resources on grassroots organizing in the targeted rural Alberta constituencies.

With large parts of rural Alberta involved in some seriously intense land-use struggles, the Greens would do well to focus their resources in these areas. Two of the most high profile areas include Rimbey – where controversy over AltaLink’s north-south transmission corridor, the closure of debate on Bill 46, and the AEUB Spy Scandal erupted in 2007 – and the Tofield area – where the Round Hill-Dodds Agricultural Protective Association are fighting the development of a massive coalmine, which if constructed will include a gasification plant and power station built prime farmland south of Tofield (word on the street has it that the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund and the City of Edmonton-owned EPCOR have a substantial stake in this project).

This isn’t the first time that the Round Hill-Dodds Agricultural Protective Association has stood up to oppose this type of encroachment. As documented by Todd Babiuk, during the last energy boom in 1976, landowners in the Round Hill-Dodds community rallied to oppose the development of a $2.6 billion coal-fired power station on 360 square kilometers of agricultural land which would have displaced over 130 landowners.

“It turned into a folk tale, big power and big government pitted against real people. Local, provincial and national news outlets followed the story. The local Conservative MLA supported the landowners and then-premier Peter Lougheed, with a keen understanding of his party’s rural base, eventually stepped in.”
– Todd Babiuk

With the urban-based Alberta Liberals and New Democrats or the largely anti-regulatory Wild Rose Alliance unlikely to be able to capitalize on this type of rural discontent, I would think that the Greens are in the best position to benefit from spending the next four years of their energy harnessing the frustration with the current Progressive Conservative regime in these areas. After netting 22% for the Greens and having strong name recognition in Lacombe-Ponoka, Joe Anglin could potentially be the person best positioned to lead the battle in the rural areas. This isn’t a slight against current Calgary-based Green Leader George Read, who has led his party in doubling their support, I’m just more convinced that the Greens’ immediate growth potential is in rural areas like Lacombe-Ponoka and Drayton Valley-Calmar, rather than large urban centers like Calgary.

According to a recent media release, the Alberta Greens will hold a leadership review in October 2009.

A Green Shadow Cabinet

This week, the Alberta Greens released their shadow cabinet, which includes Joe Anglin as critic for the Department of Energy and Edwin Erickson as critic for Agriculture and Rural Development.

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Democracy

three for democracy.

Three articles today on democracy in Alberta from Larry Booi, David Evans, and Marco Adria.

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Smart Growth

walking is fun.

Check out the Walkable Edmonton Initiative.

Kudos to the City of Edmonton Community Services Department for this initiative. Walkability is a key element of creating the smart and healthy city that Edmonton should be.

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St. Patrick's Day

liturgical clarification.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Jim Lackey at the Catholic News Service has responded to my post from yesterday on what the decision of Irish bishops moving the liturgical celebration of St. Patrick’s Day to last Saturday means for green beer enthusiasts here in Canada.

So, you are still safe to enjoy your green beer today with a clear conscience (though if you’re like me they’ll be plenty of guilt to go around tomorrow morning…). Jim also points out that the next time St. Patrick’s Day will find itself in the same week as Easter will be in 2160.

(ES also offers some St. Patty’s Day reflections)

Also, I wish I had one of these…

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St. Patrick's Day

send back the green beer…

… because we apparently already missed St. Patrick’s Day.

Irish Catholics to celebrate St. Patrick two days earlier in 2008

By Michael Kelly
Catholic News Service

DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) — Catholics in Ireland will celebrate the feast of St. Patrick two days earlier next year after the Vatican gave permission to move the feast day to avoid a conflict with Holy Week.

Traditionally St. Patrick and all things Irish are celebrated March 17. However, in 2008, March 17 falls on the Monday of Holy Week and, according to church law, the days of Holy Week and Easter rank above all others, so the solemnity of St. Patrick must be moved to another date.

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University of Alberta

no more credit at the university of alberta.

An average of 18,000 University of Alberta students use credit cards to pay their tuition and fees.

therefore

The University of Alberta administration has decided to no longer accept payments by credit card.

(See the 2,400 member facebook group for more info)

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Boycott Beijing Summer Olympics 2008

one world one dream.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the hosts of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

BBC News has been covering the Tibet story better than any other news source I could find.

UPDATE: You can find video footage of the Tibet protests here.

(h/t boing boing)

ANOTHER UPDATE: According to The Telegraph, the United States has dropped China from its worst human rights list. Say what?

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Canadian Politics Federal Liberals

i’m not doing anything for the liberal party of canada.

James Bowie has challenged six bloggers (yours truly included) to declare what they are doing to help the Liberal Party of Canada. The challenge originated from a post by Jason Cherniak that caused a bit of a stir over the past week or so in the Canadian liberalish blogosphere (you can check out how Jim Curran, Quito Maggi, and A BCer in Toronto responded to Bowie’s challenge).

As you have probably gathered from the title of this post, I’m not doing anything for the Liberal Party of Canada. Indeed, I haven’t had much involvement with the Federal Liberals since I spent the 2004 federal election volunteering with Anne McLellan‘s successful re-election campaign in Edmonton-Centre.

How come, Dave?

I woke up and came to the realization that I have some pretty big beefs with how the Liberal Party of Canada had governed Canada (whether it be on the environment, post-secondary education, international affairs, trade, and of course, Adscam, among others). So, I let my membership lapse in 2006, and since then Stephane Dion’s hand sitting maneuvers haven’t done much to entice me to re-join his party (not that I’m impressed with Stephen Harper, either).

Since then, I’ve been content to spend my energies over the past couple years working with the Alberta Liberals and the Council of Alberta University Students on the provincial level, and on improving public transit in Edmonton.

In 2006, I lent Jack Layton my vote and voted for NDP candidate Linda Duncan in Edmonton-Strathcona, but in 2008 I’m not sure who I’d vote for. Even though none of the federal parties are really doing it for me, I’m happy to take the Joe Clark approach and support individual candidates on the federal scene by wishing Elizabeth May, Jim Wachowich, Irwin Cotler, Nathan Cullen, and Oliva Chow good luck in their election campaigns.

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Citizen's Assembly Electoral Reform Fair Vote Alberta

fair vote alberta event on march 19.

I picked this up from Idealistic Pragmatist…

Fair Vote Alberta, the provincial wing of Fair Vote Canada, will be hosting an event with former B.C. Citizens’ Assembly member Shoni Field. Shoni will be talking to us about her experiences on the Assembly and its applicability to Alberta. There will be plenty of time after her talk for Q&A.

Place: Strathcona Public Library (8331-104 Street), Edmonton
Date: Wednesday, March 19th
Time: 7:00 PM

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Neil Waugh

and the public affairs bureau award goes to…

… good old Neil Waugh, for his gushing endorsatorial of Ed Stelmach’s cabinet. As I wrote yesterday, it’s not an awful cabinet, but it’s certainly nowhere near as orgasmically charged as Waugh’s column would have Edmonton Sun readers believe.

Is the one-sentence-a-paragraph bandit gunning for a job at the top? Say, maybe as Tom Olsen’s assistant? It would be a shame though, because Waugh is the best fish and game columnist in town.

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Alberta Liberals Alberta NDP

what’s next for alberta’s opposition parties?

After receiving a substantial beating in last week’s election, I thought it is important to take a look at Alberta’s two opposition parties in the Legislature and make some suggestions on what their next moves should be.

Though there has been talk of leadership change in the opposition parties, I don’t see any need for the Alberta Liberals or New Democrats to rush this decision. The goal of both parties should be stability, and I’m not sure how a leadership change in the short-term will help this (I’m not sure you’d see a mad rush of leadership contenders, either). As both parties will have their opposition budgets slashed, they should look to increase their cooperation in the Legislature and in legislative committees for the sake of a stronger and more united opposition.

Alberta Liberals

The Alberta Liberals lost eight seats in the Edmonton region last week. With three seats in Edmonton, one in Lethbridge, and five in Calgary (where they actually increased their seats from four to five), the Alberta Liberals can take solace in that they are probably in a better position to grow than when they were decimated down to 7 seats in 2001. Though I’m sure the financial situation situation of the party isn’t pretty, a leaner opposition will force the Alberta Liberals to do some soul searching in the meantime.

Having the majority of their seats in Calgary is a changing dynamic that the Alberta Liberals haven’t seen in recent memory, which suggests that the Calgary Alberta Liberal caucus will have more influence on opposition politics than they had before the election.

In terms of Kevin Taft’s leadership, my advice to the party is to not rush any decisions. Internal stability is something that will be very important in the process of preparing for the next election and leadership is something the Alberta Liberals need to be smart about. Holding a leadership race now would be fool hearted and would most likely not draw the types of contenders that the Alberta Liberals would need to lead them into the next election. There’s no rush, so wait a year and let Ed Stelmach’s Tories stumble, then if a leadership race needs to be held, you’ll see more people stepping up to the plate.

Over the next four years, the Alberta Liberals need to take a critical look ‘outside the box’ and decide what kind of party they want to be, including abandoning the traditional party structure and mentality. Everything should be on the table, including more than just a name-change.

Official Opposition MLAs
Kevin Taft, Edmonton-Riverview
Laurie Blakeman, Edmonton-Centre
Harry Chase, Calgary-Varsity
Kent Hehr, Calgary-Buffalo
Darshan Kang, Calgary-McCall
Hugh MacDonald, Edmonton-Gold Bar
Bridget Pastoor, Lethbridge-East
David Swann, Calgary-Mountain View
Dave Taylor, Calgary-Currie

Alberta New Democrats

The loss of David Eggen in Edmonton-Calder and Ray Martin in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview means that the New Democrats have lost their official party status in the Alberta Legislature. Also, much like the Alberta Liberals, I’m sure their financial situation isn’t pretty.

With leader Brian Mason’s only caucus mate being rookie Edmonton-Strathcona MLA Rachel Notley, it’s pretty clear who the favorite to replace Mason will be. This said, even though I’ve never warmed up to Mason, I think that him handing over the reigns to Notley too early after the election could be a bad move for his party.

As a rookie MLA, Notley should be given some time to learn the ropes and decide whether or not she actually likes being an MLA. As much as some New Democrats I’ve spoken with want Mason to hit the road as soon as possible, putting Notley into the leader’s chair this early could be a risky move (but with only two seats in the Legislature, what do the New Democrats really have to lose?).

It is also probably overdue for the New Democrats take a critical look at the advantages and disadvantages of its joint-at-the-hip relationship with some of Alberta’s big labour unions. Does its close ties to the Alberta Federation of Labour do more harm than good? What does this relationship mean for the New Democrats claim to being a voice for progressives in Alberta?

(Also, for a New Democrat point of view, Shannon Phillips has some interesting post-Eday thoughts on the election in Edmonton and Edmonton-Calder.)

New Democrat MLAs
Brian Mason, Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood
Rachel Notley, Edmonton-Strathcona

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Cabinet Shuffle Ed Stelmach

planning a cabinet (shuffle).

Here are some thoughts on Ed Stelmach’s recently announced cabinet, which looks more like a cabinet shuffle, as it includes most of the pre-election cabinet. I can imagine that choosing a cabinet is probably one of the more difficult decisions that a Premier has to make during his (and maybe someday: her) time in office, but that won’t stop me from offering some thoughts…

– Ed Stelmach gets points for bringing some diversity and colour to cabinet for a change.

– Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo Tory Guy Boutilier got the boot from cabinet.

– It must suck to be Edmonton-Castle Downs Tory MLA Thomas Lukaszuk, who was passed over for a real cabinet spot by rookie Edmonton-Glenora MLA Heather Klimchuk.

– With Sherwood Park Tory Iris Evans as the new Minister of Finance and Enterprise, I wonder if Strathcona County will be getting that veto she was talking about…

– Speaking of regional cooperation… Edmonton kept quiet and played nice over the last year, while Calgarians through a fit, and now Edmonton ends up with half the number of full cabinet spots as Calgary. Perhaps Mayor Mandel might want to try out a new strategy for provincial relations.

Paul Simons put it well today…

When Calgary votes Tory and Edmonton votes Liberal, Edmonton gets fewer cabinet seats.

When Calgary elects more Liberals than Edmonton — Edmonton still gets fewer cabinet seats.

– Parliamentary Assistants abound. Other than that it would probably make more sense to call them Legislative Assistants (or Secretaries), this looks like a cabinet structure borrowed from Gordon Campbell’s BC Liberals from when they won their 77 out of 79 seats in 2001 (except, I think they called them “Ministers of State“). The Parliamentary Assistants position is not only a good way for the Tories to train future cabinet ministers, but also a way to keep MLAs busy in the newly supersized caucus. Bringing Janice Sarich and Raj Sherman into these positions was a good move.

– Dave Hancock’s move to Education from Health could be seen as a demotion, but it could also be an opportunity to actually get things accomplished in Education (though I think Hancock would have been a much better choice for Finance). I’ll be keeping an eye on how Hancock moves on the proliferation of P3s in Alberta’s education system.

– Moving Ron Stevens to Intergovernmental Affairs signals is an interesting move by the Tories in their brewing battle against the Federal Tories on the environment file. Interestingly, Stevens’ Calgary-Glenmore constituency is also part of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Calgary-Southwest riding.

Check out CalgaryGrit and the Official AGRDT ‘Alberta’s new cabinet’ post for some more commentary on the cabinet shuffle.

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Uncategorized

alberta’s new stelmach tory cabinet.

Tory Premier Ed Stelmach released his new cabinet list today.

A quick look over the list doesn’t reveal too many surprises, but I will have more in depth commentary later today (the reality of being a University student sometimes overtakes the fun of being a blogger).

Though it is interesting to see Iris Evans as the new Minister of Finance and Enterprise.

Make it so.

UPDATE: As promised, here is my take on the cabinet shuffle.

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Municipal Politics

that’s a big dome.

What does Edmonton need?

A $200,000 collapsible, geodesic dome for Churchill Square, apparently.

(h/t BoA)

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Cabinet Shuffle

hancock demotion in works?

Some cabinet speculation.

Premier Ed Stelmach will reveal today a largely status-quo cabinet that gives Edmonton only two full-fledged ministers and shuffles veteran Dave Hancock out of health and into a lesser portfolio, The Journal has learned.

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