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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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Uncategorized

on sex scandals.

It almost caught me off guard, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at how much attention Canada’s mainstream media is paying to the Elliot Spitzer sex scandal. If you haven’t already heard, New York Governor Elliot Spitzer has been caught in the middle of a sex scandal involving his alleged employment of a $1,000-an-hour Washington D.C. call girl (you can read a breakdown of the affidavit here).

A quick scan of the exciting Canadian political scene makes it pretty evident why the Canadian media are hopping on board the Elliot Spitzer-sex-scandal-train-from-New York. What kind of exciting political debates that our elected representatives are having in Canada?

– The epic struggle between Dan McTeague and Jim Flaherty continues in the great RESP debate of 2008.

– The Alberta Tories have just won their 11th consecutive majority government since 1971. 41% of Albertans bothered participating.

– Stephane Dion’s Federal Liberals back down again, leaving Canadians wondering why Dion even wanted to be the leader of that party in the first place.

At least the Obama-Harper NAFTA-gate leak has provided some sort of excitement in a Canadian political scene that could be otherwise disappointingly described as colourless, insipid, and platitudinous.

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Statistics

the result of an underfunded education system.

“Statistics,” one long-time Tory told me a few days ago, “are for losers.”

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Random Fun

everybody loves question time.

A new look at Question Period…

(h/t p.a.)

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Alberta Politics

unite the left a fancy idea, but…

Like every election post-mortem period in Alberta, the talk of a unite-the-left move has reemerged. I was interested to read an op-ed piece in today’s Edmonton Journal in which Athabasca University Professor Alvin Finkle advocates in favour of a merger between the Alberta Liberals, New Democrats, and Greens. Now, I’m completely in favour of tearing down Alberta’s traditional party structures and attitudes, but I don’t believe it’s really as straight-forward as Finkle proposes. Here are six thoughts on a “united left” in Alberta…

1. Bad blood. There’s a ton of animosity and moral high-horsery going on between the Alberta Liberals and New Democrats. Party archetypes in both camps really need to put aside their biases and prejudices and take a serious and objective look at why their parties are not connecting with Albertans. With Kevin Taft and Brian Mason taking shots at each other during the campaign, both sides are guilty of creating the animosity, but both owe it to Albertans to look at the bigger picture and at least seriously look at the idea of a “united left.”

2. It’s aiming at the wrong target. I’m not sure that a merger between the parties is a silver bullet. With voter turnout at 41%, I’d be willing to suggest that all the parties are scrapping the bottom of their support-levels and need to look at the 59% of non-voting Albertans for growth.

3. Pass the vote. This argument assumes that support between parties will automatically carry over to a merged party. I’m not convinced that both parties cover the same spot on the political spectrum and this could leave a lot of Albertans without a party to vote for.

4. Greens on the left? I’m also not totally sure that the Alberta Greens could be considered part of “the left.” In fact, I’m not really sure where they are, but I’m sure that the 22% of Joe Anglin Green voters in Lacombe-Ponoka wouldn’t consider themselves as part of “the left.”

5. Different aims. The merger argument also assumes that both parties have the same target in mind? It’s clear that the Alberta Liberals are in it to form government, but I’m not sure that’s the same goal of the New Democrats. I’d be willing to bet that most New Democrats would feel a lot more comfortable staying in opposition than taking the reigns of power.

6. First-past-the-post. It seems that a bigger problem is the first-part-the-post electoral system that creates results that don’t result in a fair reflection of how Albertans voted. Change the system to STV or PR and I’m not sure we’d be having this conversation.

All of this said, a little pragmatism and give-and-take between the two parties probably wouldn’t hurt.

Is a merger a totally bad idea? No.

Is it feasible? That’s a completely different question.

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Alberta Politics International Politics

australian cabinet making.

According to wikipedia, “cabinet making involves techniques such as creating appropriate joints, shelving systems, the use of finishing tools such as routers to create decorative edgings, and so on.” This process doesn’t sound too different than the actual process of political cabinet making which Tory Premier Ed Stelmach is currently undergoing.

Instead of speculating on which Tory MLAs will and won’t make the cabinet cut (though I do think it will be a challenging balance act and I may write a post about that), I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how cabinets are or have been selected in two other countries.

Down Under, the Australian Labour Party and New Zealand Labour Party have a tradition of allowing individual caucus member to elect cabinet ministers from their among their peers. Though the Prime Minister had retained the right to decide portfolios, members of factions within the caucus exercised considerable influence over who was elected to cabinet. In 2007, newly-elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd did away with the substance of the tradition by selecting the cabinet but allowing the caucus to ratify it (which it did unanimously).

A similar cabinet selection process was proposed by Federal Liberal MP Belinda Stronach back in 2006 and was supported by former North West Territories Premier Joe Handley.

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election Apathy Ed Stelmach Voter Turnout

"the fix is for politics to become relevant to people’s lives."

There’s been no shortage of discussion and opinion on the topic of the abysmal 41% voter turnout in the March 3, 2008 Alberta provincial election. With such low voter turnout, it’s clear that none of Alberta’s political parties, nor the political process as it currently exists, are engaging Albertans. So, what needs to happen to re-engage Albertans?

One of the suggestions that I’ve heard being bounced around is mandatory voting. In today’s column, Edmonton Journal columnist Lorne Gunter defends “the right of citizens not to cast ballots if they are unmoved by the choices.“ Though I agree with Gunter (yes, that’s right…) in that I don’t think forcing citizens to vote through fines or penalties is a healthy way to engage anyone in the political process, I’m not sure whether the 59% of registered voters who stayed home on Monday did so on the basis of principle or apathy (I’m tending to believe the latter).

If apathy is the symptom, what is the cause? Some have suggested that the current first-past-the post electoral system is the cause. With Ed Stelmach’s Progressive Conservatives’ 52% of the popular vote translating into 88% of the Legislature seats, it’s clear that the composition of the next Alberta Legislature are not reflective of the votes cast province-wide on Monday’s election. Ken Chapman argues that mere electoral reform won’t fix the problem and I agree. Though I whole heartedly believe that Albertans need to take a serious look changing the electoral system, I think that it’s a bit naive to believe all of a sudden changing the way ballots are counted is the silver bullet that will boost voter turnout and engagement. It’s clear that there are deeper issues as to why Albertans are opting out of the democratic process, and Ken put it plain and simple:

“[t]he fix is for politics to become relevant to people’s lives.”

Easier said than done, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of my New Years resolution from 2007. Participation in democracy is a much broader and important act than simply showing up to vote every four years. Albertans need to reclaim their politics and stop letting politicians and partisan agendas frame the debates and define the issues which are driving the direction of our society. For politics to become relevant, Albertans will need to believe that they can effect change and the emergence of a strong civil society in the form of community and public interest advocacy groups is something that could re-engage Albertans more than any traditional political parties could dream of. Albertans need to take ownership over their province and their political process, and re-engaging on the community and civil society level is probably the easiest way to begin this process.

Alberta’s future is too important to leave all the decisions to the 83 men and women under the dome. Alberta’s future is too important to allow the defining debates only occur within the traditional realm of partisan politics.

Rumour on the street is that Tory Premier Ed Stelmach will be appointing an unsuccessful Progressive Conservative candidate to head a task force to study why Albertans didn’t show up to the polls on Monday. If this is the case, and if the Premier is sincerely interested in discovering why the majority of Albertans are tuning out of the politics, he really shouldn’t have to look any further than the rumour of another partisan patronage position to discover why Albertans are opting out of traditional politics.

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Alberta Tar Sands Fort McMurray

tar sands, the selling of alberta.

Tune in to CBC at 9pm on Thursday, March 13, 2008 to watch a new documentary film on Alberta’s tar sands titled: TAR SANDS, THE SELLING OF ALBERTA.

Tar Sands: The Selling of Alberta captures the intersecting storylines of a remarkable cast of characters eager to cash in on the oil boom in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Washington lobbyists, Newfie pipefitters, Chinese investors and Norwegian industrialists descend on tar-soaked “Fort McMoney”, a modern-day Eldorado, where rents are sky rocketing and cocaine abuse is four times the provincial average. Up for grabs – a stake in a $100 billion energy bonanza and Canada’s economic sovereignty.

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