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Calgary-Buffalo Calgary-Egmont Cathie Williams Ed Stelmach edstelmach.ca Kent Hehr

don’t sue me bro.

Good grief…

Web war between political parties

Two Liberal candidates, for the next provincial election, have had their domain names purchased by an apparent Tory supporter.

When you go to www.kenthehr.ca and www.cathiewilliams.ca users are redirected to the Conservative party website.

CTV News has learned that Andrea Kirby, for the Kirby Financial Group, purchased the domain names. Kirby did not return CTV’s calls, or emails, asking about the purchase.

This latest development comes as the premier threatens to sue a former Liberal communications worker who purchased the domain name www.edstelmach.ca.

Kent Hehr says he will not be suing anyone over the matter. In fact, he says he appreciates the attention being drawn to his campaign.

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Killed in a Blogging Accident

killed in a blogging accident.

Something a little more light hearted for a Friday morning…

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Ed Stelmach edstelmach.ca governing myself accordingly

edstelmach.ca: governing myself accordingly. day 10.

Well, it’s been 10 days since the edstelmach.ca fiasco began last week and I’m still surprised that it’s still getting the media attention that it is. As I’m in and out of classes at the University of Alberta this week, I seem to be unintentionally playing a game of phone tag with one Mr. Ron Glen (who’s .ca domain name is apparently still available…).

It’s been a little quieter this week, which is good because I have now had a chance to catch up on the reading that I didn’t get done last week because of edstelmach.ca. I’m looking forward to things dying down a little so I can concentrate on my courses before the expected provincial election begins in February (two new interesting classes I’m taking include POLS 419: Politics of the Canadian Constitution and HIST 460: Water History: Local, National, and Continental).

Here is some of the media coverage from this week:

– Is Stelmach made of Velcro or Teflon? (Graham Thomson in the Edmonton Journal)
– Stelmach’s legal threats against blogger spawn backlash (Globe & Mail)
– Web-savviness not PC’s domain (The Gateway)
– Stelmach’s seeming lack of foresight unsettling (Letter to the Gateway)
– Will the real Ed please stand up (Calgary Sun)
– I was on CBC Radio’s Search Engine radio show which aired this morning.

And to echo the Edmonton Journal’s editorial “Tuppence for a smile,” I think some people might need to take a breather and lighten up a bit…

Appropriation of premier’s name for website an invasion of privacy
The Edmonton Journal
Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Re: “Tuppence for a smile,” Editorial, Jan. 11.

The Journal calls the controversy over the website www.edstelmach.ca “a truly magnificent prank”? Horse manure.

How about invasion of privacy — with an ulterior motive? Cournoyer sets up the domain, worsens the problem by pointing it to an Internet article about former Social Credit leader Harry Strom name, and then suggests that Stelmach should have registered his name first.

Cournoyer did not outsmart anyone. His actions have done nothing to enhance the Liberal party of Wilfrid Laurier and Louis St. Laurent.

Stelmach carries the very responsible position of premier. I expect he does more work in a day than Cournoyer has done in the last year. Stelmach concentrates on important issues and already has addressed teachers’ pensions and royalties, among other issues.

I am an emeritus professor at the University of Alberta. My position has been debased by Cournoyer’s actions, as he is a U of A student.

There are some jobs to be done: Kevin Taft should throw him out of the Liberal party. The president of the U of A should take away his student registration. Who can teach him some manners?

D.J. Laurie Kennedy, Edmonton

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election

alberta online poll results.

In other news, yesterday’s 630 CHED online poll asked 630ched.com readers and listers who they were going to vote for in the next Alberta provincial election… it may be just an online poll, but here are the results…

Liberal 42.62%
PC 41.46%
NDP 4.69%
Other 11.21%

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

no plan for alberta.

As has been written about numerous times over the past couple days, a group calling themselves “Albertans for Change” have released a series of attack ads aimed at Ed Stelmach in the run up to the expected February/March provincial election. I’ve had a number of thoughts on this topic over the last couple days.

It should be interesting to see how Albertans react to these attack ads. Albertans aren’t usually exposed to such advertising in their living rooms, so is this a sign to come for the next election? It’s disappointing that the two groups who seem to be behind Albertans for Change, the Alberta Federation of Labour and the Alberta Building Trades Council, didn’t roll out the ads more publicly. I think this may have given some people the idea that they were trying to hide who they were (which I don’t think they were).

On the subject of the ads themselves… I’m not exactly their biggest fan, but I don’t think I’m their target audience. It will be interesting to see how they play out in defining Ed Stelmach as Premier (as attack ads have helped to define another political party leader). A year into his term, Ed Stelmach is still struggling to define himself and there are no shortage of Albertans (including Albertans for Change) who are racing to beat him to the punch.

On this topic, this email ended up in my inbox yesterday…

Graham Thompson’s and Jason Fekete’s articles in Tuesday’s Edmonton Journal caught my eye. In particular I was taken by the outrage of Stelmach’s spokesman Tom Olsen. He accused the ads’ sponsors of “firing from the shadows” and urged them to release the full cost of their campaign and who was funding it.

In the spirit of openness that seems like a reasonable request to make.

In exchange, perhaps Mr. Olsen could give us the names of the contributors to Mr. Stelmach’s leadership campaign. As Albertans recall, Mr. Stelmach promised he would divulge the names of ALL his contributors. Instead he has held back the names of 80 persons who prefer to remain anonymous. Why? Is there something to hide? Are there people on that anonymous list who received plum government appointments or contracts during Mr. Stelmach’s time as Minister?

I’m not saying there are.The problem is we just don’t know.

Mr. Stelmach and his public relations team work hard to create the image of an honest down-to-earth politician. Revealing the names of the mystery donors would add some much-needed substance to that image.

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daveberta.ca edstelmach.ca Podcasts

the first daveberta podcast.

Last weekend, my buddy Ryan Heise and I sat down and recorded the first of what will hopefully be many (or at least more than one) podcast hosted here on daveberta.ca (not edstelmach.ca). Not surprisingly, we talked about recent events in Alberta’s blogging world.

It’s a little rough around the edges, but even Ira Glass’ first show on This American Life was a little rough… feel free to have a listen to the appropriately named Govern Yourself Accordingly podcast from daveberta.ca. Enjoy!

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2007 Canadian Blog Awards

vote – canadian blog awards.

Hey folks, it’s that time of year again and this blog has been nominated in a number of categories for the Canadian Blog Awards. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read here, feel free to pop over and vote for daveberta.ca (not to be confused with edstelmach.ca) in the following categories:

Best Blog
Best Blogosphere Citizen
Best Political Blog
Best Progressive Blog

Round One voting will be open until January 21st, 2008 11:59 PM PST. Final Round voting will start on Wednesday January 23rd.

You can also join the vote for daveberta in the 2007 canadian blog awards group on facebook.

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Alberta Politics Peter Lougheed University of Alberta

peter lougheed at the university of alberta.

Former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed will be speaking at the University of Alberta tomorrow.

Merv Leitch QC Memorial Lecture – The Honourable Peter Lougheed: Is Canadian Federalism Working?

The Honourable Peter Lougheed PC CC QC will deliver the Merv Leitch QC Memorial Lecture on the topic, “Is Canadian Federalism Working?”

The lecture will take place on Tuesday, January 15, 2008, from 12 noon to 1 pm in Law Centre Rooms 231/237. A light lunch will be served.

It should be an interesting talk and I’m planning on checking it out.

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election

it’s about rep-by-pop.

With an Alberta provincial general election predicted to be only weeks away, I thought it would be important to put a little more attention on the issue of representation in the Alberta Legislature. To be specific, this is the issue of representation by population. Representation by population is a pretty simple concept that is taught in elementary social studies classes (or at least was when I went to elementary school), but the people who draw Alberta’s constituency boundaries may have missed that lesson at school.

According to the list of electors from the November 2006, here are the constituencies with the lowest number of registered voters:

Dunvegan-Central Peace – 15,142 voters
Peace River – 18,007 voters
Lac La Biche-St. Paul – 18,674 voters
Lesser Slave Lake – 19,553 voters
Bonnyville-Cold Lake – 19,602 voters
Cardston-Taber-Warner – 19,615 voters

Now, take a look at the two Edmonton and Calgary constituencies with the lowest number of registered voters:

Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood – 26,170 voters
Calgary-Montrose – 24,519 voters

This means that the 15,142 voters in Dunvegan-Central Peace have the same representation in the Alberta Legislature as the 24,519 and 26,170 voters in Calgary-Montrose and Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood. It also means that the 15,142 voters in Dunvegan-Central Peace have the same representation in the Legislature as the 37,529 voters in Calgary-West and 37,613 voters in Edmonton-Whitemud (the two most populated constituencies according to Elections Alberta).

Now, I understand the argument behind the existence of these less populated rural constituencies (and why Dunvegan-Central Peace was given special consideration to have less than 75% of the provincial average) – because it’s more difficult for an MLA to represent a vast less populated vast rural constituencies – but when it comes down to it, fence posts don’t vote, people do. It’s about equal representation for Albertans (the first part of the Triple-E).

I’m not saying that the people of Dunvegan-Central peace aren’t of the utmost quality, but I wouldn’t blame voters in Calgary-West and Edmonton-Whitemud if they became a little confused as to why 1 vote in Dunvegan-Central Peace’s is worth more than double a vote in their constituency.

Now, we’re nowhere close to having rotten boroughs, but the question of equal representation in Alberta between urban and rural Albertans is a critical question that needs to be addressed. After Edmonton lost one seat in the 2003 Electoral Boundary Review, I hope that both the Mayors and Councillors of Edmonton and Calgary will be ready to fight for fair representation when the next boundary review comes along.

But with three of the six least populated constituencies being represented by Ministers in the current Tory government, I wouldn’t blame cynics for not believing that this type of constituency distribution will end anytime soon…

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Municipal Politics Public Transit

more late night transit talk in edmonton.

Following up on my previous post on the 24-hour public transit debate in Edmonton, Brian Gould had a great article in last Tuesday’s Gateway.

Click here to read Edmonton Transit system tucking in far to early.

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Alberta Politics Podcasts

edmonton journal podcast.

Just over a week ago, I sat down and chatted with Edmonton Journal’s Legislature Reporter Archie McLean as part of the first edition of the Lej Out Loud podcast. Ken Chapman and I were lucky to be the first guests of the podcast in which we discuss the political blogging scene in Alberta.

Congrats to Archie and thanks for having us on!

Also, in case you haven’t yet read it, check out Graham Thomson’s column from today’s Journal.

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Karen Leibovici Kerry Diotte Public Transit

24-7 transit for edmonton?

In case anyone missed it, Kerry Diotte had an interesting column on the idea of 24-hour transit in Edmonton.

Coun. Karen Leibovici, who asked administrators to prepare one of the two reports, is cautiously supportive of extended service.

“We’re becoming more and more of a 24-7 city,” said Leibovici. “We need to start looking at it,” she said. “But the biggest problem is cost. Perhaps we don’t have to run all night or even until 3:30 a.m.

“Maybe we can do a pilot project on Whyte Avenue or extend service for one extra hour.”

Yes, there are many options.

Maybe we could afford it if we cut little-used routes and keyed on busier ones – or stopped using tax money to fund new routes to distant suburbs.

Do we need smaller buses on some routes? Or could we have fewer stops so buses get to destinations faster, thus encouraging more people to use the system?

Those options too, would help pay for extended hours.

I think there are some pretty valid points in exploring the idea of 24-hour routes for Edmonton Transit (or potentially an hourly or half-hourly LRT run after 1am). Though I believe there tends to be too much focus on the Whyte Avenue bar scene when talking about 24-hour transit service, I do think that it could be an interesting place to conduct a pilot project.

I’ve even heard of an idea that would have buses running down Whyte Avenue after closing time delivering bar patrons to destinations east and west of Whyte Avenue to designated taxi pick up areas (perhaps the Bonnie Doon Mall parking lot to the east and the Jubilee Auditorium or Lister Hall Parking lots to the west). Though there would be a number of issues to work out (bus driver safety and “bus cleanliness” being two), it would successfully cut down the conjestion on Whyte Avenue before and after closing time.

As Edmonton grows, these types of public transit questions are only going to become more critical to making Edmonton a smarter and more efficient city.

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Ed Stelmach edstelmach.ca governing myself accordingly Malcolm Mayes

edstelmach.ca: governing myself accordingly. day 4.

A bit of a media update…

Full credit to Edmonton Journal editorial cartoonist Malcolm Mayes for this one.

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Ed Stelmach edstelmach.ca governing myself accordingly

edstelmach.ca: governing myself accordingly. day 3.

Well, I’ve spent the last three days governing myself accordingly on this issue and edstelmach.ca. Here’s a bit of an update of what’s going on…

As was reported in the newspapers today:

Stelmach‘s chief of staff, Ron Glen, called Dave Cournoyer on Wednesday in search of a resolution to the fight over the domain name edstelmach.ca. Glen had heard Cournoyer might be amenable to settling the issue if he got a call from the premier.

Now, I’m still a little confused about who exactly I’m dealing with. Let me try to work this out:

1) Right before Christmas, I receive a letter from a lawyer representing Premier Ed Stelmach threatening me with litigation for misappropriating Premier Stelmach’s personality by owning edstelmach.ca.

2) January 8 – The Premier’s Office refuses to comment or become publicly involved with the issue. Alberta Progressive Conservative Executive Director Jim Campbell comments on it, saying the domain issue is theirs.

3) Afternoon, January 9 – I receive an email from the Premier’s lawyer saying that he is still waiting to hear from me or my legal representation.

4) Evening, January 9 – I receive a friendly phone call from Ron Glen, the Chief of Staff of the Office of the Premier (which didn’t want to comment or be involved with the issue the previous day), asking if there might be a way to amenably resolve this issue.

Understandably, I was a little surprised to get a phone call from the Premier’s Chief of Staff. I know that Mr. Glen is a good friend and long time adviser to Premier Stelmach, but I can’t help but be a little confused about who is handling the issue on their side of things.

Like I’ve said before, this has always been something that probably could have been resolved a lot quieter by a friendly email or phone call and not through a threatening legal letter (it’s kind of like shooting first and asking questions later). This said, I’ve never been interested in personally or financially profiting from this, so I will be taking a couple of days to weigh my options.

Here is some recent stories from bloggers and in the news about this story…

– Stelmach the bully in this web prank (Graham Thomson at the Edmonton Journal)
– Province threatens Cournoyer (The Gateway)
– Premier of Alberta threatens to sue blogging uni student for registering a domain with his name in it (BoingBoing)
– Premier Stelmach seeks truce over domain name spat (Edmonton Journal)
– Political Analysts tell Stelmach to ‘back off’ on domain name dispute (Calgary Herald)
– Expert expects preem to lose domain lawsuit (Edmonton Sun)
– Premier defends efforts to control internet address (Canadian Press on CBC Edmonton)
– Edmonton Sun Letter to the Editor
– Davberta punk’s Premier Ed. I love it! (Ken Chapman)
– edstelmach.com (Everybody has to live somewhere)
– Hard not to feel some sympathy for the Premier (David Climenhaga)
– Ed Stelmach threatens lawsuit over domain name (Ben Co.)
– Not an HRC issue, but blogger may be sued (timeimmortal)
– Alberta Premier vs Alberta Blogger (p2pnet.net)
– Alberta Premier threatens to sue blogger over cybersquatting ( The Agenda)
– On making Ed Stelmach look stupid (Cowboys for Social Responsibility)
– Unless you live under a rock (Alberta Tory)
– Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach vs. blogger (Alice the Camel)
– Craig Chandler bids for Stelmach’s domain name (La Revue Gauche)
– Hey Ed your domain is available (La Revue Gauche)

The Premier was also questioned about edstelmach.ca during his press conference this morning before he left for the First Ministers’ Conference in Ottawa.

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

not-edstelmach.ca

Here’s a bit of a rundown of some of the political movement on the Alberta scene…

– The list of Alberta Provincial election candidates has been updated as Alberta Liberals have nominated Dick Mastel in Cypress-Medicine Hat and Dale D’Silva in Calgary-North West. For the New Democrats, former City Council candidate and two-time Edmonton-Manning candidate Hana Razga will be running in Edmonton-Whitemud against Tory Health Minister Dave Hancock and Alberta Liberal Nancy Cavanaugh. The NDs will also be running Mel Kraley in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo.

– The Battle for the Calgary-Egmont PC nomination is raging on. Don Middleton vs. Vicki Engel vs. Jonathan Denis. The victor will take on Alberta Liberal Cathie Williams, Independent-turfed-Tory Craig Chandler, Green Party Leader George Read, and New Dem Jason Nishiyama.

– Kudos to Elections Alberta for their swanky new website, it’s a great improvement compared the previous design.

– Jimmy Ford will be running as an Independent candidate in the next Federal election in the riding of Edmonton-Sherwood Park.

– The campaign south of the border gets more interesting as New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has ended his bid as a candidate in the Democratic race. I’m still betting on Mike Huckabee for the Republican nod…

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