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The Edmonton Journal is reporting that Tory MLA’s Cindy Ady and Barry McFarland received $19,000 for work on the Idaho-Alberta task force – a task force which only met once and has no recorded accomplishments.
No meeting minutes. No phone records. Not to mention no border between Alberta and Idaho.
A spokesperson from Premier Ed Stelmach‘s office:
admitted the task force didn’t do much in the end, but they had good intentions and tried to set up meetings with their American counterparts. “Can I show you a report, an agreement, a memorandum, anything? No, I can’t. It just isn’t there,” David Sands said.
John Nordstrom, with the Idaho Department of Commerce, referred to the group as the Idaho-Alberta Sister State Task Force.
He said the state politician who sat on the informal committee didn’t receive any extra compensation.
“It was just part of their normal job. There wasn’t any extra pay or any-thing.”
Here are the results from the latest daveberta municipal election poll. It should be no surprise that affordable housing, infrastructure and roads, and urban sprawl are some of the big issues on the minds of Edmontonians leading up to October 15.
 |
||
| Selection | ||
| Affordable Housing |  34% |
28 |
| Arts and Culture | 1% |
1 |
| Crime and Safety | 2% |
2 |
| Infrastructure and Roads | 24% |
20 |
| Public Transit | 6% |
5 |
| Recreation and Parks | 1% |
1 |
| Regional Cooperation | 9% |
7 |
| Taxes | 5% |
4 |
| Urban Sprawl and Growth | 15% |
12 |
| Other | 2% |
2 |
|
|
|
| 82 votes total | ||
There is also new poll up, so vote early and vote often!
Some thoughts for Monday morning…
– CBC Edmonton has launched an Edmonton Votes 2007 website. I will have the pleasure of blogging for the CBC site starting tomorrow, so make sure to check it out.
– Connect2Edmonton is getting a bit of media attention which is good for the forum. Post your questions to municipal candidates in the forums – some candidates are responding.
– The Edmonton Journal’s Scott McKeen has a fun column today about the ‘Door knocking-Diet.’
– The St. Albert Gazette has some interesting stories on the Mayoral and Aldermanic races going on in the city just north of Edmonton.
– I spent a good chunk of my weekend campaigning for Don Iveson in Ward 5. I feel good about the positive response we received while we were out on Saturday doorknocking with Edmonton-Rutherford MLA Rick Miller.
In a surprise win, Peter Sandhu bested former MLA Tony Vandermeer, Emerson Mayers, and Independent MLA Dan Backs in this weekend’s Edmonton-Manning PC nomination.
This is disappointing on two fronts. First, Sandhu’s nomination means that the Tories won’t have the pleasure of running Dan Backs under their banner. And second, it means that I now have no reason to post the series of embarrassing emails that Mayers sent me a couple of weeks ago.
It also looks like it’s backs to the drawing board for Dan Backs…
Sandhu will face strong competition from Alberta Liberal candidate Sandeep Dhir in Edmonton-Manning in the next election.
Edmonton-Manning has been held by the Alberta Liberals from 1993 to 2001 and 2004 to 2006 and by the Tories from 2001 to 2004.
Now that I’ve had a chance to take a look at the much talked about Alberta Royalty Review Panel Final Report, I have some thoughts to offer.
1. The report is much more damning than I think anyone thought it would be.
The report begins with the opening statement: “Albertans do not receive their fair share from energy development.” The report proves this to be an understatement.
2. The report revealed that a lack of government accountability has led to billions of dollars in reduced royalty income over the last 15 years – the royalty holidays and adjustments have reduced Alberta’s income by nearly $8.6 billion over the past 15 years.
Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft and Shadow Energy Minister Hugh MacDonald pointed out that:
the government failed to report a four year royalty holiday period, which began in 1997, under former Minister of Energy Steve West. In 2001, the Auditor General questioned why the royalty holiday and incentive programs were not reported. The Auditor General started to report these amounts in his annual report. Since then, the Department of Energy has buried the amount of the royalty adjustments in their financial footnotes.
3. Though some are rallying against the report, the same people don’t seem to understand the difference between a royalty and a tax.
4. There is no doubt that the release of
5. In 2004, Federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser’s report into the Sponsorship scandal revealed that up to $100 million of the $250 million sponsorship program was awarded to advertising firms and Crown corporations for little or no work.
In 2007, Alberta’s Royalty Review Panel revealed that approximately $8.6 billion in natural resource royalties owed to Albertans were not collected. This failure occured while Ed Stelmach and Lyle Oberg were sitting at the table in Ralph Klein’s Tory Cabinet.
Albertans have been cheated in a big way and should be furious.
Taking a page from Al Gore’s book, Ward 4 council candidate Sheila Mckay has claimed that she invented Edmonton’s LRT…
“Sheila McKay, who was on council from 1989 to 1995, took credit for the LRT, telling the audience it was “my idea” to bring light-rail transit to the city 30 years ago.”
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mia.
Apologies for the interruption in regular blogging over the past couple of days. Work, studies, and campaign volunteering has kept me quite busy this week.
Get ready for upcoming posts on the 2007 Edmonton Municipal Election, Alberta’s Royalty Review (and secret royalty reviews under the previous Tory Premier), the continuing AEUB scandal and maybe some links to some of the great YouTube vids coming out of the Ontario Provincial Election. Here’s a fun one:
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it costs more.
The Alberta Teachers’ Association has launched a new series of TV ads as part of their Budget More campaign calling on the Stelmach Tories to address the conditions in Alberta’s Education system.
(Thanks to Larry Johnsrude for the ad link)
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familiar faces.
The October 15, 2007 Edmonton Municipal Election will include some familiar faces. Because of the difficulty of defeating incumbents in Edmonton City politics, many Council candidates run a number of times before being elected (this includes current City Councillors Dave Thiele, Jane Batty, and Mike Nickel).
Here is a list of candidates who are hoping that the second, third, fourth, or fifth time is a charm…
Mayoral
Dave Dowling (Mayoral: 2004; Provincial, Edmonton-Gold Bar: 2004; Federal Marajuana Party, Edmonton-Strathcona: 2004, 2006)
Don Koziak (Ward 5: 1995; Ward 2: 1998, 2004)
Robert Ligertwood (Mayoral: 1992, 1995, 2001)
Ward 2
Jabin Caouette (Ward 2: 2004)
Kerry Hutton (Ward 2: 2004)
Dave Loken (Ward 2: 2004)
Ward 3
Kyle Balombin (Ward 3: 2004)
Tony Caterina (Ward 3: 2004; Alberta Alliance, Edmonton-Centre: 2004)
Shui Wing Mak (Ward 4: 1995)
Thomas “Buffalo Terminator” Tomilson (Ward 2: 1989; Ward 3: 1992, 1998; Ward 4: 1995; Mayoral: 2001, 2004)
Harvey Voogd (Provincial ND, Edmonton-Norwood: 1997)
Ward 4
Ben Henderson (Ward 4: 2001, 2004)
Sheila Mckay (Ward 6: 1974, 1977, 1980, 1986, 1989, 1992, 1995, 1998; Councillor: 1989-1995)
Adil Pirbhai (Ward 5: 1995, 1998, 2004; Ward 4: 2001)
Hana Razga (Federal ND, Edmonton-East: 1997; Provincial ND, Edmonton-Manning: 1997, 2001)
Debbie Yeung (Ward 4: 2001, 2004)
Ward 6
Chinwe Okelu (Ward 6: 1998, 2001, 2004)
Amarjeet Sohi (Ward 6: 2004)
Long title. Big deal.
Tory Premier Ed Stelmach and his Energy Minister Mel Knight continue to fumble in the face of the growing AEUB scandal. It looks as if Stelmach and Knight are pulling out every tool in the Tory tool chest in order to not deal with the scandal of the public AEUB hiring private investigators to spy on ordinary Albertans.
For the highlights, I’ll defer to the brutal eloquence of Edmonton Journal columnist Graham Thomson…
Energy Minister Mel Knight did two things exceptionally well in his news conference at the legislature on Monday afternoon: he arrived on time and he didn’t fall off the stage.
He did everything else remarkably badly.
At times Knight looked like he didn’t know how to answer questions or was doing his best to avoid them. Sometimes he grew so testy with reporters it looked like he wanted to kick them. I suspect the reason he didn’t was because at any given time he had a least one foot stuck firmly in his mouth.
Monday was supposed to be the day the Alberta government would demonstrate leadership on the EUB spying controversy that has plagued the government since news broke in June the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board hired a private investigator who had spied on landowners.
For weeks, the government has been hinting it was about to take decisive action to recover the EUB’s reputation that has sunk so low you’d need a drilling rig to find it.
Instead, we had a minister of energy doing his best to downplay the biggest scandal to hit the government since Ed Stelmach became premier.
Similar to the updated list of Edmonton City Council candidates, I have updated the list of candidates acclaiming and contesting seats in the Edmonton Public School Board and Edmonton Catholic School District elections on October 15, 2007.
Also, there is a new 2007 Edmonton Municipal election poll on the sidebar.
The new poll asks:
What will be the biggest issue of the 2007 Edmonton Municipal Election?
Affordable Housing
Arts and Culture
Crime and Safety
Infrastructure and Roads
Public Transit
Recreation and Parks
Regional Cooperation
Taxes
Urban Sprawl and Growth
Other
Vote early and often!
Today was nomination day at City Hall. Here is the final list of candidates for the Edmonton Municipal Election on October 15, 2007. I will be posting profiles of each ward and their candidates over the course of the election.
2007 Edmonton City Council candidates
(* indicates incumbency)
Mayor of Edmonton
(edmonton election 2007: the non-race for mayor)
Dustin Becker
Dave Dowling
Khaled Kheireddine
Don Koziak
Peter Lefaivre
Robert Ligertwood
George Lam
Stephen Mandel*
Bill Whatcott
Edmonton City Council
Ward 1
(edmonton election 2007: ward 1)
Betty Kennedy
Andrew Knack
Karen Leibovici*
Linda Sloan*
Ward 2
(edmonton election 2007: the race for ward 2)
Jabin Caouette
Ron Hayter*
Kerry Hutton
Kim Krushell*
Dave Loken
Mike Sokoluik
Shelley Tupper
Ward 3
(edmonton election 2007: a race in ward 3)
Kyle Balombin
Tony Caterina
Ed Gibbons*
Shiu Wing Mak
Chris Martin
Chris Roehrs
Thomas James Tomilson
Harvey Voogd
(Councillor Janice Melnychuk is not seeking re-election)
Ward 4
(edmonton election 2007: something about ward 4)
Jane Batty*
Nyambura Mia Belcourt
Lewis Cardinal
Judith (Jodi) Flatt
Ben Henderson
Sheila McKay
Brian Patterson
Deborah Peaker
Adil Pirbhai
Hana Razga
Thomas Roberts
Margaret Saunter
Brent Thompson
Brian Wissink
Debbie Yeung
(Councillor Michael Phair is not seeking re-election)
Ward 5
(edmonton election 2007: choice in ward 5)
Bryan Anderson*
Don Iveson
Brent Michalyk
Mike Nickel*
Ward 6
(edmonton election 2007: wrath of ward 6)
Lori Jeffery-Heaney
Chuck McKenna
Chinwe Okelu
Amarjeet Sohi
Dave Thiele*
Thomas Dennis Vasquez
(Councillor Terry Cavanagh is not seeking re-election)
It’s a big political day today…
– It’s the candidate nomination deadline for municipal election candidates in Alberta. After 12 noon, Albertans will know who they will be able to vote for in the October 15 Municipal Elections. I already know who I am voting for in Ward 5.
– Don Koziak has thrown his hat in the ring for Mayor. Koziak’s last minute run against current Mayor Stephen Mandel should be an interesting one…
– Today is by-election day in Quebec. With three by-elections set for today, it should be interesting to see which way the political climate in La Belle Provence is shifting.
I was in Outremont back in August and if the amount of signs mean anything, it’s Robert Mulcair’s to lose. That said, a Mulcair win in Outremont sends a strong signal towards the Harper Tories and Dion Liberals about their growth potential on the vote rich island of Montreal.
The Edmonton Journal continued it’s two-part feature on political patronage in Progressive Conservative Alberta. Here is a second list that the Journal put together:
SOME PROMINENT TORIES WITH MULTIPLE APPOINTMENTS
– Audrey Luft, organizer of 2007 Alberta PC annual convention: Alberta Foundation for the Arts (chair), NAIT, Alberta Economic Development Authority
– Doug Goss, Edmonton co-chair of Tories’ next election campaign: Capital Health, Alberta Economic Development Authority
– Wayne Jacques, former Conservative MLA: Peace Country Health Region, Transportation Safety Board, Law Enforcement Review Board
– Alf Savage, former PC president: Auto Insurance Rate Board (chair), Municipal Government Board
– Wendy Kinsella, losing Edmonton PC candidate in 2001: NorQuest College (chair), Capital Health (vice-chair)
– Marvin Moore, former PC campaign manager and cabinet minister: Peace Country Health (chair), Agriculture Marketing Products Council Appeal Tribunal
– Dale Johnson, president of Whitecourt-Ste. Anne PC association: Aspen Health, Credit Counselling Services of Alberta
– Robert Seidel, lawyer to former treasurer Stockwell Day: Grant MacEwan College, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research
– Skip McDonald, former president of Klein’s PC constituency association: Calgary Health, ATB Financial
UPDATE: Calgary-Nose Hill MLA Neil Brown says there’s nothing wrong with these appointments.