Categories
Ed Stelmach Murray Smith Political Patronage

what will $105,000 get you?

Last week, it was revealed that Alberta’s former Ambassador to Washington D.C. and Calgary-Varsity Tory MLA Murray Smith was paid $105,000 taxpayer dollars after quiting his job in Washington DC five months early. Smith has been replaced by another former Calgary-Mackay Tory MLA and Minister Gary Mar…

It has also been revealed that after trying to hide the fact, Ed Stelmach signed the 2004 contract that gave Murray Smith the $105,000 payout while Stelmach was Ralph Klein’s Intergovernmental Affairs Minister.

Because Alberta’s accountable and transparent Progressive Conservative Government obviously has nothing better to do with $105,000 of Albertans money, I’ve come up with a list to help Ed Stelmach and his Progressive Conservative crew with some ideas.

What would $105,000 buy?

– Approximately 70,000 large double-doubles at Tim Horton’s.

– 39 semesters of tuition for an undergraduate Arts or Science student at the University of Alberta.

– 3.5 taxpayer funded Tory Staffer bachelor parties in Las Vegas.

– 262 $400 prosperity rebate cheques…

– 5962 copies of Stephen Colbert’s new book I am America (and so can you!) on Chapters.ca.

– 1179 youth-size winter jackets from Mountain Equipment Co-op.

– +17,000 Subway sandwiches (perhaps for students at inner-city schools?).

– 21 tickets to an exclusive $5,000 per ticket reception with Tory Premier Ed Stelmach.

– +13,000 regular admission tickets to the Montreal Planetarium.

Feel free to add your suggestions…

Email
Categories
Ed Stelmach Gary Mar Lyle Oberg Murray Smith

better uses for $105,000?

The Murray Smith patronage scandal continues as Ed Stelmach has shown his true fiscal conservative credentials.

After refusing to make the contract public, it has been revealed that as Tory Intergovernmental Affairs Minister, Ed Stelmach put his signature on the 2004 sweetheart contract that gave Murray Smith (the former Tory MLA for Calgary-Varsity) a $210,500 annual salary, his car, his Washington apartment and other benefits, and $105,000 after he quit his job as Alberta’s Washington Ambassador five months early.

I wonder if Gary Mar is going to get the same deal.

Tax dollars at work, folks.

Also, Tory Finance Minister Lyle Oberg will be packing it in after the next election after apparent clash with Ed Stelmach’s elusive ‘leadership.’ Good riddance?

Email
Categories
Dancing up a storm Lyle Oberg Tom Olsen

dancing with the silver fox.

Apologies for the lack of posts over the past couple days. I spent all day yesterday recovering from dancing up a storm with Tom Olsen at Thursday night’s Legislature Press Gallery Christmas Party…

Oberg updates coming soon!

Email
Categories
Podcasts

radio killed the video star.

Since returning to Alberta after spending most of my summer in Quebec, I have found myself near-completely obsessed with American public radio.

With the exception of the tales of Jeb Bartlett’s West Wing, William Adama’s Battlestar, and certain Robot Chickens I have near completely severed any regular connection that I have the television entertainment world.

Having been a loyal listener of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation since shortly after leaving the womb, I had always believed that Mother Corp was the last bastion of great public radio. But since discovering the great stories that shows from the likes of WBEZ Chicago Public Radio and New York Public Radio have to offer me (check out This American Life and Radio Lab) I am finding myself listening to these podcasts more often than our very own CBC…

Though CBC radio shows of the likes of Ideas, the Current, As it Happens, and Dispatches continue to hold special places in my heart and my listening repertoire (and can all be downloaded), I find myself driven to continue to explore what the amazing public radio south of the 49th has to offer!

Email
Categories
2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

nomination updates and more…

Some nomination updates for your Wednesday afternoon reading pleasure…

Calgary-Egmont – Disavowed Progressive Conservative candidate Craig Chandler is threatening to sue Ed Stelmach’s PC party for:

the $127,000 he claims he spent on his campaign to secure the party’s nomination in Calgary-Egmont.

And he may run for the seat in the next provincial election as either an independent or for a different party.

It looks like me like Craig Chandler is looking for is a political home to keep him warm and cozy for the holidays. Maybe these guys can help him out…

Calgary-Nose Hill – Len Borowski has been nominated to run for the Alberta Liberals against first-term incumbent Tory Neil Brown.

Edmonton-Strathcona – The PCs have nominated Hughena Gagne. I really don’t know any more about Ms. Gagne than that she defeated Whyte Avenue pretty-boy Chad Blake (who demonstrated his impeccable grammar skills here). Gagne will take on already nominated ND Rachel Notley and Green Adrian Cole.

West Yellowhead – Alberta Liberal candidate Lisa Higgerty will take on PC candidate Robin Campbell. West Yellowhead has been known to hold a strong non-conservative base (see: Jasper vs. Banff). From 1989 to 1993 New Democrat Jerry Doyle held the seat. Doyle was defeated by Alberta Liberal Duco VanBinsbergen in 1993 and VanBinsbergen was defeated by Tory Ivan Strang in 1997.

Strang is not seeking re-election this time around. A local rumour has it that nominated Tory candidate Robin Campbell has a little too many NDP connections in his recent past than the local PC establishment can stomach, leaving many local Tories questioning whether they will have the time to give in the next campaign. The NDs have yet to nominate a candidate in West Yellowhead.

Email
Categories
Cold

the anti-hawaii.

Sometimes I really wonder why people live this far north.

brrrrrr.

Email
Categories
Ed Stelmach Kevin Taft polls

sunday: new poll

A new Leger Marketing poll has Ed Stelmach‘s Tories at 42% (up from 33% in the previous survey), Kevin Taft’s Alberta Liberals at 21% (up from 14%), Brian Mason’s New Democrats dropping to 6% (from 8%), and the Alberta Alliance at 5%.

Both the Tories and Alberta Liberals have increased support and remain the two major players, but all parties remain below their traditional levels of support, indicating that there is still a lot of work to be done in the run up to the next election. I would be very interested to see how the regional breakdowns of support in the poll flushed out (ie: Edmonton v. Calgary v. rural).

With the up and down fluctuations we’ve seen in the polls over the past year, it wouldn’t be surprising to see support levels shift a couple more times in the run up to and during the next election.

(h/t to Ken Chapman for the news link)

Email
Categories
2006 Alberta PC Leadership Race Ed Stelmach Jim Dinning Ted Morton

everybody’s third choice. one year later.

Today is the one-year anniversary of Ed Stelmach‘s selection as leader of Alberta’s 36-year old Progressive Conservative government (and also a first-anniversary for anniversary for Stephane Dion). On December 2, 2006, Stelmach came from third place to defeat Jim Dinning and Ted Morton in the final weekend of the Alberta PC leadership selection.

Stelmach’s year as Tory Premier has been the most shaky the Tories have witnessed in a long time. I could use this post to write about Ed Stelmach’s Tories and their many, many missteps and missed opportunities over the past year (the Calgary-Elbow by-election, EUB spy scandal, a damning Auditor General’s report, waffling on the royalty review, shutting down debate on Bill 46, taking 4 months to deal with Craig Chandler in Calgary-Egmont, the rest of the Top 10, etc), but instead, I’ll wish Premier Stelmach congrats on surprsing many of us by surviving one year.

In conclusion, I will leave you with everyone’s favorite theme song from the 2006 Alberta PC leadership race:

Email
Categories
Calgary-Egmont Craig Chandler Ed Stelmach

craig chandler: judgment day.

Today is decision day for Craig Chandler.

Today, Ed Stelmach and the Alberta Progressive Conservative Association executive committee will decide the fate of the dually nominated Progressive Conservative candidate in Calgary-Egmont.

As yesterday was this blogger’s Birthday (thanks, Blake), I don’t think there could be a better present that Ed Stelmach and the Alberta Progressive Conservative Association executive committee could give this blogger than Craig Chandler, Progressive Conservative candidate for Calgary-Egmont.

UPDATE: Ed Stelmach has pretty much done what everyone expected he would do and rejected Craig Chandler’s nomination as the PC candidate in Calgary-Egmont. It should be interesting to see what Craig Chandler’s next move will be (considering he won the Calgary-Egmont nomination with the support of the large majority of Calgary-Egmont PC members).

Will Stelmach appoint his favorite candidate or let the constituency association hold another nomination meeting?

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

ed stelmach invokes closure on bill 46.

As part of his government’s priority of Accountability and Transparency for Building Tomorrow’s Secure Alberta Future, Ed Stelmach has taken a hold of the reigns of democracy by invoking closure on the debate of controversial Bill 46. Official Opposition MLAs were only given four hours to debate the Bill before Stelmach shut down debate on the Bill.

Alberta Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman:

“The Conservatives aren’t even allowing their own members to speak to it,” Blakeman says. “If you think electing a Conservative MLA will put you on the inside of government, you’re wrong. They’re shutting down their people.”

This is the first time the Stelmach government has used closure. The Klein government used closure 38 times in 14 years but it seldom used closure on more than one stage of a bill.

“Stelmach is Klein on steroids,” Blakeman says. “He’s hyper-Klein.”

The Tories introduced amendments to the Bill this week, but a group of central Alberta landowners (including Lacombe-Ponoka Green candidate Joe Anglin) responded with:

In Bill 46, including the new amendments tabled today, if a person is directly and adversely affected by a proposed project the new commission can still make any decision or issue any order without giving notice or holding a hearing if the commission is satisfied the applicant followed the rules respecting each owner of land. No one knows what the rules are in respect to each owner of land and the rules have not been made or defined. What’s troubling is, Bill 46 allows the commission to make rules and regulations that supersede legislation. In essence the new Commission will be able to make rules to circumvent legislation.

Furthermore, the public can have no confidence in Bill 46 if section 24(1) remains. Section 24(1) allows the Commission to make any decision or issue any order without giving notice or holding a hearing if the commission considers the matter urgent or for any other sufficient reason. Simply stated citizens have no right to notice or to a hearing in Bill 46. Finally, in Sec 9(4) the Commission does not have to afford an opportunity to a person to be represented by counsel.

Email
Categories
A Learning Alberta Affordabilty Framework Council of Alberta University Students Dave Hancock Denis Herard Doug Horner Roles and Mandates

roles and mandates.

Completely under the radar, Alberta’s Department of Advanced Education and Technology released its Roles and Mandates framework document yesterday.

In the early months of 2007, in my role as Chair of the Council of Alberta University Students, I was part of the original consultations for this framework. Though I’m not that they were really ‘consultations,’ as no one seemed very clear as to what ‘Roles and Responsibilities‘ (as it was then known) was supposed to accomplish, only that the Minister wanted to define them.

At the time, the new framework looked suspiciously like a makework/legacy building framework project from new-Minister Doug Horner (Roles and Mandates followed a string of Advanced Education frameworks, including from Dave Hancock’s A Learning Alberta and short-term-disaster of a Minster Denis Herard’s *weak* Affordability Framework).

As unsexy as ‘Roles and Mandates‘ sounds (and probably is), I’ve been a little disappointed at how low under the radar the entire process has flown. If the framework is as important as CAUS’ latest media release gushes, it’s too bad that groups like CAUS and Public Interest Alberta’s PSE Taskforce weren’t more aggressive in bringing this to the media and Albertans attention (especially with a provincial election around the corner).

Email
Categories
Calgary-Egmont Craig Chandler

the daily craig chandler.

Here is your daily update on Calgary-Egmont’s nominated Progressive Conservative candidate:

Globe & Mail: The Chandler Problem
FFWD: Former radio host a “huge liability”

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics Craig Chandler Ed Stelmach

gary mar, a golden parachute, and more.

A bit of a look around…

– Gary Mar has strapped on his golden parachute and is on his way to a +$230,000 taxpayer funded gig in Washington DC.

– Ed Stelmach doesn’t want to meet with Calgary-Egmont nominated Progressive Conservative candidate Craig Chandler. Stelmach and his inner circle will meet on December 1st to decide whether PC members in Calgary-Egmont made a better decision than a small group of Conservative lawyers.

Concerned Christians Canada are calling it a witch hunt, but I tend to agree with Don Braid:

All this happened because local Conservatives, demoralized after Jim Dinning’s leadership defeat, didn’t have the will to fight off Chandler even though they saw him coming months ago.

– A number of candidate nominations happened yesterday. For the Alberta Liberals, Greg Flanagan was nominated in Calgary-Bow and Tony Vonesh in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills. The Tories nominated Lindsay Blackett in Calgary-North West.

– Alberta’s Bill 46 battle continues, pitting rural landowners versus the Stelmach Tories.

Email
Categories
2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

more alberta nominations.

A whole load of candidates have been nominated in the past week. In Calgary, three Alberta Liberal candidates were nominated last night Laura Shutiak in Calgary-Fish Creek, Lori Czerwinski in Calgary-Lougheed, and John Roggeveen in Calgary-Shaw.

The saga of Craig Chandler and his victory in the Calgary-Egmont Progressive Conservative nomination continues as the constituency President is now demanding a seat at the table when Ed Stelmach and the PC Inner Circle meet to decide Chandler’s fate this weekend.

In Edmonton…

Edmonton-Ellerslie – Naresh Bhardwaj was nominated as the PC candidate to take on Alberta Liberal MLA Bharat Agnihotri in the next election. Bhardwaj ran for the nominated against 1993 Edmonton-Ellerslie PC candidate Bas Roopnarine and 2001 PC candidate Sukhi Randhawa (of ‘Booze for Votes‘ fame). In 2004, Edmonton-Ellerslie was a three-way race between Agnihotri, Tory Gurnam Dodd, and ND Marilyn Assheton-Smith.

Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood – Former Liberal/Independent/PC MLA Andrew Beniuk defeated T.J. Keil for the Tory nod. Though I was rooting for T.J. (yes, I was rooting for a Tory), I think Beniuk’s name recognition might help him do decently against ND leader Brian Mason in the now merged constituency that Beniuk formerly represented.

Edmonton-Meadowlark – The Alberta Liberals have nominated Debbie Cavaliere to run for the spot of retiring MLA Maurice Tougas. Cavaliere will take on PC candidate Raj Sherman in what is sure to be a hot and probably close race. In 2004, Maurice Tougas surprised many when he defeated backbench Tory MLA Bob Maskell by a slim margin of +100 votes. Edmonton-Meadowlark was also a close race in 2001 when Maskell unseated Alberta Liberal MLA Karen Leibovici.

Edmonton-Mill Woods – The Tories have nominated Carl Benito to run against Alberta Liberal MLA Weslyn Mather. Benito ran unsuccessfully against MLA Don Massey in Edmonton-Mill Woods in 2001. Mather was elected in 2004 with a margin of +2,000 votes over Naresh Bhardwaj (who is now the nominated PC candidate in Edmonton-Ellerslie).

Other recent nominations include Robin Campbell for the Tories in West Yellowhead and Horst Schreiber for the Alberta Liberals in Battle River-Wainwright.

Click here for an up to date list of Alberta provincial election candidates.

Email
Categories
Alberta Politics

stopping bill 46.

This ended up in my email inbox this evening…

– KILL BILL 46 RALLY ¬
What: A Rally of citizens concerned about the negative effects of the Government’s proposed Bill 46 on peoples rights to participate in energy and utilities regulatory proceedings.

When: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 12:00 Noon sharp
Where: Alberta Legislature Building
10800 – 97 Ave.
Edmonton, AB

Why: Bill 46 is about to be passed into law by the Conservative Government even though it will have very dramatic negative effects on the ability of the citizens of Alberta to effectively intervene into proposed energy and utility projects that will directly affect them, their lands or the environment. There has been widespread opposition to the Bill and now is the time to show Premier Stelmach that Albertans do not want Bill 46 to be passed into law.

Who: Concerned citizens, landowners, environmentalists and social justice activists – everyone interested in fair and transparent government.

Contacts: Southern Alberta: Mike Judd, 403-627-2949
Central and Northern Alberta: Joe Anglin, 403-843-3279

Email