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2007 Edmonton Municipal Election

2007 edmonton school board election candidates.

Here is the final list of candidates running for election or re-election in the Edmonton Public School Board and Edmonton Catholic School District elections on October 15, 2007.

Edmonton Public School Board
Ward A
Bev Esslinger

Ward B
Wendy Keiver
Ken Shipka

Ward C
Sue Huff
Don Williams

Ward D
Amanda Beisiegel
Dave Colburn

Ward E
Ken Gibson
Neil MacDonald

Ward F
Don Fleming
Susan O’Neil

Ward G
Sheila Clifford-MacKay
Myrna Freeman
Terry McKinnon
George Rice
Marlene Spencer

Ward H
Catherine Ripley
Neil Robblee

Ward I
Judith Axelson
Gerry Gibeault

Edmonton Catholic School District
Ward 1
Debbie Engel

Ward 2
Luigi Esposito
Becky Kallal
Jim Urlacher

Ward 3
Joe Filewych
Cindy Olsen
Jim Shinkaruk

Ward 4
Rudy Arcilla

Ward 5
John Acheson
Marilyn Bergstra

Ward 6
Kara Pelech

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Alberta Oil Sands Kevin Taft

the western tiger.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft made a major policy announcement yesterday while speaking to Calgary’s Rotary Club.

Turn West into energy superpower, Taft urges
Upgrade oilsands in western provinces instead of south of border, Liberal leader proposes

CALGARY – Alberta could forfeit a major economic opportunity worth billions of dollars if the province does not do whatever it can to ensure that more oilsands bitumen is processed here at home, Kevin Taft said Tuesday.

In a speech to Calgary’s Downtown Rotary Club, the Alberta Liberal opposition leader proposed an inter-provincial strategy to turn Western Canada into what he called an economic “tiger” by attracting more oilsands upgraders to the region.

Though industry officials say 70 per cent of bitumen is already processed in the province, Taft said it’s time for Alberta to call a summit of western governments to explore the possibilities of upgrading more bitumen in Western Canada.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft speaks to members of the Rotary Club during a luncheon meeting at the Fairmont Palliser Hotel in downtown Calgary on Tuesday.View Larger Image View Larger Image

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft speaks to members of the Rotary Club during a luncheon meeting at the Fairmont Palliser Hotel in downtown Calgary on Tuesday.

He noted estimates project that one million barrels of unprocessed bitumen will be exported for upgrading to the U.S. every day within eight years.

“I believe we now have an opportunity — an opportunity unlike any other in our history,” Taft told his audience. “A once-in-several-lifetimes opportunity to transform ourselves forever.”

You can read Kevin Taft’s full speech to the Rotary Club here.

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2007 Edmonton Municipal Election Alberta Politics

getting more than a nickel’s worth.

– Right-wing Edmonton City Councillor Mike Nickel launched his pun-filled Ward 5 re-election campaign this week. Nickel’s campaign logo is a coffee stain (which accurately reflects his past three years on City Council).

– Tory MLA’s Greg Melchin (Calgary-North West) and Denis Ducharme (Bonnyville-Cold Lake) announced their retirements this week. Both Melchin and Ducharme were elected in 1997 after defeating Decore-era Liberal MLA’s Frank Bruseker and Leo Vasseur (Bruseker is the current President of the Alberta Teachers’ Association).

– The Edmonton City Council Election candidates list has been updated. The nomination deadline is on Monday, September 17, so I will be providing a final list on Monday afternoon (I may actually make a trip down to City Hall to watch who shows up as well). Help spread the word about the October 15 Municipal Election by joining the “I’m voting in the Edmonton Municipal Election on October 15, 2007” facebook group.

– Just in case no one noticed (which is a complete possibility), the Alberta Social Credit Party is looking for a new Leader as Socred stalwart Lavern Alstrom is hanging up his hat.

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2007 Edmonton Municipal Election Don Iveson

i’m voting for don iveson in ward 5.

Over the summer, I’ve had the great pleasure of volunteering for the campaign of my friend Don Iveson. Don is running in the October 15, 2007 City Council Elections in the very large Ward 5 (which also happens to be the Ward where I reside).

As I’ve joined Don and other volunteers in doorknocking in neighbourhoods across Ward 5, I’ve been quite surprised by the amount of times I heard people express their desire for change on City Council. While on the doorsteps, it hasn’t been uncommon to hear people say “City Council needs some new blood,” “it’s time for a change on City Council,” or “it’s time to get rid of the old guys on Council.”

I can’t agree more, and I can hardly think of a more effective person to provide this change than Don Iveson.

Don Iveson represents a new vision for City Council. Don’s campaign revolves around three main principles – Efficiency, Environmental Responsibility, and Vibrant Communities. These three principles tie together ideas on smarter urban planning, revitalizing public transit, reining in urban sprawl, and more.

Don was interviewed in this week’s SEE Magazine’s candidate profile. Don has also received the ringing endorsements of retiring City Councillor Michael Phair, former School Trustee and Alberta Liberal MLA Don Massey, and retiring Edmonton-Strathcona NDP MLA Dr. Raj Pannu. (You can also join the Don Iveson for Ward 5 facebook group…)

I encourage you to take a look at Don’s ideas for Smart Growth in Ward 5 and to join me in voting for Don Iveson on October 15, 2007.

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Alberta Tories Calgary-Egmont Craig Chandler

oh, craig…

This was in my inbox from a daveberta reader this morning. Thanks for the message…

Hey Dave, [Craig] Chandler keeps on giving – and he wrote some serious falsehoods in the herald today.

So, Chandler wrote an op-ed in the herald today, where he claimed to have written something different on his posting.

he claimed:

“To those of you who have come to our great land from out of province, you need to remember that you came here to our home and we vote conservative. You came here to enjoy our economy, our natural beauty and more. This is our home and if you wish to live here, you must adapt to our rules and our voting patterns, or leave. Conservatism is our culture. Do not destroy what we have created.” – from Daveberta

was more like:

“To those of you who have come to our great land from out of province, you need to remember that you came here to our home and we vote conservative (meaning Social Credit, Alberta Alliance, Wildrose or the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party.)”

he also changed it on the forum posting:

Firstly, Alberta is growing in a way that was never expected and many of the people coming here do not truly appreciate Alberta or even understand the history of this province or the relationship with small ‘c’ conservatism. To those of you who have come to our great land from out of province, you need to remember that you came here to our home and we vote conservative (meaning Social Credit, Alberta Alliance, Wildrose or the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party). You came here to enjoy our economy, our natural beauty and more. This is our home and if you wish to live here, you must adapt to our rules and our voting patterns, or leave. Conservatism is our culture. Do not destroy what we have created.

The great part is the forum tracks edits to posts. The post is tagged at the end with:
“Last edited by Craig B. Chandler on Sun Sep 02, 2007 8:52 pm; edited 4 times in total.”

Craig is being untrue about what he wrote in his forum post.

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Alberta Liberals Kevin Taft Laurie Blakeman Women in Politics

alberta liberals reach for the TOP.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft was joined by Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman in lauching the ‘Take Our Place’ program yesterday. The TOP initiative is geared towards getting more women involved in provincial politics.

From the media release:

The Take Our Place program brings together a mentor team of dynamic women, including current and former Alberta Liberal MLAs, to support and encourage new candidates, as well as to identify barriers to political participation and find ways to eliminate or reduce them. While the program is currently focused on creating opportunities for women in the upcoming election, it will continue in the post-election period.

“There are so many issues important to women and families in Alberta,” Blakeman notes. “Our perspective is critical if real progress is to be made. It’s time we had more women at the decision-making table.”

In 1998, eight of the then-eighteen member Alberta Liberal Caucus were women.

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2007 Edmonton Municipal Election MNAG Edmonton

mature neighbourhoods matter.

As the October 15, 2007 Edmonton Municipal election gets closer, many community and public interest groups are preparing to promote important issues to City Council candidates. One of these groups is the Edmonton Mature Neighbourhoods Action Group.

MNAG Edmonton is comprised of 36 member communities of the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues.

MNAG Edmonton describes its mandate as:

There are many common planning & development issues in mature neighbourhoods and an urgent need for us to act jointly to convey our position on these issues to City Council for appropriate action on behalf of Edmonton residents. This resident up swell has identified major issues broadly across our city including:

1.) DC2 bylaw variations by development officers & misuse by developers;
2.) Limited enforcement of bylaws;
3.) Concerns with the SDAB including the ability to enforce its decisions;
4.) Lack of Area Redevelopment Plans (ARP’s) & updating of existing ones as well as the absence of a resident needs driven city wide development & transportation plan;
5.) Problems created by school closures;
6.) An apparent unwillingness on the part of City Council to follow resident approved area plans but rather follow a developer driven ad-hoc planning process;
7.) An apparent lack of appreciation of the currently available knowledge base within communities with the result that there is an “Administration knows best attitude” within the City. Ultimately this will have negative political repercussions.

MNAG Edmonton has also released a list of draft questions for candidates running for Edmonton City Council.

Just one more thing to think about when you enter the ballot booth on October 15, 2007!

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

leroy = out.

Wetaskiwin-Camrose Tory MLA LeRoy Johnson has officially announced that he will not be seeking re-election under the Ed Stelmach Tory banner.

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2008 Alberta PC Leadership Race Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

post-stelmach poll results.

The interim results are tallying up in what is quickly becoming to known as the unofficial 2008 Alberta PC leadership race.

Look on the sidebar to vote (early and often…):

Who will be the next leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party?

Selection Votes
Craig Chandler 22% (20 votes)
Ray Danyluk 1% (1 vote)
Jim Dinning 12% (11 votes)
Dave Hancock 13% (12 votes)
Ted Morton 28% (26 votes)
Mark Norris 2% (2 votes)
Lyle Oberg 8% (7 votes)
Tom Olsen 15% (14 votes)

93 votes total

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Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

mr. dithers: alberta edition.

Aren’t you glad that Ed Stelmach is speaking for Alberta to the rest of Canada?

“Will there be people without homes? Yes. Will there be some sick people that we can’t save, despite all the medical technology that we have? Yes, there will be. But people are continuing to move here because where else are they going to go in Canada?”

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2007 Municipal Election

this traffic report…

And the Calgary Mayoral race gets more entertaining as candidate Alnoor Kassam is taking on incumbent-Mayor Dave Bronconnier…

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2007 Edmonton Municipal Election 2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

updated candidates list.

The 2007 municipal election candidates list and 2007/2008 Alberta provincial election candidates list have both been recently updated…

(Also, thanks to Emerson Mayers, running for the PC nomination in Edmonton-Manning, for the bizarre email…)

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David Swann Nuclear Power

nuclealberta.

Calgary-Mountain View Alberta Liberal MLA David Swann has some interesting thoughts on today’s Peace River nuclear power plant announcement.

Now, being skeptical about nuclear power is one thing (and another issue that I plan to elaborate further in a future post), but the secrecy surrounding who the plant’s largest customer will be is another bizarre story:

Bold plans to bring nuclear power to northern Alberta were unveiled Tuesday, but just exactly who’ll be using most of the megawatts remained a mystery even to many in the oilpatch.

It’s assumed that Energy Alberta Corp.’s proposed $6.2-billion project to put a Candu twin reactor in the sparsely populated Peace River area in the province’s northwestern corner is all about the oilsands, which require an immense amount of energy to squeeze oil from the ground.

The company and its partners said Tuesday that about 70 per cent of the 2,200 megawatts of electricity will be going to “one large, industrial off-taker” but declined to name names.

“At this time we’re not going to discuss those arrangements,” said Dale Coffin, spokesman for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., which is teaming up with Energy Alberta to build Canada’s first new nuclear power in nearly 25 years.

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Alberta Liberals Alberta NDP Alberta Tories Richard Magnus

retirement row.

In what I expect to be a steady stream over the next few months, long-time Tory backbencher Richard Magnus joined the current as he announced that he won’t be seeking a fifth term in office.

That brings the official MLA retirement list to eight:

Progressive Conservative MLAs
Victor Doerksen (Red Deer-South)
Clint Dunford (Lethbridge-West)
Carol Haley (Airdrie-Chestermere)
Denis Herard (Calgary-Egmont)
Rob Lougheed (Strathcona)
Richard Magnus (Calgary-North Hill)

Alberta Liberal MLA
Maurice Tougas (Edmonton-Meadowlark)

New Democrat MLA
Raj Pannu (Edmonton-Strathcona)

On the Tory retirements, comments are abound:

“A lot of MLAs see the writing on the wall that people are not happy with the party and the way it’s run,” says Jim Stevenson, who chaired Alberta Renewal, founded during last fall’s leadership race in an effort to reconnect the party with its grassroots.

“There’s so many things that need to be changed to bring some democracy back into the party and I don’t see that happening.”

…

David Taras, a political analyst at the University of Calgary, agrees a number of factors affect the decision whether to run again, but says Stelmach has to wear some of the responsibility.

“There are a lot of factors at work here and some are not the kind of factors the premier likes to talk about,” he said. “Klein had enormous coat tails. With those coat tails gone, and the argument that Stelmach has very short coat tails, or none at all, could be a drag on some of these candidates.

“If you do the basic math, some of them could be in tough re-election battles and some could lose.”

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Alberta Tories Calgary-Egmont Craig Chandler Rick Bell

rick bell on ‘kooky craig.’

Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell offers his thoughts on Progressive Conservative nomination candidate ‘Kooky’ Craig Chandler’s recent comments that if new Albertans: “wish to live here, you must adapt to our rules and our voting patterns, or leave. Conservatism is our culture. Do not destroy what we have created.”

UPDATE: CTV Calgary and the Globe and Mail have both run stories on Mr. Chandler’s commments.

Ed Stelmach wouldn’t refute Chandler’s comments, but would only say that: “This province has welcomed newcomers and we will continue to welcome newcomers.”

Here is the YouTube video (linked from Glen):

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