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Daveberta à Quebec

daveberta à qc.

Yes, I`m still alive and well here in la belle provence.

I was in Quebec City over the past couple days for the festival d`été (with musique) and had a lot of fun. I`ve actually been enjoying the Québec music scene quite a bit. On Friday night, Xavier Rudd played a show at the festival and it was great. I would recommend to anyone in the area during that time to check out that festival.

Nothing else to report. The Saguenay is still beautiful, but I`m longing to gaze across the Alberta prairies once again… soon enough.

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Daveberta à Quebec

salut!

Bonjour! I just wanted to write a quick message to let everyone know that I`m still alive. I`m enjoying myself in Quebec (I am in Chicoutimi right now and was able to find a computer with les internets).

Since I haven`t been paying much attention to the Alberta scene since I`ve come to Quebec I`m not totally up to speed on the newest news of the day. I was able to do a bit of a blog scan in the past couple minutes, so I would recommend that you check out CalgaryGrit as Dan has had some good posts over the past couple days.

For those of you wondering, the Montreal Jazz Festival was lot of fun. I would recommend it to anyone who just enjoys fun in general.

If I reach another location with access to les internets in the next month I`ll try to post again, but if not, Daveberta will return to regularily scheduled postings in August 2007.

PS: Also, comment dit-ton free fall en francais?

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Daveberta à Quebec

happy canada day!

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Canada Day!

(I’m in Montreal enjoying the amazing Jazz Festival)

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AEUB Alberta Liberals Alberta Politics Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

top ten.

I’m going to be taking a break from the world of blogging for the month of July, but I will be back in August.

Until then, I will leave you with the Ed Stelmach Top Ten List…

10. The $5,000 Fundraiser

9. Ed Stelmach’s first cabinet (90% male, 90% rural, 90% rookie)

8. Ed Stelmach’s second cabinet (89% male, 89% rural, 89% rookie).

7. The Stelmach-Oberg 2007 Budget.

6. Ed Stelmach agreeing with Calgary Elbow PC candidate Brian Heninger that he should be choked (Heninger was defeated by Alberta Liberal Craig Cheffins. Kevin Taft’s Alberta Liberals won Calgary Elbow after 36 years as a Tory stronghold).

5. Ed Stelmach picking a fight with Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier over municipal funding.

4. Ed Stelmach letting Education Minister Ron Liepert pick a fight with the Alberta Teachers’ Association over the unfunded pension liability during a bargaining year.

3. Ed Stelmach defending the AEUB for hiring four private investegators to spy on Albertans and their lawyers.

2. Ed Stelmach doing nearly nothing to address Alberta’s growing affordable housing crisis.

1. Ed Stelmach blaming market forces for his 19 point drop in support in Calgary.

There you have it folks, see you in August!

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Wildrose Party

alberta: political clearing house.

The newest of the new in the never halting rotating door of right-wing parties is entering stage right: The Wildrose Party.

If Ken’s list is correct, it is certainly an interesting group. Senator-in-waiting Lynk Byfeild, former Alberta Alliance candidates Elanor Maroes and Marilyn Burns, and Gordon Stamp.

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AEUB Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

commissioner to investigate aeub.

As Ed Stelmach and Mel Knight continue to defend the AEUB for its hiring of four private investagators to spy on Albertans and their lawyers in Rimbey, Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work has opened an investigation into the AEUB scandal.

Meanwhile, the angry letters continue to roll into the newspapers.

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Alberta Liberals Kevin Taft

shuffling the political deck.

From Andrew Cohen in today’s Ottawa Citizen:

If Saskatchewan is poised for change, so is Alberta, where the Conservatives have been in office since 1971. The loss of Ralph Klein’s seat — which the Conservatives held for years — in a recent byelection in Calgary may well be the first knock on the door of their undoing.

Led by the intelligent Kevin Taft, the Liberals offer a government-in-waiting. Mr. Taft’s provocative new book, Democracy Derailed, is a searing indictment of a government that he calls unaccountable and unimaginative in a province coping with explosive growth.

Alberta, like Saskatchewan, is on the cusp of change.

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Alberta Liberals Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

take two.

In reaction to the Alberta Liberal victory in the June 12 Calgary Elbow by-election, Ed Stelmach has added three Associate Ministers to his cabinet. Here are my thoughts on the move:

– A cabinet shuffle this early is a very odd move for a Premier that has yet to receive a mandate from the electorate.

– Appointing Gene Zwozdesky (Edmonton Mill Creek) puts two of three Edmonton Tory MLAs at the cabinet table (does Zwozdesky get a ‘half-seat?’). Zwozdesky’s responsibilities surround “capital planning,” something that suffered greatly over the past decade under the Tories. This may also give Zwozdesky a boost if he decides to run for re-election next Spring (Zwozdesky was re-elected by 781 votes in 2004).

In a related position, Yvonne Fritz (Calgary Cross) becomes Associate Minister of Affordable Housing and Urban Development. I’m not convinced that these two new Associate Minister appointments will actually solve the problems facing Albertans (ie: municipal funding, infrastructure, affordable housing) as what is needed is action and policy change – not the creation of new political jobs with hefty pay increases.

– In an odd move, Cindy Ady (Calgary Shaw) becomes Associate Minister of Tourism Promotion (with responsibility for Alberta’s participation in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver). I’m not quite sure why Alberta needs an Associate Minister of Olympics, but Hector Goudreau needs all the help he can get. I wonder how Mark Norris is feeling this week…

– All three newly appointed Associate Ministers supported Jim Dinning in the PC Leadership selection.

– Both Fritz and Zwozdesky were Ministers in Ralph Klein’s cabinets. All three supported Jim Dinning in the 2006 PC Leadership selection.

– These appointments raise serious concerns about the effectiveness of the Cabinet Policy Committees created after Stelmach became Premier.

– Appointing Justice Minister Ron Stevens as Deputy Premier is substantial only in a superficial manner. Considering that no one noticed when no Deputy Premier was appointed in December, it’s hard to say that this is anything more than bestowing another title. That said, Stelmach would be smart to move closer to veteran Ministers like Stevens and Dave Hancock – as surrounding himself with rookie rural Ministers Ray Danyluk, Lloyd Snelgrove, and Luke Ouellette hasn’t done him much good.

This all occurred the day before the release of a new Ipsos poll released on Saturday that shows party support sitting near 2004 levels (the more things change…).

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AEUB Democracy Ed Stelmach

where are the rolling heads?

As Ed Stelmach continues to defend the AEUB, Tory Minister Mel Knight is refusing to discipline anyone in the AEUB for hiring four private investigators to spy on a group of Alberta farmers and their lawyers.

“They discussed in hindsight that some of the things could have been handled differently and will be using this as a learning opportunity for the future. There will be no disciplinary measures at this time,” Knight’s spokesman Jason Chance said.

So, a provincially appointed tax-payer funded public body hired four private investigators to spy on ordinary Albertans and it’s a “learning experience?”

There are no repercussions?

No heads are going to roll?

No “review” of security policies?

“There are some very obvious security threats to oil and gas production and we shouldn’t discount that, but that is a totally different matter from public engagement in hearings,” said Lois Harder, a specialist in Canadian politics. “The effort to keep insisting this is a security issue is a ruse.”

“It’s trumped up.”

Democracy in Alberta just took another shot, Harder said.

“It’s very clear that if there is a threat of violence you call the police, not a private investigator who has no power to stop a threat of violence,” Harder said.

This would have been a perfect opportunity for Ed Stelmach to step up and lead by saying that this type of behavior is unacceptable. Instead, he towed the AEUB line. Albertans should be furious.

(Sheila Pratt also has some intersting thoughts on this issue)

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Uncategorized

not a silent absence.

For those of you wondering about my absence in the wake of this and this, don’t despair. I’ll be posting something soon. Busy with real life today.

In the meantime, keep on voting in the poll on the sidebar. 145 votes so far…

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AEUB Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

aeub hired p.i. to spy on albertans.

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board hired a private investegator to spy on Albertans. Yes. A spy.

To quote Paula Simons:

Activists also allege that one of the EUB’s agents, Don MacDonald, infiltrated the Alberta Environmental Network by posing as a concerned environmentalist.

Under that guise, they claim, MacDonald took part in conference calls in which the landowners and their lawyers discussed legal strategy.

For the record, the EUB denies hiring MacDonald to spy on the Alberta Environmental Network, suggesting MacDonald was acting for some other, unnamed client. (And for the record again, AltaLink insists it did not hire any PIs, including MacDonald.)

You know what? In a free and democratic society, the state does not normally hire private detectives to spy on citizens. If the EUB was sincerely worried about threats of violence, it could have called independent officers from the RCMP to investigate — officers who wouldn’t have been in the pay of the EUB, officers who would have had to worry about things like search warrants and probable cause and the Charter of Rights.

That’s what makes the EUB’s actions so disturbing. The board tried to do an end-run around civil liberties by contracting out surveillance work to a private company. For a quasi-judicial body to behave in the way that’s alleged, in the midst of a hearing, is reprehensible.

I’m speechless on this one. Someone in the AUEB had a case of very very poor judgement on this one. For a Public Board to hire a PI to spy on a group of ordinary Albertans is completely unaccetable.

What is even more confusing is Ed Stelmach‘s poor judgment in defending the AEUB’s spying tactics. Honest Ed, eh?

(*Cough* Spelling errors corrected – thanks, Bee)

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Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Ted Morton

and it’s only thursday.

What a week…

– Tory Education Minister Ron Liepert claims poverty. Finance Minister Lyle Oberg announces an $8.5 Billion surplus. For some reason, Liepert’s argument sounds more ludicrous today than it did yesterday…

– The Edmonton Journal Editorial Board rebutted Ed Stelmach in today’s editorial:

Stephen Mandel is right and Ed Stelmach is wrong. Edmontonians don’t need a plebiscite on new taxation powers. They need politicians with the courage to make decisions on this and other questions, to explain and defend those decisions to a skeptical public, and to be held responsible for them at election time.

In short, they need politicians who are more willing to do the difficult parts of the job for which they are paid.

In Stelmach’s case, one is tempted to note that a politician who has yet to subject his own premiership to a popular vote has a lot of nerve lecturing the mayor of Edmonton on the wisdom of seeking popular endorsement for his tax ideas.

– The House of Commons sheds a layer: Myron Thompson, Bill Graham, Michel Gauthier, Jean Lapierre, Jim Peterson and is about to make an unfortunate addition.

– Ted Morton wants to raise the drinking age from 18 to 19 years-old to cut down on crime and violence. I’d love to see Ted Morton’s data that shows it’s the 18 years-olds causing all the trouble, and not the rig pigs in town for a weekend romp.

– And finally, it wouldn’t be an election in Alberta without a crazy wingnut: enter Bill Whatcott.

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2007 Edmonton Municipal Election Stephen Mandel

mayor off the mark.

Now, I like Stephen Mandel, but what? fining panhandlers?

Mandel suggested one model for the city to examine is the bylaw in Saskatoon, where coercive begging or putting the touch on anyone in a stopped vehicle or within 10 metres of a bus stop, bank or ATM can lead to fines of up to $10,000 for repeat offenders.

Come on, Mr. Mayor. I expected better.

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polls

new poll.

I’ve added a new poll to the sidebar. Feel free to vote!

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2008 Alberta Provincial Election Alberta Politics

nom season.

It’s that season again! Here’s a rundown on some nomination news for your reading pleasure…

With longtime PC MLA Denis Herard likely retiring at the next election, PGIB (not to be confused with POGOB) Director Craig Chandler is running for the Tory nomination in Calgary-Egmont. No word if any other Tories are challenging Chandler in Egmont.

It’s expected that up to 8-10 Calgary PC MLAs may retire at the next election. The list of suspected retirees includes Richard Magnus (Calgary North Hill), Hung Pham (Calgary Montrose), Moe Amery (Calgary East), Heather Forsyth (Calgary Fish Creek), Yvonne Fritz (Calgary Cross), and Shiraz Shariff (Calgary McCall) – most of who were elected in 1993. It will be interesting to see what type of candidates will line up to run for the Tories now that their party leader wears very short coattails in Calgary – which could result in some very competitive races in that city.

The Liberals have (or will soon have) nominated a number of candidates in Calgary, including Kent Hehr (Calgary Buffalo), Carole Oliver (Calgary Fort), Bill Kurtze (Calgary Hays), and Avalon Roberts (Calgary Glenmore). All current Alberta Liberal MLAs are candidates in the next election.

In Calgary West, prominent Calgary lawyer Virginia May will take on Tory Education Minister Ron Liepert as the Liberal candidate. May led the 2001 defamation lawsuit against former Treasurer Stockwell Day. Calgary West has represented by former Tory Premier Peter Lougheed (1967-1986), PC Elaine McCoy (1986-1993), Liberal Danny Dalla-Longa (1993-1997), PC Karen Kryczka (1997-2004), and Ron Liepert (2004-Present).

Calgary Fort also looks like its setting up to be an interesting race with the Liberals and NDP nominating their candidates early. The Liberals have nominated former CBE Trustee Carole Oliver and the New Democrats have nominated Parkland Institute Outreach Coordinator Julie Hrdlicka. Julie Hrdlicka will be a strong candidate for the New Dems in Calgary, but with 3% support in the recent Calgary Elbow by-election, Calgary New Dems may have to rely on personal appeal to make any sort of dent in Calgary. Tory MLA Wayne Cao has represented Calgary Fort since its creation in 1997.

Lethbridge West PC MLA Clint Dunford is also likely to not seek re-election. First elected in 1993, Dunford has been undergoing cancer treatment over the past year. Lethbridge West has seen tight races between the Tories and Liberals since 1993, so this should be one to watch. Lethbridge East is currently held by Liberal MLA and former Alderwoman Bridget Pastoor.

Many-time City Council candidate Ian Crawford and Federal Liberal organizer and former STARS Physician Dr. Raj Sherman are lining up for the PC nomination in Edmonton Meadowlark. Liberal Maurice Tougas defeated Tory Bob Maskell in 2004 by just over 100 votes, so this should be a race to watch. Meadowlark has elected MLAs from both the Tories and Liberals since its creation in 1971 including PC Gerald Amerongen (1971-1986), Liberal Grant Mitchell (1986-1993), Liberal Karen Leibovici (1993-2001), PC Bob Maskell (2001-2004), and Liberal Maurice Tougas (2004-Present).

Catholic School Trustee Janice Sarich is looking for the Tory nod in Edmonton Decore. If Sarich wins the nomination, she will take on Liberal MLA Bill Bonko – a former Public School Trustee. Edmonton Decore and its previous incarnations have gone Liberal since 1989.

In Edmonton McClung, a number of Tories are lining up to take on Liberal MLA Mo Elsalhy. Allison Boychuk and David Xiao are two candidates looking to carry the Tory flag against Elsalhy – who hasn’t stopped door knocking since he was first elected in 2004. Edmonton McClung was created in 1993 and elected Liberal MLAs Grant Mitchell (1993-1998), Nancy MacBeth (1998-2001), and Tory MLA Mark Norris (2001-2004).

Edmonton Castle Downs went for three judicial recounts following the last election, so you can bet a media spotlight will be hovering over a second showdown between Tory Thomas Lukaszuk and Liberal Chris Kibermanis.

In St. Albert, the three Tories are seeking the nomination: current St. Albert Mayor Paul Chalifoux, former Alderman Ken Allred, and former Council candidate Frances Badrock. Two of these candidates have Federal connections: Chalifoux ran for the Federal Liberals in 1968 and Allred ran for the Reform Party in 1988 (Allred’s nomination ads in the Saint City News make no mention of the PC Party). Chalifoux was narrowly elected as Mayor in 2004 after being defeated by former Mayor Richard Plain in 2001 (Chalifoux served one-term in the Mayor’s chair from 1998-2001 and then defeated Plain in 2004 in a return to the Mayor’s chair). St. Albert has elected MLA’s from three parties in the past 20 years including NDP MLA Bryan Strong (1986-1989), PC Richard Fowler (1989-1993), Liberal Len Bracko (1993-1997), PC Mary O’Neill (1997-2004), and Liberal Jack Flaherty (2004-Present).

In Edmonton Whitemud, former School Trustee Nancy Cavanaugh will be challenging Tory Health Minister Dave Hancock for the Liberals. Hancock is a strong MLA, but past results have shown that Edmonton Whitemud can be a competitive seat (In 1989, Liberal Percy Wickman defeated Tory Premier Don Getty in Edmonton Whitemud). Past MLA’s include Liberal Percy Wickman (1989-1993), Liberal Mike Percy (1993-1997), and Tory Dave Hancock (1997-Present).

On the Green side of the block, a number of candidates have nominated including former leader David Parker (Edmonton Centre), Adrian Cole (Edmonton Strathcona), and Sean Mah (Banff-Cochrane). Look for the Greens to solidify their position as third place in Calgary. The New Democrats have also nominated a handful of first-time candidates including Christina Gray (Edmonton Mill Woods), Deron Bilous (Edmonton Centre), and Rachel Notley (Edmonton Strathcona).

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