daveberta.ca - Alberta Politics and Elections

The Alberta Liberals held their Policy Convention & AGM yesterday. It was interesting to see all the different types of discussion going on – there were four main discussion sessions based on the Alberta Horizon’s documents that the Liberal Caucus put together – Social Development, Democratic Reform & Governance, Economic Sustainability, and Environmental Protection & Enhancement.

It’s really amazing to see how far the Alberta Liberals have come under Kevin Taft‘s leadership over the past two years.

Two years ago, the Alberta Liberals were a broken and battered party facing an election with a $1 million debt and only three incumbents. Now, the Alberta Liberals are organizing, the money is rolling in (after two years, their debt is now down to $600,000), they have 16 MLA’s, 21 candidates nominated, and a ton of people showing up to their policy conventions.

It’s also quite funny to hear that Alberta PC Leadership candidate Jim Dinning has to raid the 2004 Liberal campaign platform in order to find good ideas. Way to be innovative, Jim…

Yesterday afternoon, I met Federal Liberal leadership candidate Martha Hall Findlay during her stop in Edmonton on her cross-Canada bus tour.

Not knowing much about Findlay before-hand, I was very impressed about her ideas and thoughts on Canada, Federal Politics, and the Liberal Party.

Unlike many leadership-type events, this event was more of a discussion than pontification. I felt she was really interested in getting Canadians and Liberals to have a national discussion on hard-hitting issues like the environment, urban issues, and Afghanistan and Canada’s commitment abroad. Had I not only had 2 hours of sleep in the 36 hours before the meeting, I probably would have engaged more deeply in the conversation.

She’s no doubt a long-shot in that race, but I do hope she runs for a seat in Parliament in the next election. I get the feeling that she would be a dedicated Minister or a fireball of an Opposition Critic.

On another note, Kevin Taft and the Alberta Liberals will be holding their Policy Convention and Annual General Meeting this weekend in Edmonton. I will be sporatically attending and checking out the policy discussions.

Tonight, the guest speaker at the opening reception of the Convention is Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. Though I won’t be able to make it tonight, I hear there will be nearly 400 delegates attending from across Alberta. It’s clearly an exciting time on the Alberta political scene.

I’m sure I’m not the only one out there, but for the past week I’ve had the “Hands in my Pocket” (click here to listen to a preview of the song) song from a Capital One commercial stuck in my head. It’s a clever commercial with a catchy theme song, but wow is it annoying…

The song is performed by Canadian artist Jim Guthrie. According to wikipedia…

He records both as a solo artist and as the guitar player for Islands. He used to be in the band Royal City until they disbanded in 2004.

He was born and raised in Guelph, Ontario, and currently lives in Toronto.

Guthrie first made a name for himself by releasing a series of self-produced cassettes, and subsequently released albums on Three Gut Records. He was nominated for a Juno Award for his album Now, More Than Ever.

On a related note, Rick Mercer put out a great parody of the commercial.

Hands in my pockets, hands in my pockets, hands in my pockets…

Yesterday, Alberta’s Advanced Education Minister Denis Herard, released the results of the Tory Government’s year-long consultation process on post-secondary education. The process, titled A Learning Alberta, was created to review Alberta’s post-secondary education system following Tory Premier Ralph Klein’s statement in his 2005 State of the Province Address that…

“By the time post-secondary students head back in September 2006, Alberta will define a new tuition policy for the 21st century. It will be the most affordable, entrepreneurial, and affordable tuition policy in the country. We will do whatever it takes to make sure money isn’t a barrier to attending Alberta’s post-secondary institutions.”

As groundbreaking as his promise sounds, the lacklustre recommendations of the review clearly do not deliver on the Premier’s promise to Albertans.

What the 24-page report recommends is the continuation of the status quo – keeping Alberta’s post-secondary tuition levels at 2004/2005 levels, the exact same level that Alberta students have been paying since the Premier made his promise a year ago.

For the past year, students have been advocating for a substantial and real tuition rollback. The most affordable tuition in Canada is Quebec, at $1900 per year, Newfoundland is next with $2,606. At 2004/05 levels ($4,536 plus other fees at the U of A) Alberta will still exceed even the national average of $4,214 the national tuition average.

The shadowy wordsmiths of the Public Affairs Bureau may be calling the recommendation a “rollback,” but it’s clear that the Tories may be opting for the second definition of the word…

roll·back (rōl’băk’) pronunciation
(noun)

1. A reduction, especially in prices or wages, to a previous lower level by governmental action or direction: a price rollback; a rollback of military supplies.
2. A turning back or retreat, as from a previously held position or policy: hoped for a rollback of support for the opposition’s proposed legislation.

The Province of Alberta has an incredible opportunity to create an amazing post-secondary education system – I just wish we had a government with the will to step up to the plate and seize that opportunity.

Well, I’m still at this conference in Toronto… stuck in an Über-lame plenary session on by-laws… wow, am I bored at this point. I really really could not care less about conference bylaws…

I realized this morning that I haven’t blogged anything about the Stanley Cup and the Edmonton Oilers. The game last night was pretty disappointing. Sad to see that Rollie is out for the series.

Let’s hope they can pull it together in Game 2.

May the Lord have mercy on our souls.

Omer is, that is.

I thought this was pretty crazy…

Well, I’m still here in Toronto for a conference.

Though the conference began with a pretty rough start in the first plenary session yesterday, I think things are slowly getting slightly smoother as the conference progresses.

Though I haven’t really found the sessions all that useful, I’ve found it extremely positive for me to be able to meet with my peers from around Canada and engage them in conversation and idea sharing. That has been beneficial.

I went to a party on a boat on Lake Ontario last night – though it may sound Über-lame, two bottles of wine and four pints of beer later it wasn’t that bad…

Daveberta in Toronto and a conference update…

– Omer is very displeased.
– It cost me $60 to get a cab from Union Station to the conference centre.
– Ikea overload.
– Drinking in Ottawa is fun. The trainride the next morning was not so much fun.
– It rains in Toronto.

More updates soon…

As mentioned in my previous post, I visited Parliament Hill and took in today’s Question Period from the Members Gallery.

There’s nothing like actually visiting QP in person to reaffirm the beleif that the entire exercise is pointless.

Random Liberal MP: Mr. Speaker, four months of Conservative arrogance is costing taxpayers billions of dollars in [insert issue here]. Conservative arrogance is tearing this country apart!

[insert jeers, rude remarks, standing ovation, etc]

Random Tory Minister: Mr. Speaker, thirteen years of Liberal corruption is forcing us to cost taxpayers billions of dollars in [insert issue here]. Liberal corruption almost tore this country apart.

[insert jeers, rude remarks, standing ovation, etc]

Random Liberal MP: Mr. Speaker, David Emerson, David Emerson, David Emerson, Tory arrogance, Kyoto accord…

[insert jeers, rude remarks, standing ovation, etc]

Random Tory Minister: Mr. Speaker, Liberal corruption, Liberal corruption, Liberal corruption, Joe Volpe recruiting kindergarteners…

But seriously folks, it’s a really beautiful room. It’s just unfortuante that it’s always filled with politicians…

Yep. I’m here.

Went to QP at the HOC today (lingo…)

More comments soon.

Oh yeah, it’s freaking hot here.

I thought today’s announcement by the Harper Governmement to fix House of Commons election dates and limit Senators terms to eight years was interesting.

Like everyone and the kitchen sink, I have some opinions on Senate reform. There is no doubt that it badly needs to be refromed, but I’m just not convinced of the whole Triple-E idea. In my opinion, it lacks imagination and is too simplistic an unimaginative. I much more rather like to see a form of Proportional Representation or Party list based on HOC popular vote by province for Senate elections. I believe this would allow Canadians to keep the type of good people in the Senate who would never run in an election – people like Tommy Banks, Frank Maholvlich, Romeo Dallaire, and Thelma Chalifoux – I think Canadian politics would lose a lot of character if that happened. The last thing Ottawa needs is more politicians (maybe Senate by lottery would be a fun idea…? Senate duty?).

Now, keeping this in mind, I agree that term limits are a small step in the right direction for Canada’s Upper House.

Also, I’ll be gone eastward for the next week and a half and am looking forward to some time in Ottawa and Toronto. I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning and sporatically blogging live and on location in central Canada.

Any suggestions on things I should do in my spare time?

I think I’m going to check out the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

Oh yeah, GO OILERS!

It looks like former Tory Minister Mark Norris will be making an announcement today.

In 2001, Mark Norris was called a “giant-killer” for unseating then-Alberta Liberal leader Nancy MacBeth in Edmonton McClung. In 2004, Norris was “giant-killed” himself by Liberal Mo Elsalhy (sources tell me that Mr. Norris took a week off during the campaign to go on a golfing vacation).

Currently with no seat, Norris faces an uphill battle to prove his legitimacy as a candidate for the Alberta PC leadership.

In March, Norris shocked and confused many political watchers with his comment “Separation if necessary, but not necessarily separation” in regards to Alberta’s place in Confederation. While he who wasn’t exactly a beacon of political savvy during his time as Minister of Economic Development from 2001 to 2004, Norris was most likely trying to draw attention to himself, as he has no longer has a Ministerial PR budget to throw around.

(Props to the ONE PARTY STATE for the heads-up)

If you have yet to see X-Men III: The Last Stand and are planning to see it DON’T READ THE REST OF THIS POST…

I’m a fairly huge X-Men fan, having collected about 300ish X-Men related comic books when I was a kid and having watched X-Men and X2 films close to eighty-seven times.

Overall, I enjoyed the film – and there were some really cool parts. The Golden Gate Bridge/Alcatraz Island battle scene was really cool – as was the Xavier/Jean Grey showdown. Colossus was cool, and Iceman taking on Pyro was a great follow up from Pyro’s defection to Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants in X2. Mystique losing her mutant powers was a cool scene.

Hugh Jackman was still great as Wolverine, and Halle Berry as Storm was actually able to show off her powers more in this film.

As well, I thought Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy/Beast was a good casting.

One the things I enjoy the most about the X-Men storylines are the political, ethical, and moral issues. X3’s premise that a “cure” could be found for mutants causes a moral dilemma for many of the mutants in the film. As societal outcasts, they would now have the chance to become a normal human – but they would also be abandoning their natural selves to satisfy an intolerant society. What to do? Abandon who you are or prevail in the face of adversity?

Though I did enjoy X-Men III, there are some aspects of the film that bothered me – like the part when nearly all the main characters died. Cyclops dying wasn’t even a big deal as it’s implied and not even shown. Jean Grey dying played a bit into the Pheonix story, though it largely differed from the comic book storyline, but Professor Xavier’s death was a little unexpected.

As well, Magneto losing his powers and then regaining them at the end in the lame “after-credit” sequence left a lot to be desired.

Overall, I blame Brett Ratner, who clearly did a sub-par job in directing compared to X-Men I and X2 which were directed by Bryan Singer. Ratner’s directorship was clearly salvaged by the fact that it was an X-Men film, and the X-Men rock.

But, criticisms aside, it was a fun film and I would recommend it be seen far and wide.

The Federal Liberal leadership race is on. Some people I know are excited.

Me? I’ve been having a really hard time getting excited about it.

Some of my blog friends have already thrown their support behind the candidates of their choice. Nicole and Bart are going for Gerard Kennedy, c-lo and Jason are going for Michael Ignatieff, and Mr. Cherniak going for Stephane Dion (You can check out other blogger endorsements here).

Having not fully decided who I will be supporting, here are some of my thoughts on some of the “top-tier” candidates…

Stephane Dion, St. Laurent-Cartierville – An intellectual heavyweight. He’s smart, a great debater, and would probably be a decent leader. He could easily take on Prime Minister Harper toe-to-toe in the House of Commons.

Michael Ignatieff, Etobicoke-Lakeshore – Unfairly treated in the Federal Election, no academic should be forced to defend their academic writings in 10 second news clips.

Though many people don’t seem to have an issue with this (c-lo), I do have trouble thinking that the next Prime Minister-in-waiting has only lived the last 6 months of the past 25 years in Canada. He’s untested, has very little political experience, and as far as I can tell hasn’t yet to even speak in the House of Commons (care to correct me?).

I would not dare to challenge his intellectual capacity, but I’m still undecided if he could sucessfully lead the Federal Liberals through the next couple years.

Bob Rae – The worst thing that ever happened to Bob Rae happened in 1990 when he became Premier of Ontario. Erase Ontario’s Rae-led NDP government from 1990 to 1995 and Rae doesn’t look so bad. Extremely intelligent, articulate, and educated, if he weren’t unelectable, he probably wouldn’t do such a bad job.

Gerard Kennedy – Though I hear he can get a little flakey at times, I think I like what I see in Gerard Kennedy. Born in Manitoba, studied at the U of A, founded the Edmonton Food Bank, ran a major Food Bank in Toronto. It seems like he actually has real-world experience compared to the privileged lives of his competitors. He’s young, supposedly bilingual, has experience in government (and is still popular), and isn’t connected to the Martin-Chretien divide.

Though I have yet to throw my support behind any candidate, I think I like most what I see in Mr. Kennedy.

I didn’t have many thoughts about the other candidates at the moment, but if you’d like to check out their websites, here they are…

Joe Volpe, Ken Dryden, Hedy Fry, Martha Hall Findlay, Maurizio Bevilacqua, Scott Brison, & Carolyn Bennett.