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democracy is…

This is where I’ll be tomorrow…

A More Democratic Alberta: How do we get there?

May 12th, 2006
University of Alberta, Tory Building

On May 12, 2006, the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights will be hosting a symposium entitled, “A More Democratic Alberta: How Do We Get There?” at the University of Alberta. This symposium is a dynamic community project which we are spearheading in partnership with: the University of Alberta; Public Interest Alberta; the Parkland Institute; YWCA Edmonton’s One Woman One Vote initiative; Fair Vote Alberta; and, Equal Voice Alberta North.

The symposium will focus on democratic renewal, with an emphasis on Alberta. This issue has become a topic of ongoing debate over recent years, and the symposium aims to stimulate debate and discussion on reforming our political institutions as well as enhancing the participation and understanding of our citizens in democratic processes. Other key themes will include the enhancement of the responsibilities of elected officials, as well as addressing new ways of voting.

The symposium will provide an opportunity for interested Albertans and organizations to share and expand their understanding of the democratic deficit and devise key strategies for moving ahead. Within Alberta, there is currently no vehicle in place to bring interested stakeholders and citizens together to advance a deepening of democracy. The symposium will act as a ‘springboard’ for discussions and collaboration and stimulate future action in Alberta.

You can check out more about the conference on the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights website.

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calgary buffalo fight.

Alberta politics are shaping up to be pretty interesting these days. With things moving along in the Alberta PC leadership race, the Alberta Liberals have been taking advantage of the Tories inward preoccupations by nominating candidates across Alberta over the past six months.

With all their incumbent MLA’s now nominated, there are some interesting nomination races shaping up around the province.

Kent Hehr and Keith Purdy have both declared their intention to seek the Alberta Liberal nomination to run for election in Calgary Buffalo in the next Alberta Provincial Election.

Kent Hehr is a 35 year-old quadriplegic lawyer with Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP. Hehr is also the President of the Canadian Paraplegic Association (Alberta) and Chairman of the City of Calgary Advisory Committee on Accessibility.

Keith Purdy is a Calgary-based same-sex rights advocate. Interestingly, Purdy ran for the Alberta NDP in the 2001 Provincial Election in Calgary Mountain View, and the Federal NDP in Calgary South Centre in 2004. Does Purdy’s move to the Alberta Liberals signal a shift of New Democrat support to the Liberals in Alberta?

Here are the 2004 Provincial Election results from Calgary Buffalo:

Harvey Cenaiko, PC – 3,365 (43.5%)
Terry Taylor, AbLib – 2,815 (36.4%)
Grant Neufeld, Grn – 670 (8.7%)
Cliff Hesby, NDP – 457 (5.9%)
Nadine Hunka, AA – 294 (3.8%)
Elizabeth K. Fielding, SC – 73 (0.9%)
Carl Schwartz, AP – 56 (0.7%)
Voter Turnout – 7,730 (31.5%)

Calgary Buffalo has been represented by Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko since 2001 and was previously represented by Alberta Liberal MLA’s Sheldon Chumir (1986-1992) and Gary Dickson (1992-2001).

As usual, it should be a close race come next election.

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alberta, where the lobbyists roam.

Rod Love, former Chief of Staff to Tory Premier Ralph Klein is currently sharing the centre of some controversy with well-known scandal prone former-Tory Staffer Kelley Charlebois, who were both the focus of debate in the Alberta Legislature yesterday following the Calgary Herald’s release of documents regarding payment Misters Love and Charlebois received from the Calgary Health Region.

The best part of the debate was when Klein claimed to Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft that he didn’t know Love was deeply involved in Jim Dinning‘s PC Leadership campaign. Given that Klein and Love have been close friends since Klein’s first Calgary Mayoral campaign in 1980, I find that quite hard to believe.

Was Premier Klein blowing smoke? Read the debate and decide for yourself…

Rod Love Consulting Inc.

Dr. Taft: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier’s former chief of staff Rod Love seems to make his living selling access to the Premier’s office. FOIPed documents show that Love has moved freely from government contract to government contract, providing inside information through high-priced verbal advice. It’s a moneymaking scheme at the taxpayers’ expense. To the Premier: will the Premier admit that Rod Love is doing little more in these contracts than selling inside access to the Premier’s office?

Mr. Klein: Mr. Speaker, first of all, to set the record straight – straight, absolutely straight – Rod Love hasn’t had access to my office, and he doesn’t use his consulting business to gain access to my office. He was my chief of staff, yes, absolutely. But his contracts with various government departments or health authorities are entirely up to the ministries or the health authority involved. It has absolutely nothing to do with my office. It has had nothing to do with my office.

The Speaker: The hon. leader.

Dr. Taft: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again to the Premier: does the Premier recognize that Rod Love is peddling inside information obtained while serving as the Premier’s chief of staff?

Mr. Klein: I have no idea what information he is providing to the various ministries or authorities, whether it’s information he gained while in my office, which is very little, by the way – usually the opposition tells me what’s going on – or whether he’s providing other information. I have no idea, nor do I make it my business.

The Speaker: The hon. leader.

Dr. Taft: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Premier assure this House that Rod Love is not sharing confidential government information with clients, such as PC leadership candidate Jim Dinning?

Mr. Klein: Mr. Speaker, I have no idea. I didn’t even know that he was working for Jim Dinning. [ interjection] I didn’t. They can moan and groan all they want. Relative to the leadership campaign my policy is hands off, and I don’t give a tinker’s hoot who he works for.

Here’s the second part of the debate surrounding Charlebois’ involvement with the Calgary Health Authority…

Lobbyist Registry

Dr. Taft: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. High-paid contracts to people like Rod Love and Kelley Charlebois are merely symptoms of a much deeper problem. This government’s sense of entitlement is so pervasive that it’s no longer capable of even identifying a conflict of interest: the Premier is fielding job offers while in office; a Tory Party VP sits on the government’s Internal Audit Committee; chairs of government committees use their positions to sell PC Party memberships; ex-MLAs get plum appointments. It goes on and on.

To the Premier: why does the Premier insist that Albertans don’t have a right to know who’s lobbying this government by his refusal to create a lobbyist registry?

Mr. Klein: Mr. Speaker, to set the record straight: again, I have no problems – I have no problems – with a lobbyist registry. I have said that for every upside there is a downside, and I want to make sure that when the Legislature considers a lobbyist registry, they consider the downside and they clearly identify those who are lobbyists and those who are not lobbyists. Now, I’ve raised the question: if a person who represents a school board or a university or a municipality is asking the government for money, are they lobbyists? I want to make sure that I know that the rules are clear.

The Speaker: The hon. leader.

Dr. Taft: Thank you. Again to the Premier: given that the Premier’s former chief of staff Rod Love signed on to a juicy contract with the Calgary health region very shortly after leaving his position with the Premier’s office, will the Premier commit to extending the legislative Conflicts of Interest Act to senior public officials?

Mr. Klein: I don’t know if I have the power to do that. I understand that a report on conflict of interest guidelines by the all- party committee that examined this issue will be coming to the Legislature, and I suspect that it will be fully debated in these Chambers.

The Speaker: The hon. leader.

Dr. Taft: Thank you. Again to the Premier: given that the federal Conservatives are proposing a five-year cooling-off period for ministers, will the Premier commit to extending the mandatory cooling-off period to a minimum of one year for Alberta’s cabinet
ministers?

Mr. Klein: Mr. Speaker, I have told the hon. Leader of the Official Opposition that I don’t give a tinker’s hoot whether it’s 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 years. I’m leaving. I’ve said that all I want is to have time to do what I want to do and time to golf and fish. Big deal.

Tinker’s hoot, eh?

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bill 40.

Advanced Education Minister Denis Herard introduced Bill 40 on Monday. This Bill removes the 30% cap on post-secondary tuition from legislation.

Yesterday, Herard announced that the Tory government would introduce a new tuition policy into regulation that would tie tuition to inflation.

This is dangerous and irresponsible for a number of reasons. Mainly, once de-legislated and placed in regulation, the tuition policy can be changed at whim behind closed door Cabinet meetings, rather than facing debate and public scrutiny by the Alberta Legislature, the media, and the public. With a new Tory Premier on the horizon, it is very possible that this if put into regulation, this policy could again be changed in the next several months.

From the Edmonton Journal:

Bill 40 gives the cabinet the power to make any future decisions on tuition rather than having these decisions made by all members of the legislature.

“This is a terrible development not only for students, but for families and all Albertans,” said Samantha Power, president of the University of Alberta Students’ Union.

“The government calls this ‘enabling legislation’ for a new tuition policy, but the reality is that it enables them to tinker with the tuition policy at the cabinet table without opposition scrutiny and without public debate.”

Herard defended the decision to allow cabinet to make future decisions on tuition. The policy will give the government the flexibility to adjust the tuition policy as needed. He also said students will be consulted on any tuition policy changes that the cabinet makes in coming years, starting with the policy he plans to announce later this month.

The opposition maintains Albertans can’t trust decisions made behind closed cabinet doors.

“The Tory government is asking students to trust the Conservative government by allowing the tuition fee policy to be put into regulations,” said Raj Pannu, the NDP advanced education critic.

“This odious bill gives the Tory cabinet a free hand.”

Liberal education critic Dave Taylor said Bill 40 opens the door to a wide range of abuses.

This fight is earily similar to the one that took place three years ago during the Bill 43 (Post-Secondary Learning Act) debate – a fight that forced the Tory government to back down in their attempt to de-legislate Alberta post-secondary tuition.

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neighbourhood interests.

This afternoon, I went to the University of Alberta‘s launch of the Institute for United States Policy Studies. The launch included a well-attended panel discussion, titled Sharing a Continent. The panel included Naim Ahmed, United States Consul-General in Calgary, Amira de la Garza, Acting Director of the North America Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, Michael Hawes, Executive Director of the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program, and Jeffrey Simpson, the National Affairs Columnist at The Globe & Mail.

Some of the notable attendees I noticed included former Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, U of A Political Science Professor Linda Trimble, Alberta Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Gary Mar, and U of A President Emeritus Rod Fraser, and what looked like nearly the entire U of A Political Science department…

It was really an interesting panel discussions. Though I’ve seen him speak a number of times, and had a nice little chat with him at the Public Interest Alberta PSE conference a couple months back, I thought Jeffrey Simpson was more articulate that I have seen him before – in his thoughts about border issues and US-Canada relations.

As well, I was very interested to hear what Michael Hawes had to say, as he sounded like he had a wealth of information he wanted to speak to (though he only had 10-12 minutes to get it all out).

Overall, it was an interesting event and I’m glad I went.

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abstractism on the beat…

Like most of my recent addictions, I think it’s safe to blame mr. face for this one.

For those of you who haven’t seen these clips from the MTV2 show Wonder Showzen, they’re awesome.

The clips are called “Beat Kids” and they make me laugh…

Beat Kids on Wall Street
Beat Kids and Little Hitler
Beat Kids at the Vet
Beat Kids at a Beauty Pagent
Beat Kids at Horse Apple

HIGH FIVE!

Enjoy.

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more substance please.

Well, I AM back in Edmonton and slightly busier I usually (so the blog posting action may be a frugal over the next while). I started my new job this week and am enjoying every moment of it. Plus, it’s a really nice day outside.

It was interesting to see what the first Budget of the new Conservative Government had in it for Post-Secondary Education.

Though it’s nice to see this government at least talking a bit about PSE issues, I really hope it doesn’t turn in to the same situation which came about with the previous Liberal government (a main course of talk with a side-order of piece-meal change – with the exception being the creation of the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation in 1998, who’s mandate comes up for renewal in 2008 and should cause an interesting amount of debate on student finance issues).

Last week’s budget did have some PSE related changes in it, but I can’t see these changes having a large effect on the majority of Canadian students.

Tax credits for textbooks. Canadians attending university or college can claim an annual $500 tax credit on textbook costs, which translates into a benefit of about $80 a year for a typical full-time student. Though it sounds nice, this doesn’t address the reality that because most students already have enough education credits to cover their limited incomes, these new credits won’t make buying textbooks or any other educational expense easier. Not to mention that if it did, students still have to wait until the following year to receive their miniscule $80 rebate.

Increasing access to student debt. More people will be eligible for Canada Student Loans because of a reduction in the amount parents are expected to contribute toward the cost of post-secondary education, effective August 2007. This is a shortsighted move which doesn’t address the long-term problems caused by students graduating with large amounts of debt. Increasing students’ access to loans, and henceforth, debt, doesn’t even begin to address the problems facing the student finance system.

100% Scholarship and Bursary exemption. All scholarship, fellowship and bursary money will now be income-tax exempt, compared to the current exemption limit of $3,000 a year. This tax exemption for all scholarship and bursary money from taxation is negated by that fact that the first $3,000 in scholarship and bursary money is already tax-free, and few students will receive even that much. Even if they did, their other tax credits would likely cover it. This measure will only make a difference for a few super-elite scholarship recipients, and thus cannot be said to be of any benefit to the average student.

Here are some suggestions on what the Tories could add to the budget to make it more effective and positive for Canadian students:

– Create more scholarships and bursaries, which would reduce students reliance on loans, and hence, the creation of large amounts of student debt, instead of raising the amount students borrow for their education.

– Implement the Council of the Federation’s request for an immediate $2.2-4.9 billion injection for post-secondary education.

So, overall, the PSE portion of the budget seems to be a victim of the band-aid reaction of trying to fix things by using the tax system instead of actually facing and dealing with the issue head-on.

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get back, get back to where you once belonged!

After a week just outside of the wonderful town of Rocky Mountain House, I’m officially back in Edmonton – woot!

More posts soon.

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welcome to the government of canada… er… ministry of truth…

Props to Jason from Gauntlet who did a little digging in response to my post “propaganda peice” about the new Conservative Government’s “make-over” of the Government of Canada website into a press release generator for Conservative Party of Canada.

For those of you who may have had doubts about this allegation, check out the links Jason has provided in the comment section of that post:

Compare these archives of the Government of Canada site with these archives of the Liberal Party of Canada site.

There’s no question that the current situation is vastly different. Vastly.

When Harper said he had a problem with Liberals covertly using government resources to support their party’s political objectives, I thought the operative word was “government.” Evidently, it was “covertly.”

As long as you’re brazen about it, it’s OK.

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Michael Ritter Scandal

more michael ritter madness!

I started the movie script for a Michael Ritter scandal made-for-TV-movie last night. I’m thinking of casting Christopher Walken in the lead role.

You can’t make this stuff up!

‘Everything I had known for five or six years wasn’t true’
Charles Rusnell, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Wednesday, April 26, 2006

EDMONTON – Prominent Edmonton businessman Michael Ritter told the young staff of his trust company he was the victim of a conspiracy by police and the government — and some of them believed it.

“I honestly believed the RCMP were out to get him because he had been very public with his criticism of the government in Alberta,” Patrick Mitchell testified in provincial court Tuesday.

But Mitchell, a former employee at Newport Pacific and a close friend of Ritter, said he began to have serious doubts after he attended Ritter’s bail hearing Sept. 9, 2005, and heard the case laid out by Crown prosecutor Greg Lepp.

Mitchell turned to the RCMP for answers.

“I just wanted to know what was true,” Mitchell told the court. “I felt like I didn’t know anything. Everything I had known for five or six years wasn’t true.”

Mitchell would eventually provide Sgt. Marjorie Maier of the RCMP commercial crime unit with a printout of a passport from Belize in the name of Adam d’Orleans, which contained Ritter’s photo. The printout became instrumental in helping the RCMP secure a search warrant to seize Ritter’s computer and charge the former chief parliamentary counsel of the Alberta legislature with breach of recognizance. A judge had earlier ordered Ritter to turn in all his passports and to not obtain any more.

Mitchell is one of the main witnesses in Ritter’s trial on that charge, which carries a penalty upon conviction of up to two years in jail.

It’s one of a string of sensational charges Ritter faces. In Canada, he faces several charges related to his alleged role in laundering $43 million US stolen from a brokerage firm by a Wall Street energy trader. The United States is seeking Ritter’s extradition for his role in a $250-million US Ponzi scheme, in which money from later investors is used to pay earlier ones. Read the rest here.

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology…

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Michael Ritter Scandal

the michael ritter scandal continues…

SERIOUSLY FOLKS! THIS STORY JUST GETS JUICIER AND JUICIER!!!

Ex-Alta. official faked law degree
Legislature lawyer did not graduate, court told
Charles Rusnell, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Tuesday, April 25, 2006

EDMONTON – Michael Ritter, Alberta’s former chief parliamentary counsel, fabricated aspects of his academic credentials and never graduated from the law program at a London, England, university as he claimed.

The stunning revelation came during testimony Monday by an RCMP officer in Ritter’s trial for breach of recognizance.
Ritter is accused of failing to turn in all his passports, as ordered by the court, and of securing a Belizean passport using an alias. Police and prosecutors say Ritter, a prominent Edmonton businessman and arts philanthropist, wanted the passport and the new identity so he could flee charges in Canada and the U.S.

The charges include laundering $43 million US for a Wall Street energy trader and helping perpetuate a $250-million US Ponzi scheme, in which the money from later investors was used to pay earlier investors. Ritter has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is fighting extradition.

Dressed in a dark grey suit and white shirt with no tie, and shackled in leg irons, Ritter showed no emotion Monday as Sgt. Marjorie Maier of RCMP Commercial Crime testified that Scotland Yard, at the Mounties’ request, checked out Ritter’s academic credentials in England.

Maier said Scotland Yard reported that Ritter did not graduate from the London School of Economics, did not intern at the House of Lords, and was not accepted as a member of Gray’s Inn, one of four institutions in London whose members comprise the bar of England and Wales.

Despite this, Ritter served as Alberta’s chief parliamentary counsel from 1987 to 1992 and was by several accounts extremely capable, even drafting legislation that was adopted by other provinces. Read the rest here…

See the entire Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology.

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Michael Ritter Scandal

summertime in belize.

Looks like our favorite former-Chief Parliamentary Counsel of the Alberta Legislature is still having fun…

Bail breach trial hears false passport charge
Edmonton Journal
Published: Monday, April 24, 2006

Former Alberta chief parliamentary counsel Michael Ritter went on trial today for breaching his bail conditions by applying for a passport under a false name.

He is accused of applying for a passport in March of 2005 under the name Michael Philippe d’Orleans after being required to surrender his passport as a condition of his bail.

Ritter faces trial in the largest money-laundering cases in the province’s history.

He is accused of conspiring with Wall Street energy trader Dan Gordon to launder $43 million US, which Gordon had stolen from the Merrill Lynch brokerage firm. Gordon was sentenced to 42 months in prison and he repaid the money.

Ritter, 48, is also charged with fraud in a $290 million US “Ponzi scheme,” where money from later investors is used to pay
earlier ones, giving future investors the mistaken appearance the investments are sound.

At a bail hearing in 2003, he was ordered to surrender all his passports, including one from Belize, which does not have an extradition treaty with Canada.

RCMP say they later learned Ritter, allegedly with the assistance of his lawyer Casey O’Byrne, had obtained a Belizean passport under an alias.

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology…

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propaganda peice.

Seriously folks, at what point did the Government of Canada main website become a propaganda page for the Conservative Party of Canada?

If I wanted PMO press releases shoved down my throat, I’d go to his site, not the main Government site.

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inside the movie theatre.

I saw Inside Man on Friday night.

It was a good movie. Somewhat intelligent.

The fast paced story was complemented by the great cast (Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer). Jodie Foster’s character was the most interesting, I’m not even sure how to describe it.

I wasn’t sure if I liked the movie until about after half-an-hour into it. I would recommend that you see it.

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fun with edmonton city council.

Tuesday, I went to the City of Edmonton‘s Transportation and Public Works committee meeting. It was actually not as boring as it sounds as a tonne of Councillors showed up to hear the presentation that morning (those there included Councillors Michael Phair, Jane Batty, Kim Krushell, Terry Cavanagh, Janice Melnychuk, Ed Gibbons, Karen Leibovici, Linda Sloan, Bryan Anderson, and Mayor Stephen Mandel).

On another note (unrelated to the presentation I went to), Edmonton City Council operates under the Ward system, with two Councillors for each of the six wards. The City of Edmonton is currently reviewing this system and are accepting public input in the process. Here are the options they are considering:

Essentially there are two questions on the table.

  1. Should the number of Councillors be increased from 12 to 14?
  2. Should each ward have single or dual representation?

Out of these questions come four possible choices:

  1. The current six wards with two Councillors per ward
    • Average 118,732 people per ward
  2. 12 wards with one Councillor per ward
    • Average 59,366 people per ward
  3. Seven wards with two Councillors per ward
    • Average 101,770 people per ward
  4. 14 wards with one Councillor per ward
    • Average 50,855 people per ward

Based on 2005 census data