daveberta.ca - Alberta Politics and Elections

Thank goodness someone agrees with me on this one.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper shocked millions today as he single-handedly challenged the popular culture of our verbal lexicon in using the vintage 1890’s term “old hat” in describing the issue of International Trade Minister David Emerson’s crossing-the-floor from the Liberals to the Conservatives two weeks after the last election….

Emerson protests ‘old hat,’ Harper says
TERRY WEBER
Globe and Mail Update

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday continuing protests over the defection of former Liberal David Emerson to his Tory cabinet are getting “old hat” and suggested Vancouver voters are now becoming more comfortable with the move.

Mr. Harper made the comments to reporters after delivering a speech in Burnaby, B.C., touting the Conservative government’s child-care program.

“The same ten people every time,” Mr. Harper said. “You know, it’s kind of getting old hat, isn’t it?”

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, reportedly last used by William Ewart Gladstone, here are the definitions from wordreference.com:

1. out of fashion; “a suit of rather antique appearance”; “demode (or outmoded) attire”; “outmoded ideas”

2. repeated too often; over familiar through overuse; “bromidic sermons”; “his remarks were trite and commonplace”; “hackneyed phrases”; “a stock answer”; “repeating threadbare jokes”; “parroting some timeworn axiom”; “the trite metaphor `hard as nails'”

So, I guess this means that the Triple-E Senate and Parliamentary Committee Reform are old hat as well…

It is widely suspected that the Prime Minister’s Office has hired The Slingshot: the Great British Magazine for Young Chaps, as Mr. Harper’s in-house media consultants.

On a completely unrelated note, check out this Llama clip (props to s.b. for the Llama linkage)

(Are Llamas becoming old hat at daveberta?)

Someone tried to break into my house 10 minutes ago.

They tried to break open the back door.

I heard a bang and went to see what it was.

They saw me.

They ran.

I called the Police.

Now I’m left wondering if he’ll come back when I leave.

Oh loyal readers of everything daveberta, by the end of the summer, I pledge to have this song memorized from United States to Sudan!

“United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru
Republic Dominican, Cuba, Caribbean, Greenland, El Salvador too
Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Guyana and still
Guatemala, Bolivia, then Argentina, and Ecuador, Chile, Brazil
Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda, Bahamas, Tobago, San Juan
Paraguay, Uruguay, Suriname, and French Guiana, Barbados and Guam

Norway and Sweden and Iceland and Finland and Germany, now one piece
Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Turkey and Greece
Poland, Romania, Scotland, Albania, Ireland, Russia, Oman
Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Cyprus, Iraq and Iran
There’s Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, both Yemens, Kuwait and Bahrain
the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Portugal, France, England, Denmark and Spain

India, Pakistan, Burma, Afghanistan, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan;
Kampuchea, Malaysia, then Bangladesh, Asia, and China, Korea, Japan
Mongolia, Laos, and Tibet, Indonesia, the Philippine Islands, Taiwan
Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Sumatra, New Zealand, then Borneo and Vietnam
Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Botswana
Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Gambia, Guinea, Algeria, Ghana

Burundi, Lesotho and Malawi, Togo, the Spanish Sahara is gone
Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Liberia, Egypt, Benin and Gabon
Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya and Mali, Sierra Leone and Algiers
Dahomey, Namibia, Senegal, Libya, Cameroon, Congo, Zaire
Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Rwanda, Mahore and Cayman
Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Yugoslavia,
Crete, Mauritania, then Transylvania, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Malta and Palestine, Fiji, Australia, Sudan!”

(According to the Wikipedia post on the song, by Yakko from the Anamainiacs, some of the irregularities include missingn counties and regions named (instead of countries).)

This would be an interesting conference to go to…

SEMINAR ON STRATEGIC CHANGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
“Governing Universities in the Knowledge Society”

27-28th, April, 2006

Organized by the Generalitat Valenciana and the Institutional Management
Higher Education (IMHE) Programme, OECD.

Venue: Conference room, Botanical Garden, University of Valencia,
Valencia

Language: English and Spanish (with simultaneous translation)

AIM: Knowledge and the global society are generating profound change in the context of universities which are faced the world over with the need to change their internal structures and, in the case of public institutions, their relationships with public authorities.

On one hand, universities are calling for a fundamentally new type of arrangement
with society, whereby they are responsible and accountable for their programmes, staff and resources, while public authorities focus on the strategic direction of the system as a whole. In an open, competitive and ever-changing environment, autonomy is a pre-condition for universities to be able to respond to society’s changing needs and to take full responsibility for their responses. The majority of universities feel that national regulations do not currently allow them to implement the changes required for the future.

On the other hand, empowering universities effectively to make and implement
decisions requires leadership teams with sufficient authority and management capacity, considerable time spent in the office and wide-ranging experience. New ways of university governance are needed to develop effective autonomy and to run universities efficiently in the current changing environment. Success in implementing new ways of university governance will probably be linked to the success of institutional outputs in the new knowledge society.

For those of you looking for some distracting reprieve from the onslaught of final exams, here are some notorious distractions that will provide your mind with some of the entertainment it desires…

– The Shining – a great parody trailer.

– Are you feeling GREAT?

– Yakko Warner and the countries of the world (I’m going to memorize this song by the end of the summer).

– The new trailer for X-Men 3: the Last Stand has been running for sometime now. It looks like a pretty sweet production.

– Anyone remember the mid-1990’s kids cartoon “Dino-Riders?” If so, you can nerd it up on their website…

– And finally, a BIG SHOUT OUT to my good friend Amika Schodie, who sent me an email last night from the beautiful Greek island of Naxos. After a year stint of living in the UK, she’s now on a cross-continental journey across Europe for the next couple months.

Here is a great quote in her email about Athens:

“it is really cool to be surrounded by so much history but the city itself is kinda dirty and creepy. and there’s a garbage strike on so it’s stinky too! but the area around the markets and restaurants and ruins is really cool, it’s very greek!!“

(You can thank/blame chris-face for the links to most of these links)

This found its way into my email box this week…

I guess when all else fails, use a penis joke…

Those of you in Edmonton will know what I’m writing about when I say that the weather has been beautiful this week! Spring/Summer is finally here!

A couple things for this week…

– A new edition of Policy Options, a publication from the Institute for Research on Public Policy is out.

– The Alberta NDP Caucus has revamped their website – check out the superhero poses of the 4 New Democrat MLA’s. The new format is quite an improvement from their former caucus website, which was a little difficult to navigate.

– Bizarro world… the Edmonton Sun’s editorial board has positive things to say about Kevin Taft and the Alberta Liberals…

While we certainly would not agree with the direction of everything up for discussion in Taft’s Alberta Horizons pamphlets, we are happy that the Grits are trying to get political debate in this province off life support and inject some vitality into provincial affairs.

The Alberta Liberals may not have all the answers, but at least the party is asking the right questions. Good for them.

– She’s a DeLongshot – Calgary Bow Tory MLA Alana DeLong is pondering a run for the Alberta PC Leadership… Alana who?

Some people may think THIS is slightly dated.

But I’m at least two years behind on these sorts of things.

I spent part of my afternoon yesterday hanging out at the Alberta Legislature including a trip to Question Period. Props to my MLA, Dr. Raj Pannu, for the kind introduction to the Assembly.

I was really disappointed that Lyle Oberg, the newly Indepenent MLA for Strathmore-Brooks, didn’t show up to sit in his brand new seat behind Alberta Alliance MLA Paul Hinman.

Aside from my Oberg disappointment, I did get to watch the following interaction between Calgary Currie Liberal MLA Dave Taylor and Deputy Premier Shirley McClellan highlights one of the main differences between the Alberta’s Conservative Government and their Tory cousins in Ottawa.

Government Accountability

Mr. Taylor: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today the federal Conservatives in Ottawa are introducing a bill to improve government accountability and openness, but the Conservative government of Alberta refuses to do the same for the people of this province. Alberta has a system of grants, contracts, and land sales that’s out of control, no mechanism to bring it under control, and a taxpayerfunded propaganda bureau to continuously remind citizens to just keep moving, that there’s nothing to see here. My questions are to the Deputy Premier. Will she support an all-party legislative committee to make recommendations to strengthen the statutory authority of the Auditor General so that he can follow the money to the end recipients?

Mrs. McClellan: Mr. Speaker, there’s absolutely no need to do that because the Auditor General today has that authority. The Auditor General in this province is an officer of this Legislature, and he has the authority to follow the money right to the end and, in fact, has done so on a number of occasions. So I think the question is quite redundant.

Mr. Taylor: Mr. Speaker, he doesn’t have the same authority as the federal Auditor General.

Again to the Deputy Premier: given the clear failure of this government to protect whistle-blowers at the Alberta Securities Commission from retribution, when will this government introduce legislated whistle-blower protection for public-sector employees?

Mrs. McClellan: Mr. Speaker, in reference to the Alberta Securities Commission and whistle-blower rulings, that has already been done and has been in place for some time now. As far as an overall government policy we’ve made it very clear over and over and over again that no one who brings forward a valid concern will have any adverse repercussions at all.

The Speaker: The hon. member.

Mr. Taylor: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again to the Deputy Premier: when the feds are cracking down on the lobbying industry, why is this government allowing it to flourish behind closed doors? Why won’t she acknowledge a problem exists?

Mrs. McClellan: Well, Mr. Speaker, a rather obtuse question at best. However, whatever he might be referring to, contributions that are made to political parties here are a matter of public record if that’s the part he’s talking about.

Mr. Taylor: I’m talking about lobbyists.

Mrs. McClellan: People that come to meet ministers in ministers’ offices: that’s an occurrence. I suppose you could suggest that everyone who passes these doors, whether they come to see the opposition or the government or the third party or the fourth, et cetera, would be a lobbyist. I’m not sure exactly what he’s framing the word “ lobbyist” around.

Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that there is no behind closed doors as far as we’re concerned. People who come into our offices are met. They usually discuss matters of mutual interest but certainly matters of interest to them, and I would be against anything that would preclude the public from coming and meeting with government to express their interests or their concerns.

So, I guess the answer is: It’s none of Albertan’s business which lobbyists are taking Ministers out for lobster and martini’s.

April 10th is the birthday of both Steven Seagal AND Haley Joel Osment.

Is Haley Joel Osment a younger Steven Seagal who was brought to the future by timetraveling ninja space monks? Or is Steven Seagal really Haley Joel Osment who came back from the future to prevent the rise of the machines??

Or are they both from the future, just different times? Osment brought to the present by the timetraveling ninja space monks and Seagal coming back years later?

Or, is Osment really a younger clone of the future timetraveling Seagal – cloned by the timetravelling ninja space monks in the present in order to eventually bring Osment back to the future to continue the battle against the machines while the real Seagal remains in the past trying to stop the rise of the machines?

If one found out about the other, would the space time continum collapse?

Will the machines come for them?

Or… are THEY machines?

Driving down the Queen Elizabeth II Highway on the way to Canmore on Friday, we passed a Semi that had the following painted on its side:

Born a farmer
Raised a trucker
Always a redneck

Bring Back Capital Punishment
and
“Hang the Bastards!”

Eloquent.

I just got back from what I can only describe as a wonderful reinvigorating weekend. More specifically, I spent last weekend at a Public Interest Alberta conference in Canmore discussion social policy with people from across Alberta.

It was wonderful to spend the weekend deep in discussion with other like-minded Albertans interested in keeping progressive public interest issues at the forefront of the minds of Albertans. I, not surprisingly, sat on the Post-Secondary Education taskforce working group with participants from CAFA, ACIFA, ABTC, NASA, and the AGC. (All fun people!)

It was really interesting to see all different types of Albertans from all different backgrounds converge a brainstorm ideas on how we can make Alberta a better place to live for all Albertans, not just the special interest groups that currently control the Alberta government.

As well, the nights festivities were fun. I’ll make sure to put up some pictures soon…

On a different note, Jason over at Gauntlet.ca has done a wonderful job at liveblogging the Liberal Party of Canada leadership convergence in Edmonton this past weekend. Federal Liberal leadership candidates Gerard Kennedy, Martha Hall Findlay, Michael Ignatieff, Scott Brison, etc were all there hobnobbing. Also, make sure to check out the Idealistic Pragmatist for a recap of Kennedy’s visit to the U of A Campus on Friday.

Though I’m sure the Edmonton Liberal lovefest was fun, I think I much preferred going to the mountains and discussing real public policy issues and advocacy strategies in a non-partisan productive environment. It was great.

Also, Metric is awesome.

PS. I’ve never seen Citizen Kane and don’t have any idea what the picture is referring to. Anyone care to explain?

Well, I’m off to the lovely town of Canmore to take in a weekend of majectic mountains and social policy discussions at a Public Interest Alberta conference. It should be fun and I’ll give you an update when I get back.

As I will be missing the hoards of Liberal Leadership candidates who will be making their way to Edmonton at the Liberal Party of Canada in Alberta AGM this weekend, please check out Gauntlet, who will be attempting a live-blogging weekend of Liberal leadership fun!

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

daveberta

PS. Ignore the title, it doesn’t really mean anything. I was just feeling mildly creatively funny at the time. Obviously, I didn’t suceed.