daveberta.ca - Alberta Politics and Elections

okay, seriously folks. In this disturbingly entertaining game, you can smash the bejesus out of your favorite (or least favorite) Canadian Federal Party leader…

*note* *don’t take it too seriously…*

The always insightful Interlocutor has written a great post about Conservative leader Stephen Harper’s alleged fondness for everything Star Trek… a little part of us died when we heard the news… the Captain James Tiberius Kirk and the adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise just won’t be the same anymore…

“So it turns out Stephen Harper is a huge Star Trek fan (see the revelatory blog post from “The Shotgun Blog” at Ezra Levant’s shitty magazine, as well as a corroborating Edmonton Journal story).

I am saddened on so many levels to hear this, and also profoundly confused.

Why? Because this news grievously undermines one of my long-held theories concerning how this particular pop culture preference reflects political alignment: specifically, as I’m sure everyone knows, conservatives typically prefer Star Wars, and progressives usually prefer Star Trek. (If you’re not convinced, salon.com has an illuminating four-part piece on the subject.)”

We are saddened as well. We recommend you read the rest of Interlocutor’s post here.

As promised, here we go…

Wednesday evening was the night of the second all-candidates election forum in the riding of Edmonton Strathcona. Held at the Myer Horowitz Theatre in the University of Alberta Students’ Union Building, six out of the seven candidates duked it out (Marijuana Party candidate, Dave Dowling, was unaccounted for…).

The evening started out great, the candidates showed up and respectfully lined up on stage, waiting to speak to the mass of about 200-300 Edmonton Strathconians who trekked the -5 snowless conditions to be there.

As things started out, the candidates first answered three questions prepared by the Advocacy Department of the U of A Students’ Union (the wonderful group who organized the event). The three included questions on topics ranging from student debt to youth apathy. Though most of the answers were standard, Conservative incumbent, Rahim Jaffer, brought up the idea of Income-Contingent Student Loan Repayment. An idea, which isn’t bad on it’s own, just that every jurisdiction which has enacted it has seen tuition deregulation and massive tuition hikes, which equals larger student debt.

Mr. Jaffer of course, was a smooth operator as usual. Watching from the audience, you could tell he’d done this a couple times before (finishing his answers 58 seconds on the minute, etc).

Andy Hladyshevsky, the Liberal Candidate, was in our mind, the best speaker of the evening. He answered all the questions with energy, and left you remembering his comments afterwards.

Hladyshevsky Quote of the evening: “I don’t like the way the Conservatives are spreading the word ‘corruption’ like ketchup into every thing that every good person in government stands for.”

Linda Duncan, the New Democratic Party candidate, answered all the questions intelligently, but that was all. Though Ms. Duncan has, in our opinion, the most impressive resume of all the candidates, she didn’t have very many memorable quotes of the evening and didn’t overly impress us (though we still may vote for her on the 23rd).

Mike Fedeyko, the Progressive Canadian candidate, was a pretty good speaker. He also made sense. Other than the Progressive Canadian Party being the Progressive Canadian Party, he made them sound pretty good. Not having actually read their official policy positions on their website, Mr. Fedeyko made their policies sound fairly moderate, centrist, and filled with common sense.

Green candidate, Cameron Wakefeild, also did a fairly good job.

Kevan Hunter, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) candidate (who is rumoured to be the son of Edmonton Centre Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) candidte Peggy Morton), was most definitely the most entertaining candidate at this forum – best quotes of the forum as well! He also continued on the theme of Canada‘s illegal occupation of Haiti…

Here are some of the better Kevan Hunter quotes…

“If we really want to do our part in helping the real world, we need to stop recking it.”

“You have a choice between negative ad’s… and fascism.”

“I think fascism in this country is a serious concern”

As well, some dumbass in the audience asked Andy Hladyshevsky a question comparing the Liberal attack ad’s to Hitler’s tactics in Nazi Germany… Andy had a kick ass response… here is part of it…

“I’ll give you a comment to that, that person may be flat ass wrong. No one is going to trivialize the Holocaust in this auditorium, not in Myer Horowitz’s auditorium!”

Liberal leader Paul Martin is going to be in Edmonton tomorrow, speaking at the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 488 Hall around 4:00pm.

We’re going to be out of town, so there’s no chance of us going…

Unlike another blogger, we have not been pontificating about our regular media appearances since the beginning of the election. But for those of you in Edmonton who haven’t figured it out yet, since the beginning of December 2005, we have been a regular member of CityTV’s election panel.

Every Friday for the past month during the 6pm news and continuing until the end of the election, our very own handsome and dashingly charming self has been staring on CityTV.

And of course, on January 23rd, on election night, we will be on CityTV as part of the election night political panel.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) – not be be confused with the regular Communist Party of Canada – has released election campaign ad’s on their website and they are just priceless!

The ad’s, which star Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) leader, Sandra L. Smith, promote the virtues of the worker’s revolution and the evils of American imperialism… 😛

They even used old school Soviet propoganda pictures! Check out the picture of the 1890’s worker at the end!

UPDATE: The Community Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) radio ad’s a great as well. Make sure to check out the second half… totally old school fiddle potato farmers…

Well, not tones has happened in the realm of Alberta provincial politics in the past month or so, but there has been a bit of movement…

– Infrastructure and Transport Minister Lyle Oberg has re-launched his Leadership Campaign website – Oberg Online (not quite as cool and hip as “Hancock’s Crew”)

– Both the Alberta Liberals and Alberta PC‘s will be holding Party Conventions in the upcoming months – the Alberta Liberals will be holding a policy convention in Edmonton, and the Tories will be holding an AGM and convention in Calgary.

Though it looks largely boring, the Tory convention will include a Leadership review on Mr. Klein. Though it is not widely expected that any of the pretenders to Mr. Klein’s slowly crumbling throne will mount a “dump Ralph” campaign during the review, it should be interesting to see what type of approval rating he receives. Anything lower than 90% (which seems inevitable) would definitely make a large dent in the Premier’s armour (and his oversized ego).

So… we shall see… we’re more that sure our ‘deep throat’ in the PC Party will be filling us in with all the goodies come convention time. 🙂

– By the end of January, Kevin Taft‘s Alberta Liberals will have nominated at least 20 candidates for the next provincial election (out of 83 seats).

– It looks like the provincial budget may come down in February. This means that the Legislature is probably going to reconvene in the next couple weeks for a Spring Session.

– Oh, how we wish we had a computer scanner… believe it or not, we got a Christmas card from Mr. Jim Dinning this year. Boy, was that fun. 😛

– Rumours of who might run for the NDP nomination in Edmonton Strathcona when popular three-term MLA Raj Pannu retires have continued to swirl… though usual names like former ATA President Larry Booi are still around, names like Rachel Notley (daughter of former NDP Leader Grant Notley) have recently been floating. (**June 15, 2006 UPDATE** It looks like my Rachel Notley prediction has come true as she is now running for the NDP nomination in Edmonton Strathcona…)

– For those of you interested, the youth-wings of the three main Alberta parties now all have websites – the Alberta Young Liberals (AYL), New Democratic Party Youth of Alberta (NDYA), and Young Albertans Progressive Conservative Association (YAPCA, pronounced as- we’re assuming – yapka). Not sure if the Alberta Alliance has a youth-wing…

Coming tomorrow!

A complete recap of the Edmonton Strathcona Myer Horowitz Election forum! You won’t want to miss it!

ohhh, it was a fun night!

Who would have thought someone would have dropped the ‘H-Bomb’ at a campaign forum!?!

We’re sure that many bloggers have seen this ensemble, written up by the always awesome Rick Mercer, with his thoughts on a potential Conservative Government Cabinet.

Though his were obviously satirical in nature (Stockwell Day in a Federal cabinet? hahaha)

As much as we dread the thought of Stephen Harper as Prime Minister, if the Liberals national campaign bombs any further, it may be an inevitability.

This got us seriously thinking about which Alberta Conservative MP’s would make it in a Stephen Harper-led Conservative cabinet. Though we’re sure that every current Tory MP with Reform Party pedigree circa 1993 (ie: Diane Ablonczy, Art Hanger, Ken Epp, John Williams) believes he or she (singular) will make the cut, we would predict that there would only be three or four Alberta MP’s that would make it to full Cabinet Minister positions (the rest being dealt out to other Western, Maritime, Ontario, and possibly Quebec MP’s).

So, right or wrong… here’s our predictions for Alberta Tory MP’s who we believe would make the cut as full-Cabinet Ministers in a potential Stephen Harper-led government:

Rona Ambrose, MP Edmonton – Spruce Grove since 2004;
James Rajotte, MP for Edmonton – Leduc since 2000;
Lee Richardson, MP for Calgary Centre since 2004 (MP for Calgary Southeast from 1988 to 1993);
Monte Solberg, MP for Medicine Hat since 1993;
and duh… Stephen Harper, Calgary Southwest since 2002 (MP for Calgary West from 1993 to 1997).

This will no doubt meet the ire of many Alberta right-wingers, who will probably never be satisfied until the National Capital gets moved to Calgary. And even then, they will still be bitter about it ever being in Ontario in the first place.

If anything, a Tory government in Ottawa should be a major blow to the Alberta’s Provincial Tories, who will no longer be able to use that fancy “it was the fault of those evil Liberals in Ottawa” card they love so much.

Thoughts?

Last week, Angry in T.O. tagged us in a game of “Five Weird Things…”

As the game-name suggests, we list off five weird things about ourselves and then tag a couple of non suspecting blogging folks… so… here… we… go…

1. We love Maynard’s Wine Gums. In fact, we can eat an entire pack without even thinking about it (the 7 hour sugar rush is a bit of a kick though).

2. We’ve been to Ribstone, Alberta (how many other people can say they’ve done that…)

3. Everytime we see an NDP lawnsign, we think of orange popsicles (we live in the Garneau area, so we end up thinking about orange popsicles quite a bit).

4. We have an unhealthy obsession with public policy. We can’t stop reading policy reports. Not just on the job, but at home, and at Tim Horton’s, and at the Sugarbowl…

5. Our Cross-Country Skis were “Made in the USSR.” And yes, they are wood. They are awesome.

So, in retaliation for Angry in T.O.‘s tagging us, we shall tag Socialist Swine, Section 15, Zorph, Peter Rempel, and Taracool.

Here are some upcoming Edmonton riding and City-Wide Election Forums we know of…

Wednesday, January 11th

Riding: Edmonton Strathcona
Horowitz Theatre
University of Alberta Students’ Union Building
115th Street & 89th Avenue
5:30 PM

City-Wide Forum
Topic: Immigration
Norquest College Auditorium
10215 – 108th Street
7:30 – 9:00pm
Sponsored by Edmonton Mennonite Centre for New Comers and Norquest College
Moderated by: Portia Clark

……

Thursday, January 12th

City-Wide Forum
Royal Alberta Museum
12845 – 102nd Avenue
7:00 PM
Sponsered by Public Interest Alberta

……

Friday, January 13

Riding: Edmonton East
“Spotlight 2006 – The Candidates’ Forum”
On Shaw TV channel 10 and 630 CHED
7:00 PM

……

Monday, January 16

Riding: Edmonton Centre
10804 – 119 Street
7:30 pm
Sponsed by the Unitarian Church of Edmonton’s Social Justice Committee

City-Wide Forum
Vote Alberta Young Candidates Forum
Red Star Pub
10534 Jasper Avenue.
8:00 – 9:00 PM
(Edmonton East candidate Nicole Martel will be representing the Liberals)

……

Thursday, January 19

Riding: Edmonton East
Eastglen High School
11430-68 Street
7:00-9:03 PM
Sponsored by the Newton Community League.
Moderated by Dave King, former Minister of Education for the Province of Alberta.

Do you think being indicted by a US Federal Grand Jury and being accused of being a spy could be bad for your career?

HUSBAND, WIFE INDICTED AS BEING CUBAN AGENTS

A husband and wife who work at Florida International University were indicted by a federal grand jury Monday on charges of being covert agents of Cuba.

Carlos and Elsa Alvarez are being held in jail, pending a bail hearing. They have not entered a plea, but their lawyer told local reporters that they were not guilty. Carlos Alvarez is an associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies. Elsa Alvarez is a social worker in the university’s counseling center.

A spokesman for Florida International said Monday night that they had been placed on paid leave, pending further developments.

We also thought this was interesting…

The charges are less severe than espionage. According to a press release issued by the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami, the charge of being a covert agent carries with a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Check out the rest here.

Seriously, folks…

… on the U of A Campus at RATT tonight starting at 6pm (yes, only one hour away, but hey!)

RATT’s on the 7th floor of the Students’ Union Building for those who are interested in joining the festivities!

And… unlike Mr. Jaffer, we’re pretty sure Stephen Harper will show up to this debate…

Last night, along with Mr. Robertson and Mr. Smith, we attended the Edmonton Strathcona candidate forum held at the Knox Metropolitan United Church. Though it wasn’t the most exciting forum, we do have some thoughts…

1. Tory candidate Rahim Jaffer, the three-time incumbent for the riding was a no-show at the forum. Mr. Jaffer was joined in the no-show category by Marijuana Party candidate Dave Dowling… was Mr. Jaffer too busy campaigning for Tory candidates in Ontario to show up to a forum in his own riding?

2. Liberal candidate Andy Hladyshevsky was the most polished speaker. He was calm, cool, and humerous at times. For the most part, we would have a hard time disagreeing with many of the things he said.

3. Marxist-Leninist candidate, Kevan Hunter was great entertainment. His answer to nearly every question, ranging from Kyoto to committing 0.7% GDP to International Development Aid had something to do with Canada’s “illegal occupation of Haiti…” crazy Marxist. 😛

4. Progressive Canadian candidate Mike Fedeyko was a pretty good speaker, though he slightly misjudged the crowd when he started quoting a Fraser Institute report…

5. Green Party candidate Cameron Wakefield was okay. Not the most polished speaker, he wasn’t able to compensate oratorical for the Green Party’s lack of solid policies…

6. NDP candidate Linda Duncan was a good speaker. Though we’re most likely going to vote for her come January 23rd, we were not overly impressed with her performance at the forum. But it’s nothing against her personally, none of the candidates really impressed us.

Overall, it was a pretty tame forum, we’re looking forward to the next Edmonton Strathcona forum at the Myer Horowitz Theatre on the U of A Campus on January 11 at 5:30pm – tell your friends and show up!

So, ending it off, here are our current predictions in the Edmonton Strathcona race (rounded off, of course)…

Rahim Jaffer, CPC – 18,000
Linda Duncan, NDP – 13,000-14,000
Andy Hladyshevsky, Lib – 12,000-13,000
Cameron Wakefield, Grn – 3,000-4,000
Dave Dowling, MP –500
Mike Fedeyko, PC – 400
Kevan Hunter, ML – 100