daveberta.ca - Alberta Politics and Elections

How sweet!

As we continue our analysis of the federal parties Post-Secondary Education platforms, we would like to welcome everyone to the Faculty of Platitudes! (aka: the Green Party of Canada PSE policies…)

In their recently released main policy document, the Green Party has lived up to their name and proved that they are green in the PSE policy arena (nyuk nyuk nyuk…). Not a very good PSE policy package, it sits on the extremely vague side of the scale on just about every point.

In the document, they left us with six main PSE points… and not much to analyze…

Here it is…

“166. Work with provinces and higher learning institutions to reduce post-secondary tuitions.“

Okay. This sounds fine and we’re assuming it means giving the provinces more money for PSE. Dedicated transfer? Vague.

“167. Boost participation in cooperative education programs and apprenticeships.“

Vague…

“168. Encourage more hands-on learning in our post-secondary education system.“

Really vague… We would seriously like to know what “Hands-on learning” means… does this mean anything at all?

“169. Harmonize government programs such as the Millennium Scholarship Fund to provide a single need-based grant program to reduce student debt.“

We agree that harmonization of programs is good for efficiency, but we have a suspicion that our definition of harmonization and their definition of harmonization may be different. Tones more needs-based grants are needed, but we need more details.

“170. Increase investments in post-secondary education and ensure that public funding plays a major role in research and development initiatives.”

Sounds good. But vague.

Well, in our professional opinion, the Greens have definitely dropped the ball on this policy area…

As well, the Globe and Mail has released some of the details of the Liberal PSE policy, which is supposed to be released tomorrow. We’re not going to comment on the details from the story; we’ll wait until it’s actually released before we do the critiquing.

(As well, be sure to check out our take on the Conservative PSE policy and an NDP PSE announcement.)

The always fun Socialist Swine has tagged us in another one of those blog meme’s that float around… so, here you go….

Four jobs you’ve had in your life:
Pizza Chef, Fundrasing & Event Coordinator, Research Officer, Executive Policy & Information Officer

Four movies you could watch over and over:
Spiderman, Primary Colors, Shawn of the Dead, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Four places you’ve lived:
The Bayou & Edmonton, Alberta

Four TV shows you love to watch:
Family Guy, the Daily Show, The West Wing, The Sopranos

Four places you’ve been on vacation:
Halifax, Paris, Brussels, Nice

Four websites you visit daily:
CBC, Newsfutures, CalgaryGrit, Homestar Runner

Four of your favorite foods:
Maynards Wine Gums, Oranges, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Chicken

Four places you’d rather be:
Rather be? Why? Edmonton rocks!

Four albums you can’t live without:
– At Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash
– The Royal Tenenbaums Soundtrack
– The Get Shorty Soundtrack
– Riding with the King by B.B. King & Eric Clapton

Four vehicles I’ve owned:
– None. 🙂

So, assuming this is how it works, I tag the following four people for this meme:
– c-lo, interluctor, lotusland, & senator catalyst

And it will.

As the eve of 2005 has passed, we find our creative juices running fairly low. We had a very relaxing holiday, but after spending the past three days in party/celebratory-mode, we find our desire to even write this blog post on the low end of low.

But alas, we shall force ourselves to please the mighty blog gods with a post…

We have a couple things to mention…

Federal Leadership. We’re still having a very hard time getting excited about this writ period. All the party leaders are boring and uninspiring. We don’t particularity enjoy Paul Martin, but we enjoy Stephen Harper even less. We are also fairly disappointed with Jack Layton in this election (so far), he’s just not very inspiring. Please, someone offer VISION. Please.

Income-Trusts. We don’t really know much about them, but the entire thing seems slimy.

Edmonton Strathcona. We’re still unsure of who to vote for. We think we like our local NDP candidate, Linda Duncan, but we haven’t ruled out voting for Green candidate, Cameron Wakefield, as a protest vote.

For those of you interested, there are a couple of Edmonton Strathcona election forums coming up in the near future (at the University of Alberta and Knox-Metropolitan Church). We’ll post more info when we confirm them.

As well, Edmonton Strathcona Progressive Canadian candidate, Mike Fedeyko has set up his website and has joined Linda Duncan in candidate sites linking to our blog. Props to both of them!

Warren Kinsella. We’re a little disappointed we didn’t make Mr. Kinsella‘s top 10 blogs list. What’s up Warren baby!?! 😉

Blogs/Webboards. Mike Klander. Gordon Stamp. Seriously folks. Did they think that people weren’t reading their stuff?

As for Mr. Klander’s Olivia Chow comparison, we can assure everyone that Oliva Chow (see right) is much much better looking than a Chow Chow dog (we met her last year).

Also, see Derek’s take on Mr. Klander… hahaha. keep it up, Mr. Raymaker.

As for Mr. Stamp, well, we don’t think very highly of Alberta separatists, so we’ll leave it at that.

Movies. We’ve seen a couple of good movies over the holidays. We saw the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Fun with Dick and Jane, and Walk the Line (for the third time…). They were all good. Fun with Dick and Jane was particularity funny.

haha. We’re watching Office Space as we blog. This movie is too funny… har har har…

Yes, we have triumphantly returned to our lovely hovel just in time for that great annual event we all call “New Year’s Eve.”

We shall post more soon, but for now we leave you with this lovely doozy.

(props to c-lo for the linkage)

As we shall soon be heading out of town for a couple days, the blogging will be light (if non-existant) until our trimpant return… we really hope you can cope without us…

We here at daveberta would just like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season. Have fun, stay safe, and enjoy yourselves! Tis the Season! 🙂

Today, we found this lovely site with tonnes and tonnes of Family Guy video clips. Check it out, it’s on the awesome side of radtacular.

Props to Mr. Smith for tipping us off about the rumoured Progressive Canadian candidate in Edmonton Strathcona, Mr. Mike Fedeyko.

We don’t know too much about the Progressive Canucks (we’re not sure there is much to know), but from what we can see, they seem like a group of mainly red Ontario Tories who don’t want to be in a conservative party with people like Stockwell Day, Jason Kenney, and Myron Thompson while also not wanting to join Ms. Stronach or Mr. Brison in the Liberal Party.

We’ve updated our Edmonton 2006 Federal Election Candidates list, but also click here for more info on Edmonton Strathcona.

No Joe Volpe or Jean LaPierre desktop wallpaper…? darn.

We thought this was a little funny… check out where this little link directs you: pierretrudeau.ca.

From the Globe & Mail…

Researchers found that, contrary to popular belief, success doesn’t necessarily bring happiness but rather that happy people tend to be more successful.

“This may be because happy people frequently experience positive moods and these positive moods prompt them to be more likely to work actively toward new goals and build new resources,” said lead author Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California, Riverside.

If you like your job, you’re probably going to do better at it… Duh!?!

It’s Sunday. It’s winter. And we’re slightly stressed out (as usual). Haven’t bought any Christmas gifts yet… waiting until the 23rd… 😛

anyway… NEW STRONG BAD EMAIL!

As we first began here, we’ve decided to update the list of Edmonton Federal Election 2006 candidates…

As before, we’ll keep updating the list as more candidates are declared, nominated, appointed, or turfed.

ELECTION 2006 MANIA!

EDMONTON CENTRE (2004 results & profile )
Laurie Hawn – Conservative
Donna Martyn – NDP
Anne McLellan – Liberal
Peggy Morton – Marxist-Lenninist
David Parker – Green
Chandra Segaran Swamy, Independent
(Marijuana Party candidate Lyle Kenny dropped out of the race)

EDMONTON EAST (2004 results & profile)
Trey Capernhurst – Green
Arlene Chapman – NDP
Peter Goldring – Conservative
Nicole Martel – Liberal
(Canadian Action Party candidate David Vanzella and Marijuana Party candidate Ken Kirk both dropped out of the race)

EDMONTON LEDUC (2004 results)
Jim Jacuta – Liberal
Ben Pettit – Green
James Rajotte – Conservative
Marty Rybiak – NDP

EDMONTON MILLWOODS BEAUMONT (2004 results & profile)
Kate Harrington – Green
Neal Gray – NDP
Amarjit Grewal – Liberal
Mike Lake – Conservative
Kyle McLeod – Independent (according to nodice.ca)
Naomi Rankin – Communist

EDMONTON SHERWOOD PARK (2004 results & profile)
Ken Epp – Conservative
Laurie Lang – NDP
Lynn Lau – Green
Ron Symic – Liberal

EDMONTON SPRUCE GROVE (2004 results & profile)
Rona Ambrose – Conservative
Brad Enge – Liberal
John Lackey – Green
Jason Rockwell – NDP

EDMONTON ST. ALBERT (2004 results & profile)
Stanley Haroun – Liberal
Peter Johnston – Green
Mike Melymick – NDP
John Williams – Conservative

EDMONTON STRATHCONA (2004 results & profile)
Linda Duncan – NDP
Dave Dowling – Marijuana Party
Mike Fedeyko – Progressive Canadian
Andy Hladyshevsky – Liberal
Kevan Hunter – Marxist-Lenninist
Rahim Jaffer – Conservative
Cameron Wakefield – Green
(Click here for more info on Edmonton Strathcona)