daveberta.ca - Alberta Politics and Elections

Time to have fun with numbers.

Thanks to an attentive friend of daveberta (kind of like the ‘Friends of Seven’) who pointed me in the direction of these lovely numbers…

Top 10 Tory Spenders per-vote in the 2004 Alberta Provincial Election

10. Jon Lord*, Calgary Currie
Total Spent: $49,211
Total Votes: 4412 (40%)
Cost per Vote: $16.19
Outcome: DEFEATED

9. Naresh Bhardwaj, Edmonton Mill Woods
Total Spent: $49,211
Total Votes: 2992 (29%)
Cost per Vote: $16.45
Outcome: DEFEATED

8. Manjit Dhaliwal, Edmonton Gold Bar
Total Spent: $46,467
Total Votes: 2562 (18%)
Cost per Vote: $18.07
Outcome: DEFEATED

7. Mark Hlady*, Calgary Mountain View
Total Spent: $75,411
Total Votes: 4088 (31%)
Cost per Vote: $18.45
Outcome: DEFEATED

6. Pearl Calahasen*, Lesser Slave Lake
Total Spent: $73,823
Total Votes: 3903 (65%)
Cost per Vote: $18.91
Outcome: Re-Elected

5. Guy Boutilier*, Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo
Total Spent: $87,100
Total Votes: 4433 (63%)
Cost per Vote: $19.95
Outcome: Re-Elected

4. Mark Norris*, Edmonton McClung
Total Spent: $115,264
Total Votes: 5333 (41%)
Cost per Vote: $21.61
Outcome: DEFEATED

3. Fred Horne, Edmonton Riverview
Total Spent: $86,330
Total Votes: 3575 (23%)
Cost per Vote: $24.15
Outcome: DEFEATED

2. Gurnam Dodd, Edmonton Ellerslie
Total Spent: $85,609
Total Votes: 3245 (32%)
Cost per Vote: $26.38
Outcome: DEFEATED

1. Drew Hutton*, Edmonton Glenora
Total Spent: $107,822
Total Votes: 3759 (29%)
Cost per Vote: $28.68
Outcome: DEFEATED

More fun with numbers to come…

(*Incumbents)

Here are my suggestions of people who could spice up the Alberta PC Leadership Race:

Craig Chandler– The CEO of Concerned Christians Canada and 2003 Federal PC Leadership candidate. Was an also-ran in Hamilton Mountain for the Reform Party in 1993 and in Calgary West during the 1997 Alberta Election as a Social Credit candidate.

Jason Kenney– Part-time MP for Calgary Southeast and full-time bulldog for the Christian-right.

Preston Manning– From the “Blast from the Past” section, this former Reform Leader would bring about 9000% more IQ to the race.

Stockwell Day– Former Alberta MLA, Alliance Leader, current BC Tory MP and crazy Foreign Affairs Critic. I know it’s a LONG LONG LONG-shot, but it would be sooo entertaining.

Anybody have other suggestions?

It’s official: Morton throws hat in ring

Foothills-Rockyview MLA confirms he will take a run at replacing Ralph

Doug McIntyre
Wednesday June 08, 2005

Cochrane Times — He’s been touted as a potential heir apparent and now it’s official — Foothills-Rockyview MLA Ted Morton will seek the leadership of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party after Premier Ralph Klein retires from politics.

“When Premier Klein retires, I definitely intend to seek the leadership and I’ve discussed this with both city and MD councillors, and how this might affect my effectiveness in representing Foothills-Rockyview,” said Morton on Monday.

“The quickest way to get government action on local projects is to be a member of cabinet. I think my leadership efforts will get me into cabinet more quickly. Read the rest here…

According to figures released by the Edmonton Journal, former Edmonton McClung MLA and Economic Development Minister, Mark Norris, spent over $100,000 in his failed November 2004 re-election campaign. Norris, who is considered by some as a contender for the soon-to-be-vacated PC throne, was unseated by 533 votes at the hands of rookie Liberal Candidate Mo Elsalhy. Elsalhy spent less than $30,000 on his campaign.

Also released were figures showing that Tory-turned-Alliance MLA, Gary Masyk, spent near $40,000 on his bid to be elected in Edmonton Decore (the seat he was elected to in 2001, Edmonton Norwood, was dissolved after the 2003 boundary re-distributions). On election night, Masyk received a whopping fourth place 830 votes (9%). Liberal Bill Bonko was elected in that riding with 45% of the popular vote.

I thought this was funny. I guess money can’t buy you everything (Chuck Guite must have missed that lesson).

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Random Quote of the Day

“I’m very important. I have many leatherbound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany” – Ron Burgundy, Anchorman (2004)

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GREWAL UPDATE: Buckets of Grewal has set up an awesome slide show of the changes made to the Grewal/Dosanjh//Murphy Transcripts (props to Mark at Section 15 for the heads up!)

First, daveberta would like to formally welcome the Fiesty Republic of Holtopia to the great blog-o-sphere of nations. It is a great honour to have a link to this tiny republic on my side bar. Holtopia is currently preparing for a “Falkland Islands” style war after launching a massive policy review:

“After conducting a very thorough foreign policy review, The Republic of Holtopia has decided to forge a new era in Holtopian-Foreign relations! Whereas the fiesty republic once concerned itself with harvesting the orange crop, herding the wild beefalos, reading graphic novels, and taxing wicker goods– Holtopia now looks outward!”

Second, but not lastly, daveberta would like to send a BIG CANADIAN HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY to my very good friend, Miss Amika Schodie. Ms. Schodie, formerly of Edmonton, Alberta now resides in the mostly rainy central area of London, UK. I wish you a very happy day and will no doubt speak with you soon.

I thought this was fun. Posted 20 minutes ago on Canadian Press…

D : )

Air Canada confirms it is investigating airport incident involving
Grewal (Grewal-Airport)
Source: The Canadian Press
Jun 6, 2005 15:57

OTTAWA (CP) _ Air Canada is investigating an incident at Vancouver
airport involving a Tory MP embroiled in a taping scandal.

Gurmant Grewal was spotted in a waiting area Saturday trying to get
passengers to transport a package to Ottawa.

Airport sources won’t confirm if there was a tape in the envelope the
B.C. MP was trying to pass along.

Read the rest here!

UPDATE: Grewal on stress leave (ie: going into hiding)

Against better judgement and severe warnings, I rented Team America: World Police this weekend. After only watching about half of it, I would recommend that anyone interested in watching this film poke their eyes out with a pencil first. It would be more (but not much) entertaining that way. This movie has hands down beaten out The Village, and Troy as DAVEBERTA’S WORST MOVIES OF THE YEAR.

I also splurged and bought the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the Back to the Future Trilogy on DVD this weekend : )

I could’nt sleep last night, so here you go…

– Name of the McGill Student Society Building: The William Shatner Student Centre

– Total value of Canada’s Barley industry in 1970: $144,700,000

– Total value of Canada’s Barley industry in 1995: $795,500,000

– Length of Mel Brook’s ‘Spaceballs‘: 1 hour 37 minutes.

– Number of BC Premiers since 1980: 8

– Number of Alberta Premiers since 1980: 3

– Kilometers of paved roadway in Ecuador: approx. 8,165km

– % of alcohol in a 330ml bottle of Corona: 4.6%

– % of alcohol in a 461ml bottle of Big Rock (Grasshopper): 5%

– 1964 Hart Trophy winner: Jean Béliveau (Montreal!)

Props to Peter for Wildrose Edition numero uno,

UPDATE (May 18, 2006) – Check out an updated Alberta PC leadership roster here.

**UPDATE (October 11, 2006) – Check out the entire list of MLA endorsements for the Alberta PC leadership race.**

Well, with yesterday’s prediction by Tory MLA Lloyd Snelgrove (Vermilion-Lloydminster) that Alberta‘s glorious and blessed leader, Premier Ralph Klein, is on his way out, I decided to take a look at some of the “would-be” Klein successors. Here are some of the old (mostly white) men stepping up to lead the 34 year-old Tory dynasty…

Jim Dinning – The ‘Paul Martin’ of the Alberta PC Leadership race. This former Provincial Treasurer (1992-97) has been bidding his time in the private sector since leaving electoral politics in 1997 (private sector, hmmm. Sounds more like the John Turner of this race). He’s looking to be the “everything-to-everyone” candidate. Under the “why Jim” category of his website, apparently one of his qualifiers for leader is: “He’s been an active Party member since the 1970’s.”

Lyle Oberg, MLA Strathmore-Brooks – Currently the Transport Minister, Oberg was affectionately known as “Lyle, Lyle, pants on fire” by teachers, parents, students, and trustees from across Alberta during his time as Learning Minister from 2001 to 2004. His arrogant style will no doubt help him fit in with many of the other candidates in this race.

Ed Stelmach, MLA Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville – Elected in 1993, after unseating two-term ND MLA Derek Fox, Stelmach quietly toiled as Transport Minister for years until being appointed Intergovernmental Affairs Minister last winter. He seems like a nice guy, but I really can’t name anything he’s done in his past 12 years.

Gary Mar, MLA Calgary Mackay – Once considered a serious contender in the race to replace Ralph, Mar had a wrench thrown in the wheels of his machine after it was discovered that this former Health Minister paid almost $400,000 in an untendered contracts to his former Executive Assistant. Now toiling as the lowly Community Development Minister, Mar is cutting ribbons instead of talking Health Care-reform.

Dave Hancock, MLA Edmonton Whitemud – Currently the Advanced Education Minister, Hancock was only one of two Tories elected in Edmonton in 1997 and is now 1 of 3 Tory MLA’s in Edmonton. Probably the most decent Tory MLA in Alberta, unfortunately he’s from Liberal Edmonton and I’m sure this will have a negative effect on his leadership chances.

Mark Norris – In 2001, Mark Norris was called a “giant-killer” for unseating then 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, I really don’t consider him a serious candidate. But things got a lot more interesting last month when Mr. Norris joined Klein and his mafia on a trip to Klein’s BC Fishing lodge. Is Norris Klein’s padwan?? Hmmm. Sounds like a kiss of death to me.

Ted Morton, MLA Foothills-Rockyview – Ah yes, the dark horse of this race. Not terribly charismatic, Dr. Morton is a hard-line right-wing ideologue. The former “Senator-in-Waiting” was elected last November under the slogan of “More Alberta, Less Ottawa.” Though he is shunned by many in the Tory establishment, he may draw the support of the hard right-wingers that the other candidates cannot. If he wins, look for a lot of Tories to jump to the Liberals. One of the rumours going around is that if he looses the leadership, he’ll jump to the floundering Alberta Alliance Party.

So, there we have it. Pretty homogeneous, eh

Well, it’s begun, and it’s coming from Tory MLA Lloyd Snelgrove…

MLA predicts Klein gone by fall

Last updated Jun 3 2005 10:50 AM MDT
CBC News

EDMONTON – One of Premier Ralph Klein’s MLAs is speculating on when his boss will step down, predicting a fall departure.

Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Lloyd Snelgrove has stepped forward as the first caucus member to openly talk about when he thinks Klein will retire.

Klein, elected to a fourth majority last fall, says it was his last campaign. And while he maintains that he will serve out a full term, many believe he will go earlier, and campaigns to replace him have already been launched.

“It could be within the year, it could be sooner. I just think that it will be sooner than later,” Snelgrove said. “I just have to guess from the leadership activity that many of those think the same way as me.

“They seem to operate in a different information system than we do, so I don’t believe they’d be as active if they didn’t feel that the leadership race would be sooner than later.”

Snelgrove says within the party’s inner circles, when Klein will go is the subject of much discussion.

While Snelgrove would like to see Klein stay for another three years, he says speculation among those close to the premier has him going as early as this fall – which would be Klein’s 25th anniversary in politics.

He was elected the mayor of Calgary in 1980.

The gates are open. The “tirekickers” are banging at the gates, and the King is a lame, lame duck.

Retire Ralph, you’re way past your best-before-date.

I’ve been tagged by Aaron at Grandinite into some sort of name-that-book game which is quickly spreading across the blog-o-sphere. I guess I’ll play along. Game On!

As of late, about 99% of my reading tends to lean towards policy reports of the “PSE” flavour and are usually work related. But, when I do read on my own, this is where I lean…

# of Books that I own

I’m gonna wing it and say about 300. I have this really neat set of original classroom textbooks published in 1917 titled “True Stories of the Great War.” They’re such propaganda peices, but a fun read. A lot of text University text books too.

Last book I bought (not including text books):

*Alberta Politics Uncovered: Taking back our Province by Marc Lisac – great book on Alberta politics.

Last books I read:

*Harry Potter and Philosopher Stone by J.K.Rowling – Such a fun book!

*Digital Fortress by Dan Brown – I borrowed it from my former roommate and forgot to give it back to her. Picture: DaVinci Code at the NSA.

Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas

Five Books that mean a lot to me.

1.The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin. This is a great book for history buffs. It was a gift from a good friend.

2.History on the Run: The “Trenchcoat” Memoirs of a Foreign Correspondent by Knowlton Nash – One of the best reads I have ever experienced. I picked up the book for $1.50 at a used book store in St. John’s, Newfoundland last summer and read it in 2 days.

3.The Winter Years by James H. Gray – A great book about the depression on the Prairies.

4.The Chronicle’s of Narnia by C.S. Lewis – These were the first series of books I ever read on my own (outside of school). I still think they’re great.

5.Shredding the Public Interest by Kevin Taft – this may seem politically hackish of me, but this book was one of the reasons I began to get involved in politics (way back in good ol’e 1999).

So, at this point, I’m supposed to “tag” other bloggers as “it” 🙂

I tag:

c-lo
Five of Five
Gauntlet
Rempelia Prime
Senator Catalyst
Zita

hmm. Gurmant Grewal. Tapes. Editing. Pizza. Ujjal Dosanjh. Ambassadorships. Tim Murphy.

Sounds like a made-for-TV Movie.

I thought about posting on the Grewal tapes, but there seems to be a huge saturation of Grewal-gate related blogging out there. I would recommend Buckets of Grewal (one of the better and entertaining Grewal resources), Calgary Grit, Section 15, Mr. Cherniak, and Rational Reasons.

My take: the ENTIRE thing looks shady. If the tapes were edited (as it looks they may have been) then it gets even more shady. What do you think the chances of the Grewal’s being booted from the CPC Caucus are?

Also, props to the good senator for the following. I enjoyed it quite a bit!

Policy

In the beginning was the Plan.

Then came the Assumptions.

But the Assumptions were without form,

And the plan was completely without substance.

And the darkness was upon the faces of the workers.
So they spoke unto their group heads, saying: “It is a crock of shit, and it stinketh!”

And the group heads went unto their section heads, and sayeth: “It is a pail of dung, such that none can stand it!”

And the section heads went unto their managers, and sayeth unto them: “It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none here may abide the odour therof.”

And the managers went unto their Director, and sayeth unto him: “It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength.”

And the Director went unto the Director-General, and sayeth uto him: “It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong.”

And the Director-General went unto the Assistant Deputy Minister, and sayeth unto him: “It promoteth growth, and it is very powerful.”

And the Assistant Deputy Minister went unto the Deputy Minister, and sayeth unto him: “This powerful new plan will actively promote the growth and efficiency of the department, and this area in particular!”

And the Deputy Minister looked upon the plan, And saw that the plan was good.

And the plan became policy…

Well, you might have noticed the new template. New and cleaned up for the summer. Goodbye blocky blue template and hello minty white and blue! Enjoy.

I thought I would briefly touch on the interesting evening I had last night. As a staff member at the U of A Students’ Union, I thought it would be a good gesture and an interesting expeditionary adventure to attend a Student’s Council Meeting at the good ol’e University Hall.

So, the evening was progressing as one would expect a Student’s Council meeting to progress when all of a sudden, things began to get slightly (only slightly) more entertaining. All of a sudden, without a moments notice the Speaker of Student’s Council, the Honorable Gregory Harlow, threw down the procedural gauntlet and flexed his bulging parliamentary muscles by having an observer thrown out of the Council Chambers.

Fortunately, this observer just happened to be me. Apparently, whispering when the Speaker demands silence is a parliamentary “no-no.”

I beg your forgiveness oh benevolent Speaker of the Council. 😛

D 🙂