daveberta.ca - Alberta Politics and Elections

i had to post this – it’s from NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division website – very cool interactive map! found it during my research on eastern european security issues.

taking a break from paper writing… almost done the one on regional and domestic security issues in Eastern Europe… another one due next week on John Locke and property rights… can’t wait until they are done….

going to the first QP of the new Legislative session tomorrow afternoon. looking forward to it, should be fun to watch… I can’t wait until Ted Morton says something crazy! it’s only a matter of time and when he does – it will be posted on daveberta!

Cheers.

D : )

Well, the new session of the Alberta Legislature began today with the election of a new Speaker. I haven’t heard, but it was expected that long long long long time Tory MLA Ken Kowalski would be acclaimed as Speaker. Kowalski, who was elected the same year dirt was invented, is the current MLA for the riding of Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock.

This session will see a new beefed up opposition ready to take on the Tories! Kevin Taft and the Liberal Official Opposition have 16 members (3 incumbents & 13 rookie MLA’s), Brian Mason’s perpetual third place New Democrats will be bringing 4 MLA’s (2 incumbents, 1 rookie, & a former MLA). Also joining the Legislature for the first time will be the Alberta Alliance, represented by Cardston-Taber-Warner MLA Paul Hinman.

Let’s hope the opposition gets under the Tories skin!

This new Legislature has 21 Opposition members (out of 83 seats – the Tories hold 62 seats).

Alberta’s new opposition MLA’s are:

Liberal Caucus
Bharat Agnihotri – Edmonton Ellerslie
Dan Backs – Edmonton Manning
Laurie Blakeman – Edmonton Centre*
Bill Bonko – Edmonton Decore
Harry Chase – Calgary Varsity
Mo Elsalhy- Edmonton McClung
Jack Flaherty – St. Albert
Hugh MacDonald – Edmonton Gold Bar*
Weslyn Mather – Edmonton Mill Woods
Bruce Miller – Edmonton Glenora
Rick Miller – Edmonton Rutherford
Bridget Pastoor – Lethbridge East
David Swann – Calgary Mountain View
Kevin Taft – Edmonton Riverview*
Dave Taylor – Calgary Currie
Maurice Tougas – Edmonton Meadowlark

ND Caucus
David Eggen – Edmonton Calder
Ray Martin – Edmonton Beverly Clareview
Brian Mason – Edmonton Highlands-Norwood*
Raj Pannu – Edmonton Strathcona*

Alberta Alliance Caucus (of one)
Paul Hinman – Cardston-Taber-Warner

*Incumbent MLA’s.

Went on a last minute road trip yesterday with some great people to the great little town of Rocky Mountain House. Was a 2 hour ride there and 2 back from Edmonton. Had never been to RMH before…

I love going to these small towns, they’re fun! Ended up in the “Saddle Sore Saloon” at 4 in the afternoon (yes, it’s as classy as it sounds…). interesting crowd…. my buddy and I stuck out like sore thumbs… didn’t sell any Liberal Party memberships there… ; )

Had dinner at the Chef’s Cafe – a really nice little resturant – if you are ever in RMH you have to go!

Just an interesting RMH fact – in the 2004 Provincial Election, Liberal Candidate Susan Scott (who is an awesome lady!) placed second. This was the first time a Liberal placed second in RMH in 49 years!!! The results looked like….

Rocky Mountain House Constituency 2004 Provincial Election
(47.7% Voter Turnout)

Ty Lund, PC – 5,773 (57%)
Susan Scott, Liberal – 1,266 (12%)
Lavern J. Ahlstrom, Social Credit – 1,265 (12%)
Ed Wilhite, Alliance – 807 (8%)
Bruce Hutton, Seperatist – 503 (5%)
Jennifer Issac, Green – 335 (3%)
Anthony Jones, NDP – 300 (3%)

to put this into perspective, here are the results from the 2001 election (55.5% Voter Turnout):

Ty Lund, PC – 7,820 (70%)
Lavern J. Ahlstrom, SC – 1,705 (15%)
Winjand Horemans, Liberal – 1,171 (11%)
Doug MacAngus, NDP -408 (4%)

so… all the power to those right-wing fringe/spilt the PC vote parties!

Well, as this is the first post in my ‘new flat in the city’ (as opposed to my ‘old flat in the city’), I must let you in on what i’m thinking…

1) It’s just after 10pm and I just ate an entire bag of Maynards Wine Gums…yum… I am sooo wired for the night.

Maybe I’ll start writing one of my term papers – for one of them, I’m writing on domestic and regional security issues in Eastern Europe since the dissolusion of the Warsaw Pact in the early 1990’s. I actually have a real facination with Eastern Europe (cultural, political, historical). I’m not sure where this comes from – It may be because i’m just a radical communist revolutionary at heart 😉

I don’t come from an Eastern European family (I’m an 11th generation Canadian – ‘My people’ settled in New France around 1665).

I think I want to go to Eastern Europe. I’ve been to Western Europe twice (both times before I was 18 years old). Warsaw, Prague, Minsk, Moscow, Budapest, and company just sound so cool. Maybe one day…

2) Finance Minister Ralph Goodale will be delivering the first budget of the Martin Minority Government tomorrow at 4pm Ottawa time. The Parliamentary website has an interesting fact sheet of how the budgetary process works. It should be interesting to see what kind of budget it’ll be. Stay tooned!

You can watch the budget presentation live on your computer or on television on CPAC.

3) I watched the movie ‘Troy‘ last night… and its joined ‘The Village‘ as one of the worst movies I’ve seen so far this year… Right now, the bad movies are winning. Haven’t seen too many good movies this year… I did see Garden State – one of my 2005 fav-o-rites!

I have Shrek 2 sitting on my shelf, hopefully the big green ogre will break my losing streak of bad, bad, bad movies!

G’nite.

D : )

well, i’ve moved and my internet hookup was back up faster than I thought it would be.

I will post soon. Oh yes, post soon I will.

D : )

this is going to be a slightly less political posting than the last one. I’ve discovered one of my new favorite bands – the coral – the’re a British band and pretty good. Check ’em out!

this will probably be my last post for a bit, I am moving this weekend and won’t have internet access at my new place until the END OF NEXT WEEK!!

For those of you in Alberta – Happy Family Day long weekend!

D 🙂

lightening round!

-Revenue from VLTs when Klein was elected in 1993: $40.3 Million

-Revenue from VLTs in 2003: $577 Million

-Increase in calls to ‘ Gamblers Anonymous’ since 1992: 2,600%

-Amount of non-renewable resource revenue the Tories have spent while in office: $135 Billion

-Amount required for Alberta to catch up with its infrastructure backlog, such as roads, schools
and hospitals: $7 – 9 Billion

-Amount government spent to defend Stockwell Day in defamation lawsuit: $792,000

-Amount government wanted to charge taxpayers just to find out Day’s legal fees: $59,571

-Increase in post-secondary tuition since 1993: 273.4%

-Number of municipal districts in Alberta: 68

-Number of municipal districts that have declared themselves economic disaster zones because of the mad cow crisis: 33

-Amount two American companies received from Klein’s BSE Bailout Package: $42 Billion

-Average amount individual producers received from Klein’s BSE Bailout Package: $1,800

-Amount Albertans have paid extra on their power bills because of deregulation: $5.38 Billion

-Total cost to taxpayers because of deregulation: $8 Billion

-Increase in government spending on travel and communications since 1998: 53%

-Number of government ministries in 1993: 17

-Number of government ministries in 2004: 24

-Cost in 2003-04 of maintaining and operating the government’s air force: $4.35 Million

-Number of staff required for the government’s air force: 13

-Number of taxpayer-funded flights made by government ’02-’03: 3,100+

-Amount government spent on the horse-racing industry (last four years): $132.9 Million

-Increase in health care premiums since 1993: 63%

-Increase in health care premiums since 2002, the year Klein swore the only way taxes were
going in Alberta was ‘down’: 30%

“Ralph listens, Ralph cares”. – 1997 PC Campaign Slogan…

In this episode of “daveberta super news countdown (d.s.n.c.),” we are going to countdown with 1 story for each level of political news.

Internationale (does the US count as Int’l???)

Former Vermont Govenor Howard Dean has been elected as the Chairman of the US Democratic Party. See the story here.

O Canada (I love maple syrup!)

Olympic Gold Medal wrestler Daniel Igali has declared his intention to run for the BC “Liberals” in the May 17, 2005 election in the lower mainland riding of Surrey-Newton. Well, he seems like a nice guy, but how did he end up running as a Campbell Liberal??? Should keep things interesting though…

I luv Alberta ( “the province formerly known as Ralph’s World”)

A fire Thursday night at the Lamb-Weston complex east of Taber has shut down operations at the french fry processing plant until further notice. A truely sad day in the history of Alberta.

Royally your’s: Edmonton, UK (yes, there is more than 1 e-town)

The flagship Ikea store which was the scene of crowd chaos among midnight bargain hunters has reopened.

The store in Edmonton, London, opened its doors again at 1700 GMT on Friday after consultation with the police and the local council.
Five people were taken to hospital after Thursday’s early morning crush as crowds flocked for the huge discounts.

The company had expected 2,000 customers but about 6,000 turned up.
Read more of the Ikea madness here!

Wow, what a week!

D

for ya’ll plannin’ ta be ’round t’e grand ole’ state o’ kentucky, don’t ya’ll forget to ya’ll come on down to th’old Answers in Genesis Creation Museum and Family Discover Centre. (daveberta recommends you take the virtual tour!).

“T. rex—the real king of the beasts. That’s the terror that Adam’s sin unleashed! You’ll run into this monster lurking near Adam and Eve. How’s this possible? Find out soon!” – Virtual Tour, Section 19#

I sooooo want to go to this museum. Anyone wanna come with me? (holtopia??)

Can you balance the federal budget???? try it out @ http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/budget2005/interactive

Wow… what planet am I living on???

Premier Ralph Klein announced tonight on his televised ‘address to the people’ that the provincial government will institute a fully funded tuition freeze for Alberta’s PSE students along with a promise that work will also begin on a new tuition policy to ensure that money isn’t a barrier for Albertans seeking an education. The policy will be completed by September 2006.

Well, who am I to dis’ a policy that makes sense! It’s about time – it took the guy 12 years to get it!?!

I couldn’t help but think that these statments by Mr. Klein sounded very very familiar… yes! It sounds kinda like Kevin Taft‘s Alberta Liberal PSE Policy from last fall’s provincial election! But don’t take my word for it!

On a Tuition-Freeze

Mr. Klein -“My message tonight to Alberta’s universities, colleges, and technical institutions is this: If you must increase tuitions, don’t send the bill to your students. Send it to us.

As our centennial gift to Alberta’s post-secondary students, government will pay the bill for their tuition increases for next year. ”

Alberta Liberals – “Immediately freeze post-secondary tuition fees.”

On Accessibility

Mr. Klein – “We will do whatever it takes to make sure money isn’t a barrier to attending Alberta’s post-secondary institutions.”

Alberta Liberals – “Commission an independent study of Alberta’s post-secondary education system to identify solutions to financing and accessibility issues and to increase student success.”

Wow, so… if this is why I voted Alberta Liberal, what did Tories vote for?

D

just three notes for today…

1) TONIGHT! PREMIER KLEIN will be making his annual televised chat to the masses (of course, he’s one of us – one of the masses – once you minus the BC fishing lodge, private fleet of government planes, massive pension, Rod Love, etc – he’s just like you and me!).

What will he say???

Joe Tory says: “He’ll promise more money for PSE, because it is very important to him and his government. He is such a great person, the best Premier the world has ever seen! I love Ralph and his world!”

daveberta says: “A real investment in PSE would be great, but, I’ll believe it when I see it (so, not likely).”

So – don’t miss it: 6:30pm on CFRN in Edmonton & CFCN in Calgary.

2) – GOP Operative Gets 5 Months in Jail

Just in case you needed more convincing… here is more proof that the Republican Party is evil: Allen Raymond, President of GOP Marketplace, LLC, has been sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to jamming Democratic phone lines in New Hampshire during the 2002 election. The lines were in three cities. They were the designated lines to allow Democrats to call in and get free rides to their polling precincts.

Clicky here to read more

3) It’s official, the next session of the Legislature will begin on March 1, 2005 at 1:30pm.

See the press release here.

So, let me see… the last session ended in October of 2004… November-December-January-February….wow, that was a nice 4 month holiday. The Tories mustta needed the time off to lick their wounds from the wooping they got on the November 22 election. Let hope session lasts more than 2 weeks this time.

jeez, don’t ya just luv democrazy in Alberta?

D

An interesting idea occured to me today while I was studying for an upcoming mid-term exam. This idea is about how the Conservative’s could force Paul Martin’s hand on Senate Reform. Now, this may sound weird, but I have some advice for Stephen Harper…(that sounded weird!) – Before I let you in on my idea, I need to state clearly that I HAVE NEVER VOTED FOR NOR HAVE I EVER SUPPORTED THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA (or their policies on SSM, more privatization, the idea of a warm cozy love-in with George W. and the GOP Gang, etc…).

Okay, now that I got that out of the way. My suggestion to Stephen Harper and his Party is that if they are really really serious about Senate Reform, why not force Paul Martin to deal with it by having their Senate Caucus (which were mostly appointed by former PM Brian Mulroney) simultaniously resign. This would leave some 3o new vacant senate seats on top of the already 16 or so vacant seats. So, now there would likely be 40-50 vacant seats in a Senate with just over 100 members. With a minority government now in place, I highly doubt Paul Martin would dare appoint 40 new members, but he could not let the Senate sit half-empty (or half-full). I think that an act like this would not only show that the CPC rejects appointment of Senators, but it could allow for some major reform of the upper house (or it could completely backfire, of course).

But, this would only happen if the Conservative’s are really serious about Senate Reform. Are they?

D

Hello All!

The location for Acts 6 & 7 of the Louis Vuitton Cup have been announced – Malmö, in the Skåne region at the south of Sweden, will be the Northern European location for the Louis Vuitton Acts 6 & 7, with racing beginning on the 25th of August, 2005. The back-to-back events, featuring both Match and Fleet Racing are among 14 opening Acts of the 32nd America’s Cup.

For those of you who don’t know what I am writing about, the Louis Vuitton Cup is the “Challengers” stage of the America’s Cup (For sailing fans, it’s comparable to the Stanley or World Cup). Whichever team wins the Louis Vuitton Cup moves on to challenge the defender of the America’s Cup (the team who won last time). So, back in 2003 during the America’s Cup in Auckland, New Zealand, Team Alignhi (Switzerland) defeated 2 time America’s Cup champion, Team New Zealand, 5-0.

So far, eight challengers have been accepted into the Louis Vuitton Cup Race (including teams from the UK, Spain, South Africa, New Zealand, the US, France, Spain, and Italy).

As of last week, Act 1 of the Louis Vuitton Cup is to be held in Marsailles, France; Acts 2-5 are to be held in Valencia, Spain; and Acts 6 & 7 are to be held in Sweden, while the America’s Cup race is to be held in Valencia, Spain. Check it all out at the Official Website of the 32nd America’s Cup. Very exciting stuff!

D