Tag: Stephen Mandel

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Alberta Politics

danielle smith walks into an air hangar…

Tell me if you’ve heard this one… Danielle Smith, Hugh MacDonald, Brian Mason, and Doug Elniski walk into an air hangar…

The silliness of summer has reached a new height this week. Mayor Stephen Mandel had some tough words for Wildrose leader Ms. Smith yesterday as she declared her four… err… three MLA caucus support for the group collecting signatures for the City Centre Airport petition. Mayor Mandel made it clear that he did not appreciate the Wildroses intrusion into a debate that has become highly passionate among a disgruntled section of Edmonton’s business community. One Calgary columnist accused the Mayor of Calgary-bashing, but it is much more nuanced than that.

Why would Ms. Smith wade into this issue? Might it be a genuine desire to see Edmontonians vote on the airport issue? With no local MLAs and second or third place support in the City of Edmonton (according to most polls), it could also be a political power play. With all but one PC MLA silent on the issue, Ms. Smith could be looking to draw in the support of that disgruntled (and largely conservative) crowd who might not be happy that their newly elected PC MLAs are silently enjoying their summer vacations.

While Ms. Smith’s endorsement made headlines, barely anyone has noticed the motley crew of three local MLAs who have peeped up with opinions on the issue. First-term backbencher Mr. Elniski, anti-establishment hound Liberal MLA Mr. MacDonald, and NDP leader Mr. Mason are the only MLAs to speak publicly in favour of the airport petition. I have heard from a number of sources that PC MLAs have been told to steer clear from this potentially dangerous debate, with the exception of Mr. Elniski whose Edmonton-Calder constituency encompasses the airport.

In 2004, a group of PC MLAs became entangled in a nasty quarrel with City Council over the move of scheduled 10-seat flights from Calgary and Lethbridge to the International Airport. That quarel is considered by many people to be one of the factors that led to a Liberal sweep of Edmonton in the November 2004 election.

During that quarrel, then-Councillor Mandel had some harsh words when now former PC MLAs Mark Norris and Brent Rathegeber sided against the City:

“Enough is enough. There gets to be a point where you have to ask, ‘Can Edmonton make a decision without someone interfering in it?’ ” Mandel said.

“Because another city complains, we have to change things. Let’s hear Calgary complaining, and then I’m sure will have to reinstitute those flights. I think it’s absolutely unacceptable that the city of Edmonton has to play second fiddle to anyone.”

SOURCE: Stay out of it, mayor tells the province, Keith Gerein and Kelly Cryderman. Edmonton Journal. Edmonton, Alta.: Jul 27, 2004. pg. B.1

Less than three months after making this statement, Councillor Mandel was elected Mayor.

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Alberta Politics

green trip taking baby steps.

Transportation Minister Luke Ouellette is scheduled to announce details and funding for the provincial Green Trip Fund at 10am this morning at Government House in Edmonton. Minister Ouellette is expected to be joined by Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier and Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel.

This announcement will come days after Airdrie Mayor Linda Bruce told the Calgary Herald that “[n]obody has heard anything” about when or if the funds would be distributed. The fund was originally announced two years ago and was meant to support local, regional and intermunicipal public transit, but the criteria for municipalities to apply for funding was never announced. It is expect that Minister Ouellette may announce the criteria today.

Update: Here is a link to the media release. The fund will provide a one-time capital expenditure of $800 million in funding will be available to the Capital region; $800 million to Calgary and surrounding area; and $400 million to other municipalities throughout Alberta.

The program is available to owner/operators of public transit services, which may include municipalities, regional entities, non-profit organizations, Metis settlements and the private sector. Submissions for GreenTRIP funding must include a business case that describes the sustainability of the project. GreenTRIP will provide only capital funding assistance for public transit infrastructure and technology, not operating funding for transit service.

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alberta politics notes 5/18/2010

– Legislative mega-bills may make for dry conversations, but the upcoming changes to health care legislation is one that Albertans should pay close attention to. The Friends of Medicare and Join Together Alberta have announced a series of open consultation meetings on the Alberta Health Act.
– Intervivos is hosting a political party mixer with the Wildrose Alliance‘s Danielle Smith and the Alberta Party‘s Chima Nkemdirim on June 9 at Latitude 53 Metro Billiards the Billiards Club on Whyte Avenue.
– The National Post has published an interesting article about the Alberta Party’s Big Listens.
– Federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff will be touching down in Edmonton on May 20 for his annual Leader’s Dinner fundraiser.
– Calgary MLA Kent Hehr is launching his campaign for Mayor today. Mr. Hehr’s 2008 PC opponent Sean Chu has announced that he is running for Alderman in Ward 4.
– Alex Abboud has a great rundown of the Edmonton City Council elections.
– Lt. Daryl Bonar is the first challenger to Mayor Stephen Mandel.
– Father, Husband, Career Security Officer, Ordained Satanic Priest Scott Robb is running for Edmonton City Council in Ward 4.
– Councillor Tony Caterina is seeking re-election in Ward 7. Councillor Caterina will face off against Brendan Van Alstine and potentially Harvey Voogd.
– Dale Peterson would give most conservative politicians in Alberta a run for their money…
UPDATE: I should not be surprised that a parody has already popped up (though I believe the original is still better).

We’re Better Than That, Too!!!! w/ Dale Peterson – watch more funny videos
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Dave Bronconnier Don Koziak George Dadamo Jon Lord Naheed Nenshi Paul Hughes Peter Elzinga Ric McIver Stephen Mandel

207 days until mayoral vote 2010.

Following Mayor Stephen Mandel‘s recent announcement that he will be running for a third-term in office, I have a couple of quick thoughts on the October Municipal election:

1) A cake-walk through the park? It is really too early to tell whether Mayor Mandel will face an easy re-election in October. In the non-race for Mayor of 2007, second place challenger Don Koziak earned 25% while only running a semblance of a city-wide campaign. I would not underestimate the electoral potential of an even moderately organized & well-funded outsider/anti-Council candidate, especially if it looks like Mayor Mandel is going to cruise to another victory.

2) Opposition is split. Mayor Mandel enjoys wide-spread support and the opposition he does face appears to be fragmented around varying issues. The people who are furious about the closure of the Edmonton City Centre Airport or annoyed about the funding of the Art Gallery of Alberta are unlikely to vote for the same candidate as the people angry over the Capital Power-Epcor decision. At this point, no champion challenger apparent has emerged with the potential of galvanizing this dissent (watching Season 3 of The Wire has taught me that even two or three reasonable challengers could bleed a Mayor’s support and create some interesting results).

3) What issues? There are no shortage of issues that I hope will be the focus of debate in this election (urban sprawl, inner city schools, regional amalgamation, and others that I plan to write about over the next six months), but the one issue that may have the potential to create a major wave is the Katz Group‘s desire to have the City of Edmonton to fund $400,000,000 for a new downtown arena. The Katz Group has hired long-time PC-insider Peter Elzinga as a lobbyist and launched a political campaign to “Revitalize Downtown” in advance of the election. Mayor Mandel was an early supporter of the downtown arena, but remains publicly coy about his position on the actual Katz Group proposal.

Meanwhile in Calgary, the race to replace retiring Mayor Dave Bronconnier remains eerily quiet. Former PC MLA Jon Lord and food activist Paul Hughes are in the race. Former Ontario NDP MPP George Dadamo entered the race last Summer and has since dropped off the political map. Game show contestant and Alderman Ric McIver is widely expected to join the race and an online campaign to draft Mount Royal University professor Naheed Nenshi is growing.

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Anne McLellan Bridget Pastoor Dave Bronconnier David Dodge David Emerson Don Iveson Rahim Jaffer Stephen Mandel

alberta politics notes 2/24/2010

– As Bill 1, the Alberta Competitiveness Act is this sessions flagship piece of government legislation. With all the focus on “competitiveness,” has anyone wondered what happened to the Premier’s Economic Strategy Committee that was announced last summer? (their website has not been updated since July 2009) The committee included former Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, former MP David Emerson, and former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge.
– Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier announced that he will not be seeking re-election in October. Bronconnier was first elected as Mayor in 2001. Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel has yet to make his electoral intentions public.
– Alberta could hold its fourth Senate election since 1989 along-side the municipal elections this October.
– Edmonton City Council approved the Municipal Development Plan this week. Councillor Don Iveson has posted some remarks on his blog.
– Lethbridge-East MLA Bridget Pastoor scored a win for the Liberal Opposition this week when the Assembly approved her motion to “…urge the Government to establish an independent Commission to review the current salaries and benefits for Members of the Legislative Assembly…” It is important to note that as this was a Private Member’s Motion, it is non-binding.
– Facing charges of cocaine-possession and drunk-driving, former Edmonton-Strathcona Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer is expected to plea-bargain when his case reconvenes in March.
– In my previous post, I mentioned the low-voter turnout in the 2008 provincial election. Here is a map showing voter turnout in ridings across the province (only 4 out of 83 ridings had a turnout larger than 50%).

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Alberta Electoral Boundary Review Alison Redford Bauni Mackay Craig Copeland Guy Boutilier Laurie Blakeman Robert Bouchard Stephen Mandel

alberta redrawing boundaries.

Alberta’s Electoral Boundaries Commission is now into its third week of its first round of public hearings. My previous post on the Commission has generated some great discussion about the challenges of representing rural electoral districts and I am looking forward to an upcoming post by a guest contributor to this blog that will delve deeper into some of the issues raised in that discussion.

Thanks to the good people at Hansard, transcripts and audio are now available from the last two weeks of hearings in Fort McMurray: (afternoon, evening), St. Paul, Wainwright, Edmonton (September 22nd afternoon, evening). The transcripts and audio from the September 23rd public hearings in Edmonton and September 24th & 25th in Calgary are not available yet, but I would expect that they should be posted at some point this week. 

So far, it has been a relatively small number of Albertans who have presented to the commission, including MLAs Laurie Blakeman and Guy Boutilier, municipal officials including Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland, County of St. Paul Reeve Robert Bouchard, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel, and a number of representatives from Liberal and Progressive Conservatives constituency associations.

Due to legislative amendments introduced into the Legislative Assembly by Justice Minister Alison Redford during the Spring session, the Electoral Boundaries Commission will increase the amount of electoral districts from 83 to 87. While it’s very questionable why Albertans would need more MLAs, the increase may help the case presented by Mandel, who urged the Commissioners to increase Edmonton’s representation by two seats. The outcome of the 2002/2003 Boundaries Commission saw Edmonton’s representation in the Legislative Assembly decrease by one MLA, a move that is widely believed to have contributed to the defeats of seven capital city PC MLAs in the 2004 provincial election (Commission member Bauni Mackay penned a spirited defence of Edmonton in her minority position).

These public hearings haven’t been overflowing with presenters, but I expect that interest will rise after the interim report and interim map are released in the coming months. The submission deadline for the first round of public hearings is on October 13.

Related:
Brian Dell: My Submission to the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission
Trish Audette: Rural vs Urban tug of war

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