Tory MLA Gary Mar was appointed this afternoon to replace former Tory Minister Murray Smith as Alberta's Ambassador to Washington DC.
One wonders if Mr. Mar, who was dumped from cabinet in January 2007, will be inheriting the taxpayer funded high-life that Murray Smith lived while attending the garden parties and socials inside the beltline.
Smith's appointment in 2004 was criticized as partisan patronage and his lavish expenses have been criticized since.
Ed Stelmach's Tories have come under heat in the past weeks as years of Tory partisan patronage have begun to bubble to the surface.
Mar will begin his new position in October, which would mean that there is potential for another Calgary by-election in the near future.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
gary mar is the new murray smith.
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8 comments:
The bozo years continue. Patronage, poor fiscal management and incompetence are hallmarks of a tory.
The real question the PC Party of Alberta is about to face is whether it will let Ed Stelmach be a Harry Strom and take the party down with him or encourage him to be a Don Getty and withdraw and let renewal occur.
I thought this was clever...
Tory pork never ends - Mason
Gary Mar goes to the trough in Washington
Reacting to former cabinet minister Gary Mar's appointment as the government's Washington envoy, NDP Leader Brian Mason presented a pound of Canadian pork to be delivered to Premier Stelmach.
"There's more pork coming out of this Tory government than a meat-packing plant" - Brian Mason "There's more pork coming out of this Tory government than a meat-packing plant. They can't pull their snouts out of the trough long enough to realize how greedy this looks," Mason said.
"Premier Stelmach should have slammed the gate on these appointments long ago. Instead, taxpayers are on the hook for these fat positions."
Mason repeated his earlier call for a public appointment commission to vet applicants for such prime posts. Before Mar, former Energy Minister Murray Smith was penned up in the office, at a total cost to taxpayers of nearly $1.5 million dollars a year.
"Nose around and you'll find there is a systematic pattern where the Tories salt these appointments with their friends. Middle-class Albertans are demanding a cure, but Premier Stelmach refuses to cut the fat," Mason said.
"I question whether we even need this office. I'm suspicious it's just a pig in a poke - an excuse to fatten the wallets of Tory insiders. But any time we raise the issue they squeal that we're being unfair," he added.
"Even if the office is needed for economic development, there are many professionals out there who would surely be better trained for the task than a Tory cabinet flunky."
Clever, sure. But typical cheap media stunts like this are why the Alberta NDP will never develop from anything more than a weak political bureau of the Alberta Federation of Labor.
I take it then that the Liberals have given up on wooing Labour? Probably wise given their recent convert to the agenda of Encana, Suncor, and others in big oil.
Clever, sure. But typical cheap media stunts like this are why the Alberta NDP will never develop from anything more than a weak political bureau of the Alberta Federation of Labor.
No, it shows why they are the more effective opposition party. That stunt got them into both papers, and several tv newscasts. It kept the patronage story alive for another news cycle. Meanwhile over at HQ for the other opposition party...
(tumbleweeds drift by)
No, it shows why they are the more effective opposition party. That stunt got them into both papers, and several tv newscasts.
I agree, Brian Mason sending a pound of meat to the Premier is what being an effective opposition is all about.
In fact, Brian Mason should be sending meat to every Tory. Every day.
It's an effective strategy and masks the lack of realistic policy coming out of the AFL-NDP.
Albertans won't even notice!
Also, Brian could spend the money on meat which he would otherwise be spending on a Chief of Staff who would leave in 5 months anyway.
Effective and Innovative!
Solidarity Brothers! The Alberta NDP revolution is coming!
Join Brian Mason's NDP Revolution!
ALL ALBERTANS EMBRACE IN SOLIDARITY! EMBRACE IN REVOLUTION!
When the Brian's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one,
But the Brian makes us strong!
CHORUS:
BRIAN MASON forever,
BRIAN MASON forever,
BRIAN MASON forever,
For the Brian makes us strong.
Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the Brian makes us strong!
It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade;
Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid;
Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made;
But the Brian makes us strong!
All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.
We have laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone.
It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own.
While the Brian makes us strong!
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the Brian makes us strong!
In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old
For the Brian makes us strong!
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