reveal yourselves, getitrightalberta.ca.

The getitrightalberta.ca scandal has received no shortage of attention in the blogosphere - you can find some good posts on this astroturf here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The astroturfing has also spread to the emerging facebook world.

Luckily, online civil society is alive and well as another group is set up calling on the Government to 'Do what's right for Alberta.'

But, the question still remains: who is behind Hill & Knowlton's getitrightalberta.ca?

The debate over Alberta's natural resource royalties is too important to include anonymous stakeholders. Reveal yourselves!

edmonton election 2007: the race for ward 2.

There is a pretty straightforward race in northwest Edmonton’s Ward 2.

Ron “ten-terms isn’t enough” Hayter is seeking his eleventh-term on Council. This is unfortunate, because Edmontonians would do well to rid themselves of the dead weight of having Hayter in the Council Chambers (I’m sure he was an effective City Councillor when he was first elected in 1971).

Hayter’s ward-mate, Kim Krushell, shouldn’t have much of a problem getting a second-term representing Ward 2. First elected in 2004, Krushell was EA to former Ward 5 Councillor Larry Langley before running in Ward 2. Though I have some reservations about Krushell’s cutthroat networking style, she has been a fairly effective advocate on City Council (her spearheading of the Universal Bus Pass for University of Alberta and Grant MacEwan College students on City Council was a particularly bright spot).

Both Hayter and Krushell are facing some interesting challengers though. Dave Loken and Jabin Caouette, who both ran in 2004, have come off as more tight and together with their ideas and presentation than they did three years ago. Unfortunately for first-time challenger Shelley Tupper, crying during her speech at the first Ward 2 forum has set an unfortunate tone for her chances on October 15.

Dave Loken will have a good chance in 2010 if and when either a) Hayter FINALLY retires for good in 2010 (don’t bet on it), or b) Krushell take a run for the Mayor’s chair in 2010.

2007 Candidates
Jabin Caouette
Ron Hayter*
Kerry Hutton
Kim Krushell*
Dave Loken
Shelley Tupper

2004 election results
Ron Hayter - 18,386
Kim Krushell - 12,966
Dave Loken - 7,512
Don Koziak - 7,289
Tim Hajar - 4,542
Mimi Williams - 3,978
Kerry Hutton - 1,820
Larry Thomson - 1,629
Jabin Caouette - 1,526

Facebook Count
Re-Elect Kim Krushell: 56 members

edmonton mayoral election poll.

Here are the results from the recent daveberta election poll. Not surprisingly, Stephen Mandel crushed.

Dustin Becker - 1 (1%)
Dave Dowling - 4 (5%)
Khaled Kheireddine - 0 (0%)
Don Koziak - 18 (22%)
George Lam - 1 (1%)
Peter T. Lefaivre - 1 (1%)
Robert Ligertwood - 1 (1%)
Stephen Mandel - 46 (57%)
Bill Whatcott - 8 (10%)

Votes so far: 80
Poll closed

A new poll is now up asking readers their thoughts on the 'Our Fair Share' royalty review report and Alberta's natural resource royalty rates...

ron stevens' hawaiian vacation.

What a week in Alberta politics. First, the damning Alberta Royalty Review Report and Auditor General's Report slammed Ed Stelmach's Tory Government for failing to collect BILLIONS of dollars in resource revenues owed to Albertans over the past 15 years. Then only days later, Ed Stelmach was refusing to fire his Cabinet Ministers responsible for the Department of Energy royalty scandal.

Now, it appears that the Stelmach Tories are being hit with new emerging scandals to deal with.

CBC has discovered that Stelmach's Calgary Lieutenant, Deputy Premier and Calgary-Glenmore Tory MLA Ron Stevens, used his government credit card to make a three-day 'pit stop' in Hawaii on a 2003 winter trip to Australia for government business.

Credit card statements obtained under Alberta's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act show meals and drinks for Stevens, his wife and four others during their Honolulu stay were paid for with government cards.

Stevens defended the spending as saving Albertans money by taking a three-day tax-payer funded Hawaiian vacation.

Earlier this week Auditor General Fred Dunn revealed that former Tory Minister and leadership candidate Mark Norris and his assistant Sasha Angus used government credit cards to rack up nearly $50,000 in personal expenses with little record keeping (including for a bachelor party in Las Vegas). So, I think Albertans can be forgiven if it's a little hard to take Stevens' 'word for it.'

ed stelmach does bobby mcferrin.

What happens to politicians who become running jokes?

what does it take to get fired around here?

Ed Stelmach is refusing to take action against current-Energy Minister Mel Knight and former-Energy Minister Greg Melchin after the Department of Energy was singled out by Auditor General Fred Dunn for failing to collect BILLIONS of dollars in resource revenues owed to Albertans over the past 15 years.

After noting that he recieved the 'run-around' from officials within the Ministry of Energy, Dunn slammed the Stelmach Tories management of Alberta's resource royalties:

The principals of transparency and accountability, I believe, were not followed. I'm not impressed."

"The department should demonstrate its stewardship of Alberta's royalty regime and provide analysis to support that stewardship and this was not done."

"The department's monitoring and technical review findings were communicated to decision-makers. The question is: Did they hear or were they listening? At the end of the day, I don't know, but they chose not to act."

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft is calling for Stelmach to fire Mel Knight and Greg Melchin.

"The public record clearly shows Albertans have been lied to," Taft said. "The auditor general tells the truth about the government's record of handling Albertans' resources; government ministers, on the other hand, have been misleading the legislature and the public."

Stelmach responded by saying that he's "not interested in a witch hunt."

It's clear that Stelmach is protecting his long-time Tory friends. Mel Knight supported Ed Stelmach's campaign during the 2006 Alberta PC Leadership Selection and Stelmach, Knight, and Greg Melchin were all full-members of Ralph Klein's cabinet at the same time that the Tories failed to collect the BILLIONS of dollars in resource royalties owed to Albertans.

With the damning results of the Auditor General's report coupled with Knight's defence of the AEUB's using public funds to hire private investagators to spy on ordinary Albertans, one really has to wonder, what does it take to get fired in Ed Stelmach's Tory Government?

who's behind 'getitrightalberta.ca?'

Over the past week, a new website has popped up - getitrightalberta.ca - calling for Alberta's Tory Government to keep the resource royalty structure the way it is - even after the damning Alberta Royalty Review Report and Auditor General's Report slammed Ed Stelmach's Tory Government for failing to collect BILLIONS of dollars in resource revenues owed to Albertans over the past 15 years.

The big question is, who is behind this website?

A bit of investigating will reveal that the website has been set up by the consulting firm Hill & Knowlton and a quick check at CIRA will reveal that the website registration is listed as:

Registrant Name Hill & Knowlton
Registrar Webnames.ca (UBC Research Enterprises Inc.)
Renewal Date 2008/09/25
Date approved 2007/09/25
Last changed 2007/09/28
Description
Registrar Number 70
Registrant Number 2010422
Domain Number 2010422
DNS1 ns1.maximumasp.com 216.128.31.5
DNS2 ns2.maximumasp.com 216.128.31.6

Administrative Contact
Name Lisa Litz
Job Title
Postal Address Suite 540, 202 - 6th Avenue SW Calgary AB T2P2R9 Canada
Phone 1-403-5146236
Fax
Email lisa.litz@hillandknowlton.ca

Technical Contact
Name Lisa Litz
Job Title
Postal Address Suite 540, 202 - 6th Avenue SW Calgary AB T2P2R9 Canada
Phone 1-403-5146236
Fax
Email lisa.litz@hillandknowlton.ca

Now, far be it from me to assume that a slick large national consulting firm like Hill & Knowlton wouldn't set up a website like this out of the kindness of their hearts, but I'm going to do just that - assume that Hill & Knowlton isn't doing this out of the kindness of their hearts.

So, the question remains: who is behind 'getitrightalberta.ca?'

Interestingly, Hill & Knowlton's Calgary office is led by none-other than Mr. Ken Boessenkool, a member of the infamous firewall six and former adviser to Stockwell Day and Stephen Harper.

So, the still question remains, who is really behind 'getitrightalberta.ca?'

The debate about Alberta's resource royalties is too important to Alberta's future to include 'hidden stakeholders.'

Who is paying Hill & Knowlton to run this site?

Albertans should email Mr. Ken Boessenkool and ask him straight out.

Albertans are owed an explanation.

alberta's sheila fraser moment.

Alberta's Auditor General Fred Dunn released his annual report today, and it is scathing...

- Royalty Tracking System gets a failing grade
- High living expenses, staff bonuses criticized
- Provincial Government Credit Cards Misused
- Tory gifts questioned by auditor
- Alta giving up billions in oil cash to inaction, incompetence: auditor general
- Alberta government hid royalty-hike advice
- Minister's aide used gov't credit card for $30,000 personal expenses: audit
- Poor Planning has caused $6.1 Billion provincial maintenance backlog
- 'Leadership' was needed

While noting that he recieved the 'run around' from officials within Ed Stelmach's Tory Government while conducting the audit, here are some quotes from Fred Dunn:

On the Department of Energy: "

The principals of transparency and accountability, I believe, were not followed. I'm not impressed."

"The department should demonstrate its stewardship of Alberta's royalty regime and provide analysis to support that stewardship and this was not done."

"The department's monitoring and technical review findings were communicated to decision-makers. The question is: Did they hear or were they listening? At the end of the day, I don't know, but they chose not to act.

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft responded to the Auditor General's report:

“The Auditor General’s report shows a government that is deliberately misleading Albertans and that has been deceitful about its royalty collection. The people of Alberta should be furious with what the Auditor General uncovered today and should run this government out of office. I think it is time Ed Stelmach should do the courageous thing: bring this scandal ridden government to an end and call an election."

edmonton election 2007: ward 1.

With four candidates, including two incumbents, running in the October 15 election, the 2007 Ward 1 race is a little quieter than the 2004 race.

In 2004, a vacant seat left by Mayoral candidate Stephen Mandel was hotly contested between former Liberal MLA Linda Sloan (MLA for Edmonton-Riverview from 1997 to 2001) and Karen Lynch (who is now rumoured to be running for the Tory nomination in Edmonton-Calder). Sloan ended up besting Lynch by just over 1,000 votes.

Sloan joined fellow former Liberal MLA Karen Leibovici in representing Ward 1. Leibovici was first elected in a landslide in 2001 after being defeated in the 2001 provincial election. Leibovici served as the MLA for Edmonton-Meadowlark from 1993 to 2001.

In my opinion, both Sloan and Leibovici have done a decent job in representing Ward 1 and have solid records on Council.

My one issue with Councillor Leibovici was her bizarre attempt in Fall 2006 to derail the Universal Bus Pass (U-Pass) project. Leibovici joined right-wing Ward 5 Councillor Mike Nickel in attempting to remove the U-Pass project funds from the City of Edmonton Budget.

She justified her support of the Nickel motion because she was already paying for her son's tuition, his car, and his parking. I'm sure if all of the +60,000 students who are benefiting from the U-Pass lived in Ward 1, Mr. Leibovici would have some explaining to do.

The Nickel/Leibovici motion was defeated in a solid 11-2 vote.

Challengers Andrew Knack and Betty Kennedy have uphill battles against them if they are to unseat these two well-known and politically savvy incumbents. Knack has some interesting ideas and I encourage you to check them out.

2007 Candidates
Betty Kennedy
Andrew Knack
Karen Leibovici*
Linda Sloan*

Facebook Count
Elect Betty Kennedy for Ward 1 City Council - 84 members
Andrew Knack for Edmonton City Council Ward 1 - 202 members
Re-Elect Karen Leibovici for Ward 1 - 84 members

2004 Election Results
Karen Leibovici - 23,793
Linda Sloan - 12,353
Karen Lynch - 10,909
Charlene Davis - 6,888
Terry Demers - 3,306
Joe Hudson - 3,046
Samir Ghossein - 1,534
Rory Koopmans - 1,332
Trent Soholt - 1,149

You can listen to Ward 1 candidate comments from public forums here.

time to talk amalgamation?

I have another post up on the CBC Edmonton Votes 2007 blog this morning.

Also on the CBC site, you can listen to audio clips of your council candidates from local forums.

alberta's royalty review consultations.

As Albertans are now being urged to respond online and by phone to Alberta's Royalty Review Report, Tory Minister Ron Stevens will be meeting in closed-door consultation meetings with Energy and Oil Companies for their very own private consultation.

Wouldn't it be great if all Albertans had the chance to have a closed-door consultation on the Royalty Review Report?

Wouldn't it be great if all Albertans called their MLA to set up a closed-door consultation meeting?

Sounds like a good idea to me.

If you have a Tory MLA, you can ask them where Albertans $8.6 Billion in uncollected royalties went.

don iveson on ward 5.

In the spirit of my last post, here are four youtube videos that Ward 5 City Council candidate Don Iveson has released. In them, Don Iveson talks about some of the key issues facing Ward 5.

Put Urban Planning First


Revitalize Transit


Real Community Consultation


Confront the Housing Crunch

websites are like abba.

"Online campaigning is a bit of a fad, particularly so at the city council level," says Lightbody, "in the same sense that if we were running a campaign about 30 years ago, candidates would've had disco balls in their campaign headquarters -- they would've run around looking like bloody ABBA."

I was only half-shocked when I read this comment from U of A Political Science Professor Jim Lightbody in today's Edmonton Journal.

Lightbody is correct that traditional methods of campaigning are still core, but his armchair quarterback commentary in this story clearly shows that he fails to understand the power of web 2.0 and new online communication mediums.

On this note, ED has now posted their ratings for candidate websites...

gary mar is the new murray smith.

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.

edmonton election 2007: the non-race for mayor.

In what is the first profile of various races across the city in the 2007 Edmonton Municipal Election, here are my thoughts on the race for Mayor:

Thoughts...

The 2007 race for the Mayor's Chair is clearly much different race than the race we saw in 2004.

Three years ago, three-term Mayor Bill Smith was shooting for a fourth-term against second-time challenger and former Councillor Robert Noce, and little known first-term Ward 1 Councillor Stephen Mandel. In what is one of the biggest 'come-from-behind' wins in recent municipal election memory, Mandel moved from a distant third in the polls to achieve a sweeping +20,000 victory against Smith and Noce.

Since 2004, it appears to me that Mandel has done a fairly decent job as Mayor, though it's sometimes difficult to tell whether he is actually being a good Mayor or if the breath of fresh air after nine years of the institutional mediocrity under Bill Smith is helping Mandel out. Whatever the case, Mandel has succeeded in scaring away any serious contenders from challenging his Worship.

Even though there is a thick list of nine candidates in the running for Mayor, none of them pose a large threat to Mandel, which is disappointing if you're concerned with democratic debate and accountability.

The only semi-serious candidate running against Mandel seems to be hotel operator, self-professed genius, and Ed Stelmach-apologist Don Koziak. Koziak could have been a decent candidate, but his previous three losing Council campaigns coupled with his hasty last minute entrance into the election seriously undermine his credibility against Mandel. Also, Koziak's complete lack of a platform coupled with his bizarre statement about global warming have to make you wonder what it takes to get into Mensa these days...

Of course, if you are looking for some purely bizarre entertainment, the Mayoral race is where to look - where wingnuts such as Dave Dowling and Bill Whatcott will most likely try to steer the debate away from any real issues.

Mandel has hinted that he would only serve two terms as Mayor, so if this is truth, expect a dogfight in 2010 when challengers could potentially include Councillors Kim Krushell, Mike Nickel, and Karen Leibovici.

The lack of credible candidates in this race has succeeded in halting the serious Mayoral-level debate that is supposed to happen every three years - and serious debates are needed on issues such as infrastructure and urban planning, affordable housing and poverty, and the regional tensions in the Capital City Region. It also leaves Mandel not having to defend or answer for any of his initiatives as Mayor - whether they were successful or not.

With the Mayor's race being an unfortunate forgone conclusion, let's hope that voters turn their attention to who they are sending to City Council and their Public and Catholic School Boards.

2007 Mayoral Candidates
Dustin Becker
Dave Dowling
Khaled Kheireddine
Don Koziak
Peter Lefaivre
Robert Ligertwood
George Lam
Stephen Mandel*
Bill Whatcott

2004 Mayoral Election Results
Stephen Mandel - 85,887
Bill Smith - 68,767
Robert Noce - 52,640
Tilo Paravalos - 921
Dieter Peske - 905
Dave Dowling - 858
Thomas "Buffalo Terminator" Tomilson - 768
Jean-Paul Noujaim - 390

blakeman sets an example.

In the wake of yesterday's revelation that Tory MLA's Cindy Ady and Barry McFarland received $19,000 for work on the Idaho-Alberta task force - a task force which only met once and has no recorded accomplishments or activity beyond the one meeting - Edmonton-Centre Alberta Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman has announced that she had returned the $3,000 she received for work on another MLA committee that did little work:

Liberal MLA gives back committee pay
Archie McLean, The Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - Alberta Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman gave more than $3,000 back to the government this month after she was paid for membership on a committee that stopped doing work.

Three Conservative MLAs received a combined $17,630 for their seven-month membership on the Legislative Grounds Renewal Committee despite meeting only three times in two months. One NDP member got $3,526, but has pledged to return a portion of the cash as well.

The revelation comes just one day after The Journal reported another two Tory MLAs received more than $19,000 for their membership in the Idaho-

Alberta Transboundary Task Force, which did little or no work during their paid stint.

Blakeman and the others were part of the legislative grounds committee from April 3 to Nov. 8, 2006 and were each paid $508.50 per month. The chair, Tory MLA George Rogers, got about $1,500 per month.

Blakeman even paid back the money she received in May, saying she didn't ask for it and didn't believe she did enough work to justify the payment.

voters shouldn't be afraid to 'go shopping.'

My first post on the CBC Edmonton Votes 2007 Blog is up. Check it out...

jealous of grande prairie.

Roadtrip?

$19,000 payday for tory mla's.

The Edmonton Journal is reporting that Tory MLA's Cindy Ady and Barry McFarland received $19,000 for work on the Idaho-Alberta task force - a task force which only met once and has no recorded accomplishments.

No meeting minutes. No phone records. Not to mention no border between Alberta and Idaho.

A spokesperson from Premier Ed Stelmach's office:

admitted the task force didn't do much in the end, but they had good intentions and tried to set up meetings with their American counterparts. "Can I show you a report, an agreement, a memorandum, anything? No, I can't. It just isn't there," David Sands said.

John Nordstrom, with the Idaho Department of Commerce, referred to the group as the Idaho-Alberta Sister State Task Force.

He said the state politician who sat on the informal committee didn't receive any extra compensation.

"It was just part of their normal job. There wasn't any extra pay or any-thing."

new edmonton municipal election poll.

Here are the results from the latest daveberta municipal election poll. It should be no surprise that affordable housing, infrastructure and roads, and urban sprawl are some of the big issues on the minds of Edmontonians leading up to October 15.

What will be the biggest issue of the 2007 Edmonton Municipal Election?

Selection		Votes
Affordable Housing	34%	28
Arts and Culture	1%	1
Crime and Safety	2%	2
Infrastructure and Roads	24%	20
Public Transit	6%	5
Recreation and Parks	1%	1
Regional Cooperation	9%	7
Taxes	5%	4
Urban Sprawl and Growth	15%	12
Other	2%	2
82 votes total

There is also new poll up, so vote early and vote often!