got a hitch in y'r giddyup?

*AN UPDATED CANDIDATES LIST CAN BE FOUND HERE!*

In preparation for Tuesday's expected federal election call, we've decided to make up a list of Edmonton ridings and their candidates so far... (let us know if we've missed anyone!)

We'll keep updating the list as more candidates are declared, nominated, appointed, or turfed.

ELECTION 2006 MANIA!

EDMONTON CENTRE (2004 results & map)
Laurie Hawn - Conservative
Lyle Kenny - Marjuana Party
Donna Martyn - NDP
Anne McLellan - Liberal
David Parker - Green

EDMONTON EAST (2004 results & map)
Trey Capernhurst - Green
Arlene Chapman - NDP
Peter Goldring - Conservative
Ken Kirk - Marijuana
Nicole Martel - Liberal
David Vanzella - CAP
(*UPDATE* Nov 29 - According to the Green Party website, Paul Wallace is no longer their candidate)

EDMONTON LEDUC (2004 results & map)
Jim Jacuta - Liberal
Ben Pettit - Green
James Rajotte - Conservative
Marty Rybiak - NDP

EDMONTON MILLWOODS BEAUMONT (2004 results & map)
Kate Harrington - Green
Neal Gray - NDP
Amarjit Grewal - Liberal
Mike Lake - Conservative

EDMONTON SHERWOOD PARK (2004 results & map)
Ken Epp - Conservative
Laurie Lang - NDP
Lynn Lau - Green
Ron Symic - Liberal

EDMONTON SPRUCE GROVE (2004 results & map)
Rona Ambrose - Conservative
Brad Enge - Liberal
John Lackey - Green
Jason Rockwell - NDP

EDMONTON ST. ALBERT (2004 results & map)
Stanley Haroun - Liberal
Peter Johnston - Green
Mike Melymick - NDP
John Williams - Conservative

EDMONTON STRATHCONA (2004 results & map)
Linda Duncan - NDP
Dave Dowling - Marijuana
Andy Hladyshevsky - Liberal
Rahim Jaffer - Conservative
Cameron Wakefield - Green

our qp adventure.

This past wednesday, we visited the Alberta Legislature and watch some Question Perioding. Here's a quick recap of our observations from the visitors gallery... (though they're definately not as exciting as some of our previous Legislature experiences)

(OPENING SCENE: Beautiful +14C day in the City of Edmonton)

1:00 pm - Leave work at the University, catch the train to Grandin station.

1:10 pm - Get off the train at Grandin station.

1:15 pm - Meet up with our friend Ms. Jane on the front steps of the Leg.

1:19 pm - Bump into Rick Miller in the elevator. We have a quick chat.

1:23 pm - Stand in line to get our QP pass... there are about 5000 school kids in the rotunda. crazy. Donna Martyn and Mr. Sharma are in line ahead of us. Dan McLennan is also in line.

1:30 pm - QP starts. Mr. Sharma crosses party lines and sits beside a Liberal (us). Way to go, Anand! ;-)

1:40ish pm - Laurie Blakeman introduces us. Very nice.

1:41 pm - Premier Klein is on his cross-Canada "Torpedo Stephen Harper" Tour, so Finance Minister Shirley McClellan is running the show... man does she have a boring voice...

1:42 pm - Liberal leader Kevin Taft asks the first question.

1:43 pm - Alliance MLA Paul Hinman is here. Sitting all by himself. The ND's are there too. Brian Mason is quieter than his usual "QP bull dog" self. But he does make some good heckles.

1:45 pm - It looks like Ted Morton is playing paddy cake... wha? either that, or he has a Juba song stuck in his head.... crazy right-winger...

1:47 pm - We notice that Dave Hancock is still in his "grey hair period" (as opposed to his
previous brown and black periods).

1:49 pm - Aboriginal Affairs Minister Pearl Calahasen is reading the Hill Times.

1:50 pm - Education Minister Gene Zwozdesky scoffs at an opposition question about hot lunch programs in schools. St. Albert Liberal MLA Jack Flaherty yells at Zwoz and looks like he's going to get up and deck him. For a 74-year old, Flaherty sure has alot of energy.

2:00 pm - Banff-Cochrane Tory MLA Janis Tarchuk is signing Christmas cards. Lucky for her, her seatmate Rob Lougheed is MIA. So she uses his chair to pile her cards.

2:05 pm - QP continues. The opposition asks decent questions, but the Tories give boring answers. They know the media isn't paying attention to QP while Klein is on tour. We're bored. Time to bounce. Adios.

2:10 pm - On our way out, we bump into Agriculture Minister Doug Horner. Have a nice chat with him in the rotunda.

(END SCENE)

buy nothing day.

Can someone explain to us a couple things about Buy Nothing Day?

1. Why does it fall on a Friday?
2. Does beer count? Because... it's Friday... and it's been a long long week.

We're sitting in SUB finishing off a book review and 5 guys dressed in drag just walked by...

Also, this weekend, we will have the full report of our exciting adventure to the Alberta Legislature this week...

Highlights include...
... MLA's signing Christmas cards.
... an update on Dave Hancock's hair colour.
... a certain leadership candidate playing paddy-cake.
... and much much more.

pre-electoral projectation

A friend email this cool election projector to us. It's fun for political nerds!

harper's secret agenda.

Finally! Our suspicions have been confirmed... and we can't help but think it's kind of cool...

"Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada are building a Death Star. Hidden behind the moon and almost complete, the Conservative Death Star will allow us to finally achieve our fondest desires."

fyi. (pronounced: fwy)

After a quick MSN chat with a friend of official importance, we were reminded that this blog (the one you're reading now), has been nominated for some fairly hefty non-monetary awards. Those being that of the Canadian Blog Awards.

As much as we'd like to mock them as the "Canadian Nerd Awards" or the "Get a Life Awards," it would be unfair to judge everyone based on a couple of blogs.

We've been nominated in the Best Blog and Best Personal Blog categories.

Here are the voting instructions as posted by Robert at MyBlahg.

"Tentative Timetable
Thursday November 24th - Wednesday November 30th: Round One voting.
Friday December 2nd, 12pm EST: Round One results will be announced.
Saturday December 3rd - Friday December 9th: Round Two voting.
Sunday December 11th, 9pm EST: Round Two results will be announced.

Voting Instructions
You may vote once per day. To vote, click on a category header to open it and then make your selection. Repeat with each category until you've made all your selections and then submit your vote.

Note: It's not required that you vote in each category, but you must make all your selections before you submit your vote."

So, as you can see, voting begins tomorrow, so if you likey what you see, *go here* and vote early and often.

(We shall post our endorsements later this week)

awwww... isn't that cute!

Doesn't it look like Warren K has a tiny crush on our good friend CG?

"November 21, 2005 – The Calgary Grit is one of the best bloggers in Canada, and not simply because we usually agree with each other. He’s one of the best because he’s smart, he’s funny, and he’s a terrific writer. And when you meet him – as I did, at the March 2005 Ottawa Liberal convention I attended as a delegate, no less – you will be depressed by how young he is. He made me feel 100 years old, in fact."

"November 23, 2005 - Once again, I cannot improve upon what is being written by Calgary Grit - a young guy who, I hasten to point out, is doing better research/commentary, for free, than what we see out of a lot of the MSM based in Ottawa these days. Amazing."

That's cute. :-)

"in every phrase, you must say eh"

Slightly dated, but entertaining none the less...

Reform Party Rag...

"If you were Indian before, you're not like that anymore..."

Politicans Halloween Party...

"...Chretien and Mulroney did the tango with each other, and Joe Clark was a flirting with someone elses mother."

The Best Summer Job I Ever Had...

"...the best summer job I ever had was as the Yukon PC leader!"

5 day recap.

It's been a really really busy week here in the life of daveberta....

With all the talk of a federal election in the midst, we're not sure from which magic hat we'll pull out the time to get involved... though we've made it no secret that we're less than pleased with the current Liberal government (or Prime Minister Martin for that matter), we do hope to help out in some fashion (how ever limited) with some local campaigns (namely those of Anne McLellan in Edmonton Centre, and Nicole Martel in Edmonton East).

But truthfully, we've become quite tired of entire 'partisan' politics thing. Perhaps it's the lopsided incest of Alberta's political environment/34 year-old Tory government that we find ourselves smothered by. It really doesn't matter what party is in power, if they've been in power for 34 years, they're going to be as incestuous as the current Alberta bunch.

Anyway, enough politics for now, here's a quick recap of the last week...

Last Thursday, on the eve of finishing a kickass research paper on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the BHP Diamond Mine EA process, we had the unfortunate unluck of knocking ourselves fairly hard on the head. HUGE gash, lots of blood everywhere, etc.

we spent 5 hours waiting in the waiting room at the ER at the U of A Hospital. All sorts of exciting ailments over there... This one lady had a broken bone poking out of her skin! It was crazy/cool. After the said 5 hours of quality time with 50 or so other Edmontonians, they finally cleaned us up and glued our head shut (though the bleeding had stopped by that point).

Friday evening, after taking the afternoon off of work to sleep... we joined 8 of our terrific friends in seeing the movie, Walk the Line. If you haven't seen it yet, we recommend you head directly to your nearest film house and purchase a ticked without haste!

Johnny Cash rocks.

Saturday... after a very enjoyable evening, we met up with former-US Ambassador to Canada, Mr. Paul Cellucci, who was in town talking about his new book. Paul (or Paulie, as he’s known on the streets of south Boston) was good for 3 or 6 pints of Guinness and some chat. Though we tend to disagree with him on most issues, we were definitely able to get some insight into his perspective, which was interesting.

Sunday.... papers....

Monday.... papers....

Today.... papers....

Tomorrow.... question period at the Alberta Legislature! (expect a full report later this week (including an update on TED MORTON WATCH).

all is not happy in toryland?

(Intro Song- Don Henley's Dirty Laundy)

From what we can tell from this anonymous blog, all is not well in the mighty Tory EDA of Edmonton Mill Woods-Beaumont.

So unhappy was this local Tory that he (or she) has set up a blog and begun seriously criticizing Tory organizers in Edmonton, including Mr. Will McBeath and Mr. Vitor Marciano, regarding some aspects of Tory candidate Mike Lake's campaign and the nomination race which chose him.

We're not sure what this guys deal is, or if any of the allegations are true, but he sure sounds like a bit of a nutter... an entertaining one though.

(Edmonton Mill Woods-Beaumont is currently represented by Liberal-turned-Independent MP, David Kilgour, who was narrowly re-elected as a Liberal in 2004. Mr. Kilgour, who has represented this area of Edmonton since 1979 as a Progressive Conservative (1979-90), Liberal (1991-2005), and Independent (1990-91, 2005-), is not expected to seek re-election in the next election.)

when welsh rugby fans go wild...

...they cut off their testicles.

ted morton's head explodes...

We wonder what firewall Ted has to say about this.

hinman elected alliance leader.

Cardston-Taber-Warner MLA Paul Hinman was elected leader of the Alberta Alliance Party this weekend at their convention in Red Deer.

Hinman, the only AA MLA in the Alberta Legislature, was easily knocked off fellow right-wing crazies Marilyn Burns, David Crutcher, and Ed Klop (Klop was endorsed by former leader Randy Thorsteinson - with endorsements like he's an "incredibly nice guy" and he "grew up on a dairy farm," we're stunned Klop didn't win with a landslide...) .

Here are the results...

1st Ballot
Paul Hinman - 485
Marilyn Burns - 244
David Crutcher - 211
Ed Klop - 188

2nd Ballot
Paul Hinman - 584
Marilyn Burns - 312
David Crutcher - 236

3rd Ballot
Paul Hinman - 626
Marilyn Burns - 387

It seems that Red Deer was a hot spot for right-wing fringe politicians this weekend as the Alberta Social Credit Party also held it's convention this weekend...

nerd alert.

Saturday night... too tired to do any-thing...

with 2 out of 142 polls reporting, Jim Green is leading Sam Sullivan 947 to 358 in Vancouver's Mayoral Election.

You can see live results here.

UPDATE! RESULTS!

Sam Sullivan - 61,543
Jim Green - 57,796
James Green - 4,253

We call *shenanigans* on the part of James Green.

uhg...

uhg. It has been a traumatic and busy couple of days.

Thursday: 5 hour wait in the Emergency Room. Lots of blood included.
Friday: Walk the Line! "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash"
Saturday: Former US Ambassador Paul Cellucci

When we get the energy, we'll write up a post.

something about new zealand.

It's very interesting how many hits we've been getting under the search word "Peter Kruselnicki."

Is this what the Tories meant back in the 199o's when they would always use New Zealand as a model of how Alberta should operate? ;-)

See here, here, here, here, and here to see what we're talking about.

alberta bizarro world continued...

More weirdness coming out of Alberta's right-wing columnists... first Lorne Gunter... this time, Tom Olsen from the Calgary Herald isn't slamming the provincial Liberals... weird...

"Liberal scattergun takes shots at premier wannabes
The Calgary Herald
Wed 16 Nov 2005
By: Tom Olsen

Kevin Taft chose the scattergun approach, standing up in the legislature and letting loose with a spray of figurative bullets.

Five Tory ministers were the targets within Taft's first five questions, starting with the three cabinet ministers who want to be king -- Lyle Oberg, Dave Hancock and Ed Stelmach.

This opening day of the fall session wasn't about health care at all. Instead, the official Opposition Liberals trained their guns on the Tories' budgeting process -- which, truth be told, doesn't exist in any real sense.

The government spends billions of dollars. By happy circumstance, it has billions extra. So it spends billions more.

Taft went straight to Oberg, probably the first time the infrastructure minister has fielded the first question on the first day of a session.

"Can this minister tell us how far over budget his department is so far this year?" said Taft.

Oberg was nonchalant, first assuring the legislature his department was right on target, then acknowledging an extra $400 million in spending. Not sure how the two square.

Next up was Hancock, with a question Taft prefaced with "fiscal hawks turning into fiscal turkeys."

The advanced education minister, freshly coiffed and trimmed down as befits a premierial wannabe, used a lot of words to run down all the things the province has done in education lately.

Then it was on to Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stelmach, a guy who seems to be about everybody's second choice for next Tory leader.

Asked Taft: "Can this minister tell the assembly if his department is on target to finish the year on budget?"

Eddie ran through some stuff his department is doing, but no one really cares. It's not like he's building universities or hospitals. ..."

HOLY SMOKES!

We think we may have a small case of whiplash.... we actually don't disagree with one of Mr. Lorne Gunter's articles... wow... Mr. Gunter as you may know, is a right-leaning columnist at the Edmonton Journal who's articles are usually waaaaay off the mark (in our books, of course).

In today's article he criticizes the Klein Tories...

Clips the article...

"Arrogance of Klein Tories as bad as the Liberals'
What possessed our Premier to say extra revenues are nopne of our business?

...

It was infuriating this week to watch federal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale use the House of Commons finance committee to launch the federal Liberals re-election campaign with insincere promises of tax cuts, most of which won't kick in until 2010 or 2011. ...

But it was more enraging to hear Alberta Premier Ralph Klein insist any money his government receives over and above the revenues projected in its annual budget belong to the government and are no concern of the opposition or the legislature. Whether he realizes it or not, when Klein says that he is also saying they are no concern of voters and taxpayers, either.

Yet clearly they are very much our concern.

You may feel it is only fair that oil and gas companies pay royalties on the non-renewable resources they pump from under this province. After all the resources do not belong to them, they are public. But that doesn't mean the resources are owned by the provincial government, either.

Alberta's resources are the property of Albertans. We merely elect governments to manage them on our behalf. That is an enormous power to give to a tiny group of people. So we elect an entire legislature to hold the government to account.

It is not enough that we voters can turn the government out every three or four years. For there to be effective accountability, the opposition must be able to scrutinize and publicize government actions on an ongoing basis, even if we don't particularly like what the opposition has in mind.

....

Opposition is right

But when the opposition leaders are right, they're right. And both Liberal Leader Kevin Taft and NDP boss Brian Mason were spot-on this week in their criticism of the Klein government's unsupervised, unaccountable spending spree.

In its budget last spring, the Klein government outlined plans to spend $25.8 billion this year, for a province with just 3.3 million residents. That is already $7,800 per man, woman and child, far and away the highest spending level of any government in the country, federal or provincial.

Still, Alberta is likely to have revenues this year approaching $35 billion. So, since the budget, and since the legislature was last in session, the Klein government has pledged to spend an additional $7 billion -- nearly a third more than planned -- all without additional legislation, or debate, or even so much as a question answered in the legislature.

...

And just what are the Tories so preoccupied with in this fall sitting that they haven't time to answer questions about the surplus? Well, there's an act to clean up ambiguous wording in Post-Secondary Learning Act, some "minor changes" to the Police Act, a bill to let unborn babies sue their parents for negligent driving, a ban on criminals making money off the notoriety of their crimes and an act to foster "a spirit of community and good relations among current and former MLAs."

Busy, very busy.

So when Taft says "If the premier thinks he can spend taxpayer dollars at his whim, it really is time for him to go," and Mason says, "Mr. Klein is getting to the point where he thinks he's entitled to absolute power in this province," they're both right.

...

Klein's Tories announce $7 billion in spending (twice as much per capita as Goodale), then get mad when anyone suggests they might want to let the opposition question them about it.

That's every bit as appallingly arrogant."

graham thomson's blog

We've just discovered that our favorite Edmonton Journal columnist, Mr. Graham Thomson, has a blog!

Check it out here.

blog meme meme meme meme meme meme.

It has come to our attention that Calgary Grit has tagged us in another elaborate blog meme scheme...

The rules are:

1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five people to do the same.

So... from February 17, 2005...

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

Not exactly the most exciting post, but pleasant none the less. We were on the eve of our second apartment move of the year (there turned out to be another one 6 months later). Also, as you might notice, this post was posted in our pre-pluralistic singular days. Ah, what a crazy youth this blog did have. :-P

Now... we tag...

Chris-Face
Grandinite
Janet
Lotusland
Rempel

kruselnicki in trouble?

It seems Premier Ralph Klein's Chief of Staff, Mr. Peter Kruselnicki, has become part of some controversy related to his recent work in New Zealand.

From the New Zealand Herald:

"Commission under attack over CYF head's contract
 
15.11.05
By Ruth Berry

The State Services Commission's handling of outgoing Child, Youth and Family head Paula Tyler's contract is under fire on all fronts.

The Herald understands she blames the commission for her early departure.

Ms Tyler recently announced she would leave just 18 months into her three-year contract, prompting the National Party to complain she should refund part of the $70,000 spent recruiting her.

State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble said her contract made no provision for repayment of the costs in the event she left early.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday that she was concerned about the agreement.

"I think the contract should have been tighter. I think everyone appreciates that helping people relocate may well be part of the package, but I would have thought it should be tied to seeing out the term." She expected that contracts would be better drawn up in future.

But a source told the Herald Ms Tyler believed the commission should take responsibility for her departure as it had failed to uphold a commitment it had made to find her partner a suitable job.

Peter Kruselnicki was a senior bureaucrat in Alberta, Canada, and one-time Deputy Minister of Finance.

The $70,000 included two return airfares between Canada and New Zealand to enable him to seek employment opportunities.

He was finally made a visiting fellow at Victoria University's public administration faculty.

The Herald's source said the job was essentially a sinecure and not at all the type of senior state sector position he was qualified to do and which the pair had been led to believe would be found for him.

The commitment had been informal but in good faith and Ms Tyler had expected it to be honoured.

Tired of "fiddling his thumbs", Mr Kruselnicki had opted to return to Canada to work for Alberta Premier Ralph Klein."
 

the smell of a 20 dollar bill.

Soon, we may be $20 richer.

Mr. Bullerwell, we take cash and personal cheques only.

And to quote...

"And there's no way you're getting your $20. To quote my personal hero Paul Wells:

"No election before the New Year. There will be no election before the New Year. Tell yourself. Learn to love the idea. Learn to hate it. I don't care. But deal: no election before the New Year.""

Huzzah!

only four days until...

...walk the line.

85.71 cups.

According to the Death by Caffine Calculator:

85.71 cups of Brewed Coffee + daveberta = Death

(Props to Chris for the linkage)

tory dynasty.

This lovely article was 100% lifted from last week's edition of SEE Magazine.

"ON THE RECORD:

Immediately following the release of Justice John Gomery’s first report on the sponsorship scandal, Premier Ralph Klein said he would be tossed out for similar behaviour in Alberta.

"I would be hung," Klein told reporters. The comment, coming from a politician who has publicly defended former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, drunkenly thrown money at the homeless, and given detractors the middle finger, raised more than a few eyebrows.

Klein isn’t the only member of his caucus with a colourful history. Conservative scandal gets public attention year after year, touching multiple cabinet portfolios, and tarnishing the most luminous Tories. Here are a few of the regime’s greatest hits from the last three years.

2005: Worst land deal deal ever

Earlier this year, ethics commissioner Donald Hamilton cleared Environment Minister Guy Boutilier of influencing an Alberta Social Housing Corporation decision to sell 231 acres of Fort McMurray land for affordable housing to the Timberlea Joint Venture Consortium. The consortium got the land at a price set for 158 acres. Not only was the deal sweet, but beneficiaries include Boutilier’s personal friend Tim Walsh, and other individuals who NDP critic Ray Martin says have contributed $14,000 to Boutilier’s campaigns since he became an MLA. To top things off, the $35,000 per acre price was based on 1990 land values. The government lost at least $2.5 million in potential revenue on the sale.

2004: Mar’s totally excellent misadventure

Alberta opposition leaders tore into Health Minister Gary Mar for awarding $400,000 worth of untendered contracts to his former executive assistant Kelly Charlebois. In a stunning parallel to the federal government’s sponsorship contracts, Mar had no record of any work performed by Charlebois for the money. Mar cancelled the contracts after considerable media attention, but the government never reformed their policy to allow contracts under $100,000 to
be awarded without tender, even if multiple contracts are awarded to one person or company over a short period of time. No reforms of contract tendering limits
came about in the wake of the fiasco, and Mar was allowed to keep his cabinet
seat.

2003: FOIP - Fuck Off, It’s Private

Just days before Christmas, Alberta Finance Minister Pat Nelson announced the settlement of a multi-million dollar legal dispute between West Edmonton Mall, Alberta Treasury Branches (ATB) and former ATB superintendent Elmer Leahy. Leahy had overseen the questionable approval of $353 million of loan guarantees for the financially troubled mall, and was later accused of accepting bribes to move the deal forward. Leahy turned the tables on his accusers at the ATB, swearing Ralph Klein, as economic development minister, ordered him to make the deal happen, along with then-deputy premier Ken Kowalski, and former treasurer Jim Dinning.

Then NDP leader Raj Pannu was steamed to discover details of the settlement were sealed in court. Subsequent Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) requests for information about the settlement were rejected. All documents had been given to the ATB, which enjoys an exemption from FOIP legislation. Government losses on the deal were never disclosed, although the ATB was reported to have estimated $115 million was sunk on the deal. Dinning is now a front-runner in the lurking Tory leadership race."

addicting.

If you're ever looking for another way to procrastinate (and we know you are), check out newsfutures. It's a virtual stockmarket for predicting news events and it's really really adictive.

Also, we went to the Remembrance Day cemeonies at the University of Alberta Butterdome yesterday.

We have more to post soon.

academablogging

Today's Inside Higher Education has a story about bloggers in academia...

"Dissent is a way of life in the blogosphere; comments and barbs get traded, and feelings potentially hurt, every day. But one such discussion among three academics has escalated to the point that at least two of them have hired lawyers to try to resolve the dispute.

Paul Deignan is a 41-year-old mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate, with master’s degrees in math and mechanical engineering, a background in military intelligence and a wife and three kids. Read the rest here...

cellucci does e-towne.

Mr. Argeo Paul Cellucci, former American Ambassador to Canada, will be speaking in Edmonton on Saturday, November 19 at the Royal Alberta Museum. He'll be speaking about his book "An Unquiet Diplomacy." It should be interesting to see what Mr. Cellucci has to say. We think we may go and check it out.

Tickets are available at one of our favorite Edmonton bookstores: Audrey's (on 107th Street and Jasper Ave).

blog of the week: ponies and pachyderms

This week's new "blog of the week" is the awesome American politics blog run by a bunch of hosers: Ponies & Pachyderms.

10 points to anyone who can guess what the title means (we had to google it).

Check it out.

old glory robot insurance.

...check this lovely commercial out. Too funny.

(props to mr. face for the linkage)

edmonton strathcona

Well, it seems Jack Layton and his NDP Caucus will no longer be supporting the good ship Martin, which may mean a winter election in 2005... perhaps we will still win our bet with Mr. Bullerwell and be $20 richer come New Year's Eve...

This left us wondering what will go on in our newly adopted riding of Edmonton Strathcona (we were previously in Edmonton Centre, represented by Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan).

Candidate-wise, it looks like Mr. Rahim Jaffer will be running for the Conservatives again (he has represented Edmonton Strathcona under the Reform, Canadian Alliance, and Conservative banners since 1997).

For the NDP, environmental lawyer Ms. Linda Duncan is their candidate of choice. As some of you may remember, the more controversial Mr. Malcolm Azania was the NDP candidate in Strathcona last time around.

The Liberals are in the midst of a 3-way contested candidate race with former U of A Secretariat Director Ellen Schoeck taking on fraud investigator George Hodgson, and lawyer Andy Hladyshevsky. It should be an interesting nomination race. We know both Ms. Schoeck and Mr. Hodgson and the're both very nice people. We don't know Mr. Hladyshevsky, so we can't really offer any sort of opinion on him.

No word on who the Greens have nominated or yet to nominate.

Though we're fairly sure Mr. Jaffer will be re-elected, he won't be getting the pleasure of our vote. We're really not sure who we're going to vote for yet. Time shall tell.

For those of you interested, the last couple of elections in Strathcona went like so...

2000 Federal Election
x-Rahim Jaffer, CA - 23,463
Jonathan Dai, Lib - 17,816
Helene Narayana, NDP - 8,256
Gregory Toogood, PC - 5,047
Ken Kirk, MP - 814
Kesa Rose Semenchuk, AP - 299
Kevan Hunter, M-L - 164

2004 Federal Election
x-Rahim Jaffer, CPC - 19,089
Debby Carlson, Lib - 14,057
Malcolm Azania, NDP - 11,535
Cameron Wakefield, Grn - 3,146
Dave Dowling, MP - 519
Kevan Hunter, M-L - 103

crazy nutter.

If you haven't already (and I'm willing to bet most of you haven't) read this article about Dr. Aubrey de Grey from the October 28 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education, here it is...

"If you wish to be a prophet, first you must dress the part. No more silk ties or tasseled loafers. Instead, throw on a wrinkled T-shirt, frayed jeans, and dirty sneakers. You should appear somewhat unkempt, as if combs and showers were only for the unenlightened. When you encounter critics, as all prophets do, dismiss them as a idiots. Make sure to pepper your conversation with grandiose predictions and remind others of your genius, lest they forget. Oh, and if possible, grow a very long beard.”

and the lord said...

...let their be snow. And there was snow. In Edmonton. And it was cold.

btw, did anyone else watch the new Family Guy episode? HOLY SMOKES! Osama Bin Laden video bloopers? The Stewie - Bin Laden battle? Are they allowed to say "death to America" on TV? Because they said it like 20 times. It was too funny.

dvd expasion,

Bought four new DVD's this weekend:

- Garden State
- The Bourne Supremacy
- Ghostbusters I
- Ghostbusters II

saturday.

ahhh. Saturday morning... ug.... afternoon...

It's fairly cool outside. Almost winter, but not quite. Feels like -30C, but it's really only -7Cish.

We're on the tail end of our fluishness. Thank goodness. It's amazing what a good sleep and 4 litres of orange juice can do.

Also, we started reading the book Jarhead today. Apparently they're making a movie of it. But apparently the movie has been fairly sanatized from the book version. After we finish the book, we may move on to the movie version and write a review.

We watched the War Room the other night. HOW COOL. For those of you who don't know about it, it's a documentary on the 1992 Clinton Campaign focusing on Misters James Carville and George Stephanopoulous. Props to Mr. Spence for lending it to us.

Also saw The Big Lebowski for the first time last night. Following the movie, we were asked our opinion of it. We told our fellow viewers (ici, ici, ici, et ici) that we would sleep on it, and we're proud to announce that the verdict is good. It was an enjoyable production.

happy halloween, dave hancock.

Well, it appears official. We have collected some sort of sickness. Feels like a flu, but the jury is still out. Sleep is needed for tonight.

And btw, from the REALLY WEIRD category of Alberta politics (which just happens to be the largest category), we were shocked and awed at the stunning change in the appearance of Advanced Education Minister and Tory Leadership hopeful Dave Hancock.

See what we mean...

This was Hancock after the November 2004 Election

and

this is Hancock Now - HOLY SMOKES!

Happy Halloween?

'grade a' alberta bs.

Premier Ralph Klein from yesterday's Edmonton Sun...

"I know that in this province, the buck would have stopped with me," Klein told reporters yesterday after the Gomery Commission report exonerated the prime minister of direct involvement.

Klein said that considering the magnitude of the scandal, he "would be hung" if his government squandered hundreds of millions of Alberta taxpayers' dollars.

"If they couldn't track me down, I would have to find a place far enough away in the world to hide," he said. "This kind of thing is not acceptable to Alberta people."

...

"They seem to get away with this kind of thing in Ontario and to some degree in Quebec," he said. "I guess the people there will vote for the devil they know rather than the devil they don't know."

So says the guy who constantly downplays the reports of and ignores his own Auditor General...

*cough*bullshit* cough*

suckage.

It's around midnight and we're sitting in SUB trying to finish writing a stupid paper on Canadian trade issues with the United States in the early 1900's. Big question... WHO CARES?

This will be our 3rd "all nighter" in a row. We are freaking tired. Brain is mush...

We can also feel a sickness coming upon us. We think it may be the bird flu. uhg.

fall session

We hope you all enjoyed yesterday's Gomery Day festivities. We sure did.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programing.

Cut to set of Channel 17 Broadcast News

News Anchor: "Good Morning and thank you for joining us."

"In today's bizarre news feature, the Alberta Legislature will be meeting this fall to pass what is commonly known in other provincial juristictions as 'legislation,' and participate in a even more bizarre ritual known as 'Question Period.'"

"Our investigative reporters were not able to determine what shape or form this 'legislation' will take, but local officials are warning parents to bring their children in before dark and keep their animals in the safety of their back yards. If you see this elusive legislation, please contact your local police deparment immediately."

"It is also being reported by an anonymous source within the Legislature that the fall session, which begins on November 15 and will run for two or three weeks, is starting just in time for the rural Tory MLA's to bring their wives into the city for some Christmas shopping on the taxpayers tab."

"We will keep you updated as this story unfolds."

(FADE TO BLACK)

(End Scene)

chretien time.

We're sitting here watching the Chretien press conference. And we've learned a number of things...

1. Jean and Aline Chretien like music. So does Michel Béliveau.

2. He really doesn't like Paul Martin. Or Jean LaPierre. Or Stephen LeDrew. Or Stephen Harper. Or the NDP. He just about slagged everyone.

3. He's either really really smart, or insane. The press conference was so random. Balls? Invading the United States? Wha?

4. Jean Chretien is WAAAAY more entertaining than Paul Martin.

12:30 gomery recap.

arg. We should have been spending the morning writing papers, but instead we found ourselves sitting in front of the television watching CBC Newsworld's coverage of the Gomery Report.

Watching QP right now.

As for the press conferences...

Jack Layton's press conference was interesting. He now needs to be fairly careful in what he decides to do. He called the Liberals corrupt, so can he now save face if the NDP continues to prop up Mr. Martin's minority government or will the NDP move to topple the Liberals.

Stephen Harper didn't do a bad job. His press conference went well in our opinion. He was calm and not overly angry, which looked good.

The Prime Minister's press conference wasn't bad. He mentioned the Liberal Party as little as possible. He also had a good game for the most part, but we could tell he was getting tired come the end. He was starting to bumble by the end. We doubt Mr. Martin got very much sleep last night. He did fairly well in not answering questions about Jean Chretien, referring them to the Gomery Report. Gagliano=BANNED. $1.14 Million refunded...

Former Prime Minsiter Jean Chretien's press conference is going to be held at 5pm eastern time (3pm Alberta time). That one should be interesting...

and... can someone explain to us why is Jean LaPierre in Cabinet, again?

gagliano.

BANNED.

bo bomery.

Last night, on Halloween, we joined around 100-200 University of Alberta students on the annual Trick or Eat event, collecting donations for the campus foodbank in the neighbourhoods around campus (Belgravia, Windsor Park, Garneau). It was alot of fun and felt like being a little kid again! Our group alone collected about 3 bins of food! Also... lots of candy!

We thought about dressing up as our favorite Whitehouse character, Scooter, but we didn't think anyone would get it. So, we dressed up as a business student instead. ;-)

Also.... our advanced copy never showed and Johnny G. wasn't answering his cell, so....

gomery gomery bo bomery banana fana fo fomery. fee fie fo fomery... GOMERY!

advanced gomery

We're sitting here waiting for our advanced copy of the Gomery Report to arrive via Fedex... it hasn't arrived yet. We're only waiting 1 more hour before we call Johnny G. to see where our copy is.

indeed.

"It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can do only a little. Do what you can."

Sydney Smith
1771-1845, Writer and Clergyman

cold hearted bastard.

Though we deplore AIDS and Cancer jokes, we are less than partial to the odd tsunami joke...

(Props to Nastyboy for the quiz linkage)

kick.

We went to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra last Friday (with our noses tilted slightly higher).

It was nice. Bill Eddins, the conductor, rocks. He was all over the place. It was entertaining to just watch him.

(Also, Canada Post has earned a spot in our naughty book this past week. No Christmas card for them this year.)

boo!

Happy Halloween.

now with 60% more hippies.

The Green Party of Canada is holding a logo design contest... we couldn't help but join the fun!

Here's what we came up with...

olympia.

The Turino Winter Olympics are going to be held February 10-26, 2006.

We're looking forward to it.

what happened after...

...we posted the leaked Alberta rebate cheques designs.

banff vs. jasper.

Being the political nerds we are, we thought we'd look back at some of the results from last November's Provincial Election.

Today, we look at the results from two of Alberta's well-known Rocky Mountain towns: Banff and Jasper. Though this post shouldn't be mistaken for a "cognative analysis" of any kind, we hope you enjoy the charts we made. ;-)

We didn't find it very surprising that Banff voters supported a more right-wing party, but we were a little surprised at the political plurialism found in the beautiful mountain town of Jasper... we knew there was a reason why we like Jasper more than Banff...

A quick look at the electoral history of Jasper, in the West Yellowhead riding, will show that it has elected opposition MLA's in the past. New Democrat Jerry Doyle (1989-93) and Liberal Duco VanBinsbergen (1993-97). In 1997, VanBinsbergen was edged out by Tory Ivan Strang. In 2001, Strang cruised to re-election and was also re-elected in 2004. So, West Yellowhead has a tradition of sometime electing opposition MLA's...



Banff, in the Banff-Cochrane riding, voted fairly solidly Tory, though we were very surprised at the strength of the Alberta Green vote in Banff, edging out the Liberals for second place.



Not that was wanted to prove anything critical with this post. We just like making charts.

AA = Alberta Alliance
AG = Alberta Greens
LIB = Alberta Liberals
ND = Alberta NDP
PC = Progressive Conservative

welcome to the mother ship.

Nice to see that 10 years after the boom began, they're finally thinking about coordinating development in the Oil Sands...

...in a press release from Alberta's Public Affairs Bureau and Alberta Energy released the other day titled "Province Developing a plan to Coordinate Oil Sands Development."

Also...

"The environment is our Mother ship, and it is important that we focus on sustainable development that preserves the natural resources and beauty of our province."
- Alberta Environment Minister Guy Boutillier

Welcome to the Mother Ship...

our scoop.

Holy smokes...

It appears our scoopage of the Globe & Mail on the Alberta rebate cheque designs story (much to the dismay of mr. c-lo) has boosted our blog traffic up a little bit from to the usual daily 90-100ish to around 400 visitors today.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed and come back to visit. :-)

(Extra props go to Calgary Grit, Dust My Broom, Red Between the Lines, and Matthew Good (we own 3 of your CD's...) for the linkage - which had much to do with the boost in traffic - sorry if we missed anyone).

prosperity cheque designs leaked!

The designs of Alberta's upcoming rebate cheques have been leaked to us at daveberta by a crafty individual with close ties to the Alberta government.

Here they are....













UPDATE/WARNING: It's been insinuated that these may not actually be the real Alberta rebate/prosperity cheque designs. As disappointing as this is, we urge you to view them at your own risk - and yes, we realize the irony of having the 'warning' at the bottom of the post... (also, if you like ponies and pachyderms)

diamonds are forever.

It's very windy outside.

For those of you interested, we're currently reading the Canadian Institute for Resource Law's Independent Review of the BHP Diamond Mine Process (June 30, 1997) for our Canadian Public Policy Seminar.

It's more interesting than it sounds.

Also, has anyone listened to the new Franz Ferdinand album? (which of course, could never be good as the first Franz Ferdinand) We're sorry to say we're slightly disappointed this time around...

more tory patronage...

Alberta's Conservative government launched another round of fairly obvious patronage appointments last week...

Karen Kryczka, Tory MLA for Calgary West (1997-2004), was appointed to the Board of the Alberta Foundation of the Arts.

Bob Clark, Social Credit MLA for Olds-Didsbury (1960-81), Socred Leader (1977-81), and Alberta's "Ethics Commissioner" (1992-2003), was appointed to the Natural Resource Conservation Board.

the question is alberta?

Tomorrow, on the U of A campus, the Question is Alberta, and some local and not so local politicians will be speaking...

From 4pm to 5pm, Parkland Institute Executive Director Ricardo Acuna and Edmonton Strathcona NDP MLA Dr. Raj Pannu will be speaking on "Alberta's Lack of Vision for the Surplus" at Dewey's.

From 5:30pm to 6:30pm, Alberta Liberal Leader and Edmonton Riverview MLA Kevin Taft and Calgary Currie Liberal MLA Dave Taylor will be speaking on "Where is Alberta?" at Dewey's as well.

If you have the chance, come out and meet some of Alberta's premiere opposition MLA's and critics...

corn chips are no place for...

...a mighty warrior. The tenth issue-versary edition of teengirl squad is out.

(props to peter and geoff for the link)

Also... new Strongbad email!

from the depths of alberta hansard

"I hear a rattle, Mr. Speaker, I think the minister just had an idea."

Nick Taylor, Liberal MLA for Westlock-Sturgeon (1986-93) and Redwater (1993-96), and Alberta Senator (1996-2002)

if penguins could fly would they make a "THUD" on impact

busy weekend. most posting soon.

in the mean time... this has quite the political message, plus, it's kind of funny...



(props to Mr. Ryan Payne for the pic)

how appropriate...

The idealistic speechwriter is well-liked by just about everyone. He's known for his excellent writing, sense of humor, and tendency to be clutzy. Although being younger than the rest of the staff, he's often treated as so, much to his dismay.

:: Which West Wing character are you? ::

(Ironic props to Sam for the quiz linkage)

better than dingwall.

Ahh. Tonight, as we read about the general lameness of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA), we are also reminiscing about how good the magical first four seasons of the West Wing were. Josh, Sam, Toby, CJ. Political superstars. Total fun entertainment. The assassination attempt, the MS scandal, the re-election.

Last Sunday night, we caught part of the West Wing for the first time in an entire season, and were surprised and confused at what was going on and who was now working for who. Gladly, we weren't the only ones... Ainge from Lotusland also feels the confusion. We recommend other West Wing-a-holics (*cough*henderson*cough*sam*cough*) check out the Lotusland post...

blog of the week: john gushue...dot dot dot

That's right folks! Hailing from St. John's Newfoundland, John Gushue... Dot Dot Dot is this week's blog of the week.

We enjoy John's posts and they're always quite entertaining and informative. His 'Daily Dot's' are also quite cool as well.

Make sure to check out John Gushue... Dot Dot Dot!

dingwallaby.

Due to the entire rediculousness of this issue, we haven't been paying much attention to it. But, today (right now), as we write a paper, we also have the Dingwall hearings on in the background.

Here's our translation of the Dingwall hearing:

Backbench Tory MP: "Mr. Dingwall, are you corrupt?"

Dingwall: "uhhh... Mr. Chair, let me talk to my lawyer."

Backbench Liberal MP: "ohhhh, Mr. Dingwall. Yoou're soooo gooood."

Dingwall: "Bless you my child."

Backbench Tory MP: "For crying out loud Mr. Dingwall! Do you eat babies?"

Dingwall: "Mr. Chair, I'm not an expert on that and I wish to consult my legal council."

Backbench Liberal MP: "ooohhh. David Dingwall, you are soooo goood!"

Dingwall: "Ooohhhh. Legal advice..."

NDP: 19 - 1 = 18

Looks like Ms. Desjarlais will be joining the likes of Ms. Parrish, Mr. Kilgour and Mr. O'Brien in the realm of Independent MP's.

blogging excuses.

okay, yes we realized the lameness of all these random blog posts. We believe Ms. Lo has hit it right on the head. No more posts for a while... blogging will lead to our exile one day.

Also, MSN Messenger is on our list of the Top 10 Coolest things EVER! In one day over MSN, we chatted with our friends in India, the UK, Calgary, Vancouver, and Montreal. How cool.

papus e. barnum.

Perhaps Mr. face can correct our latin...

If you haven't already, head over to one of our favorite blogs: ask the pope. It's just so delightfully entertaining. :-)

Another late night of paper writing ahead... only two more left to do this week...

The one we're working on now is quite interesting. We're discussing the similarities and differences between economic diversification strategies and over-all economic transformation in Alberta and Saskatchewan between 1950 and 1990.

Only 600ish more words to go...

only...

...one month left! huzzah!

too early...

Well, after a great weekend of fun and partying (Sunday night was particularily fun), we went to the Canada Conference which began last night (but we only showed up this morning).

Breakfast at 7:30am took some effort (considering we were up until 2am writing papers...). One of the most interesting parts of the morning was when we got lost looking for the Sutton Place Hotel, where the conference was being held (considering we used to live downtonw... we chalk it up for being 7:00am).

The breakfast was interesting. Some of the early morning risers included U of A Board of Governor's Chair Jim Edwards (who is also a former Tory MP), Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft, and U of A President Indira Samarasekera. The breakfast was interesting.... but too early...

The luncheon was interesting as well. :-) More details soon.

Also, did anyone in Edmonton hear the thunderstorm this afternoon??? It's October!?!?! Rain and thunder? Weird.

bless sundays.

It's a beautiful fall Sunday here in Edmonton. Warmish. Sunny. Big blue sky. Very nice.

John Duffy has a review of Stephen Clarkson's new book"The Big Red Machine: How the Liberal Party Dominates Canadian Politics" in this weekend's Globe & Mail. Mr. Duffy, as some may know, is the author of one of our favorite Canadian Political books: "Fights of Our Lives: Elections, Leadership, and the Making of Canada" (We're a little surprised we beat Mr. Cherniak in posting this, he must be busy this weekend. ;-)

Also, as Mr. Ramson has posted, Federal NDP MP Ed Broadbent has released his party's democratic reform package and it's about darn-toot’n time (yes, darn-toot’n!) someone brought the democratic reform to the forefront in Parliament (save the lame "fighting the democratic deficit" rhetoric). We look forward to seeing how it the package is received in this fall's session in the House of Commons.

Also, the Sugarbowl has the best coffee EVER! yum

ADDENUM 1.1: Care of a link from Will McBeath's blog, the Edmonton-area Federal Tories have set up a central site with links to their candidates websites. It's an interesting semi-website, though the massive picture of Stephen Harper is slightly frightening.

ADDENUM 1.2: Damn. WFT, daveberta readers. It's Sunday and all of our formerly favorite rightie bloggers are suddenly returning from the dead! First, Rempel. And now, Young. Craziness. We thought all the right-wingers were supposed to be in Church on Sunday (or something?)?!?!

the return of sauron.

It seems our favorite right-wing blogger, the infamous Peter Rempel, has returned to his old haunt of RempeliaPrime after a sojourn over at thepolitic.

Welcome back, Mr. Rempel.

presidential wankering.

This is a little outside the realm of Albertus Politika, but if you haven't yet, check out the video of US President George W. Bush's 'video teleconference' with US troops and an Iraqi troop. Not only was this one of the funniest staged and scripted stunts we have EVER seen, but it was also one of the most blatant pieces of political masturbation that we have seen from this President.



This piece had some very memorable moments. The part when Bush dropped his pencil was particularly funny.

Best scripted quotes (in no particular order):

1. THE PRESIDENT: "By the way, you're in Tikrit, as I understand it, as well. It's kind of an interesting place to be."

2. SERGEANT LOMBARDO: Good morning, Mr. President. I'm Master Sergeant Corine Lombardo, with the Headquarters 42nd Infantry Division and Task Force Liberty, from Scotia, New York. First, I'd like to say that this is a pleasure to speak with you again. We had the honor of your visit in New York City on November 11th, in 2001, when you recognized our Rainbow Soldiers for their recovery and rescue efforts at Ground Zero.

THE PRESIDENT: Were you there?

SERGEANT LOMBARDO: We began our fight against terrorism in the wake of 9/11, and we're proud to continue it here in North-Central New York -- North-Central Iraq.

THE PRESIDENT: Let me ask you something. Were you there when I came to New York?

SERGEANT LOMBARDO: Yes, I was, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: I thought you looked familiar.

SERGEANT LOMBARDO: Well, thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: I probably look familiar to you, too.

3. THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Sergeant Akeel, thanks for joining us. I appreciate -- appreciate your service. You've got something to say, Akeel?

SERGEANT AKEEL: Good morning, Mr. President. Thank you for everything. Thank very much for everything.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, you're welcome.

SERGEANT AKEEL: I like you. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that.

(heaps of props on Mr. chris-face for coming down from his tower and informing us of this wonderful video)

gordon gets 42 months for $43 million.

Another Michael Ritter connection from Bloomberg.com...

Ex-Merrill Trader Gordon Gets 42 Months for Stealing $43 Mln

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Daniel Gordon, once the top energy trader at Merrill Lynch & Co., was sentenced to 42 months in prison for embezzling $43 million from the firm.

Gordon, 29, pleaded guilty in 2003 to federal charges that he stole the money by creating a phony energy trade with an offshore company that he'd set up. He also admitted that he helped falsify records at a Merrill energy-trading unit before its sale. Gordon later cooperated with a federal probe of Merrill, which ended without any additional charges.

...

Gordon said after he was told to reduce the risk of a transaction that Global Energy was involved in, he created a fictitious entity called Falcon Energy Holdings SA. He said he told co-workers that Falcon would enter into a deal to reduce Global Energy's risk in return for $43 million. The money was wired to an overseas account Gordon set up for himself, he said.

Gordon pleaded guilty to single counts of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to falsify records of a public company.

...

Last month, in a related criminal case, authorities in Alberta, Canada, charged Michael Ritter with theft and money- laundering for helping Gordon steal money from Merrill. Gordon hid money in offshore accounts that prosecutors say were set up by Ritter's Newport Pacific Financial Group.

...

UPDATE: MORE DANIEL GORDON/MICHAEL RITTER CONNECTION STORIES HERE, HERE, AND HERE.

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology...

thomas homer-dixonmania!

For those of you interested, the University of Alberta Students' Union will be beginning their annual Revolutionary Speakers Series next week!



The first speaker of the 2005-06 series will be Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon (on October 18th!).

Dr. Homer-Dixon is the author of The Ingenuity Gap, and Director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto.

His lecture, titled: The Ingenuity Challenge: Surviving the 21st Century, will epically cross the following terrain...

"Global warming. Emergent diseases. Energy shortages. Infoglut. International financial instability. Mega-terrorism. Are the problems we’re confronting as individuals, societies, and a species becoming more difficult? If so, can we solve them? Thomas Homer-Dixon will address these questions by looking at how societies adapt to complex change. The 21st century promises to be among the most perilous in humankind's brief history, but it will also offer unprecedented opportunities for renewal and social creativity."

This will be a great lecture, so make sure to come and check it out!

corporate sponsorship....

We just found out last night that next week we'll be attending the Canada 2005 Conference as a guest of the Edmonton Journal. Though we may have many issues with the general declining quality of the CanWest newspaper chain, we thank the Journal for their generous payment of our delegate fee. :-)

It should be an interesting event. You can check out the program here.

So, as you can see (after you check out the program), the political star-studdednes of this conference will make for some VERY interesting blogging. Be prepared for multi-day blog action next week.

The political nerd in us can't wait to chat it up with the likes of Bob Rae, Lorne Calvert, Ralph Klein, Don Getty, Jeffery Simpson, Allan Blakeney, and Grant Devine... more soon.

wine and cheese evening...

This evening, we attended a reception/lecture care of the University of Alberta School of Business at the Westin Hotel. The evening, which hosted guest lecturer Dr. Mark Jaccard of the School of Resource and Environment Management at Simon Fraser University, was interesting.

Dr. Jaccard made a hour-long presentation titled "Sustainable Fossil Fuels: How Alberta's fossil fuels can be this century's cheapest source of clean energy." As he flew through the hour-long lecture fairly fast, it was very clear that the entire evening was a sales pitch for his new book.

As we discussed with fellow attendees at the reception following the lecture (hosted by EPCOR), our definition of 'sustainability' and that of Dr. Jaccard were clearly two different entities (ours being a source of energy that will last potentially forever-hence, sustainable, and his being one which would last for about 100 years-maybe). Also, his seemingly pro-nuclear undertones were fairly alarming.

All things aside, we did have a nice conversation at the reception with Tory MP Ken Epp and Alberta Liberal MLA Bill Bonko, who were also around to check out the show.

Also, the free Chardonnay was nice.

seriousness

People who take their blogs too seriously are knobs. We do it for entertainment. Once it isn't fun anymore, we're gonna shut this thingy down.

Luckily, it's still providing us with ample entertainment.

the guru says...

"...Peter Mackay's visit to campus has been cancelled."

candidatatorial websites

Aside from floating the idea of a K-14 education system, it looks like Advanced Ed Minister Dave Hancock is setting up a leadership website here (it also has a better picture than this one).

Also, for those of you who haven't yet checked it out, Nicole Martel is running for the Federal Liberal nomination in Edmonton East and has set up a website with a cool blog (some you may know of Nicole from her former blog: GoPolitical.ca - which is now automatically linked to her new site). Currently, Nicole is running unopposed for the nomination, but rumours are floating around that Dan McLennan, President of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, and potentally former Edmonton Mayor Jan Reimer (Mayor from 1989 to 1995) may take a run for the Liberal nomination in Edmonton East.

So far in Edmonton East, the Tories have renominated the wanna-be President of Turks & Caicos, Peter Goldring, and the ND's have nominated former coordinator for the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters, Arlene Chapman.

We've known Nicole for a number of years and can definitely say with extreme confidence that she will make a great candidate come the next Federal election.

mari-ju-an-a!

We're currently sitting here in SUB looking at the paper that will not end. The sheer suckiness of it is sucking the life forces out of us. Literally!

We started it last Wednesday and don't feel like it’s EVER going to end. It's not a big paper by any stretch of the imagination. We planned for it to only be 7-8 pages. But, like a mole in a hole, we are approaching the eight pages with no end in sight. Arg! We really dislike these small paper types. All we want to do is write our little heart out, and they restrict us... anyway...

We're sitting here in SUB and we can only be described as a refugee from our massive pot-headed housemate. We're like the Palestinians of Garneau! (kidding...) We have nothing against mari-ju-an-a on its own, it’s the moron on the other side is the problem. 24/7 can be a little overwhelming. It’s like living with Cheech or Chong (the non-cool one-the one that wasn’t on Nash Bridges). Our friend thinks he's a dealer. We don't think he's smart enough to pull that off.

Anyway… for the record, the wireless connection here in SUB sucks in a major way. So far, we've been sitting here for over 3 hours and have had to reconnect over 20 times. We're willing to accept that it could be our lame PC laptop, but we're not ruling out that it's the fault of that shady organization known as the 'Students' Union.' Shady bunch, indeed. ;-) Maybe we’ll write an epic story for this blog soon. We’ll see… Anyway, back to the paper mill...

ADDENUM 1.1: We see that the scoundrel of Calgary himself, Mr. C. Grit has linked us up in a post again. Props for the linkage, Mr. Grit. You are a lady and a gentleman.

ADDENUM 1.2: For those of you interested in heckling, Mr. Peter Mackay will be on the U of A campus on Thursday speaking about how he gave up the chance to be Nova Scotia's Premier or something.

arg.

arg. papers. mindshattering of late.

случайный

At least an hour of wasted time here.

Also, there's a new Strongbad email.