Jonathan Williams - The Blog

Frank McKenna - your dork in Chief

2007-06-02T21:53:00.000-06:00

“Right now the United States is in many ways a theocratic state, not dissimilar to some of the other religious states in the world where religion has a huge part to play in government.”
Frank McKenna

That quote lifted from a story in the Edmonton Journal today. That combined with this gem leave me thanking heaven that this induhvidual is not a leader of anything right now.

He referred to a congressional investigation into whether partisan political and religious loyalties were used in the hiring and firing of U.S. attorneys and immigration judges. He also alluded to a report that 150 graduates of a Christian evangelical school have worked at the White House in recent years.

By contrast, he said in a speech to a business audience hosted by the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce that “Canada is truly a secular state. Religion and politics do not mix in this country.”

Personally I find this bigotry so tough to swallow. It is that same smugness which led people to despise Liberals while in power. We are so much better because we do not have religion in our politics, well except for power, now that is a religion the Liberals know all about.

The funny thing is this arrogant person was the leading representative to take the place of Paul "I am a Catholic, really" Martin. I do not know why this upsets me but I think it has to do with sitting back and watching Liberal social engineering effectively destroy the country only to have people like Chretien, Martin and McKenna brag about how wonderful it all is.

Ah post secular dogma at its finest.

Romney seems to be surprising

2007-05-30T08:13:00.000-06:00

Mitt Romney, the governor of Massachusetts, is running for the Republican candidacy for United States President. Romney just happens to also be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Romney has impressed many of the prognosticators who saw him as an also ran much like Orrin Hatch, another LDS member, was in 2000. With Rudolph Guliani and John McCain in the race it seemed like they would be the two to beat.

Then along came Romney. Mitt has already got the most fundraising money of any of the other candidates. Most impressively he has been considered the hands down winner of the first debate which happened earlier this month.

So in the last few months America has finally started to question whether they can be lead by a member of the LDS church. For some, who see Mormonism as a cult, Romney is the vision of evil who must be stopped.

For others, the social liberals, he was the man who stopped same sex marriage in its tracks when he put through protection for traditional marriage in his state.

To me that is the track record that makes his political career so impressive. In the most liberal of liberal New England states he did what few others were willing to do.

For me making tough choices is what a President must do. Even unpopular decisions must be made no matter what others may say.

At the same time the Republican Party needs new leadership, it has to be viewed as a break from the George W. Bush presidency. Guliani and McCain I think would have a much more difficult time doing this because the perception of both of them is caught up in 9/11 and its aftermath.

Romney is a fallback position to some extents but I think he has already proving he has the ability, political savvy and media friendly appearance to be a great candidate to go up against the Hillary machine.

The only thing which seems to be the biggest stumbling block seems to be his church membership. In the modern era I think most of us would like to think religious bigotry is a thing of the past.

Reality has proven time and time again bigotry still comes in many shapes and sizes. The reality is Romney will win people over despite his being a member of the LDS faith not because of it.

Hopefully, like John F. Kennedy, Romney can break down this mental wall in enough of the population to win. The time for faith litmus tests is far past.

sigh... TV gets boring now

2007-05-23T15:15:00.000-06:00

Total non political post.

I do not know if there is general agreement out there but you know I am not a big watcher of TV but when I do watch a show it is interesting to see them go on hiatus in the summer. It means the three shows I do watch are basically useless until September-October.

So now with Hockey winding down and the NFL so far away I am left with... not very much.

That is a good thing. Because honestly I could use more time out in the real world. But my three hours of TV time goes bye bye.

Oh and is anyone else looking forward to Pirates of the Caribbean 3 as much as I am. Just a few more days... arrrrgh.

Baseball hypocrisy and the shame of "stuff"

2007-05-22T12:53:00.000-06:00

Jason Giambi, New York Yankees designated hitter, called it "that stuff". Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield called it the "Clear and the Cream". What is it, well it of course is Steroids. The performance enhancing "stuff" has been debated regularly since the 1998 Home run chase of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

Now nearly a decade later all of baseball is now focused on Barry Bonds, the 42 year old left fielder for the San Francisco Giants. Bonds has been accused for years of using steroids, it became particularly vicious as the slugger chased McGuire’s record home runs.

What of course is left unsaid is how Baseball has arbitrarily treated their anti-heroes. McGwire’s claim to not want to look at the past during the congressional hearings into performance enhancing drugs in sports looked bad enough that he was excluded from the Hall of Fame on his first try.

Barry Bonds on the other hand may have even less chance, though he WILL be the home run king both in career numbers and in a season. In fact I suspect reaching 73 home runs could make the Babe's record look easy by comparison.

What few in the media or in and around baseball will admit publicly is it is easier to go after Barry because Barry is not a nice media friendly guy. In fact Barry is noted mostly for his hitting and his churlishness.

What is so frustrating is that Barry Bonds is not the problem. Baseball has a long history of people looking for angles, spit balls for example, ways to “cheat” their way to victory.

Lets be honest, I would never say to my kids, that Barry Bonds he is who you should model you life after if you want to be successful. But by the same token, watching the Giants play in Washington I was disappointed Barry did not play the day game.

Bonds for all his faults is still the greatest player of this generation in baseball. Just like Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, and Ty Cobbs he has a darker side that you have to take with him like baggage.

To baseball commissioner Bud Selig and various writers let me say grow up. Go to the game, do not celebrate his achievement but yet I suggest you should congratulate him as you did Mark McGwire because without them modern baseball would continue to struggle post-1994 lockout in more places than Canada.

Of course I also think Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose deserve to be in the Hall of Fame so maybe I am too lenient on players.

Shane Doan 1 Politicians no score....

2007-05-13T13:05:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to Shane Doan and Canada on a magnificent 9-0 tournament. And to all you petty politicians... nuts to you!

Hi, I'm a Marvel...and I'm a DC. (Mac PC Parody) #1

2007-05-10T01:44:00.001-06:00

If you follow comics at all this is soooo funny. At least if you are sad like me and find these things funny.

Shane Doan

2007-05-04T15:04:00.000-06:00

Well if I am a Conservative politician I would be smiling after all this stupid focus on a what a hockey player MIGHT have said once. When you consider how all the focus had been on Afghanistan detainees this functioned as a release valve for them.

Personally this is right up there with the Nova Scotia motion griping about when the Senators game was on.

STUPID waste of taxpayers time.

Romney looking good early on

2007-05-04T14:45:00.000-06:00

If you are a Mitt Romney supporter, as a Canadian he is one of my favourites... though of course I cannot vote for him.

He kicked butt during the debates last night. I recommend a few quotes here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BldzP8JLdCc

On Health care

More to come.

Historic ignorance tied to vote

2007-04-26T13:24:00.000-06:00

So the Senate has joined the House in voting for an end of the US involvement in Iraq. Now if the Democrats want out of Iraq I guess they can do whatever they want but when they justify it thusly...

“The president has failed in his mission to bring peace and stability to
the people of Iraq,” said Sen. Robert Byrd, (D-W.V.), chairman of the Appropriations Committee. He later added: “It’s time to bring our troops home from Iraq.”

It does leave you wondering if their is an intelligence breakdown among the Demo brain trust. I mean can someone please present to me how withdrawing the US troops will bring about Peace and Stability to Iraq? Does that lingo go along the same lines as "friendship" missions of the USSR into the Czechoslovakia and Hungary in the 50s and 60s?

President Bush will of course veto this vote. I am just not sure how all this plays out amongst the American public who on all sides look at retreat as a viable option (more politely known as bringing the boys and girls home).

Talk about a Vietnam quagmire. The going gets tough the not so tough call for a retreat? Seems to be the case in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Scoring ridiculous political points from afar

2007-04-18T07:37:00.000-06:00

The tragedy at Virginia Tech has the usual suspect countries raging off on the usual answers... The US gun culture is to blame. Read these quotes from today's Edmonton Journal:

“I’m not saying that it could only happen in the U.S.A.; no one could prevent some one from shooting people in the Sorbonne,” said Pierre Chiquet, a 77-year-old retired aerospaceengineer, referring to the Paris university.
“But violence is more imbued in American society than in ours. The most dramatic aspect is that they even transport their violence to the rest of the world.”

Ah yes France that place of contemplative thought where violence never happens in its lovely peaceful shores.

Or this gem:

“This is a tragedy and we express our condolences,” Boris Gryzlov, speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, told journalists. Referring to a recent U.S. State Department report criticizing the Kremlin, he added, “The situation where a country dictates rules of behaviour to other countries, but cannot keep its own people in order, does raise questions.”

Hmm maybe he should look in the mirror. One crazy verses full on well controlled criminal corruption.

Glass houses people.

Look in Canada we have gun control... still 16 people were killed in Montreal. France and Britian have strict gun control but now no one feels safe. Violent offenders are in a position of power in these countries because the only controls they have on them are over matched and over worked police forces.

Looking to score political points on a tragedy has a fine tradition in the world but it seems unseemly to do so after just a day.

Jackie Robinson day in the MLB

2007-04-15T15:50:00.000-06:00

Jackie Robinson was the first Black Major Leaguer. Signed as a Brooklyn Dodger in 1947 he played over a decade for the team. While not a record setter like some he was a brilliant player.

Jackie also had a temperment which allowed him to play a game where he was constantly abused and ill treated even by his own team mates.

While I am a long time Giants fan I certainly know that with out Jackie there would have been no Willie Mayes. Without Jackie much of what is right about the game would not exist.

Yet with his hard playing agressive style he was a image of the modern athelete who could be as pro but also expected and demanded respect.

Jackie was also the last hurrah for the Brooklyn Dodgers who a decade after his rookie season abandoned Ebbetts Field for Los Angeles. He also was an important member giving Brooklyn its only World Series win in 1955.

Congrats Mr. Robinson. You are certainly deserving of a day like this.

Alberta reformers and the Mulroney complex

2007-04-14T12:35:00.000-06:00

I know this will get me in trouble in some quarters but I think it needs said. So let me broach this by justifying myself... as always.

I still have no interest in Brian Mulroney, as a former Reformer (I sat on the National Youth board, briefly, and sat on my local executive in the mid nineties). I am saying my pedigree is strong enough that I do not say this lightly.

So why is it that Alberta conservatives like to eat their own? I am pointing to the fact that some are upset about Stephen Harper and the current government that they are suggesting, yet again, to start another splinter party.

The government has the Liberals on the run and with a bad leader but Harper is losing us because he runs the country not Alberta. He makes compromises that we do not like, he does not overly burden us while keeping others happy and I think has done a commendable job in what is the worst of all governing worlds, a conservative minority surrounded by socialists.

For some he has committed a few unpardonable sins by not getting rid of various socialist sacred cows. But lets look at the firearms registry. One of the worst abominations that all agree has been a boondoggle. Yet the Liberals both in the Commons and the Senate have done their best to avoid doing anything about their albatross.

The reality is much of the Conservative legislation is at the beck and call of those who have no interest in conservative ideals.

Lets have faith that Harper, who is not a fool. And lets stop throwing the Conservatives under the bus at every opportunity. Ok?

Thorsteinson back with the Alliance

2007-04-12T20:41:00.000-06:00

So while I was away Randy Thorsteinson was voted Alberta Alliance Party President in March. I found that surprising due to past issues during the last leadership campaign.

Meanwhile the dissidents who left the Alliance to try and kickstart the Alberta Party seem to be without a party at the moment. Either that or everyone has realized they need to be together to actually move forward.

I am not in the know anyway as I have remained out of the loop for a while. After the PC leadership my interest in provincial politics wained quite a lot. As well I have stayed away from the Alliance due to just being tired in general.

I was happy to see that the Alliance party and Hinman in particular actually has gotten around a bit getting in the Sun on the front page and getting on CHED with Eileen Bell yesterday.

Oh and the party has a very neat website set up by a friend of mine. It even includes some video (such as the above interview) which makes it definately more professional. I even like the new logo which I saw before our parting of ways.

I am back with a fresh design

2007-04-12T20:33:00.000-06:00

Well it has been a few months since I last posted. I have been working at City Hall in Edmonton which is interesting. I have never worked on the "government" side so it is interesting seeing things get done when you ask a bureaucrat for help.

Mean time I have decided after a lot of thought to return and finish the last year of University getting my Bachelor of Arts in History. After that I am planning on moving along to a Masters or going straight for a PhD (in the US you can do it).

We will see what happens but hey, "It can happen!"

More real news commentary later.

On hiatus while looking for work.

2007-02-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the non posting I am at present looking for permanent work and until I can nail down something in specific I am probably offline for a while.

I will try to post semi infrequently when I can but if anyone knows of a PR job out there or something of that nature just email me here.

The Colts win my PVR recording doesnt.

2007-01-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

I feel quite put out.

The Indianapolis Colts finally put off the monkey known as the New England Patriots and my PVR recording makes it to 3:00 minutes left and ends!!

So sad I missed the end of what turned out to be a great game.

Lets hope the Superbowl is even half so exciting.

Why are they always Toadies?

2007-01-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

Graham Thompson from the Journal in his blog has an interesting take on Stelmach $5,000 exclusive access.

Premier Ed Stelmach has done what he should have all along — cancelled the exclusive” reception for well-heeled Tories and toadies who were offered a private audience with the new premier if they paid $5,000 each.

Now my question is why are people attending this dinner automatically called toadies? Really, it is a fine old tradition to sell access, rub shoulders with the great and good. It is nothing new by any means. So what is the shock?

Does it look bad? According to some yes but really it is the same thing that goes on in most political environments, exclusive dinners, meetings and private parties that bring the wealthy into the same room as a politician are certainly done often.

In a nutshell it seems like a mountain over a mole hill. If a person could afford a $5,000 meeting they certainly are bending the ear of politicians even before that. Enmax, Epcor, Enbridge, Suncor and so many others are the economic life blood of the province so they already have influence in this province make no mistake on that.

So what this mainly turns out to be is a tempest in a tea pot... oh look Premier Stelmach is already ignoring the grassroots. It is gotcha politics at its worst.

Darwin awards has another winner

2007-01-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

I am totally shocked (pun intended) that there is a black market in scrap metal in this country... what is the world coming to.

Would-be Quebec thief electrocuted during hydro tower copper heist

Climate Porn

2007-01-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

Lorrie Goldstein covers this very nicely on the motivation of Climate change stupidity verses understanding issues that are bad for our environment.

Personally this is some of the most sensible writing I have seen on this subject in a while.

Just watching the Junior Hockey gold medal game

2007-01-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

Are Swedish fans totally pro Canada or is this just my imagination. It almost seems like they are shouting CANADA CANADA... but I could be completely wrong.

Alta. premier stops unfair promotion of his son

2007-01-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

From CanWest Alta. premier stops unfair promotion of his son

Somehow I wonder if Harvey thought that one would remain unknown by the general public...

You vant to buy a Castle... muwahahaha

2006-12-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

So apparently Dracula's real castle is on sale in Romania. I think the biggest irony here is that the decendant of the former queen of the area is now a graphics designer in the USA.

Oh and it is can be had for a paltry sum of $95 million.

Ah yes I can see it now, you me and the ghost of Vlad the Impailler all in our cosy castle of stone. Sounds like a real fun in a scooby doo sort of way.

This to me sounds like the Avro Arrow

2006-12-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

I know some people believe that Diefenbaker did the right thing but it still divides us to this day about the scrapping of the Avro Arrow. So I am trolling along some of my old UK news sites and I come along this item. Futuristic sub 'was scrapped in 1936 Wales'.

Makes for fascinating reading for those of us who are Arrow heads who believe the Avro was scrapped for little more than political reasons. Bomarc anyone...

If anyone asks my Dad why he votes consistantly Liberal (to my disgust) he brings up the Arrow among other things. I would recommend it as reading because once the Arrow was dead the advancement of our military joined it out the door soon after. The Chief began the decline that Trudeau and others accellerated to the point where people in our country cannot seem to relate to our troops.

Prepare for the ICE AGE

2006-12-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Well if this is to be believed...

We may all begin to see more of this... or not.

He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you are awake

2006-12-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

So have you been good for goodness sake?

Well it is Christmas Eve, I am going to be playing with the kids instead of blogging... so for everyone out there today,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Charlie Brown Christmas

2006-12-23T08:09:00.001-07:00

An awesome clip that would be almost politically incorrect these days!

day before the day before

2006-12-23T07:54:00.000-07:00

Here is my gift to all those who read this blog some cool links for Christmas...

NORAD tracks Santa When I was a small sprog I used to listen to the reports on Radio. My kids follow the site very closely Christmas Eve.

Snow Globe that is hilarious.

A Child's Christmas in Wales - good old classic.

Could Clement Clark Moore not be the author of the modern Santa? Ho Ho Oh No

More later!

St. Nicholas

2006-12-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

Nicholas, a Bishop in a Christian Community known as Myrna in Turkey, then known as Asia Minor. Nicholas was key to the Christian faith for more than Santa. Nicholas was a fisherman according to tradition who gave up everything to work for the church.

His most famous work besides his secret gift giving was fighting a Heretical form of Christianity in the 4th Century known as Arianism. Arianism believed Christ was not God but rather inferior to the Father.

So Nicholas and others worked to create the Nicean Creed to circumvent this concept creating in some ways the modern understanding of the Christian Trinity. (At least according to tradition)

Of course St. Nicholas also managed to spend time putting gifts into houses and other miracles. After a while the Bishop of Myra took on mythical proportions which continued to grow and grow so it seems he would be a perfect match for the holiday season as he was one of the most popular saints of 1000 AD.

In fact in some ways this became a concern in the Protestant Reformation he was removed from his special spot by no less than Martin Luther who said it was the Christ Child (Kristkindle) who brought presents... which of course was mutated into Kriss Kringle and became another name for the Jolly Saint from Myra.

During the English Commonwealth period under Cromwell in the 17th Century St. Nick-Father Christmas and the celebrations themselves were band. In fact amongst the early American pilgrims in New England the celebration of Christmas was pretty much nonexsistant until the 19th century.

In modern terms most of what we know about the transmuted St. Nicholas has been reformed into Santa Claus from the Dutch Sinterklauss. It is Clement Clark Moore and his fantastic poem created this secular Santa in most ways.

Of course most interestingly of all the Red and White uniform of Santa is a commercial invention coming from Coca Cola in the early 20th century ads.

The Date of Christmas

2006-12-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

Of course the date of Christ Mass or Christmas as we write it now was not December 25. In fact many sources conflict on the issue. March to April however seems the most likely in my view.

December 25 of course was not originally a Christian celebration but Roman and others celebrated the days after the winter solstice when the days started to lengthen once more. These days were dedicated to very similar gift giving and over abundance which seems to be so normal these days.

The possible origin of the change in Christs birth day to December 25 comes from Sextus Julius Africanus who apparently popularized the idea with a Christian reference book in 221 AD.

The Yule or Saturnalia celebrations of pre-Christian Rome or Angles and Jutes has become the date associated with the birth of the Christian saviour.

So anyways... tomorrow jolly old St Nick...

Christmas Theme

2006-12-19T23:09:00.000-07:00

Just for fun week on my blog I thought I would post some stuff which is Christmas and educational at once....

So just to begin I thought it would be nice to put something up about the Nativity which of course is the reason for the season as they say.

Btw this is two of my kids (twins) doing the traditional Nativity scene in 2003.

Although St Francis of Assisi is credited with the invention of three-dimensional Nativity Scenes, drawings and paintings existed earlier. Most latter day sets of Nativity Creche stem from cultural differences.

In paintings from the mideval era most Nativity and other scenes of the Saints and Christ are in garb not of the middle east but of the west. This is of course because for most people that was all they knew but it also served as a way to bring a localized meaning to it. Thus in England a Creche or Nativity painting would look like something very different from Spain or Greece.

Tomorrow we will take on the dating of Christmas.

Bitter cities and MLAs who did not deliver for their guy

2006-12-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

Certain amount of entertainment this morning watching the anger growing in some sectors...

“I guess regionalization is in the eye of the beholder,” Barry McFarland (Little Bow) said about Stelmach’s promise to be a premier for the entire province, not just Edmonton and the north.
He’s upset that after 15 years as an MLA, serving on numerous government committees and boards and representing a huge agricultural-based constituency,
that Stelmach would show his appreciation by turfing him from cabinet.
"I’ll set my qualifications up against anyone,” he said.McFarland said he’ll continue to work hard as an MLA but he may rethink his future in politics.“It doesn’t instill a lot of faith in someone who runs, that qualifications and hard work mean anything.”

From the Lethbridge Herald

Now lets put this in context... McFarland was a johnny come lately to cabinet who got smackeddown by his own Tory constituents who voted for Morton in Huge numbers while their MLA voted for Dinning. His future was already in trouble.

More later but lets just say Rick Bell and Graham Thompson are upset while Tom Olsen is not as bent out of shape.

New Cabinet is very interesting

2006-12-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

If you are a Morton supporter are you insulted or happy?

Premier Stelmach's Cabinet in order of precedence

Ed Stelmach (Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville) Premier, President of Executive Council, Chair of Agenda and Priorities, Vice-Chair of Treasury Board

Lloyd Snelgrove (Vermilion-Lloydminster) President of the Treasury Board, Minister of Service Alberta, (Minister Responsible for Personnel Administration Office)

Doug Horner (Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert) Minister of Advanced Education and Technology

Iris Evans (Sherwood Park) Minister of Employment, Immigration and Industry

Mel Knight (Grande Prairie-Smoky) Minister of Energy

Dave Hancock (Edmonton-Whitemud) Minister of Health and Wellness, Government House Leader

Ray Danyluk (Lac La Biche-St. Paul) Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing

Ron Liepert (Calgary-West) Minister of Education

Janis Tarchuk (Banff-Cochrane) Minister of Children's Services

Rob Renner (Medicine Hat) Minister of Environment, Deputy Government House Leader

George Groeneveld (Highwood) Minister of Agriculture and Food

Lyle Oberg (Strathmore-Brooks) Minister of Finance

Luke Ouellette (Innisfail-Sylvan Lake) Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation

Ron Stevens (Calgary-Glenmore ) Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Deputy Government House Leader

Greg Melchin (Calgary-North West) Minister of Seniors and Community Supports

Guy Boutilier (Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo) Minister of International, Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Relations

Ted Morton (Foothills-Rocky View) Minister of Sustainable Resource Development

Fred Lindsay (Stony Plain) Solicitor General and Minister of Public Security

Hector Goudreau (Dunvegan-Central Peace) Minister of Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture

It is about time

2006-12-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

for Senate Reform.

Is anyone else wondering at the Liberal logic that we must reform the Senate, by constitutional change but we do not want to change the constitution?

Their circular argument which Paul Martin carried into the 2004 election when he promised that if he failed to end Western Alienation he will have failed as PM. (yeah actually he was right on that note)

The Conservatives want a reformed Senate, the NDP and the Bloq want an abolished Senate, can anyone honestly tell me WHAT the Liberals want?

An election on Senate Reform... hmm I could dig that.

Manned spaceflight... to boldly go...

2006-12-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

As I said on Sunday I wanted to get down my thoughts on manned space flights. I wanted also to address what I think is the biggest mistake made by many of us including NASA.

So here we go. Let me first state I am not an expert on manned space exploration. Heck I was only six months old when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon so I missed most of the space race. In fact my first memories of watching an old Apollo launch was the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975 when I was six. I have no training but great enthuasim so I am prepared to comment anyway.

When Apollo 11 landed on the Moon I doubt many of us understood the costs involved in the space race. In fact if you look back you realize that only a year later the whole program was being scrubbed before it got very far. Apollo 17, 18, 19 and 20 were scratched out as being too expensive in the middle of a war (Vietnam).

As pointed out in the movie Apollo 13 much of the interest in the program wained because people simple saw the race over once the Americans made it to the Moon. The trip was the thing not what could be done there. So with many still wondering how far we could travel... writing about massive trips to mars and beyond to have been accomplished a decade ago. But not to be.

In simple fact the budget for space was used up. There was no need to beat the Russians and so public and political will was gone. Thus instead of further exploration we instead had a NASA franchise that allowed itself to decompose to little more than a nurse made for robot exploration which could be done at bargain prices.

To put it simply we made due. NASA and others decided the next great frontier was not farther into space as Star Trek, 2001 and so many other Sci Fi movies and books suspected but rather science overcame exploration in a race to see what floated best in space. Bugs or plants.

So you want to build a lab to do experiments in without it crashing embarrassingly back to earth as SkyLab and Mir did you create a vehicle to do the job. You make it cheap using a reusable crewed vehicle and make it economical by claiming that it would be a cargo ship for satellites to get them into near earth orbit.

So we got the Space Shuttle.

It is complex, and using various sources of fuel, several rockets and a highly aerodynamic but expensive orbiter it became a in easy target for things to go wrong.

To the NASA bureaucrats it kept the idea of manned explorations without ever leaving the safety of earth gravity.

Of course this truck explored as much as a man does menstral protection packages. It did nothing but go up, come down.

I understand it was of great scientific signifigance but honestly did it really do so much more than MIR or Skylab? At least they were given no secondary tasks other than the occasional space tourist.

In reality space exploration has been stunted by costs of being controlled by a bloated bureaucracy which has cost the lives of the Columbia and Challenger because they could not admit to a problem.

Really, what we should be doing is instead of forever sending probes, landers and flyby robots we should be doing as our ancestors did and figuring out how to expand beyond our shores. It is time Humanity as a whole grew up and started the process of protecting itself from war, disease, global catastrophy by continuing into the outer reaches of space.

I am glad to see NASA may finally be picking up on this. They have taken far to long to get beyond the first phase. The time has come for new Armstrong's, Columbus', Byrd's to join with that proud heritage and explore. Not for profit but to gain an understanding of our place and protection.

Just my rather long winded thoughts... a little too philosphical for 11pm but there you are.

Mr. Kofi all out of zip

2006-12-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

I have known this for a while now but once again it has just be reenforced. Kofi Annan is a total idiot - naive boob.

His attack on George W. Bush using Harry Truman was laughable. Truman, who created the cold war along with his fellow Democrats by creating the orginal zero sum game is somehow more peaceful and multinational then Bush?

Truman, Atomic Bomb, Berlin blockade, Dewy, yes that Truman.

Lets not forget that the only reason the UN sanctioned the Korean War was because the USSR skipped out on vetoing the idea. And of course China was not a member of the security council then either.

France was still overcoming the last war and everyone actually remembered and feared Communist. The UN was also made up primarily by Western Countries. So yeah things were just slightly more sensible.

Fast forward to the bureaucratic bloat which gave us Hutus, Bosnia, Somalia and so endeared itself to the host nation that it loathed to even go to it for approval. It has become the den for the dictators to order around democrats and it accomplishes next to nothing in the process.

So excuse me if I bronx cheer Kofi Annan off the stage.

Blame is not Harper's it is organizational

2006-12-11T15:34:00.000-07:00

Social Conservatives across the country this week will be regretting the results of the recent marriage vote in the Parliament.

So what went wrong? I know Matthew at The Politic has handled this but since I have not actually read the piece yet I thought I would explain my position. We might over similar ground but I still think it is important.

1. Failing to capture interest - Social conservatives would have been better served if they had used the protecting children arguments three years ago. Understandably all the data did not exist but really, most people who do not have the same interest in the subject and lacking the same outrage level were not able to do much when the votes were coming let alone the after the fact vote Harper gave.

2. Message problems - The message of social conservatives was always nuclear winter verses peace. That combined with the perception that they were too overtly religious made it difficult to get rational arguments past the Same Sex crowds whimpering.

3. Media - this goes back to messaging but when you have only one group making noise that gets media attention and it is usually the wacky attention seekers who get the media. I feel social conservatives mistrust of the Media has basically hog tied them.

4. Lack of base - When you are fighting groups who are government funded like EGALE and LEAF you have a lot of ground to cover. One of the biggest things is you have to fund raise at all levels constantly. If the left is good at one thing it is getting attention to get money.

5. Defeatists - Many of the social conservatives have been fighting battles for 10 years or more. They have been beaten often so it tends to lead to negative thoughts. When you start out thinking you will fail you are going achieve just that failure.

6. Lack of long term thinking - Long term thinking is a very important part of political strategy. Too many social conservative groups are fighting the battles of today with little strategy or long term thinking to deal with tomorrow.

7. Quebec - I have been told this is hopeless. I however believe there are social conservatives in rural Quebec who could jump on board if we made real efforts to reach out to them. Most social conservative groups origniate from Alberta and Southern Ontario which is good but if you want to influence most of Canada you have to help social conservative in Quebec to grow.

8. Religion - I think it is excellent to have religous groups involved and to have them in the mix helping or being a part of groups. But social conservatives are losing because they are being seen as TOO Religious. So I would say arguments should be formed less from the bible, torah or quoran and more from social obervation and socialogical data. There is loads out there. Lets use them.

9. Americans - Another factor is the perception that we are too American. This is because of the perception that some how Canadians cannot be social conservatives or that only Americans bring their faith into politics. This is a dynamic that must change.

10. Think Tanks - There is little in the way of public policy groups putting out social conservative information or discussing things in more scientific manner. Work absolutely has to be done to develop these organizations. Social conservatives have to get away from being simply advocacy groups. They have to offer more if they want to bring in youth and get attention as serious thinkers.

11. Media part 2 - The time has come to work on the CRTC and the Conservative government to allow more leeway to have talk shows, magazines and other forms of media open to social conservatives so that opinions can be allowed free expression without being pulled off the air.

12. Charitable status - Social conservative advocacy groups and others need to fight the way charitable status is offered in this country. The legislation has tilted almost exclusively to the Left and that must change.

13. Political parties - Get active and fight the power groups, stop splintering when you do not get your way. You need to take action to ensure your issues are not ignored. Hold parties to account for their hypocracy but understand that you are one of many voices. You must make the public understand the situation before you can make progress with the Prime Minister.

Doing some or all of these things would go along way to improving the movement and improving public debate in Canada which has veered to the social left for a half century or more. You cannot make up ground all at once. You have to push little by little and stop fighting only the wars of today.

At least that is my view.

Blastoff

2006-12-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

Well the Shuttle Discovery blasted into orbit tonight.

Magnificent launch to watch. I will have to post something on my view of space exploration this week.

Fun stuff.

Something is odd in the state of Denmark

2006-12-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

So just a few days after the end of the PC Leadership Renewing the One Party State blog has gone Porno...

I will not link to it at present but if someone knows why they are now linking to an Adult site please let me know.

Can the phaser be far behind?

2006-12-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

This is an incredible weapon with all sorts of questions surrounding it but in the right hands it is an interesting tool.

Makes you wonder how far away we are from killer lasers.

Stephane verses Stephen

2006-12-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

With all this provincial news I have not had time to address the other big upset of the week.

Stephane Dion, everybody's second choice, became the leader of the Federal Liberals. Dion is in my opinion a so so choice.

Certainly he does not have the baggage of Rae or Ignatieff but he does have one signifgant failing which might just cause him a bit of trouble.

Dion as "architect" of the Clarity Act has been seen as a big enemy in Quebec. His environmental positions may play well in the east but really who wins an election on the environment.

I suspect that Dion has become a place holder not dissimilar to Turner who fought hard but rarely got anywhere against Brian Mulroney. In fact I am being slowly convinced that the Liberals have a coronation on their mind...

Rumour has it that Justin Trudeau wants into Parliament. The second coming for Liberals. certainly he would be preceived that way in the media if this happens.

For now, I suspect that Dion is just holding this spot and will never really amount to much. I could of course be wrong as you can never trust Ontario voters.

Fighting off the "Evil" Ted

2006-12-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

Well according to progressive bloggers and people in the left liberal Edmonton we have seen the last of Ted Morton, he will be with Alberta Alliance where he should be, according to these people.

Well lets make one thing clear here. 42,000 voters all of whom were not Liberal NDP voters with a "Stop Evil Ted"tm stamped on their foreheads. They did not get up and say lets vote for Ted because he will destroy the party.

In fact most probably vote PC and all vote CPC. In otherwords they are core conservative voters. Cough*unlike Jim's*Cough

Most of Stelmachs rural vote, which was considerable, would likely have gravitated to Ted had Ed lost. So lets get it through your heads, Ted is not going anywhere. The loss probably sends some to the Alberta Alliance but Ted will not flee. He is not the loner made out by the Left.

I would in fact argue that Ted represents clearly a large minority of the members, 1/3rd to be exact.

If the PC party wants to collectively throw these people under a bus somewhere I am sure Paul Hinman would be very happy. I suspect that you would end up with an Alliance MLA in Cardston-Taber-Warner, Dunvegan-Central Peace, Olds-Three Hills-Didsbury, and a number of others.

It would be political suicide and would see the death of the PC party as a force because either they would be merged with the Alliance within 4-5 years or they would be a minority government beholden to Alliance members for support. Then all the Progressives would be in a real bind.

I said Sunday that this party is stradling a fence. It cannot afford to lose any ground underneath or it may as well pack it in right now. So do not think for one minute that Ted Morton will be shunted to the side. I in fact think Morton now becomes a major player by default. I would not be stunned to see progress on some issues like Democracy Reforms within a few months.

If not... the right divides into Social-libertarian-progressive conservatives like what is happening in Ontario and happened in BC creating a window of opportunity for the Liberals or a newly rejuvinated Alberta Alliance.

Policy suggestions for the new Premier

2006-12-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Premier Ed Stelmach,

Congratulations on your victory. You may not know me and up until last year I did not know you so let me introduce myself. I represent those voters who voted for Ted Morton. We believe in Democratic reform, a strong Alberta and true conservative principles.

I know it may seem the height of peak to offer policy suggestions... but if I can impose I think you might just be interested.

1. Citizen's Iniatives - I firmly believe if the government of Alberta wants to get out of dealing with social conservative vs social liberal agendas offering citizens initiatives make sense. It allows politicians to stop vaccilating while allowing people to have a real say.

2. Recall and referenda - make it like the BC legislation on recall and referenda, it is quality legislation. It would help make MLAs accountable.

3. Fixed Election Dates - everyone else is doing it... little peer pressure for you.

4. Keep your promise on the Alberta Pension plan

5. Be doers of the word not just speakers of it when it comes to Ottawa. Stop being a Ralph Klein mouthy dissent followed by meek submission.

Just doing these things and avoid the old boys Tory club and he will have my vote in the next election. (even though my MLA is Dave Hancock who I do not support)

I think just these things can do everything we need to solve the problems in this province. So please Mr. Premier think carefully.

Sincerely,
Jonathan Williams

Final poll by poll results

2006-12-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

Final Results poll by poll

It makes for fascinating reading as you could imagine.

Early morning after the night before

2006-12-03T09:11:00.000-07:00

Well I am going to record Sunday Magazine on CKUA this morning after a hectic night where I played the role of media guy.

First my impressions - that was absolutely stunning night. I think faced with going to the left or the right the party choose the fence. The interesting thing to me was watching Dinning supporters at the event who started cheering a lot at the beginning of the night faded as the news got worse and worse for their guy.

You know when the Second place candidates fans are roaring every time the new stat came up with them staying in second that it was not going to be Jim's night.

The other surprise to me was the amazing amount of times Stelmach would get huge numbers in a poll that gave him like 700-1000 more votes while Ted was getting about 200-300 vote leads in southern Alberta.

I knew then that Steady Eddie had it.

Observations:

Ed's people were loud and boistrous. The certainly turned out for this one.

Dinning was carried around by his supporters when he came in but you could tell it was false bravado, no one really though Morton's second place votes would fall to him.

Rick Bell was eager to talk to Morton Bloggers after Ted failed to get results and he still is the "Dinger" in my books.

Nobody thought Ed would win the second ballot, that was the biggest shock. Winning the third was entirely likely but the second one was absolutely amazing.

Kevin Taft showed up and I have to say invited (by TV) or not it was incredibly poor taste.

Like Link Byfield I think it is time to give Premier Ed the chance and see what he can do. If he comes our way a bit that is a good thing. If not... well then there are still other alternatives.

Prediction Time - PC Leadership

2006-12-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

Well it worked well enough last time...
I will list them in order of the finish last week:

Jim Dinning (30%)- In a strange way I think Jim has the least growth room of the three... I don't know why but I just cannot see that many urban anti Morton voters looking for a reason to vote for Jim. I also think his Liberal style hurt him. He makes it through to the third ballot but the Stelmach votes outside of Edmonton go to Ted. 39% second ballot, Third Ballot 47% .

Ted Morton (26%)- Ted did slightly better than I predicted last week. For that reason and the strength of the rural Ed vote I am not sure what Ted will do this week. I am convinced he will get more votes out of Calgary and the rural south. I suspect he will get more from the central and west parts of the province but score little in Edmonton and in the North and east. The third ballot will be the breaker... I suspect Morton makes it to the third just trailling Dinning and then goes over the top on the back of strong backing by Ed's rural and suburban supporters.
Second Ballot 38% Third Ballot 53%

Ed Stelmach (15%)- Ed has a good opportunity to make up ground. I am unsure at this stage that he can. This is the one part of my prediction that could go south and we may end up with Premier Stelmach by default if either Dinning or Morton fail to make the third ballot. For that to happen Ed would need to double his support. Which I cannot see happening.
Second Ballot 23%

The more I think about it...

2006-12-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

The more the quote below ticks me off:

Dinning: I do worry a little bit when I hear the words family values bandied
about.

Think about this clearly, Jim Dinning has said if he wins social conservatives are persons nongrata in the party. I am more appalled by that statement than just about any other "scary" Ted statement he has made.

As well I am surprised at the media, I guess I should not be knowing some of the commentators but look at this rogues gallery:

Edmonton Journal - vote Dinning... or at least do not vote for Ted, focusing in on Ted's misstatement in regards to the Northern Capital Edmonton.

Calgary Sun - Supports Dinning I am still having trouble understanding why.

Edmonton Sun - Supported Norris now I have no idea but I assume Ed will get their support now.

Calgary Herald - posts two editorials today basically Anybody but Ted.

Now... lets look at the Columnists...

Graham Thompson (Edmonton Journal) - I have gotten the impression from Graham for a while that he thinks the Alliance and Ted Morton are little more than Homophobes because of our "Family Values" stance.

Either that or we are Red neck fundementalist extremists... My reason for saying this is because I watched the way Graham basically verbally beat up Paul Hinman one day on Same Sex Marriage. It was ugly.

Tom Olsen (Calgary Herald) - Tom is a conservative writer but in the last column came across sounding very pro Dinning.

Paul Stanway (Edmonton Sun) - A friend of Mark Norris so his stance which has been pro Norris from day one made sense.

Paul Jackson (Calgary Sun) - Supported Morton, Oberg and Dinning at different times...

Rick Bell (Calgary Sun) - Wow the "Dinger" has not exactly been the impartial observer... I did have a media man mention to me at one point that Bell was a Dinning supporter which would really not surprise anyone.

Canadian Press - They have tried to do a hatchet job on Ted.

Morton wants cut to federal transfer

Fear grips Alberta Tory party as Morton continues charge from the right

Alberta backbencher and leadership contender Ted Morton full of paradoxes

Alta PC leadership race sees chance of movement to far right, party splitting

Dinning government, business experience key in Alberta Tory leadership fight

Globe and Mail is no better

Two visions prevail for ‘bad boy' province

Is Morton too 'scary' for Alberta?

So you see what I mean... that big bad Ted Morton will lead a "bad boy province".

Now think back over the years... for those of you that can remember think back to the debates on the Charlottetown Accord. All the Newsmedia save for a small portion were completely pro the accord and yet the public voted against the establishment.

I see much that is similar in this fight... imagine Dinning tearing up a policy book on TV and you have Brian Mulroney part 2.

Quotes of the night

2006-11-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

Morton: Jim, I want you to know that if I am not welcome in your Alberta, you'll be welcome in mine.

My favourite line of the night complements Larry Johnsrude.

My stupid quote of the night.

Dinning: I do worry a little bit when I hear the words family values bandied about.

There are others oh and I total disagree with Dinning on the Mazankowski Report I read that report if it was not talking about some degree of private health what exactly was it talking about Jim?

Leadership debate a review

2006-11-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

As someone who has done debate prep, having been in a few TV debates and watched these guys a few times now I thought I would give my impressions on the Debate.

Fashion:

Dinning - ouch your tie is blinding me... Orange may be party colours but your tie GLOWs on TV.

Morton - Ted, no patterns no stripes no checks you did them all. It may look great in person but it looked just wrong on TV. Red power tie out out out.

Stelmach - Almost perfect. the glasses were distracting and late in the debate you looked like you were struggling with the lights...

Body Style:

Stelmach - understated for the most part... looked down too much especially at the end when he bumped his notes into frame.

Dinning - Wow more and more I am picturing Paul Martin, or is it Brian Mulroney. The constant pointing and hand waving did little to do with getting his point across just made him distracting. Oh and no one likes to be pointed at.

Morton - um and um and um dunno if it is a speech issue or what but that was his biggest distraction. I liked the fact that he smiled but did not smirk like Harper.

What they said:

Morton - As you can imagine I believed he had a good night. I thought he got some good comebacks in but did not hit a homerun. If he is playing the role of frontrunner he is accomplishing a good strategy.

Stelmach - Had some good linking but his whole campaign may have been destroyed by his last statement where he ended up staring at his notes that were crawling farther and farther into the frame. Still seems like an ok #2.

Dinning - Took a few cheap shots as you would imagine someone trailing would do. He scored few hits and probably lost points with his circular answer to why Morton would exclude some from the party but he would um somehow include everyone but well Morton's people.

Dinning

A phone call from Dinning

2006-11-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

or at least one of his workers...

"Hello I am calling today to find out if you are voting on Saturday?"

Jonathan: "Yes"

"So are you planning on voting for Jim Dinning?"

"No"

" You know that you have a second preference would you select Jim for the second choice?"

"No"

"So you are planning on voting for both extremes?"

"I might just vote for one..."

"oh."

So I am guessing that puts Ed on the left of Jim according to the caller? Thats a new one on me. Even Ralph Klein considered Jim the left wing Candidate.

Negative campaign could backfire

2006-11-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

Dinning has gone negative in exactly the wrong fashion. He has ignored the fact that he will need the voters he is slamming. It is exactly this arrogance against social conservatives that gave this province an Alliance MLA.

William McBeath over at Noises on the Right takes a part the latest hatchet job.

I hope PCs realize that their government is dependent on largely rural social conservatives 62 MLAs 41 of whom do not come from Edmonton or Calgary. Even if you discount a few of the urban left like Lethbridge West and Fort McMurray there are still a great deal of seats that are dependent on social conservatives for votes. Seats that allow the Tories to have government.

Imagine if 20 of those forty got split between the Liberals and the Alliance... Suddenly you have a weak government clinging to a majority by 1 seat (which would be forfitted to the Speaker) having to rely on the Alliance to make sure legislation passed?

If the Tories think they have it hard now... just wait.

The hatchet job Dinning is trying to do has almost by default put Ted Morton in the front runner position. It my mind it smacks of desperation, you are afraid you cannot win so you go negative to push the air out of the others campaign.

The stupidest thing in my mind, Dinning has gone and done almost exactly the same campaign tactic used by Paul Martin and Jean Chretien. I cannot see that winning over votes. If these voters are already angry this will just make them more committed to come out and vote.
In other words they have just took a stick to a hornets nest. It is a fools errand. If anything it will bring more votes to Morton while sending votes to Stelmach because Dinning will be seen as too negative.

Negative campaigns usually are to motivate your base and deflate the other guys... not sure this will do either.

Time For Ted - my endorsement

2006-11-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

Normally when we have gone through a voting process I think it is important to congratulate people for voting. With the lack of interest in politics today I have always felt it important to encourage people to continue to take part in the process.

Today however we are still in a campaign. So my purpose for writing this is to encourage people do more than vote. I want to tell you why Ted Morton is the best choice.

Why, well you may have seen your candidate finish out of the top three as people who voted for Lyle Oberg. You may also have voted for one of the remaining contenders for similar good reasons.

Here is why I think it is critical to vote for Ted if you voted for someone else. If you were an Oberg voter you probably voted for him because he was the candidate that told the truth, that Premier Ralph Klein needed to go. Oberg represented the outsider role of someone who could govern. Well Ted is not beholden to the Calgary Klein crew either. He is not a member of the elite and he understands the needs of urban and rural Alberta as much as anyone.

Let me ask the Tory voters some questions. Are you happy with status quo or do you want to see significant change? Do you want same sex marriage to stand or do you want protection for religious leaders or marriage commissioners against being sued, brought before human rights commissions for practicing their faith?

Do you want a government that can stand up to Ottawa, offer a pension plan that will protect our elderly rather than just steal money from the young? Do you want a government which believes in democratic reforms, fixed election dates or one that is happy asking your opinion once in four years?

Do you believe Ralph Klein, Iris Evans, Gordon Graydon, Don Mazankowski and seven of the eight leadership contenders when they said that health care is currently unsustainable? Or do you believe someone who comes from the Kevin Taft school that says health care needs only minor tinkering?

Do you want a Liberal or Conservative government?

If your answer to these the way I think you will then there is only one choice in this leadership vote. Ted Morton is the only one advocating for all these things. I believe he offers the best chance to reform the PC party and avoid a situation where the right splinters even more.

If Tories want Alliance leader Paul Hinman to be joined by 10-16 more MLAs next time they had better vote for Jim Dinning. If they want real reform than it is time for change, it is as simple as that.

Finally, if you support Ed Stelmach and consider him a real choice, I respect that. However, can I recommend one additional thing? Put a 2 by Ted after you vote for Ed. It will give us the change we want no matter who wins.

Now Oberg joins Stelmach

2006-11-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

So Oberg joins Hancock in supporting Stemach. I wonder what that means for Morton and Dinning.

What happens if Norris and McPherson join Stelmach?

Up until now I was under an impression that Oberg and Morton were supporting each other from conversations I have had with various people. Maybe that was the case if Oberg finished second or third.

Now I wonder what will happen if Stelmach can turn any of that support into action. Could you imagine if Stelmach could pip the other two?

That would be a real kick in the pants. Dunno this is really shaping up to be an interesting battle. I suspect Oberg's southern rural support with collapse into Mortons anyways because people down their do not know who Stelmach is.

The second interesting thing will be to see if Stelmach Morton and Dinning will be much more on the attack in the next TV forum which apparently has been scheduled for this week.

This PC Leadership has just got extremely interesting.

Where things go now

2006-11-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

With a day to think about this vote I am even more convinced that Morton has Dinning in big trouble.

Why? - well I suspect much of the urban vote of Obergs will disappear as they have no reason to vote. I think that support was very much Obergs.

Second point, I think Stelmach's rural vote will have marked a lot of 2's for Morton. While Dinning will come up to a degree I think his treatment of Hancock via his supporters and clumsy efforts with MLA supporters hanging around the polls is part of what is coming back to bite him.

Should be an interesting week. I expect to be at the final vote in Edmonton Saturday. I am also going to be doing some writing over the coming week. Time to do some lobbying for my preferred candidate.

Well well well...again

2006-11-25T23:35:00.000-07:00

I think I remember saying Oberg support was crap... proved out
I remember saying Stelmach was stronger than people though... proved out
I remember saying Morton would be second and around 20%.... proved out
I remember saying Dinning would be lucky to make 34% which he has not.

Folks I do not normally gloat but.... smug mode on!!

Voting today

2006-11-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

Well my wife and I cast our ballot this morning. There was no partisanship around the poll and it moved very quickly considering the number of people there. They even pulled people like my wife out of line to buy their memberships and then put them back at the front of the line when they finished.

Class act for the Edmonton Whitemud Constituency. Way to have things running smoothly.

However an interesting observation. When looking at the ballot it seemed it was Alphabetical by last name but Morton was Under Norris.

Should be a long night for the counters...

Nigel Hannaford's take is about right

2006-11-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

Calgary Herald Columnist and City Editor Nigel Hannaford has an interesting take on the tory leadership. It is behind a subscription barrier so let me just hit the highlites.

What if it's Morton?
The word in political geekdom is that this race is now down to Dinning and
Morton, and if true-blue Morton gets it, the party will split as all the Red
Tories flee in terror.

So, it's stay-the-course with Jim, or conservative renewal with
Ted.

However, the Alberta Alliance, with a cut-and-paste platform and barely an
organization, grabbed a respectable 77,500 despite a historic low voter turnout,
and elected an MLA. These people did not cross over from the Liberals, or the
NDP. That was a right-wing rebellion of committed PC voters.

The other 110,000 just stayed home, which is rebellion of a different
sort, but just as deadly.

Sure, Morton doesn't care for gay marriage. But, neither does a slight
majority of Albertans, and in any case, there's far more to him than that: a
stronger Alberta, saving oil revenues, better health care, democratic reform,
and so on.

It's principled-conservatism all right, but one thing about Ted: What
you see, is what you're likely to get. A lot of people like that, even if
they're not 100 per cent lined up with everything he says. I guess we'll see how
many, later today.

At any rate, I doubt a Morton win would be any worse for the party than a
Dinning win. Those who like the clean-up job a new broom does, might even prefer
it.
So there you have it! A good estimation if Morton happens to win. If you want to read it all go to the Calgary Herald Website

Unofficial support returns to official support on the eve of the vote?

2006-11-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

The Alberta Alliance Party has sent out an email today encouraging members to vote for the PC Leader and vote for Ted Morton.

We are on the eve of a very important vote for Alberta. It is not just an election for a leader of a rival party, but the premier of our province. I am attaching an article you may find interesting, it was published yesterday and includes comments on the Alberta Alliance Party from Ted Morton.

Regards,

Jane Greydanus
CFO Alberta Alliance
Party
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Corbella_Licia/2006/11/23/2460040-sun.html
You can read the article for yourself. I did not include it for space reason. It certainly looks like the on again off again battle to support Morton is on again. I am left to wonder if that is why there are rumours of a revolt in the council.
The consequences of this should be very interesting.

Well well well...

2006-11-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

Something I said right from the beginning of this "Polling" is when you ask all Albertans and do not restrict the poll to members of the party you will get a very slanted poll.

Well look what happens when you restrict it to just party members you get:
Dinning, Morton virtually tied in Tory race

Dinning 21%
Morton 18%

I suspect when the vote is taken Dinnings support will probably put him closer to 30% but I think Morton's will carry him over 20%. As I have said before once you get to the second ballot all bets are off.

Then they question will be which of these two is more unpalatable for the members who voted for other contenders.

Wow what a website.

2006-11-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

So check this out... things are getting VEEERY interesting now... time to email a few friends in the media.

Rumours amongst Alliance friends

2006-11-22T17:16:00.000-07:00

I am hearing a rumour or two that things are not going well amongst my old Alliance chums.

While I am loathed to comment to much on this it might be an important time to mention that in BC the Reform party went from real threat to nothing over one election period thanks to bruised egos and lack of clear thinking.

I am not going go into specifics here... to protect the innocent but really grow up people. Get a little practical or at least a little bit pragmatic when it comes to these things. Having hurt feelings has allowed the Alberta PCs to have a free pass for quite some time.

But hey that is just me.

Ted Morton is the Man

2006-11-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

So it is only three days to go before vote for the first ballot of the PC Leadership. Three days before the wheat and chaff are seperated.

So with that in mind let me get my prediction meter running.

1. Jim Dinning - For Jim to take this thing on Saturday he needs a miracle on the first ballot. There is just too many candidates out there for him to grab 50% + 1 needed to take the thing. In fact I would be surprised if he is over 34% on the first ballot.

2. Ted Morton - I think Ted finishes either second or third based on his strength which lies in rural areas and with the federal Tories. It may be more than enough to out weigh the others in this race. But he cannot take this on the first ballot. In fact he will be hard pressed to get far above 20%.

3. Ed Stelmach - As funny as this may sound to people in the south Ed has some strong support up in the north and central part of the province. I suspect he may finish third. Which might bode ill for the top two contenders. He is a wild card politically even if he is a horrid speaker.

4. Lyle Oberg - bussing in ethnics on the advanced poll... who knows what going on elsewhere... Lyle could easily finish anywhere from 2 - 4 in fact I would not be surprised if he and Morton are flipped on this.

5. Mark Norris - strong showing in Edmonton, a little support everywhere else... name value gets him this far but unless I am very much surprised I think Steady Eddie is the Northern candidates to make it to the second round.

6. Dave Hancock - The last three contenders are little more than also rans probably floating from 1-4% on voting day. Hancock is the strongest left but has no support outside of Edmonton. I suspect his also ran status is sealed.

7. Gary McPherson - I think Gary may appeal to enough voters not to come bottom simply because his message was exactly what he needed it to be. To me, save for his social liberalism, he has been a breath of fresh air compared to most of the rest.

8. Victor Doerksen - nobody is voting for Victor. Most social conservatives will go to Morton and Victor has no real platform to run on, you cannot out Dinning Dinning but he gave it a go. He will run bottom and probably score a blip on the map.

So there are my predictions. Probably as educated a guess as anyone else. No one other than maybe the campaign teams of the top four really have a clue what is going to happen on Saturday. Weather, lack of new members, busing in voters and Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaigns are the only real varients to what happens on Saturday.

No matter what happens, this has been a boring race. You have to wonder about what we are being left with when Ralph Klein is the biggest star on the campaign trail. Well only a short time and we will know the truth.

Oh and hey you might want to check out this little ditty put together by the Ted Morton team. It is fun if nothing else... though I cannot stand country music.

So you are leader of the Official Opposition

2006-11-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

you have made your best showing since 1997 in the previous election largely on the back of PC voters rejection of the no plan Tories. So you got 16 MLAs, and save for three recounts and one judicial review it would have been 17.

So what do you do? You fire one of your MLAs!

Does that make sense? Apparently it does to Kevin Taft.

Wonder what will happen with Backs, will he remain an independent or will he go to another party? What does it say about the Liberal caucus that 16 people cannot work together.

Call of Duty

2006-11-16T19:54:00.000-07:00

Hi... if any of you own an Xbox 360 Call of Duty 3 is awesome.

Multiplayer is probably my favourite part.

Nonstickrock is my handle (yah Microsoft gave me that one.)

Hot times in the city...

2006-11-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

Well it is finally warming up. So instead of icy and slick it is wet and slushy... fun.

On another note people are finally coming to grips with the idea that their are also rans in the PC Leadership see Renewing the One Party State for further updates.

On another matter I will be working at City Hall for a few weeks. It might be interesting change of pace.

Speaking of that, today was the first day I entered City Hall here in Edmonton. It certainly tries to overwhelm you with scale. The windowed pyramids at the top of the building are intimidating archatecture amazing to think of all the fuss it created when they first started to plan for it in 1989. I still think the Pyramids look better than cones btw.

PC leadership forum the 10% factor

2006-11-14T09:10:00.000-07:00

So last night I went to the Edmonton PC Leadership forum, or tried to I apparently did not really know where the Mayfield Inn was so after looking through the phone book (because neither paper told you where the forum was taking place) I found my way their about 30 minutes after the start.

Unfortunately in talking to William McBeath (Ted Morton's man in Edmonton) from Noises on the Right the best action was before the event started.

The forum itself was a poorly designed event if you were wanting the Candidates to differentiate themselves. They were asked 16 questions from the "attendees" but all of which was read by the moderator.

Honestly I thought they were lobbyist canned questions so the answers were just as exciting.

The forum proceedure favours Dinning. It allows him to make points with no real challenge. It allows for now back and forth and while that may be the only way to go when you have 7 people on the stage it is boring.

Things I noticed about the Candidates:

Jim Dinning - the front runner never said anything that would hurt himself because to be blunt he doesn't say ANYTHING.

Lyle Oberg - tried to hard to play the martyr. He was taken apart on that by Hancock during the forum. He has some entertaining supporters but not many at the event.

Ed Stelmach - a better speaker than I expected but not exciting. Definately has a good level of support but the black and white poster he had up looked cheap because everything else he uses has blue on it. As well he had a ED STELMACH bus which is cool.

Ted Morton - Ted did well, he is definately a better speaker now than he was two years ago when I first heard him speak. I just wish he would go on the attack more but that is just me. Oh and he was the only one to get booed... it was some NDP type sitting in the back of the conference centre who looked like you would expect and left right after he did that.

Victor Doerksen - did nothing to make me think he is leadership material and did not even commit to run again.

Gary McPherson - well spoken but the mike he had last night like to go to high when he first starts to speak which distracts from what he said. He is another also ran but seems to be better able to express himself than some of these MLAs.

Mark Norris - Mark was interesting but the best part of his campaign is the Mark Norris Hummer. Only in Alberta would someone have a Hummer with their face on it.

Dave Hancock - definately has a young group around him but was very fiesty tonight. He took shots at the so-called front runners and was trying to differentiate himself for the home town crowd.

So what was my over all impression, Lyle has people supporting him but no strength here. Dinning has fans but I noticed most of them work at the Legislature. Norris had fans but they were less than I thought and Stelmach probably has some dedicated core supporters but it helps when you can bus them in.

The point of the title however was that less than 10% of the people attending really were going in as blank slates. This forum was all about supporters coming and cheering on their man. Nothing really changed.

On an advice note, if I am Ted I make sure at forums like this I get a little confrontational so I can get in the papers and on TV where the real undecideds are.

Elton John wants religion banned completely

2006-11-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

sigh....
and his reason makes sooooo much sense btw.

Sir Elton said: "I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays."
"But there are so many people I know who are gay and love their religion. From my point of view I would ban religion completely."
"Organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate."

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1.htm

now pardon my paradox but how is his hatred of "organized" religions some how more acceptable than his perception of Gay hatred from those same religions. Btw I would suggest that most "Organized" religions do not HATE homosexuals. Rather they think what they do is sinful.

There is a big difference. But it is very typical of a very confused "stars" who with little knowledge mouth off and show just how little they know.

Tonight I will be a Tory

2006-11-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

Well I am going to the Edmonton PC Leadership forum. It should be interesting to see how this goes.

Hopefully Ted kicks some butt but the formula of these things are pretty crappy.

the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day

2006-11-11T09:59:00.000-07:00

It has almost been 90 years since the War to end all Wars ended. It is hard to believe that almost every veteran of that era is now passed on. When you look back at World War One and the futility of moving little more than a few miles during the course of 3 1/2 years of battle.

The cost of the two world wars is simple staggering.

In World War One 15,596,071 people lost their lives.

In World War Two 62,537,400 people lost their lives during the war.

The costs for Canada 66,655 in WWI and 45,300 in WWII.

In the Korean War Canada suffered 516 losses.

Canadian Casualties to date in Afghanistan 43.

Personally I look forward to the day when this becomes true because it is obvious that we have become very effective at killing each other.

2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Isaiah 2 KJV

Could it really become ABD?

2006-11-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

As someone who is not immersed in the PC campaign I am fascinated to see Dinning on the attack against Morton, who I think is his only remaining challenger. Despite what the media has been saying it looks as if that is the true two horse race.

In a Edmonton Journal article now the Dinning team accused of bullying by Dave Hancock's wife.

The key quote in this article is:

Dave Hancock said he hasn’t talked about this issue before because he tries to focus on policy and has tried “to keep the mucky stuff out of it.”

But Hancock said “bullying and fear tactics” have been used on other members of his campaign team as well. “They’re saying to people, ‘if you want to participate after this is over, you better be on our team.’ I can’t attribute that to Jim, but certainly people around him are playing the game.”

Now does this mean that Dinning, like his buddy Paul Martin, learned his politics from the Sopranos? Thuggish tactics usually are not needed by people in a big lead. It makes you wonder if people on opposite sides are deciding the time will come for ABD (Anybody but Dinning?).

Of course we shall see if Hancock and Morton could even remotely coexist as supporters considering Morton effectively called him a Liberal.

Media blurring lines on the Klein issue

2006-11-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

I am not sure which reporter decided to quote what Klein said at this roast in Calgary but maybe they had a slow news day or something.

Klein in hot water over Stronach joke

All the false outrage coming from the Liberals make it just that much more humerous. It was a joke which was at an event which is supposed to be protected from media quotes.

Think of it this way, every year the media host a Christmas party. It is the seminal event for Politicos in Alberta. All parties are invited and it is a place to let your hair down and be a bit more frank than normal.

Last year each of the parties, media and politicians put on video skits. In each case there was things said which would not be made public under normal circumstances. It allows a degree of self mockery which just cannot take place otherwise.

So lets keep this in perspective.

Oh and btw who died and made Belinda the image of Womanhood in politics? The false outrage and bravado coming from the left is stupid beyond belief. Not new but stupid nonetheless.

House gone Senate in trouble

2006-11-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

Well the Rove effect fails to pull a rabbit out of this hat. I fear for what Bush will be able to do over the coming two years with this state of affairs.

If there is any solace from this I think it is that the GOP have two years to get things right... Stop getting caught with hands in the cookie jar. Bring in new blood find republicans who can bring some zest back into the next election.

Once again it is critical that the next candidate for President seperate themselves from the GWB organization. They need to be outside the Old boys club if they are going to have a chance to beat Hillary Clinton and company.

Personally I think Mitt Romney would be an excellent candidate. I hope he runs and I expect him to put up a great challenge.

broken promises

2006-11-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

The road of politics is littered with broken promises... much like good intentions.

The Prime Minister and his Finance Minister decively decided to break their promise. One that seems to have been a bit foolhardy in the first place.

For someone who is increasingly convinced that practical politics outweights the pie in the sky standing on policies like their are sworn life blood. Bluntly, governments rarely are able to stand for every policy they prevay in elections. There is too much oppositions do not know.

Everyone seems to be surprised that Harper could not keep every policy. Well let me tell you there is few times when a government is honest with the Opposition. Even the financial documents when given as they are in each budget are just general in nature. To pull out nuggets out of what Opposition parties are given you need to be able to cross examine the Ministers.

Let me give you an example, in the 2004 election the Alberta Alliance wanted to change health care, we said that little of the funding paid out directly goes to patient care.

This is true... to a point.

Looking at the financial documents after Paul Hinman got elected showed that much of health care spending goes to salaries. Doctors, nurses and care providers. The bureaucracy, including Jack Davis actually take about 4-5% of the salaries.

The question is whose numbers are right? If 4-5% is correct you cannot cut a lot of money from the program because that would mean less doctors coming to Alberta, making bigger waiting lists.

So I guess what I am saying is realizing they were proven wrong on Income Trusts the Tories broke their promise knowing that they would get beaten up, especially by BELL/CTV/Globe and Mail who were already using the income trusts to shelter their tax dollars.

So sometimes being in opposition makes life easier because you can stand on principle with no real worry about compromise. Unlike when you become government.

Post Halloween havoc

2006-11-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

Well the kids went nuts last night and we now have five times the candy in our house against what we gave away... ah sugar rush.

Meanwhile our teachers, they are smart they took a Preparation Day today. So they left the hangover for the parents to deal with.

My wife also makes the point that going to the good houses is way worth it compared to going and Trick or Treating the malls. The mall stores give out cheap stuff. So you freeze a little bit more but hey you get choclate!

Ok not a very important discussion but hey it is still interesting to me.

Spooky

2006-10-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

Getting Fired on Halloween...

Spoooky

The Last Day

2006-10-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

So today is my last day as a member of the Alliance Caucus staff.

If you are reading this then you know that this has been the Alliance Opposition blogspot. Well as of right now that is changing into Jonathan Williams - The Blog. I am still going to post commentary on this site so please stick with me.

Second I am going to be commenting on various parties and caucuses over the next few days after I am my own man again. As well as talking about my time at the Alliance caucus.

Let me say it is mostly a positive experience that ended slightly quicker than I had planned and at a time when I thought we were doing pretty well. But when your boss decides to go a different way who am I to get in his way.

I am sure the Alliance watcher will have some comment but really most of these changes are about what direction an MLA wants his staff to go in. I think for the most part Paul and I agree on policy... but he feels I need to move on after a good run and well I guess I cannot disagree.

But just to show you how I am keeping my balliwick in things I am still going to be a monthly panellist on CKUA's Sunday Magazine.

Grab your booties cause it is COOOOOLD out there....

2006-10-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

Days like today remind me of Ground Hog Day the movie with Bill Murray.

My kids keep asking me if it is time for Christmas. With two inches of snow on the ground and -15C with windchill it is hard not to think cold thoughts.

Oh and of course the Quenell bridge was a nightmare as it usually is this time of year. So anyway just another typical day in Edmonton. Althought supposedly the Anthony Hendey was supposed to solve all this... never mind.

Alliance comments on Manning announcement

2006-05-17T16:02:00.000-06:00

May 17, 2006

Edmonton - Alberta Alliance Leader Paul Hinman expressed disappointment at the announcement by Preston Manning that he will not be running for leader of the Alberta Progress Conservatives.

“Mr. Manning is a principled man of integrity and a defender of Democracy. Mr. Manning’s views on fiscal restraint and democratic reform would have been a refreshing addition to the old and tired machine known as the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta,” said Hinman.

Hinman, who worked with the Reform party since its inception, looked forward to working with Manning over the issues facing the province. He is optimistic that the Alliance party will represent a real choice for Albertans looking for democratic and fiscal responsibility.

“I will continue to be the voice of Albertans who are yearning for change in Alberta. We will continue to press for smaller government, tax relief and democratic reforms in this province,” said Hinman.

Oil near another clincher

2006-05-15T12:47:00.001-06:00

Oilers making the Poolies nuts ;)

Hey... after a horrid start to the series the Oilers are back in charge. 3-2 in games and 12-6 in the last two games wow!

Being topical... if non-political

2006-05-14T17:17:00.000-06:00

Just finished Da Vinci Code. I decided I would see what all the fuss was about.

First point, the "research" in this book and supposed historical background was pretty bad. If the story did not hold your attention I would have lost total interest.

The story itself is pretty good, until the end there are twists and turns throughout.

The ending... ugh. How do you spend so much time setting up a major plot point just to destroy it at the end with a predictable finish. Without spoiling it for anyone lets just say I was completely appalled by the ending...

I devoted that much reading for that... yuck.

Unbias in the media...or not

2006-05-08T16:22:00.000-06:00

There is nothing like sitting in the Media room and hearing the media banter. In fact I would say that can be some of the more enjoyable parts of the day.

But, when the media colour their opinion on Bill 208: Protection of Fundamental Freedoms (Marriage) Statutes Amendment Act, 2006 in such a manner as they did today I had to leave. I was certainly upset at the opinions expressed. Things like, (paraphrasing) [Tony] Abbott and [Ted] Morton are rightwing wingnuts.

One thing I found today was how much I was agreeing with the Premier Klein in his comments. He pointed out that he is a marriage commissioner and that he would be uncomfortable preforming a same sex marriage. He was saying he should not be forced into it.

The media went with the old... whats next you gonna stop gays from getting fishing licenses? Yes I was rolling my eyes at that stupid comment. Or to allow people to avoid have preform interracial marriages (because this is no different apparently).

Or another media type who almost high pitched said, "but it is the law of the land." Which led to Klein schooling him on constitutional law.

Let me be very clear on this issue.

1. Solemnization of marriage is a provincial matter not federal. We decide how our marriage commissioners act.

2. The SSM lobby cannot accept that people disagree. They do not think they can be protected as much as they are.

3. The "law of the land" may yet be thrown out.

4. 60% of Albertans disagree with SSM and these reporters should go out and maybe note that they are in the minority.

5. Will the media be happy when they force a catholic priest in a cathedral to preform a ssm? That seems to be the only thing they poo poo but then in the next breath say that commissioners should be FORCED to marry same sex couples. What is the difference people.

6. It is not about some draconian ideas it is about protecting people of faith from prosecution by the majority (or in this case the vocal minority).

A change in plans...

2006-05-05T15:57:00.000-06:00

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/instigator/index.html

Sunday hopefully will be fun and not a let down.

protecting freedom of religion seen as barbaric - apparently

2006-05-04T10:20:00.000-06:00

The Edmonton Journal... and the Calgary Herald this morning took aim at Ted Morton's Bill 208. To them apparently Ted should "drop regressive attacks on same sex marriages." (according to Graham Thomson)

That’s echoed by several MLAs, some of whom indelicately claim it fires up rabid anti-gay agitators who confuse human prejudice with the will of God. “It brings the foamers out,” said one. “Ninety-seven per cent of my constituents don’t understand why we’re talking about it.” from the Calgary Herald's Tom Olsen.

I love those brave unnamed sources who basically call 60% + of Albertans who did not agree with legalizing gay marriage as "Foamers". Why don't you come out and really take a stand. Do not sit behind caucus and unnamed sources. But of course to do that would be dangerous.

Personally, I disagree that Morton's bill is flawed. In fact all we have to do is look at past history to see how lobby groups have used cases to beat back freedom of religion.

Morton's bill recognizes that people have the right to disagree and to disavow something that goes against their religious views. I think Jehovahs Witnesses have a right not to sing O' Canada just as I am not one too upset not to see the Lords Prayer said in school because it is not key to my faith.

But I do think there are people out there who are looking to force religious groups into the corner on every issue. They would love to see gay marriages being preformed in Catholic Cathedrals, because it is fair or tolerant, according to them. They would love to see the Bishop Henry's of the world beaten down for speaking out.

See I do not think there will ever be a line where liberal groups will be happy... they want their way. They will continue to push and push and push. Until there is a reaction. Liberals elected Pierre Trudeau and Jimmy Carter in the seventies. The damage those two individuals did to the psyche of their countries has led to a constant backlash.

To the left it is not about freedom of religion, it is freedom from religion and its ideas of morality and justice (and mercy).

To quote Les Miserable, "The World is upside down the law is inside out."

Taps plays in the background

2006-05-04T07:27:00.000-06:00

tsk tsk

Well I wonder if Calgary fans will now jump on the bandwagon of the last Alberta team. Especially the whimpering way the Flames went out.

The third rail continues to electrocute

2006-05-02T10:51:00.000-06:00

another syndicated article... hate to disappoint the Watcher but I am doing it for gratis.

Once upon a time Premier Ernest Manning believed that “free” public health care would lead the province into total control of the system and creating a complete welfare state. I think his knowledge of people and sense of the past allowed him to understand that people would not give up this “free” service once given.

Politicians all over Canada are finding health care is the third rail of politics. It has lead to malaise instead of reform. Many good reforms are ignored because the backlash scares politicians from making any sort of adjustments that might be perceived as creating a private parallel system.

So we are almost stuck with a program that we cannot move right or left for fear of being branded as a destroyer of health care.

My personal feeling is that if we are to come to a realistic discussion on this issue we need to recognise that the public needs to be informed. The public needs to understand what is at stake and what could be found in changing the system.

Let me raise some examples. First do Albertans feel the current system works? Do we feel fairly confident in the future that we can financially afford the increase of 10-20 years higher payments while the baby boomers come towards their winter years?

If we feel we do not have the fiscal desire to pay higher and higher amounts to cover the cost of our health then what do we want to do?

Now the biggest costs to our health system is salaries, if you want to make the system more affordable you can cut salaries, either through firing people or through a general cut in health care providers wages. So waiting lists get bigger, we drain more doctors and nurses from the system and we save money but lose on many other levels.

Another idea is to raise taxes, it would help to cover short falls and avoid deficits and debts because we would be able to pay for the costs by raising our tax rates to meet those costs.

This idea is flawed because we would instead of losing doctors we would lose tax base as people fled the province or found ways to avoid paying taxes.

Here is one idea to protect us from losing staff or raising taxes. We could raise, from our surpluses a financial fund to compensate for the escalating costs. Call it a savings plan for future Albertans to benefit from the same health coverage that we have now.

It was one of the reasons we had a heritage savings and trust fund in the first place. So let’s use that original idea and protect ourselves from the pitfalls of boom and bust before it is too late. Let us not fritter away oil boom without building a true legacy for the future.

Giant Killing

2006-05-01T21:54:00.000-06:00

Oilers third period massive comeback!!

Now if Calgary wins tonight... it is battle of Alberta all over again...

Blakeman is wrong on AON

2006-04-26T14:32:00.000-06:00

Laurie Blakeman today has attacked the government over the handling of the AON report.

While I might agree with how she characterized the numbers as flawed, when they are based on assumptions which can be wrong. Such as the fact that Health care costs will continue to rise by 10% a year when they are more like 7% if you take out the bump from 1997-2002 when money was flooding back into the system.

But you cannot have it both ways. She then goes on to argue that somehow this proves that private insurance is always fatally flawed because these same numbers proved that private insurance would not decrease health costs.

If the numbers are wrong then the assumptions are wrong. If the report is flawed it is flawed, you cannot have it both ways.

More than that the framework shows that with some basic planning by the government they could actually avoid the age bump.

According to AON our costs would rise from 29% of the budget to 50% by 2025. What they do not say is following that model to its logical conclusion the numbers would level out and after 2035 start a downward trend as, to put it harshly, people died off.

If the baby boom bump is what we fear, then there are steps we can take to make the system sustainable in the long term. We just have to teach people the realities and come to grips with the fact that we have options in the system.

It is called planning, if you plan to retire in 2025 you dont say hey in 2024 lets start a pension fund... it is too late.

Now is the time to save for the cycle, lets all sit down and honestly talk about all sides of health care reform. Lets honestly present all the options, lets have debates and lets really discuss it. Lets put aside the Friends of Medicare sky is falling mentality and really honestly say to Albertans. Do you want higher taxes or more private insurance or mixed systems which will protect us from the rising health care costs until such time as they start to come back to earth.

That is the discussion that gets lost in labels like third way, two tiered and credit card scaremongering.

MLA for a day program

2006-04-25T10:23:00.000-06:00

Today, we have a visitor in the office.

With the Governor General visiting today we are hopping. Fun stuff. Our visitor is a young grade ten student who is learning about the various activities of his MLA.

It is a good program. It will help these students to understand the workings of the Legislature and hopefully give them an appreciation for government. Which all citizens would benefit from.

All even going to Edmonton

2006-04-23T23:14:00.001-06:00

Oilers even up the Series 1-1 big game!!

Why does the thought, "Your disssspicable," come to mind seeing this picture.
Ducks mug Flames to tie their series.

2006-04-23T23:08:00.000-06:00

Oilers even up the Series 1-1 big game!!

Why does the thought, "Your disssspicable," come to mind seeing this picture.
Ducks mug Flames to tie their series.

Playoff time is here...

2006-04-21T11:03:00.000-06:00

ROUND ONE
1 VS 1

1 VS 1

Starting tonight both Alberta teams are in action. Hopefully the Oilers will lay an upset on the wings. And I guess the Flames could win too...

Ding dong third way is dead...

2006-04-20T18:48:00.000-06:00

Personally I think there are some things they can do to create a better health system within the private and market driven forces... but the two most controversial parts of the Third Way are officially gone.

As most expected they would be.

So we are now eight sitting days away from the end of the Legislature this session I think.

Oh and hey guess what else, Ralphbucks are back.

Ok a break in the action

2006-04-13T21:50:00.000-06:00

so now we pause for the week as we all wait to see what will happen at the Tory Caucus meeting a week from today when the Third Way is decided.

Meanwhile...

Go Oilers Go...

A bit of partisanship for you!!

the big brother of Confederation

2006-04-12T14:58:00.000-06:00

"It's disappointing that Ontario, the big brother of Confederation, would take this kind of a position." Pat Binns Premier of PEI.

So now Ontario is playing the Alberta role... selfish and self asorbed (according to others).

Now I am never one to agree with my birth province but you do have to wonder about the nerve of some provinces and their inability to pull up their own socks from time to time.

Meanwhile McGuinty says pretty much what most Albertans have thought for a number of years.

"We won't support a solution that helps half the population at the expense of the other half," he said.

Meanwhile Premier Campbell said he also did not like the way the panel decided the equalization payment revision.

Now interestingly this report did not included a single point from our Premier. So are you telling me we had nothing to say? The worst part of this is that the LIBERAL premiers are the ones disagreeing with provincial welfare while the so-called Conservatives have their hands out wanting more.

It is enough to make you roll your eyes.

Manning – back to the future?

2006-04-11T15:55:00.000-06:00

From my column appearing in a few weekly papers this week

On April fools day Preston Manning was asked to speak to the Alberta PC convention delegates. It was another masterful speech by someone who has always been good at giving voice to ideas. He knocked them dead.

If they were excited about his comments well they did not hear anything yet. In a media scrum thereafter Manning made some comments that he might be interested in running for the leadership.

To say this caused a firestorm might be a bit much. However, within political circles the shock was evident. Lets be honest, who thinks that Preston ever ruminates about something in public?

No neither do I.

Anyone who knows Mr. Manning knows he is a clear thinker. While he may not always be with the majority he has a pretty good ear on what maybe important now and in the future.

So what does his decision, should he make it, do to the leadership race? The Preston effect has been a big one so far if our phones and email are anything to go by and we are in the opposition offices.

Most still remember the work Ernest Manning did creating the wealth of this province. His hand was a steady one on a tiller of our province. His son may be of a similar nature. Certainly looking back 15 years ago the Reform party were well ahead of the game when it came to deficit fighting. It was ahead with its desire for accountability in government and it certainly was ahead in dealing with federal-provincial relations.

His views on democracy and accountability were ones that many, including yours truly, grabbed onto and believed in. If he can bring most of these forward I would certainly respect and support his leadership candidacy over the rest.

Of the rest of the contenders there is little they could do to stop the momentum if Mr. Manning is able to gain the type of overwhelming support he had during the first few years of Reform.
But is he the yesterday’s man? This is what Mark Norris, and to a lesser extent Ted Morton, want to get across to the PC voters. "Thanks for your leadership of years ago please keep a chair open for us at your think tank but please do not get involved do not wreck your legacy," as Norris would like you to believe.

Preston has a good chance to win this thing, going away in my opinion. Many in the media are coming to that conclusion. His cross over democracy ideas and fiscal conservatism will appeal to many on all sides.

So he returns to the fold of Alberta politics set to light a fire which will burn the stubble of the party aside. It could be a very interesting coincidence if Preston, who lit the fires of fiscal responsibility for Ralph Klein, who has been on the outside of the Progressive Conservatives could inherit the mantle of leadership which his father held in Social Credit.

Back to the future Alberta… better get ready.

Pre-easter Malaise?

2006-04-10T14:24:00.000-06:00

So after a busy week last week is this the let down week? Until Mr. Manning says what he is doing it looks like very little happening at the Legislature. The media in particular seem a bit lost without Premier Klein around.

I have to say there seems to be a sense that people are waiting for the week off. It is strange... or maybe it is just spring fever.

Meanwhile, the theory in some parts of the media is if the Alberta Liberals would just change their names they would be the next "movement" in Alberta.

Of course if one looks at the actual vote the Liberals got in percentage and total number over the past four elections they would notice that there has been a serious decline in support. The reality is being a Liberal in this province has not given them anything.

On the otherhand... changing their name does not do enough to make a difference for them. While they did claim some scalps they are still hovering about 27-29% support. None of their leaders since Laurence Decore has consistantly failed to gain public interest.

The media seem to hold up hope that these Liberals can make ground, kind of like the Toronto Maple Leaf fans, who wait every year for a return to the Stanely Cup to Hogtown. Wait all you like but do not expect me to believe it.

Not with the Liberal masthead... not when the Federal Conservatives took almost a Million votes in this province smashing the Federal Liberals. Small c conservatives still rule this province... and will do for the short term (probably even the long term).

I am being watched... apparently

2006-04-08T09:57:00.001-06:00

Hey it is good to see we have some interesting readership.
http://albertaalliancewatch.blogspot.com/

Welcome to the parade. Somehow I am whining about our lack of press?

People seem to want to know our opinion on Preston Manning.

For those of you Tories who read this blog, let me be very clear on a few things that seem to be going around on the web.

1. we did not beg or plead or even ask Lyle Oberg to join the caucus. We simply have left an olive branch open if he wanted to talk. So far he seems to be consistant on his desire to win the Tory leadership. I am ok with that...

2. Preston. I personally think it might be really interesting to see what Preston might bring to the table. I will watch and wait to see what he brings forward as ideas before passing judgement on him.

3. If Preston joins this race I would say that Ted Morton's chances take a serious, maybe fatal, blow. So we are not the only ones effected by this move.

Finally let me just add without the Tories hard work at isolating people, acting arrogant and believing they could only solve all the problems in the province is the reason Paul Hinman was elected. Believe me I had a front row seat.

So talk to the hand. ;o)

Dinning seeks the front of the parade?

2006-04-06T14:08:00.000-06:00

I know I should probably not be so obsessed about another party's leadership but....

Jim Dinning appears to have put the last shovel on the Third Way. So if Dinning does not like it does that mean it is once and for all dead?

I am a believer that there is no appetite for these reforms from the Rural caucus of the PC party. So the question is with no mandate does that mean the Third Way has gone the way of the dodo?

Considering how little real thought there was done on this considering that the Doctors, nurses, government MLAs, leadership candidates, and the bureaucrats are against it I would say DOA.

So another way will be left to another leader to try and bell this cat.

Just remember that slow innovation seems to work better with the third rail of politics. Personally given the amount of research we did I could not see how their plan would add any value to the Alberta tax payer or make the health consumer feel confidence in the system.

Back to the old saw

2006-04-05T14:07:00.000-06:00

Well as of last week. I am a columnist for my former paper in Cardston again. It is nice to have a chance to air my views weekly once more.

As well I am going to be cross posted in the Westwind Weekly News out of Raymond and Magrath.

So what does that all mean, well not a lot to most people but it is nice to get a little exposure once in a while. Either that or I just cannot keep my opinions to myself ;).

The end of the Line

2006-04-04T16:30:00.000-06:00

Shocking, upsetting, surprising. That was the collection of phrases bandied about by media and other MLAs in the Legislature Monday. No one saw it coming.

As you can imagine the leadership vote combined with Preston Manning’s coy “I am in if you want me” shocked many including me. Next week I will go further on Manning but for now let us focus on the Premier.

Some still say that the Premier can continue but being realistic how could he? He received the lowest measure of support of any sitting Premier or Prime Minister.

The Premier has always enjoyed large popular support inside and outside his party. I would say he has been one of the most popular politicians in the history of Alberta.

Now though I would say that has come to an end. Not because Ralph has changed but because the time has become his enemy.

The most difficult thing to realize is when it is time to move on. Most people feel comfort in doing the same things, in having the same types of things, even eating the same food year after year. So it is difficult to put down that job when it becomes untenable because the fear of the unknown.

Ralph Klein has been a political leader for almost 26 years. That in this day and age is an impressive amount of time to spend in one type of job. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to let that go.

Yet for the sake of his own party he now has to do just that. Politics can at times lead to odd sympathies to develop. In this case I almost feel bad for the Premier because as much as I think he has been wrong on some major issues for this province I think he did a lot right.

Also as someone who attends his daily press conferences at the Legislature I appreciate the fact that he is charming, and blunt. I think he has a sense of humour which allows for him to say and do things which for other politicians would lead to front page misery.

So now I sit back and take stock, I will miss that nasal voice whenever he said Pr-ah-vince or Cah-cus. Or the way he could just read his public affairs bureau notes to the media whenever they wanted specifics that he did not know. Or how about the time when some one asks him what is in the third way health reforms and he cannot remember the three or four major changes, so that the media has to remind him.

In the end it was only a year but it certainly an entertaining year for me and I have to say I learned a great deal watching our Premier. Even though Ralph will be around another few months let me take the moment to say so long and good luck.

Will he or won't he?

2006-04-04T10:56:00.000-06:00

The premier is 30 minutes away from announcing his intentions to the world... catch it on CTV Newsnet Live.