My Thoughts on the #RebootAB Movement

Over the weekend a progressive group assembled in Red Deer, AB for a meeting of the minds on how to make AB a better place. I did not attend but here is my take on it from what I have read, by all means I hope the many that attended can correct me on my perception.

First I will start off by explaining why I did not attend the meeting. I felt that the views of what progressive means outlined prior to the meeting were a) WAP members were not progressive b) if you are conservative you can not be progressive c) you need to buy into the green oil kool-aid and d) need to believe there is no other options available. None of this was said or confirmed, just my feelings on it as it was rolled out as I fell into much of the criticized categories.

Many of the bloggers I admire and respect were in attendance, which when compared to them I am somewhat of a political hack. There was huge support for another upstart party with a progressive movement that will listen to the people. Geez, I have never heard that before, kind of sounds like the same thing every political party has said since the beginning of time. This time will be different though I am sure. Some of the members have already excluded many that may have followed a movement like this, so for me I think it will remain a stalled movement. Many of the bloggers that I have followed over the years have so much to offer in terms of ideas and knowledge, but it is much easier to be a pundit than to run a province with such a diverse set of views. Bill 44 was a huge part of the push for a few of the attendants of Reboot, however it would be quite interesting to see how many Albertans actually support this bill (as we all know I am not one).

I do hope a political party is formed out of this, as I for one think we need a balance of all types. The ALP has not been an effective opposition and the NDP simply protests all ideas good or bad. The Wildrose Alliance has so much work yet to be completed to become a government in waiting, they have yet to be recognized. Progressiveness is linked to being socially liberal, but I believe in simply being socially responsible with little interference in Albertans lives. The more bills and laws that keep coming forward restrict our freedoms and add a huge amount of cost as well. Maybe with a progressive group working hard on the left/center and a party working on right centre we could force good government in the end, who knows.

What Reboot AB has done for me is confirm I am on the right path to bring about political change to our province. I will continue working with the Wildrose Alliance. We have all listened to the attacks from these same members that criticize the Wildrose for having no substance on their policy. We also know that the Wildrose Policies are set by it's members. The party in June of this year had 1200 active members which has swelled to 14,000. We have a leader that is a remarkable speaker and media savvy. We have the perfect set for bringing change into Alberta politics, and here is why I believe this:

1. Since it is agreed our policy lacks substance and is set by it's members, by having a diverse group of members we will put forward common sense policy. We as a party can easily elaborate on the policies to include members of all political leanings much easier than trying to start up a party that concentrates only on a progressive view.
2. We still have the opportunity to brand ourselves, before we are branded by everyone else as we roll out our policy platform.
3. We are already an established political party recognized a a serious political threat, growing in strength by bringing in even more diverse membership base.
4. A strong leader with a remarkable memory for policy and ability to speak without putting her feet in her mouth.

As I mentioned I think the Reboot movement is a great progressive movement, however in our province you will never form a government without being big tent. This is proven when we look at the history of politics in our province. The ALP and the NDP were never able to gain traction because of the choice to be left. The PC party remained because they were known to be fiscally conservative and socially progressive, unfortunately I don't see that they stand for either any longer, staying in power is the only goal.

My option for the Wildrose is simple and the party could use people from the progressive movement to help set up good policy. The same from all poltical stripes. There is a huge opportunity to brand this party as simply responsible both fiscally and socially. The membership in the party is still small enough to grow big tent and decide policy to include the majority of Albertans and not limit itself to conservative, progressive, liberal, etc... In the end I see the Wildrose party as being what was presented at reboot AB only on an all inclusive scale. The DJ Kelly post had a significant part in changing my thoughts, showing how common sense politics can be. Thanks to all involved at RebootAB as you have brought on a change in my way of thinking as well. I have spent far too long criticizing a party we all see the problems with. I will be blogging on the strengths of the Wildrose, discussing the policies and what can be bettered, bring them forward at the AGM, and work hard to bring in a variety of members to ensure the party indeed is "Big Tent" with a variety of ideas. I see this as the fastest and easiest way to bring change about. I don't think Alberta needs to re-boot, maybe simply an update. ;) Look forward to your comments Rebooters.

Is Lindsay Blackett Racist? Don't be Ridiculous.

I came across an opinion column in the Sherwood Park -Strathcona County News that was well...utterly the worst informed article I have ever read. People that read this will lose brain cells, so be careful. I think the timing of Catherine Griwkowsky's opinion may be to take advantage of the Stephan Carter blunder, with a very narrow view of basic human rights, the HRC or law in general. Obvious is that she may be better as a ranting blogger than a columnist.

I am not too sure if anyone can remember Lindsay Blacketts interview with Rick Bell in the Sun, but his views on the AHRC were right in line with the Wildrose Alliance. Do these comments by Mr. Blackett mean he would like to have a KKK meeting on his block as mentioned by this ranter?

"People have the right to say what they believe and Albertans strongly believe in that right," says Lindsay.
"We've got to try and find what was the purpose of the human rights commission to start with back in 1972."
"For me, it's back to the future and the simplicity of what the human rights commissions is supposed to be. It was originally just intended to provide protection against discrimination on grounds of race, colour, creed, religion and so on with respect to employment, accommodation and access to services. That's it."
"It wasn't about hurt feelings. The reason a lot of human rights commissions are disrespected across the country is because they've forgotten that.
"We want the commission to be a quasi-judicial body that has some teeth, that has some credibility but doesn't operate like a kangaroo court."
..."People shouldn't feel they can't come to Canada, like a university professor who talks about a subject matter and then there are reprisals," says the cabinet minister.
"They should have the ability to say what they say and somebody should have their ability to have the counter argument. That is what a free and open society does. Let's get away from trying to mediate everybody's feelings."
Lindsay talks about being turned down by a girl at a school dance with all his pals watching.
"You feel about two inches tall. I guess maybe I should have taken her to the Human Rights Commission because I had hurt feelings. Where does it end?"
"We haven't talked about it at caucus or cabinet yet, but I've already gone through a few steps. Generally there's support, the support to make a change and do something and not just sit back and say because it's a tough subject we should stay away from it.
"I don't think provisions for more freedom of speech are a problem. I think people on both sides of the political spectrum appreciate it."

No of course not. Maybe she would like to insinuate Mr. Blackett thinks South Africa had the right idea with signs demanding racial segregation in public areas were the right idea. I doubt this too.

The reasoning for getting rid of section three is simple. It is the grey area open to interpretation and the abuse of the system. As Lindsay Blackett referred to AHRC and it "operating as a kangaroo court." We have laws in place already, the duplication and above the law view by the AHRC is unnecessary. Debate can only happen if one person disagrees or is offended by a statement, and we should not be scared of such. Section three has had negative effects on both media and personal beliefs. We could look at Ezra Levant or Rev. Boissoin.


Randy Hillier, along with fellow PC MPP Lisa Macleod, have been leading the charge to reform Ontario's HRCs. Hillier made the abolition of Ontario's human rights commission part of his campaign platform. Didn't stop at a certain section, Damn Racists? Give it up.


Catherine Griwkowsky it is obvious you know nothing about the HRC or its abuse of power. Maybe try to raise your bar of journalism before you write by doing even the slightest of research on a topic. As for the paper I am shock at the level of idiocy you allow in your publications. If you take the time to complete your research (or start it) you will find that we already have laws in place to protect us from what you refer to, but again you have done no research. What a shame.

For more information on the HRC, their bullying, and censorship I suggest reading the material at Ezra Levants website.

As Voltaire reputedly said, “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Update: Johnathon Denis as well?

Motion 518

It would appear that Mr. Greg Weadick, MLA for Lethbridge-West, put forward motion 518 in the legislature. The bill is:

"Be it resolved that the Legislative Assembly urge the Government to consider exempting seniors from paying the education portion of property taxes." The motion was agreed to on November 23, 2009 in the legislature.

For sure now I will be confusing Lethbridge east and west for which party is represented.

I realize that the senior citizens in Alberta have paid and continue to pay their dues in our province. This being said they also continue to use the many services provided by the province, including health care. With our provincial population aging this should not be a motion we want to put forward. I will be a senior here one day and will gladly pay my part in keeping our health care and education intact. The education tax portion of our property taxes are thrown into general revenues, and only make up for 20% +- of our education budget. We are looking at massive cuts to the education system in the province and dissolving more revenues is not realistic. How many more cuts can our GOA expect our education system to make.

Not too long ago we eliminated the fees paid into our health care system, and to no surprise the coverage in our province changed. Many have said they would have preferred to keep the premiums and not make the cuts to the system. We are now running huge deficits in the system. Education is the backbone of Alberta's future, so I do have concerns when it comes to affecting the outcomes of this system.

Seniors in Alberta have many things subsidized by the province, and we are looking towards more in terms of assisted living etc.. I won't disagree as a province we have an obligation to do so. However the theory that dues have been paid in full is a misleading comment by this MLA. Seniors also enjoy the improvements made in Alberta on a daily basis, should they be exempt from paying? The claim that those in assisted living do not have to pay this tax is not quite true. If they pay the taxes are included in the fees charged to our seniors. To be fair then should a single person or couple with no children pay this tax? Should I have to cover my share in seniors health care costs? Of course, taxes should be a level playing field regardless of age, race, religion etc... up to and including usage.

I believe that this motion is simply a vote buying measure in the legislature. What MLA would not agree on this from fear of losing the seniors votes? This is at the cost of our youth which will be paying the tab for years to come as our population ages. The government underestimating the importance of Education in our province needs to stop.

Right now much of the youth may not be taking the time to cast a ballot, remember this will change.

Tweeting Da Premier

On Friday it seems Danielle Smiths senior advisor, Stephan Carter made these comments on twitter:
"Just saw da premier making a speech. Dat was quite a speech. Dem media better report it right,"
"Getting ready for press conference. Dem media better be ready for Danielle. Dey better get da story right!"

It appears the office of the premier thought they were offensive so Stephan called the premier's office and apologized as well as took them down. I would guess immediately the premiers office placed the following twitter:
"My press office has accepted an apology from Danielle Smith's chief of staff over an offensive Twitter post."

Well if an apology to the premier's office amounts to this I am thinking Stephan should have just let it ride. The media and twitter were in a frenzy over the tweets that had no comments made until after the premier's office released it had accepted an apology. The noble indeed. Only an issue after an apology. Why? This is quite simple, no one thought it was offensive until Tom Olsen put the spin on it. His ridiculous claims of this being a slur against the Ukrainian culture or rural people. To me Mr. Olsen is the one who was being discriminatory, I took it for what it was, a slam on Ed Stelmach and his inability to speak. This however is the way of Alberta politics now, and realistically any other party(including the WRA) may have done the same.

This also turned into an issue with the Wildrose Alliance Party. The PC faithful were quick to jump on the bandwagon, blaming the party and continuously trying to put the spin on it. Danielle made these statements to the Calgary Herald:

“It’s really unacceptable," Smith added. "I think we want to try to bring a higher level of discussion to politics and that’s certainly not the kind of discussion that I tolerate or that I would expect to see from people who work for me. He understands that. It’s been made clear, and I’m glad that he responded as swiftly as he did.”

Asked whether there will be any repercussions for his job with the Wildrose Alliance, Smith noted Carter is her strategist and on contract until the end of the year. She said he was interim chief of staff for a few weeks, but has been a strategist since early November. The chief of staff position is vacant.

“Obviously I’ll have to gauge that,” she said. “His quick reaction and his quick acknowledgment that he made a mistake, I think that to me that’s enough at the moment.”

In short I guess the PC's can dish it but can't take it. Stelmach attacked Mason on his career as a bus driver in the legislature. Elniski made very distasteful comments about 12 year old children (female) washing cars for a fundraiser. Iris Evans slammed and insulted families that out of necessity with the cost of living in Alberta, required both parents work in order to make ends meet. Luke Oulette was in contempt of court with the children and youth services. Ron Liepert failed miserably in his bid to roll out the H1N1 vaccine. A ridiculous deficit....and so on.

An advisor to Smith mocking the Premier and his ability to speak may be distasteful, but I will take it to these. In all fairness the Wildrose has had much good publicity, this is not an attack by the media, they are simply treating the Party the same as any other. I would put money that Ed Stelmach doesn't even know he was offended, unless your naive enough to believe he does his own social media.

The high road would have been better for sure, but it nice to see we are on the PC radar.

WRA Task Force

Yesterday the Wildrose Alliance Party released another task force the MLA Pay and Perks. Last month the release of the Energy Task Force.

Anyone who reads my blog knows I have been supporting the Wildrose and believe they are the party to bring Albertans the change we desire. The inclusiveness of the members will remain to be the most important issue for input. These task forces are a great step for members to have an inside view of what needs to be done.

These new task forces are very important going forward to set up policy for the members to review, scrutinize and change if required at the next AGM. I question the choice of the policies we are working on first, as for most Albertans these are not the priorities. Are these the first implemented because the panels were easy to put together? My areas of main concern are health care delivery and education, as I believe most Albertans are as well. This is a question I will be asking her in the next couple of weeks. I do have to wonder if these are the more important though as Ed also is looking into MLA wages and perks, after Danielle released her new task force.

What I do like about these task forces is that they are appointing industry people to review and put forward the ideas for good policy. We as members may or may not agree with them, but to see the WRA putting the effort in to design a set of policies by the industry experts is an approach that will propel the party in the coming years. I would like to see where they go with the micro-generation and green technologies that are rapidly gaining traction in many other places.

It will be most interesting when they release the health task force and the education task force to see who will be heading them up. The party has many members from the education and health fields that would be excellent for developing policy, so I will chomp at the bit until these are set up.

The party is not fizzling and dying as many expected after the leadership campaign, in fact it is picking up steam. We have been setting up numerous constituency associations, I attended the one set up last night in my constituency signing up new members as well. If Danielle can keep her foot on the gas we will be ready for the election in 2012, our dedicated members are working double time to ensure this. I hope that the PC party remains arrogant and dismissive of the WRA, underestimating that Albertans want change. The only thing Ed and company seem to see as a problem is the media, blaming them at nearly every event.

Fiscal Follies

Yesterday it was announced that the deficit will now be closer to the update in April. Ummm.. YAY?

When each fiscal update has been announced the GOA seems to fluctuate by a couple of billion dollars each time. Close enough for you? Not me, the problem is not the revenues with our budgets, as many like to believe, rather the uncontrolled spending. Don't get me wrong I am not one who would like to see the slash and cut method of getting things in order. The thing that bothers me is how did we hit this point. The government puts together a budget every year to decide our income also where and how much we will spend of the monies.(held in trust on behalf of the taxpayers.)

In the years past no one has questioned the government and their ability to forecast where Alberta is financially. For years they have enjoyed the benefit of being out on their numbers, sometimes to the tune of over $6 Billion. We never said a word and accepted it as a bonus. Realistically we should have been asking the hard question such as how can we be so far out. If it is based solely on our Oil and Gas industry, relying on the volatile prices then the province better diversify.

Back to the spending, it strikes me as odd that all of a sudden we can cut deals with drug manufacturers, consolidate and improve our health system for a far less cost, and lower our overall costs. Wow all of these things with no infringement on our services. If this is the case then why did they let the spending get this out of control? The only reason I can see is they didn't care because they were swimming in cash. If we had limited our spending to the inflation and population growth years ago then when these tough times came we would not be having the discussions on cuts and where they need to be made. The sustainability fund was designed for this, but we have a $4-$10 billion dollar deficit depending on what numbers they use that day. If this fund is to sustain the level of service why do we have to cut? Bill 50 is on the table for our power upgrade to the tune of $16 Billion, did this just happen overnight or maybe we could have budgeted for this over the last many years.

To sum it up our GOA for so many years has lacked the foresight to plan the infrastructure for our province. They have no clue on budgeting, no plan going forward, no new ideas when it comes to health care and education, and a need to be replaced. Spending the money we have put in trust with them foolishly, well I no longer trust them.

A Plea for Help.

I received a direct letter asking for any help I could raise for this family. It is a sad story of a family who's tried reaching out to our GOA health system with no luck. This article was also posted in the local paper. Luckily a US doctor has volunteered to cover the surgery itself, however the other costs associated with it need to be funded. If you could spare some money to donate, or some time to spread the word it would help this family out. Here is the letter.


November 07 /2009

We are reaching out and telling our story in hopes of raising enough money to get brain surgery that our son so desperately needs. Our Goal is to help our son resume the life he once had. He has been very ill for nearly five years now and we don’t know how much longer he has without getting help. We have had no help from Alberta Healthcare. Though our family Doctor has been very helpful in our struggles all of the neurologists here dismissed his problems as being likely depression or made up. We cannot imagine any teenage child making up being sick for five years.

As a mother you know when something is wrong with your child and I refused to listen to these doctors, so we took up the search on our own to save our son. We have spent the past four years searching for answers to help our son. It has meant spending thousands of dollars of our own money for different medical expenses, tests, and scans in Canada and the United States. We live on a single income, as there has to be someone with our son at all times. As parents we would do anything for our son.

Our perseverance has finally paid off; we recently found out that a Pineal Cystic tumour in Dylan’s brain needs to be removed. We knew about the cystic tumour, but all of the neurologists here refused to acknowledge that it could cause any problems. One of the many difficulties this has caused for Dylan includes extreme sensitivity to any light, which causes him to become disorientated and unable to even speak at times, as well as go into full on grand mal seizures. This has meant that he must take high doses of anti-seizure medications 4 times per day and stay in the dark as much as possible. He spends most all day light hours in his darkened room to avoid as much light as possible. Though we keep all the blinds in the house closed and as many lights as possible off, Dylan is still unable to come out of his room for any length of time. This cyst also causes him to have debilitating headaches, extreme fatigue, vision problems, lack of short-term memory, insomnia, and many other problems. Dylan has also not been able to go to school for the last four years nor is he able to do home schooling. In our research we have discovered that left untreated this May be fatal.

Prior to Dylan getting sick he was a vibrant young boy who loved to ride his dirt bike, Paint Ball, Snowboard, Swim, was on the school rugby and track teams, Played in the school band, was learning to play electric guitar, and game to try anything. Dylan was always an excellent student had many academic awards; he loves math and science especially. He placed 1st all the way to the regional science fair two years in a row. His teachers always commented about “what a pleasure he was to have in their class.” And how quickly he seemed to make friends, and was somewhat of a leader that the other kids were drawn to. Dylan had chronic ear infections for most of his life and his teachers always commented that though he missed quite a bit of school as a result of this he never had any problems catching up when he returned. With all that he has been through these last few years, though he is becoming frustrated he still has a drive to succeed and has not given up on himself.

We have watched our son go from having an extremely active and rewarding life to now spending his days suffering in the dark. It is as though he is being held in solitary confinement enduring punishment for a crime he did not commit. Dylan still has a zest for life and would like nothing more than to be able to return to school and learn and get on with life. This has been very stressful for our whole family to go through. We are sure that some of you can imagine the pain we go through as parents when we are unable to help our children.
We have exhausted all avenues available here to help his life return too normal. It is our wish that you will help us to give him a chance at a normal life that he so greatly deserves, by helping us raise the money to take him to the Skull Base institute in Los Angeles California. USA. So that he can have this cyst removed.

To watch your child in so much suffering and pain and to see each day of his life slip away before you, never to get them back, this has been one of the most agonizing and emotional experiences a parent can go through. We have all missed out on doing many of the normal family activities that most people take for granted. Dylan so looks forward to a normal life without all of the limitations and sickness that this cyst has put on him.

The surgeon has already graciously donated his surgery fees, we still need $150'000 to cover hospital fees, medical staff, anaesthesia and some travel expenses etc. While this amount seems over whelming to one family or individual it would only take 1500 people to donate $100 each and we would have the money necessary to save our sons life. Our attempts to have our story told in mass media have fallen on deaf ears due to the fact that our family doctor though he agrees that this is an urgent situation has been told that he is not allowed to speak out on our behalf.

These two links are to two different people in the United States that have gone through this surgery and have since recovered fully to a normal life.
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2007/aug/23/a-tough-choice-suquamish-woman-chooses-surgical/
http://www.skullbaseinstitute.com/video-nbc-pineal-tumor.htm

Donations can be made at ANY Alberta Treasury Branch location, just ask to donate to the trust fund set up for Dylan Nielsen.

In Calgary people can also donate to a trust account set up at
Servus Credit Union Bowness Branch
6404 Bowness Road NW
Calgary AB T3B 0E7

Or our Mailing Address is
Box 10295
Airdrie Alberta
T4A 0H6
And cheques can be made out to Tyler or Penny Nielsen

Thank you for your generous gift, we are extremely grateful and never will your kindness be forgotten.

Sincerely yours
Tyler, Penny & Dylan Nielsen

Get Real!

I have really gotten into the social media this year and there has been no lack of opinions out there. The discussions regarding politics and our energy sector has uninformed information being tossed all over the Internet, I for one think a blog should contain some facts.

Lot's of comparisons are being tossed around regarding the royalty take on producing oil wells. Well dynamics play a huge part in deciding factors on where to spend investment money. We all hear of how Alberta is one of the safest places to invest, I however would not be scared to invest in Norway and Alaska. They are pretty safe.


Take a simple look at the amount of oil on average produced per well in conventional oil. Alberta is at the bottom of the pack with an average well producing 16 barrels per day. The same well in Norway produces 2,723 barrels per day. Take a 50% royalty rate on $80bbl. This would leave an Alberta producer with 8bbl per day for the well for a revenue of $640 per day before costs. In Norway it would leave the producer with 1,361bbl per day for the well with a revenue of $108,880.00 per day. Needless to say I would gladly pay the royalty and more in Norway compared to my well being located in Alberta, especially as an investor only. This is not rocket science this is reality.

The idea behind the NRF (New Royalty Framework) was to slow down the economy in the superheated Oil and Gas sector, produce an example from anywhere in the world where government raised taxes to slow down the economy for our own good. We voted the government in on this ridiculous policy. The greed and sense of entitlement that has been projected by some people are the same people who do not understand the industry. I am fairly confident that these people could not calculate a royalty and if you can by all means show me where I am wrong. BTW you won't BS me on the calcs as I do know this one :)

The other big misconception is that the only effect that the NRF would have was on the Oil and Gas producing companies. No one took the time to look at the other Alberta based businesses that relied on this sector for their financial well being. The service and supply companies in our energy sector spent in excess of $6 billion dollars ramping up to drill and complete 20,000 wells per year. Most of this side consisted of small businesses employing tens of thousands of Albertans, providing them with above average wages and the government with a substantial amount of tax dollars on both the personal and business side.

The construction market has also been severely impacted as the amount of money being spent by this industry has declined dramatically. Accommodation and food services in our rural towns have suffered the most, relying on the business coming to them. They can not simply pack up their business and relocate it and follow the work. Our service and supply sector however can and have already shipped some of our most efficient equipment and crews out of the province. This has pushed Alberta back about 7-10 years from what used to be a world leader in the energy technology.

Couple this all with the recession and the collapse of pricing in the natural gas sector and things are not looking great in our industry. The Enhanced Oil Recovery projects or oilsands as many call them is an entirely different industry and clarification on the two is needed. I have seen the blogs tossing around the incentives that were introduced and basing them on the oilsands. Please show me the wells Syncrude drills in Ft. McMurry to receive the royalty credits. Syncrude alone has over 5000 employees. The development group estimates for every direct job at Syncrude another 6 Albertans are employed. Add all the other oilsand jobs in and this would equate to 166000 jobs in Alberta's labor force in this sector alone. If you want to average a family of three is provided for by each job they would look after 498,000 Albertans. Go ahead and keep your criticizing though, by all means.

Since 1977 this sector has worked from providing 31% of our provincial GDP to 42% of our GDP. So why is there all the misinformation swirling around? Simple it is industry and their failure to communicate. When media calls on industry to comment they mumble away about donating this or doing that, say they are too busy and gotta go. The critics on the other hand have made the time to communicate ridiculous claims, saying what they like without any challenge, indulging in the spotlight.

The Wildrose Alliance has assembled a policy task force consisting of David Yager and David Gray. Both of these men have a great understanding of the industry and how to ensure Alberta will get the most out of our energy sector. I attended an AGM at which David Yager put forward a motion to compensate landowners with a royalty as well to include them as a partner in our resource development. This was retracted by him as he did not have time to present completed policies regarding this issue. I for one know he is not out for Big Oil's best interest, but Alberta's as a whole. It is critical to have someone who understands industry to develop policy, and I give Danielle and the Wildrose Alliance an "A" for understanding how critical this industry is to Alberta. However the party politics is for another day.

Those that think it was a wise move and feel you are not getting your "Fair Share" please show me where your entitlement is. I as an Albertan own part of the QE2 and I would like to collect my fair share on it, so the user should pay me for it. Ridiculous. Maybe show me what donations you make to your community and I could dig up the millions Encana spends in communities across the province. The amount of time and money Devon spends on social issues including the tons of food they gather each year for the food banks. How many of the critics do the same, not so many or there would be no issue. Many expect the government to fund it all and yet leave their taxes alone. Smart indeed. How much is enough for you critics, at what point does keeping Alberta employed matter, please though keep speaking on something you do not understand.
If you do understand this sector give a detailed topic and we can debate it on fact, not simply saying there are worse places to invest and we deserve more.

The Ant and the Grasshopper

CLASSIC VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

THE CANADIAN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

So far, so good, eh?

The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate, like him, are cold and starving.

The CBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper, with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table laden with food. Canadians are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty.

The NDP, the CAW and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate in front of the ant's house. The CBC, interrupting an Inuit cultural festival special from Nunavut with breaking news, broadcasts them singing "We Shall Overcome."

Jack Layton grants in an interview with Mike Duffy that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share".

In response to polls, the Liberal's draft the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant's taxes are reassessed, and he is also fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as helpers. Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

The ant moves to the US and starts a successful agribiz company. The CBC later shows the now fat grasshopper finishing up the last of the ant's food, though spring is still months away, while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he hasn't bothered to maintain it. Inadequate government funding is blamed, Bob Rae is appointed to head a commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000.

The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose, the TorontoStar blames it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity.

The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders, praised by the government for enriching Canada's multicultural diversity, who promptly set up a marijuana grow op and terrorize the community.

THE END

PC AGM Wrap Up

After the economy resolutions I decided to head outside where I ran into Hector Goudreau. I have had discussions with Hector about reforming our EI for Alberta. In May this year I provided about a 20 page report showing how much extra we as a province contribute to the system, and at the time had the least amount of returns. In June I received a response that the Premier was working on it, which I was sure to point out the ball had been dropped.

We dived into a discussion about the employment numbers released a day prior showing the unemployed rate of 7.4% in Alberta. I don't believe these are accurate number because of the amount of self employed and contractors in our province. Hector is a very personable guy, although I am not too sure he takes the position of employment minister serious enough. Returning back inside I bumped into Rob Anderson who didn't look overly impressed and made the comment we would talk later.

The day was almost done and time to sit for the meal. Going through the sponsor lists I had to question in the back of my mind if there are really favours done by our government in return. There were a few groups that came to mind right away.

1. With the backtracking on the liquor tax but not the tobacco tax these were questionable in the back of my mind: Labatts, Molson Coors, Big Rock Brewery, and the Liquor Depot.
2. With Bill 50 I wondered on TransAlta and the Capital Power Corp.
3. Farmer subsidies? Alberta Egg Producers, Alberta Chicken Producers, Alberta Turkey Producers, Alberta Hatching Egg Producers and Alberta Milk.
4. The Oil and Gas sector was down to Imperial Oil, Enbridge, and DOW.
5. The others listed were WestJet, Capri Centre, Manning Diversified Forest Products, Telus and Willson Audio Visual.

As the tables started to fill up much talk of the numbers for leadership was flowing. When the number of 77.4% support was released Ed received a very loud standing ovation from the crowd. I am sure there was much relief with the number coming in where it did. It was above the 70% benchmark set by Ralph, but not so high to say the party had no recognition of the problems. A 72- 75% may have served the Party better, however this was a significant number they received. Another question that came to mind was the other 300+ that did not vote. I personally did not see anyone from the GOC there, and wondered of the ones that stayed away which way they would vote. Once the numbers wee released Ed gave a reasonable speech taking of how they are on the right path, contradicting with the important changes he would make on his schedule. The appointments were announced and I enjoyed a great Prime rib dinner.

All in all the PC AGM was a well put together event. The people were great and MLA's made themselves available. Some of the meeting rooms were small and the Resources only being available in a small room one time was a disappointment, but there was plenty of room on the others. Ed, I would say, gave some of his best speeches ever and even managed to stay on topic. The party faithful have spoken and Ed is the man to lead the party, dissent in the party ranks was over rated. I wish Ed and his party all the best in the future, but with the stay the course decision I have to work on the other options. Thats a WRAP!

@dennyholmwood Heres your five minutes.

Mr. Holmwood,

On your blog located here you felt entitled to state your thoughts regarding my twitter post. Lets get some clarification for you. When I lived in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan I lived with a large group of reserves, which since have been posted all over the place. Some of these heroes have sustained life long injuries a person like you could not even begin to imagine. They have lost friends, had to comfort families, and lost lives themselves. Why you ask, to protect the very freedoms you used to express yourself yesterday.

Remembrance Day is a very emotional time for many families and friends of our military, which it is obvious you do not have face. The user @albertaliberals posted: " Dave Taylor on Bill 50. Watch the video http://bit.ly/2eh2u9 " at precisely 11:00am. Yes before and after they did post messages on Remembrance so the user was well aware of the day, however he must not have a clock on his computer or took the time to reflect himself (or her not too sure). To me this added to the disrespect, however an apology was dm'd to me immediately, not that I was the one entitled to it. You seemed to think there is a political twist, well my friend you are sadly mistaken. When our soldiers defend us, they do not choose only those of certain political stripes. There are all political and nationality stripes in our military, and the Alberta Liberals as a political party needs to also respect these members. Over reaction you say, I say not at all.

You say " Sure, someone is probably going to tell me that I'm being disrespectful by saying that I don't think this is that big a deal, but they're likely the same people who say that since I don't "support the troops" because I'd rather not see them dying in Afghanistan. "

I say you are entitled to your opinion, but ironically our soldiers have provided this freedom you enjoy with no recognition from you. Here are some of my views:

1. I do not have to support a war, I will however support our troops.
2. I would rather stand behind our troops than in front of them.
3. I will pay my respects to the fallen and existing troops and teach my children to do the same.
4. I believe it is a "big deal", as you put it, for these people to put their lives on the line for me
5. Remembrance day is also to honor our veterans, many which lost their lives fighting for our freedoms, your reference to Afghanistan shows how little knowledge you have on what this day means
6. I believe you are entitled to your opinion as is everyone else.

In short Mr. Holmwood I will hold any political party showing disrespect accountable whether you agree or not. It is sad that a young man as yourself has not been taught to appreciate what is provided by others to you. I have to assume it is not your fault and this is the way you were brought up. Thanks for your opinions, too bad you speak of what you do not know. But still here are your five minutes.

This is a Day of Remembrance

Today is not a day of politics, just a day off work, or a time to worry about our own bitches and gripes. Today is a time to pay tribute to our fallen soldiers as well as our current soldiers who protect the very freedoms we enjoy daily. Whether you agree with the battles we chose or not, here are the many brave men and women who put their lives on the line that we must acknowledge. They leave behind their families and friends to ensure our nation is safe and secure, giving us the lives so many of us take for granted. For these people I ask you to set aside some time at the 11th hour and pay your respect, certainly you have the time.

I will not post any further blog today and this will be the one day I will moderate comments. Any kind words for our soldiers will be posted, any thing else deleted.

Remembrance Day Poem

The sound of guns,
The path of tears
I can’t even imagine
All of their fears

They had no choice,
They had to fight,
But only because
They knew what was right

With bodies’ around them
Of people they knew,
And the thought in their head
‘It could be you’

They needed to win,
And end this war
And the thought of giving in
Seemed closer than before

But still they went on
Fighting strong and proud
Knowing one day
It’d be celebrated out aloud

They gave up their lives,
And suffered long
Just to know that one day
Canada would be this strong


By: Kaitlin Jefferson

My Weekend At The PC AGM (part 2)

I will get back to my views on the AGM shortly first I would like to address the latest from the PC juggernaut.

Jonathon Denis, Kyle Fawcett, Doug Griffiths, and Rob Anderson have came out and openly expressed their concern with the short and long term implications of the GOA fiscal planning. One of these gentlemen is my MLA who I have beat up for over two years to come out and state the concerns we have. They deserve a huge round of applause for not drinking the kool-aid any more. They are not leaving the party or crossing the floor, they are simply addressing the concerns that matter to their constituents, something they needed to start long ago. A positive step for the PC party even if it is only a select few.

For every good though the leadership needs to throw in the bad. It seems that even with a communications staff that exceeds the amount of MLA's in Alberta that the mainstream media is the fall of the PC government. I touched on this in yesterdays post about the whining about media, but did not realize they had the power to topple the Government. This is simple because they can't. The leader of this party makes it more and more obvious how out of touch with reality he really is. As taxpayers we funded a prime time spot at a cost of over $140,000.00 for Ed to get his uninterrupted message out. He may as well of set up a kool-aid stand for the amount of people that drank it. Either Ed is out of touch or he needs to surround himself with a better advisory panel, fire and restructure the communications dept., and concentrate on the issues that are important to the voters(that's me and you). I doubt he earned any points with the mainstream media and now to expect no bias from them would be foolhardy. Anyway back to the AGM.

This was the first time I had met with Ron Liepert face to face and I had formed my opinion of him quite some time ago. I had thought him to be a cocky and arrogant man watching him in the Legislature and when talking to the media so having him at the table was of no excitement to me. While we listened to the lunchtime Q and A with the premier I made a wisecrack asking him if he was missing the spotlight. A quick roll of the eyes was the only response I received. When another at the table brought up some of the H1N1 concerns he was quick to mention the media twist had much of the credit. I am not too sure if he was wanting to listen to Ed or if he simply did not want a discussion but his communication was short and chippy. I had to ask about the requests in the legislature asking for him to step down, and with a arrogant tone said I have no reason to worry about job security, no one else wants it. At this time he excused himself from the table to head over to the Black Knight Inn to chair the meeting on Health in Alberta. My opinion of Ron Liepert has not changed, I find him arrogant and cocky still. This being said I would also think you need a certain amount of thick skin and self esteem to run this portfolio, however giving attitude when questioned is not the way to go. Lunch had finished so we thought we would head over to the Blackknight Inn and listen to the spiel on health care.

When we arrived the room was already fairly full and Ron and a panel consisting of Dr. Raj Sherman, Fred Horne, and the other I think was Tony Vandermeer, though I never caught the name. Ron chaired the meeting and we hit the open mike portion. There were many good questions tossed and a couple of people representing the pharmacists questioned the minister on compensation for the new roles they would play in the health system. No solid answers were given outside of the GOA would work with them and they did not foresee any problems arising. A young student in nursing stepped up to the mike and mention wellness starts with prevention in the first place. He asked minister Liepert what the GOA is doing to promote the healthy lifestyle needed to prevent needing the system in the first place. IMAO this was an excellent question. I don't think Liepert understood the question at all and danced around rambling about another issue all together. The young gentlemen listened and when Ron was finished asked him if he could answer his question and repeated it. I think Ron was embarrassed and made light of it before Fred Horne came up to the mike and addressed the question reasonably well. Listening to the presentation I almost began to think that they may have the system figured out. Fred Horne was by far the best speaker present and seemed to have done his homework on the issues, I was quite impressed. Then Ron Liepert took the mike and brought me back to reality with the comment that our health care system was not broken. He claimed the problem was wait times and Dr. Duckett had a plan being implemented to fix it. HUH! Our system is fine it's just delivery? So much for my sense of security. Too many times I have heard the party would fix this system, so to hear it again would be something I ignored completely. It was getting close to time to vote on the resolutions for the economy so I made my way back to the Capri. While leaving the health forum I couldn't help but notice how many were waiting to get in. Again much too small a room for the amount of people.

Once I was back to the Capri I bumped into Rob Anderson who wanted to ensure I would be voting on the economy resolutions, trying to garner support for the conservative voice. Once inside Ted Morton sat at the table, I like Ted and have tremendous respect for his views on fiscal responsibility. To my surprise he looked around the room before the first vote and leaned into his wife and said I don't feel like being here let's go. Odd. I absolutely agreed with the first motion set forth by Airdrie-Chestermere constituency of limiting Government spending to growth plus inflation. This was the first one up on the list and I thought it would be a shoe in since Ed had said they were looking to do the same thing during his speech the night before. The call for the vote came and to my surprise it was voted down. Wow, was I shocked. Next was spending more on government communications, something we spend a massive amount on already. I voted against, but of course this passed easily. A couple of buffer resolutions went by as well as a withdraw from Edmonton Castles Downs. When we hit the resolution for Grande Prairie Wapiti in which the call was made to drain the sustainability fund and borrow money because of the low cost of borrowing I had to speak my 2 cents worth. Not only will we be using a large portion of the sustainability fund for this years deficit already, draining the remainder and borrowing to boot would be foolhardy. We have not contributed to the heritage fund for some time which was designed to leave revenue for future generations once the energy revenues were diminished. To my disgust the resolution passed easily, so at this time I made a few choice words at my table and left the meeting. It was obvious the fiscally conservative were not here. By this point I was fuming and considered leaving to go home, however I stayed.

My Weekend At The PC AGM (part 1)

Friday I couldn't attend the festivities, but from what I was told the nightlife was the highlight of the day. I will have to break this into a couple of separate posts as I don't have time today to do it all at once.

Saturday morning I ensured I was there bright and early, arriving at 7:00 am to register and mingle. I had decided to keep a completely open mind at the AGM and try to bring a positive change to the party with the votes I placed at the resolutions. The first thing I noticed was all of the support Ed posters from the Cardston-Taber-Warner constituency, I guess with such a tight race between Paul and Broyce in 2008, the premier probably had influence on the outcome. The first one to come and greet me was Jim Campbell and I was ushered to the registration table. Once registered I was quickly moved across the room to pick up a ballot for the leadership. I put it in my notebook and a gentlemen behind the table said there was not point waiting to cast the ballot. I told him in good time I would, he was not amused and said "You are already here you may as well get it done". I continued walking away to find a seat to view what the package included, but so far I was not off to a very comfortable start.

While reading the package I was completely amazed at the I support Ed buttons people at the convention were wearing.(sorry no luck, I declined) Immediately beside the entrance when you walk in was the table set up to purchase the items bearing the PC brand. Coffee had yet to be set out so I decided it would be a good time to wander down the hall and buy one from the restaurant. By this time a few people were showing up and ballots were quickly being cast on whether or not to hold a leadership vote. I talked with Dave Hancock, who was with his daughters, briefly and decided to make my way over to the morning plenary. There were probably around 300 members here at this time and I grabbed a table. The majority of the discussion for this revolved around communication methods and ideas for the party to communicate. No suggestions for blogs that I recall. The younger crowd wanted e-mail and face book as the means of communication because they wouldn't answer their cells with an unknown number, the older folks argued traditional mail was the way to go because they were not computer savvy, and some just wanted to leave it as telephone. This conversation circled around for the better part of the meeting before a meaningful comment regarding communication came up. The member mentioned that when sending letters in asking for clarification on issues, the party replied with the most generic mail you could imagine. He was then told that they are working to get the infrastructure in place to address all concerns not being answered. Yeahhh... Then the wonderful topic on how Ed would be trying to use social media to communicate was brought up, a member quickly pointed out that if it is not genuine from the premier not to waste the time as people could see through it. Myself- Ed actually on twitter, facebook, and e-mailing members is well-probably not in the best interests of the party.

You think your bored with this post so far, you needed to be with me at the AGM at this point. While looking around I noticed Cormac MacSweeny from 660 news had shown up, as I know him well I thought I would greet him and chat for a few. After yakking a while he asked if he could interview me, I told him that out of respect for my MLA I was keeping a low profile. By now it was close to 9:20 so I wandered out to the lobby for coffee. All around the coffee pots were the sponsorship signs for coffee from DOW chemicals and Enbridge. Guess there is still a bit of oil patch funding for this. By now there were many members showing up and the foyer was full. My next meeting I planned to attend was on resource and environment resolutions at 10 so I figured I would mingle some more. Lindsay Blackett was wandering around and Guy B. had shown up but quickly went into one of the restaurants. I was approached by a very chatty person by this time and notice it was almost 10. I quickly made my way over to the Palermo Room to vote on the resolutions. Wouldn't you know it-no room. All of the other resolutions had sessions in the afternoon and morning-Resources had only the one, and in the smallest meeting room to boot. How convenient, my open mind was leaving quickly. I decided to cast my ballot on the leadership at this point. I went to the table by the ballot box the place my X. Much to my surprise the wording on the balot was along the line whether or not to vote on a leadership convention There was no privacy at all, and the ballots had numbers and were initialled which I overheard some complaining about, me I could have cared less who knew how I voted.

I thought I would wander over to the seniors care room and was approached by Wayne Cao the MLA for Calgary-Fort, great. Don't get me wrong Wayne is the most genuine, happy, and pleasant MLA I have ever met, but can he ever talk. After about 20 minutes I was rescued by another fellow I know and we proceeded outside to pay some sin tax. By now the morning sessions were about wrapped up so we went back to the foyer where we bumped into Mel Knight. My friend knew Mel and also knew of the past between Mel and myself regarding the royalty issues, so being a smart ass he said hi and proceeded to ask Mel if he had met me yet. Mel insincerely said it was nice to see me again, we quickly went to the topic of Bill 50 and power generation. Mel was not comfortable with the conversation at all and I could tell I was trying his patience with my questions. Once I asked about whether or not building natural gas power generation stations closer to the larger centres rather than spending it all on transmission lines could be a reasonable solution he curtly responded for me to build them then. Once I had calmed him down a bit he informed me natural gas electricity was too expensive and that's why the coal were still being used. I must not have been enjoying the conversation either because I made the mistake of pointing out the royalties paid on coal, the emissions from coal, and the abundance of gas which made him scoff and off he stomped. Another usual discussion with Mel for me.

Lunch time was approaching so I went to the trade centre and grabbed a table with my friend. We were joined by a lady that lobbied the GOA for education and her husband who was a strategist. While we were engaged in a conversation regarding health care over dinner wouldn't you know it another group joined my table. I was not overly happy about this since it was... Ron Liepert.