Calgary West Keeps Anders With Reverse Onus

The Conservative Party in Calgary West sent out just under 100,000 ballots to determine if a nomination challenge should be held. Although Conservative opponents of Rob Anders won almost all positions on the riding board at the last AGM, they faced an uphill battle. For one thing the challengers allege the incumbents withheld membership lists so they could not contact people. Another problem was the requirement of a 2/3 majority if the vote occurred.

But here's the nice part. If you did not return your ballot you were counted as a no vote. Reverse onus, just like the Cable Companies or a terrorism suspect. Harper is obviously protecting Anders because they share an almost identical world view.

Obviously I don't want these people anywhere near Canadian Democratic reform.

I really don't care if the Conservatives run Rob Anders or Donna Kennedy-Glans in the riding. Same problem different face.

The real challenge in Calgary West has not changed: take the riding away from the Conservative Party. And to do that you will need a coalition candidate and an electoral agreement among 3 parties. Please recommend this post

Ed's Fake Outrage. Or Inherit the Tory Wind

Ed Stelmach stormed out of the Legislature today because of a poorly thought out taunt by Liberal MLA Dave Taylor. Taylor's reference to the Scope's Monkey trial went over the head of Stelmach. Although the taunt was ill-advised it did have its own wit. When Taylor was a talk show host on the local Corus station he routinely talked over the heads of the mostly conservative audience.

Later in today's session, Taylor apologized. Hopefully the Health Minister was watching and learning.

I'm surprised that Stelmach has not yet flown into a rage over Ezra Levant's comment about Lindsey Blackett being an uppity token. Waiting... Waiting...

The hackneyed shenanigans of Question Period aside, I have really deep concerns about creating a new category of human rights that have to do with parental objections to school curriculum. Parents have had this right since the 1960's. Any one my age clearly remembers the first sex ed class where the kids with chin beards and bonnets got up and left.

If I understand the legislation correctly students who are exempted from, for example, evolution theory in biology class, cannot be punished academically. This will create a huge dilemma for the teacher and the curriculum writers. If you follow the strategy of creationists in the United States, their goal is to get public school boards and public post-secondary institutions to put Creationism on a peer to peer level with Biology, Chemistry and Geology. "Parental rights" will no doubt lead to curriculum dilution or injection of pseudo-science. At which point the Government will conveniently shrug its shoulders and say human rights, what can you do.

The whole thing is deeply suspicious, and occurs at a time when Alberta schools need to be better managed, better funded, and when our scientific literacy needs to be raised.

I do not trust the Alberta Government on issues like this. They are poor strategists and never see the coming train wreck. Please recommend this post

Maude was Better than Golden Girls

When celebrities like Bea Arthur die it gives us pause to think about our own journey. The TV was on a lot when I was growing up, and it was the backdrop to every stupid decision I made. Sort of creepy that way.

I came of age in the 70's. People in my age group generally think TV was better in the 70's than the 80's. To me the 80's on TV was a horrible pit of narcissistic despair.

All in the Family was the first show I really remember that made me think about the world. Maude, who was originally Edith's cousin on AITF, was the first feminist I ever saw. They gave Bea Arthur the Maude show because she was too large a personality to co-exist with Archie. Apparently Carroll O'Connor had a fairly big ego.

Golden Girls had excellent writing, biting sarcasm, and chemistry that reminds me of Seinfeld. However, if I have to watch re-runs I'd watch Maude any day. The episode I remember the most was when Maude discovered she was pregnant and there were several episodes about abortion. Strangely enough, in some ways TV was more liberated back then.

Please recommend this post

Blogging Should be Fun

I was thinking today about a time when blogging was fun for me. Before everything became a right-left hate fest. Before Stephen Harper came along and completely ruined my sense of Canada. Before Jason Kenney made me feel like a foreigner in my birth country. Before there was a daily fire hose stream of things to be angry about. Before people started waving flags like fascists and threatening to beat up people who didn't sing the national anthem the way they wanted. Before the Conservative Party and the Media killed the idea of Peace Keeping and overtly militarized our culture. Before Liberal bloggers decided that "Alberta" and "Calgary" needed to be the subject of bigoted diatribes.

It will probably get better. Things usually do. Hey, did you know that they have an International Rutabaga Curling Championship. Please recommend this post

More Alberta Sterilization

Whenever I see the words Alberta and Sterilization in the same sentence I think of Alberta's eugenics program the Alberta Social Credit Party thought up in the 1930's. This program was ended by Peter Lougheed in 1972.

But no, this time it had to do with another controversy about patient care and proper sterilization. A clinic in Calgary began charging $5 or $10 fees to patient to cover the expense of sterilizing instruments used during the patient's visit.

Naturally there was a negative reaction. By the end of the day the College of Physicians & Surgeons ordered the clinic to stop collecting this fee.

What surprised me about the social media reactions, and the MSM reactions is that few really understood the background of this problem. In early 2007 a small town Hospital in Vegreville Alberta was found to be following insufficient sterilization techniques. Further investigation revealed that a significant number of patients were probably infected with HIV/Aids and or Hepatitis. The Government has yet to reveal any figures on how many innocent patients were infected. As far as I know, no one was fired.

As a result of this and other similar problem, the Government began a lets get really really serious about sterilization now program. This resulted in Clinics being forced into buying more modern equipment. Hence the Calgary Clinic trying to find a way to cover its costs.

My question is fairly simple. How can a modern Health Care System, populated by well educated medical professionals fall down on something as basic as germ control. The two basic problems are transparency and management. In 2007 no one really knew the extent of the sterilization problem and could not find out. The Health Board that ran the Vegreville Hospital was made up of Political Appointees. The Government protected its appointees, who were ultimately accountable.

I don't really see where anything has changed since 2007.


Some links:
CBC Clinic Charges Sterilization Fee
Vegreville Hospital
Some other possible related links Please recommend this post

Alberta Libraries get $9 Million Dollars

I woke up this morning at 5am for no particular reason. Apparently this is a sign of old age or something. I blearily and misguidedly checked my email and news feed quickly - something I have repeatedly told myself is inadvisable before noon.

I read the CBC headline that the Alberta Government was announcing another $9 million dollars in funding for Alberta's public libraries. My brain translated the headline to "Alberta Liberals". I thought it was strange, and in the stupor I was in I spent the next couple of hours thinking weird thoughts like where did the Alberta Liberals get $9 million dollars. Will this level the playing field? Is that a lot of money? Where are my pants? etc etc.

I woke up later and realized how very confused I was. Libraries. Not Liberals. Not that I wouldn't want the Alberta Liberals to get $9 million dollars. If the Alberta Liberals had $9 million dollars they could buy the next election and deport Stelmach.

In spite of our affluent societies our libraries need more than $9 million dollars. For example, all the libraries in Calgary have had a public wireless network for a few years, but few of them have places to plug notebook computers in. Retrofitting to online collections is now also a big trend with libraries and expensive. And then there are all those literacy and reading programs, and ESL tutoring - all done by volunteers.

I'm glad they got the money, especially during a time when the Alberta Government has absolutely no idea how to manage money and resources.

This additional funding takes some of the burden off me to continually pay those hundreds of dollars in late fees. I hope they spend the money wisely and not on silly christian novels about the rapture or Miss Marple DVD's. Please recommend this post

Rare Methadone Clinic Killed By Aldermen

The Second Chance methadone clinic, which has been operating for some time in an industrial area of north east Calgary will be forced to close its doors. The Alderman of the area used zoning BS to force the closure of the clinic.

Not only that, when the clinic was close to finding a new location in south east Calgary, the Alderman for that area apparently strong armed the prospective landlord into backing out of the lease.

Whereas the City of Calgary apparently has an unlimited supply of cash and time to play these games, the clinic has no resources to defend.

What are these Alderman thinking? How many votes will they gain in exchange for creating extreme hardship for about 500 hard drug addicts.

There is only one other methadone clinic in Calgary, downtown at the Sheldon Chumir Clinic. But since it is run by Alberta Health, those 500 addicts cut adrift would likely not get any help going there. I guess they'll end up in either the remand centre or an emergency ward.

I really think this will have some negative outcomes for Calgary.

h/t to CBC Calgary Story. Please recommend this post

Didn't see the punch line coming at all

And as a result, I spit juice all over my precious little notebook.



I thing I've crossed over into lazy blogger bing bong town. Please recommend this post

Hail The New Nationalism

Last week Calgary's Mount Royal College inadvertently drew the attention of hyper-nationalist goons by thinking out loud about whether to fly a Canadian Flag in a building operated by the Student's Association.

The building used to have a huge flag hung from the roof, but it was taken down for renovations. When the renovations were complete the issue of hanging another flag was discussed. One student expressed the view that the flag was exclusionary. The student for what I now see are understandable reasons, made the comment anonymously.

As a post-secondary institution they should have an open and honest discussion about hanging the flag. Many of those students are probably history majors who are familiar with the various fascist movements of the 20th century and know the basic components of fascism, including flag waving and the coercive worship of external symbols.

Although Canada isn't a fascist state yet, more and more I grow uneasy seeing the immense amount of ugly mob pressure to fly a flag or sing anthems. Erik Millett, a school principle in New Brunswick, and who dared to change the anthem singing schedule of his school, was harassed, bullied, and threatened with violence and death. Now he can no longer continue in his job because he is too traumatized. (link)

If the non flying of a flag, or the non singing of an anthem makes you threaten someone's life, you're not a real Canadian, barely a human being, and you should get help. Or just fuck off to some third world country where you'll socialize better.

Of course the shrill moralistic bullies at the Calgary Herald had to wade into the Mount Royal debate, even though it was an issue the students can easily work out on their own. The title of the op-ed Fly Our Flag says it all. Its an imperative. An or else demand. In a low point, even for the Herald, the op-ed author rips the anonymous student who made the original comment:

Finally, it is the flag of a people who believe men and women have the right to speak their opinions without fear, and therefore unlike the Mount Royal complainant, need not hide behind the cloak of anonymity.

The funny but sad part of that unnecessary attack is that the editorial is unsigned. However, given its dumbness, meanness, and the non-nonsensical meandering style, I would bet it was written by Corbella.

The usual pile of thugs, commenting in the online edition, demand that the student go back where he/she came from. That, without knowing anything about the origins or national identity of that person.

The Canadian Flag means a lot to me. I feel a lot of positive emotions whenever I see it flying somewhere. And that's in spite of Stephen Harper ripping the fabric of this country apart. What I won't do is wave the flag in someone Else's face and force them to worship it. Please recommend this post

Law Abiding Gun Owners

Case 1:

Last weekend Brian Knight, a farmer near Bashaw, Alberta saw three men on his property at 2am. Two of the men fled in their vehicle, the third fled stealing one of Knight's Quads. I fully understand how frightening this might be, and the criminal code does allow reasonable force to be used in self defense.

However, Mr.Knight jumped in his vehicle and chased the Quad thief down the secondary roads, shooting at him and ramming him with his truck. The thief was shot and sent to hospital. The RCMP arrested Knight and charged him with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, assault and dangerous driving. The other 2 thieves were caught and charged.

Knight's illegal and dangerous over-reaction could have killed a neighbor, a police officer, or even the thief. If you think a Quad is worth more than a human life then you are a sick human being. Worse than the thief actually.

Not surprisingly Knight is being turned into a folk hero. Apparently we're supposed to admire people with loose screws who take off down the highway shooting at petty criminals. One more reason to believe that Corus talk radio is sick and pathologically irredeemable as a social media.

I guess this is why the Firewall letter writers advocate for kicking the RCMP out of Alberta and replacing them with an Alberta Police Force. If you had a local police force that reported to the Alberta Tory party then you could just ignore inconvenient parts of the criminal code. One of my favourite movies was Norman Jewison's In the Heat of the Night. Good story, bad model for policing.

Case 2:

Dr. Ted Morton probably thought he was being funny with this photo op:



He obviously didn't listen in gun safety training. You never ever ever point a gun at anything unless you are intending to shoot it. Never.

It sends the wrong message and most of the people who adore Morton are laboring under some serious deficits as it is. Its not funny. Its irresponsible. And I also get the subtle political message. Thanks.

Consider also that the Alberta Government, under Morton's initiative uses tax dollars to promote hunting as a life style. Because you can never have a big enough intrusive government that spends public money to tell us what's fun.

Case 3:

A man in Edmonton very nearly shot his balls off playing with his gun. Better his balls than his wife or two young kids. He then wasted the time of the Police claiming a burglar had shot him.



Say no to dismantling our gun laws and registries. Please recommend this post

Dear Minister Kenney

Dear Minister Kenney,

A month or so you flippantly assured an audience that everything would be fine with the economy because Stephen Harper was a trained economist. That kind of thing must play well to your uninformed fan boys in Ontario, but many of us scratched our heads. Aside from being completely wrong about the direction of the economy you probably well know that Stephen Harper never actually worked as an economist. I understand his MA work was mostly in the area of political communication. By the way, I have a lot of respect for people who undertake graduate education, that is not really the issue. I think it is another example of ridiculous political language being used to mislead people.

On another topic, Dr. Tom Flanagan, Myron Thompson and Dr. Ted Morton are all Americans who emigrated to Canada. It occurs to me that these three have really not integrated well into Canadian culture.

Dr. Flanagan apparently doesn't know that our forefathers signed legally binding treaties with aboriginal people, or that those same aboriginal people actually value their indigenous languages and cultures. Most school children know this.

Mr. Thompson apparently believes homosexuals should not be allowed to be teachers, that sodomy should be re-criminalized and that capital punishment should be re-instated.

Dr. Morton seems to be an antigay activist who was also one of the principal authors of the Firewall Letter, which I'm sure you're familiar with.

It doesn't seem to me these men have integrated really well into our way of life. I'm sure you'll want to review their files.

I'm sorry to hear your car was broken into. Perhaps the thief was looking for that elusive Canadian identity you think everyone else should conform to. Please recommend this post

Insomnia and Art

I was up late looking at various art on the interweb tubes and came across M.C. Escher's Hand with Reflecting Sphere For some reason this drawing always reminds me of Christmas. Weird how things get wired in your brain. Its one of my favourites among Escher's many works that pushed the viewers perceptions of the spatial.

I find it amazing how he can so accurately reproduce the reflection. Please recommend this post

The Bishop of Death and Ignorance

Via CBC Calgary,

An annual fundraiser held by local Catholic teachers in support of an international AIDS charity is on hold after Calgary's Catholic bishop objected to its promotion of birth control.

For the last five years, the Calgary Catholic Teachers' Association has held a fundraiser during Lent for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which supports women and children living with HIV/AIDS in Africa, and also runs campaigns to prevent the deadly disease.

More and more you read these stories with an astonishing sense that this can't possibly be happening. This was the same Bishop who obstructed the Gardasil vaccinations of young women because he imagined it would turn them into sluts. (I fully supported parental consent. That was never the issue.)

I'm not sure how much money the teachers could raise for Stephen Lewis, maybe its not all that significant in the bigger view. However there is an issue here of ignorance and religion based cruelty. Death is not an acceptable outcome for some poor person merely because of their choice of birth control or life style. It would be petty and ignorant, and in some cases illegal, for me to let someone die merely because I disapprove of their life.

Religious institutions sometimes act like cults. They need to be turned upside down so authorities can be held accountable for promoting death over life.

If those educators cannot raise money for a more than worthy cause, then I sure hope they are allowed to teach their students about AIDS/HIV both from a social and scientific point of view. We can't afford another ignorant generation.

Link: The Stephen Lewis Foundation

Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me. Please recommend this post

Wild Rose Anthology.

Another great Anthology of short stories written by Alberta writers. The collection is edited by George Melnyk and Tamara Palmer Seiler both academics and authors based at the University of Calgary. Nice to see the U of C get noticed for something other than pro-war think thanks.

The contributing authors include: Ninoxkyaio, Mary Schaffer, Fred Stenson, Monica Hopkins,Georges Bugnet, Illia Kiriak, Christine van der Mark, Kerry Wood, Henry Kriesal, George Ryga, W.P. Kinsella, Andy Russell, Howard O'Hagan, Sheila Watson, Sid Marty, Thomas Wharton, Rudy Wiebe, Katherine Govier, Cherly Foggo, Sam Selvon, Joy Kogawa, Robert Kroetsch, Aritha van Herk, Myrna Kostash, Hiromi Goto, Hugh Dempsey, W.O. Mitchell, Emma Lee Warrior, and Thomas King.

There's a few authors here that are new to me. Thomas Wharton and Christin van der Mark are authors whose novels I now want to read. van der Mark wrote her first novel Due Season in the late 1940's and was probably overshadowed by W.O. Mitchell who wrote Who Has Seen the Wind around the same time.

I like Alberta and Canadian fiction. They usually hit a sweet spot when they are well written and are set in your own back yard.

ISBN 1-55238-079-3 Published by University of Calgary Press.

Possible maybe related posts. Please recommend this post

Edmonton Oilers Fans March Discontent

Its like this every spring for Oilers fans. After the last 2 disastrous losses the Oilers must get at least 6 points in their remaining 8 games to make the NHL playoffs. Unlikely I think.

There are 5 teams competing for the last two play-off positions. It may come down to the last game of the year. It doesn't help that the Oilers play back to back games with the Calgary Flames. The Flames have a lock on their playoff spot but they derive motivation from beating Edmonton, especially if they can knock them out.

A more likely scenario is the Oilers will be edged out by the result of games they don't even play in.

It might be better if they don't make the playoffs. They are due for a major restructoring and its probably time to try some new approaches. When you think about it, all the 80's feel good nostalgia and banner raising, as inspirational as it is, has not done a single thing to improve the on ice product. Please recommend this post

Mob Mentality Trumps Free Speech

An Edmonton comedy club has cancelled upcoming appearances by an American comic who mocked the Canadian military on the Fox Television show Red Eye.

Doug Benson was scheduled to do five shows at The Comic Strip in West Edmonton Mall next month, but owner Rick Bronson cancelled the gigs after the club received some unsettling calls and emails.

"Too many of them were too threatening in nature," Bronson said.

Before Benson and his partner started trashing the Canadian Military on their overnight Fox shock show, Benson should have checked his itinerary for his stand-up act. He was scheduled to appear at a comedy club in West Edmonton. He might have also observed that Edmonton hosts one of the largest military bases in Canada, which is within artillery distance from West Edmonton Mall. Also, lets not forget there are more than a few grieving military families in Edmonton.

I thought that the Canadian response to Benson's clownish show was a bit much. This is what Fox does. They bait people to get a response. In this respect they are not unlike the Toronto based National Post or the Toronto based Sun Media. They are half wits that can't really contribute anything so they push buttons.

The manager of the club had no choice to cancel the act, however it would have made good theatre to see Benson try and manage an Edmonton crowd. This is the ultimate test of every comedian, to win a crowd of obnoxious drunks.

But we'll probably never know since scores of goons in Edmonton made threats of violence resulting in the cancellation. They're probably keyboard cowards, but small businesses can't afford the risk.

So who has a worse pathology? The brain dead TV host or the guy who threatens violence? Please recommend this post

David Hockney's Lost Seasons

David Hockney is one of my favourite artists and photographers. He had planned to paint a series of four paintings of a stand of Beech trees near his home in Yorkshire England. Each painting was to be done in a season of the year.

The Winter and Summer paintings (above) were completed. When Hockney went to paint the next in the series he found that the stand of trees had been cut down. When I read the story I wanted to weep because I love art, photography and the dwindling number of pastoral settings.

It doesn't seem likely to me that the stand of trees were economically significant. Hopefully the owner got their 30 pieces of silver. Please recommend this post

Red River Rising

In the summer of 1997 I took a summer holiday, my first vacation in a long time. I left Calgary and camped my way down through to Sioux Falls, South Dakota because I wanted to see the Black Hills and visit a friend there. I would say I was probably fairly self-absorbed and disconnected from what was going on in the world. I had no idea of the extent of the Red River flooding that summer, and of the devastation in the Dakotas and Manitoba.

I spent the night in Sioux Falls and left early in the morning intending to drive straight to Winnipeg. I stopped for gas somewhere and found out that an elderly couple had been killed by a tornado the previous night not at all far from where I camped. The dude looked at me like I was a moron when I told him where I had camped. Note to self: Get a good camping radio, or at least check the weather warnings.

I had to pick up a few things so I stopped in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Map. I couldn't believe what I saw. They were dealing with the after math of the Red River flood when a fire broke out in the downtown area. The water problems made it almost impossible to fight the fire and a lot of the downtown businesses burned down.

It looked like a war zone and I didn't stay long. The people there were so distressed and worn out. I learned one thing about Americans. Whether they are red or blue they are one tough people. Ditto for Manitobans.

When I got back to Winnipeg and got an aerial view of the devastation and got caught up on the news I found it really astonishing. Mostly I felt pretty angry with myself for being so aloof and not being able to help in such a situation.

Right now they are sandbagging around the clock in Fargo, in a desperate attempt to get that few extra feet or inches that will save their properties and businesses. I wish I were there. Please recommend this post

Libertarian Lobbyist Can't Reason Well

Where, exactly, does the QR77 newsroom find these people:

The city's Plan It Calgary document, which promotes high density residential development in the downtown core as well as some other areas such as the Brentwood and Anderson LRT stations, has come under scathing attack. Randall O'Toole, senior fellow with the libertarian CATO Institute, says there isn't anything in the 50 year plan he likes. The $6 million strategy calls for more residential development in the downtown core partly because it will cut down on automobile use. But O'Toole says driving to work isn't such a bad thing. He says in a couple decades vehicles may be far more energy efficient and produce fewer emissions per mile than transit. O'Toole says people should be able to choose where they want to live - not be told by politicians. O'Toole was the keynote speaker at a Canadian Homebuilders Association meeting in Calgary on Wednesday.

Scathing? Oh, I'm so afraid of the Libertarian Lobbyist.

I live in the Brentwood neighborhood and there is a growing opposition movement to the city's plans to add 10,000 new units in an already congested area. I havent't decided how I feel about this yet. But I definitely don't think of it as a libertarian issue. And it is rather silly to think we can continue to add cars to the road commuting into downtown. Downtown Calgary has no space for more parking and is developing out existing parking locations in favor of office space. Its a weak point anyway, because fewer and fewer people can afford to pay the exorbitant fees to park.

Is it a libertarian priority that we double the lanes of the freeways into downtown every 10 years?

No politician is telling you where to live Randall, that's a fairly obvious lie designed to create right wing hysteria. It will probably work. Godless communists building condo's etc etc.

Its fairly easy to see this is not about political philosophy or freedom, its about lobbying for land developers. Please recommend this post

Calgary Did Not "Host" The Aryan Guard

Via LetFreedomRain blog:

What does little ol' Calgary and Israel's Um al-Fahm have in common? Both are towns that hosted right wing hate marches, one in Israel the other in Calgary.

This comparison is wrong and dishonest on so many levels I hardly know where to start. Calgary did not "host" the Aryan Guard rally on 21 March 2009. They organized it on their own and were vigorously opposed by anti-racism Calgarians who confronted them.

We have a lot of problems in Calgary, but ugly displays of racism are available in any Canadian city.

This type of comparison makes me think of Doug Benson and Greg Gutfeld talking about our military. Meanwhile, In Um al-Fahm Israeli Arabs are being harassed, denied basic rights (like voting), and being threatened. Furthermore, the Israeli nationalists harassing the Um al-Fahm Arabs are doing so with the approval of the government. Please recommend this post