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

Arthur Kent: You Picked the Wrong Party

Arthur Kent is an angry man. The former news anchor and Calgary based journalist wants to sue Don Martin for defamation because of Martin's articles during Alberta's last provincial election. Martin's articles appear in the Calgary Herald and the National Post, and usually amount to little more than empty headed cheer leading for conservative politicians.

Kent ran in the Calgary Currie riding against Liberal Dave Taylor, a former radio talk show host and the incumbent. I remember thinking that the race between those two would be quite close and interesting. They're both smart guys with a lot of media experience. However, Kent ran a really poor campaign and lost the election.

I remember the article Martin wrote. He referred to Kent as a dud, playing on his nickname as the Scud Stud. So now Kent blames Martin for hurting his chances in the election by picking on him in a vapid smear piece.

I still think Kent is a smart guy and he nailed it at his press conference announcing his law suit, as paraphrased by Fast Forward:

At the news conference where he announced his latest lawsuit, Kent also had harsh words for his former boss, Premier Ed Stelmach. The Conservative leadership, Kent says, is “militantly adverse” to change and is surrounded by a “patronage web” of lobbyists and corporate sponsors that make it difficult for new voices in the party to be heard.

That's probably the best summation of Ed & Company you will ever see. Memorize it.

I think its fairly obvious what happened. I mean aside from a principled person running for an unprincipled party. He was a high profile candidate but not part of the Tory inner circle. So they hung him out to dry. Insecurity and fear of outsiders I presume.

Ed to Don: Well done. Thanks a bunch. Please recommend this post