When a Witch Weighs the Same as a Duck

Ed Stelmach's communication style is oblique and opaque most of the time. Opaque in the sense of being impenetrable by light. Today he all but confirmed that Stephen Duckett would be relieved of his duties as the Alberta Health Services CEO. At least that's what I read among the grimaces and incomplete sentences. I'm not surprised. Health Care is the most dysfunctional file in the Alberta Government and has been in constant churn since the end of the Don Getty era.

Duckett will be paid contract severance and we are obligated to pay to move him and his family back to Australia. (View his contract here.) On top of that, he may be able to sue for wrongful dismissal. While the cookie thing was certainly unprofessional I'm not convinced it is grounds for termination. On the other hand, the current condition of the Health Care System strongly suggests he either failed in his job, or just could not effect any good changes because of politics. In either case, I strongly suggest he was looking for an early exit anyway. It's not pleasant for a CEO to have no real control, and to work in a gong show environment.

Really, it's a failure of the whole top level bureaucracy, from the Premier downward. It's a strange feeling for me to agree with Danielle Smith on something, namely that the super board concept is a failure and needs to be disbanded. Of course, the Wildrose general philosophy about health care is very different from mine. Still, put that dog down.

One thing that did bug me, was the way Albertan's treated Dr. Duckett right from day one. Edmonton tends to be a little inward looking and Duckett wasn't really welcomed as an outsider. Furthermore, there were constant gratuitous references to his Australianness which were irrelevant and seemed xenophobic. The op-ed cartoons referencing Crocadile Dundy themes were sort of lame.

The PC Government has been fairly consistent for a long time. No matter what bad thing happens they'll use the wrong Yardstick, and the hammer will come down on the wrong person.

Please recommend this post

Link Byfield "Resigns"

Link Byfield resigned his position as one of Alberta's senators-in-waiting today. I was hoping at his press conference he might have explained why his friend Senator Bert Brown participated in a shady vote down of a House of Commons Bill, passed by an elected majority. It's extremely ridiculous that Bert Brown can never be removed from his position, which he was appointed to for life by Stephen Harper. There is no bill Parliament can pass to force a term limit on Bert Brown or any other Senator.

Alberta held Senate elections in 2004 and three people were elected to serve 6 year terms as senators-in-waiting. Upon expiry this year, Premier Stelmach declined to hold another election and instead extended their terms. Regardless of what you think of this fake Senate reform, it's worth noting that Stelmach has zero regard for any kind of political reform.

The fact that Byfield is a Wildrose Alliance executive, and a candidate for them in the next election explains why Premier Stelmach was not willing to give him a tonne of free publicity with a senator-in-waiting election. The pattern by now is very clear. Ed Stelmach puts his party ahead of every single public issue, no matter what it is.

The senator-in-waiting act is a Provincial Statute that has no meaning outside of Alberta. It was invented by Ralph Klein as a PR stunt to shore up the right side (Reformers) of the PC Party. The Senate is a national body defined in our Constitution Act. All Senators are appointed by our Head of State, on the advice of the Prime Minister, who traditionally may ask for a recommendation from a Premier. This is High School curriculum knowledge, but seems on the decline among voting adults.

The Alberta Senate elections are relatively inexpensive, harmless, and give right leaning Albertans a warm fuzzy feeling about political reform. They get poor turnout and the candidates, so far, have only been drawn from the political right. Like everything else in Alberta, you can pick the conservative, or the other conservative. Watch out for the homophobia.

In all honesty, to me they are a meaningless gong show. And for the record, I'm interested in Senate reform as an ongoing issue.

The broader issue is not Link or Ed. This issue is the deteriorating knowledge about our institutions and how they work. I meet people who honestly believe a senator-in-waiting is legally entitled to the next open Senator position.

Stephen Harper and to some extent Klein and Stelmach have worked hard to de-educate Albertans about our national institutions, in particular about how Senate appointments work.

Where this issue goes in the future is hard to say. After the next Provincial election the Alberta Legislature could be divided up among 3 right leaning parties. I think it will continue to be used as a partisan wedge issue.

The next Liberal Prime Minister will not be bound to appoint any of Alberta's senators-in- waiting. Nor will he be bound by any of Stephen Harper's fake Senate reform bills. After all, Canada is founded on a faulty constitution, and other fault lines that seem intractable.

Please recommend this post

Health Care WAP Style.

Here's a podcast of CBC Calgary's noon hour show today, featuring Danielle Smith talking about the Alberta Health Care system. It starts at around 25:40. Her critiques of the existing system are mostly right on. Everyone knows that the Stelmach government's management of the health care system is ridiculously incompetent. There are really no words to describe it.

However the Wildrose/Fraser Institutes philosophy presented here is equally as ridiculous. She really gets hammered by a number of callers who see through the BS.

An emergency hip replacement for a senior is not the same as shopping around for new vinyl siding.

Please recommend this post

God's Word on the Election

Jim Blake is the Calgary based head of Concerned Christians Canada, an Evangelical pressure group with political ambitions. Jim is none too happy about the election of Naheed Nenshi as Calgary's new mayor.

He starts off by quoting the prophet Hosea:

They set up kings without my consent;
they choose princes without my approval.

This verse is often quoted by dominion theology advocates. Democracy is displeasing to God unless you elect the one God wants. Or the one Jim and his friends want. It gets confusing. Don't laugh it's not funny. These guys are walking in and out of the Prime Minister's office and laying hands on your MP.

Jim get's to the meat of the matter:

Well we will all have to be very watchful of City hall now. Many of the worst aldermen have been re-elected and now with a Mayor who clearly has stated that he is a Muslim and an open supporter of the "Pride Parade" and therefor [sic] "alternate lifestyles", things should be very interesting.

Yes, they will be interesting. This is one little sign that my vote for Nenshi was well placed. I'm alway fascinated how one person's spiritual path turns them into a small minded bigot.

Aside: At the bottom left of the blog post there's a poll asking you to evaluate Ed Stelmach's performance. It's very strange that Alberta's worst Premier gets such a high rating from this group. Don't God's people have any discernment these days?

Please recommend this post

Three Alberta Stories

...in under 3 minutes..GO

1. Alberta Cabinet Minister Ted Morton had his brief case stolen from his car on Thursday night. The thief left the brief case outside an apartment building where a CBC employee lived, who found it and returned it. We Canadians are polite and very deferential to authority. If this had happened in the United States the documents would have been posted all over the internet and Mr. Stelmach would have to resort to a special Twitter transparency session. Its a weird story, and I take away two things, indirectly.



First Alberta seems to have no interest in whistle blowing and seem to be a-OK with their Government's absurdly high level of secrecy and non-openeness. Of course I don't suggest we steal politician's brief cases, but please tell me your at least somewhat curious as to what they're up to.

Secondly, Morton admitted that the reason he had his brief case stolen was because he left it in his car while having dinner, but not only that, that he left the car running during dinner. With the doors unlocked. It was a strange admission. What got me was the nonchalant nature, as if its normal to leave your car running for 1 or 2 hours when its not real cold out. Aside from the environmental issues I wonder who was paying for the Gasoline. This sense of disregard is more irritating to me than losing the brief case. I hope the meal was good. Mr. Morton is the minister of Sustainable Resources. I see their SUV's around Calgary from time to time.

2. Paul Stanway, Alberta's version of Ron Ziegler, will be leaving his post at the end of January. As a former publisher of the Edmonton Sun, Stanway was just what Mr. Stelmach needed - a propaganda specialist to crank out the fake realities of the Premier's world. The transition from an illiterate newspaper to the Premier's office must have been quite seamless. I wish they would stop using the word communication, or at least look up its meaning. I've never been much of a believer that this Government has any interest in dialoguing with Albertans. Mr. Stanway's job was very simple: to crudely hammer a one way message to Albertans and hope it sticks. In that respect it really doesn't matter who they replace him with. Too late to snag Duffy, but maybe Charles
Adler is available.

3. There have been two unverified sightings of Mariam Makhniashvili in Alberta. One in Okotoks, a small town about 45 minutes south of Calgary, and a more recent one in Grande Prairie, about 5 hours north of Edmonton. In both cases the RCMP have said they have no way of knowing about the reliability of the reports, but are following up the leads. People probably want to believe the story will end well. Hopefully it will. Canadians are good people and we feel each others pain. Please recommend this post

Where is Ed Stelmach? (Yawn)

Too good a graphic to waste, and so full of unintentional accuracy.

Since the beginning of the Bill 44 debate in Alberta, starting with Lindsay Blackett floating the idea to Tory fan boy Rick Bell, until the current argument about when the bill will be implemented, the Premier has been completely absent. During the historic Bill 44 debates in the Alberta Legislature the Premier didn't participate. I don't think he was even there for most of the debates. His absence was unprofessional and unparliamentary. In the meantime Blackett and Hancock spar through the media, like children, over the time frame to implement Bill 44. Hancock, after being in the party since he was 12 years old, apparently has no influence left, and bill 44 will go into effect this fall.

In the meantime, the economy has gone south. The Finance Minister managed to get though an economic update, high on rhetoric, low on facts, without insulting single mothers or double earners. (We must see the positive.) There is some reason to believe that the low price of natural gas will pin the Alberta economy in deficit for some time to come.

All of it reminds me of that scene in Rosemary's Baby where Mia Farrow finally gets what's actually happening. This is no dream! This is really happening!

So where is Ed? I don't know and I don't think it really matters much.

Update: September 7,2009

An op-ed at the Sheldon Chumir foundation by Janet Keeping, worth reading in and of itself, claims that Bill 44 will not be implemented until September 2010. Closed door top door Government - keep them guessing.

(On my fifth try now, hopefully I got the right link this time. )



Please recommend this post

BikeCam - Part 1

Experimenting with a new blogging genre called BikeCam (R). Need to work on a better narrative and some audio. First one is on one of my favorites spots, the bike path in Eau Claire.

This one is of crossing the 10th street pedestrian bridge which runs under the C-Train bridge and crosses over into Kensington. Always fun getting across here on a bike. Watch for the dudes with $10,000 worth of pop bottles.

Finally made it back to Edworthy Park Parking lot in the Park where I had parked. Trying to find where I parked and not get run over be people trying to park. For some reason people were grumpy, probably because there was no parking. Some asshat yelled at me because I wasn't clearing out fast enough for his purposes. Its a sunday, not a board meeting, GFY.

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Boutilier Should Resign

I wasn't planning on blogging about Guy Boutilier getting punted by Big Daddy. To be honest I find the internecine feuds of Alberta conservatives to be as about interesting as potatoes with no gravy.

There is a tangential issue relating to populism and the basics of what elected official are supposed to be doing for us. However, we've known for over two decades or more that the Alberta Progressive Conservatives are not a populist party. There are far more glaring examples of Alberta's need for democratic reform than a feud between these two C students.

If I were Guy Boutilier, I would resign my seat immediately and force the Premier to call a by-election in Ft. McMurray. Also, I would tender my resignation over the phone. Maybe even by text or Twitter.

Think about it. The Party would have to go into Ft. McMurray and would have to confront an angry riding association. They would no doubt have to disband Boutilier's riding association and create another one loyal to Big Daddy. Good luck with that. That town is pissed off. The entertainment value is unlimited.

In the lead up to the by-election the Health Minister could go to Ft. McMurray, hold a Town Hall and explain why they don't need a long term health care facility, and he could make amusing segues in the Q&A about how he didn't go to Harvard and didn't graduate with Barack Obama. *Sneer*. Assuming there was no riot or heckling by seniors.

I always hate to be the one that shrugs my shoulders and say, Hate to say it but I told you so. We need some change here.... Please recommend this post

Eds new BFF

The one and only sentence in the press release: Premier Ed Stelmach met with His Excellency Lan Lijun, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Canada.

In keeping with the opaque operations of the GOA, God only knows what Ed is discussing with the Ambassador of China. After Bill44, I may be better off not knowing. But they do look happy together.

Could be they're discussing China's stake in the Alberta Oil Sands.

Maybe Ed is reassuring the Ambassador that he will never ever be in a photo op with the Dalai Lama.

Maybe they're discussing ways to subvert human rights, environmentalism, or how to kill citizen engagement. China does a pretty good job of terrorizing people into silence. Maybe they're not discussing the Tiananmen Square massacre that didn't occur.

Or maybe, with the Chinese Government taking over the GM Hummer division, they're discussing plans to build a Hummer that runs on Bitumen.

All lame sarcasm aside, the fact is we'll never know what goes on in that office. Ed Stelmach campaigned on a new era of transparency, but it turns out he has a different dictionary than everyone else.

Please recommend this post

Ashamed

I stayed up late to listen to the final reading of Bill 44 in the Alberta Legislature and to follow the Twitter feeds from #ableg and #bill44.   About 1:30 MST the bill was passed 35 to 7.  Half the PC Caucus didn't bother showing up. The Premier came in late just in time to vote and didn't listen or participate in the final debate.  As an additional insult to the Opposition members they invoked closure, which may have saved them a whole ten minutes.  Petty and undemocratic.

The 7 opposition members raised one compelling argument after another against this horrible law. The government provided nothing useful, and tossed out brainless cliches like the silent majority and severely normal Albertans.  That's the problem when you govern on the advice of special interest groups, you pretty much have to turn your brain off.  

When they started talking about natural families it was a dead give away they were pandering to homophobes, but homophobes who chose to stay in the shadows.

Bill 44 is indefensible and I'm ashamed.

Please recommend this post

Vote Yes for BC STV

I wish I lived in BC so I could vote in tomorrow's election. I would definitely vote yes for the STV democratic reform. I hope it passes and incites citizen rebellion all over the country.

We are becoming increasingly linked with the world through globalization and immigration yet our political systems both provincially and federally, are rapidly falling behind the emerging standards elsewhere. We can no longer claim that we are leaders in this field.

If STV passes it may spread eastward, but it would likely fly right over Alberta looking for more fertile ground. We know without a question the the Alberta Progressive Conservatives oppose any kind of citizen engagement or electoral reform. In a place where a little over 50% of the vote gets you all but 7 of the seats, why change?

Speaking at a constituency association meeting, Ed Stelmach(R) had this to say:

But I will be perfectly clear that if some want to make changing our system of elections to a “proportional representation” system, put me on the record opposing it. As the Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, I will not make it my legacy to get more NDP or Liberal members elected. If they can win on the ground, or in the hearts of Albertans, then fine.

(Original PDF transcript of speech available on request)

Electoral reform requires ruling parties to take a chance and act like statesman for once. Its a very rare opportunity. Take it while its offered. 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

Ed "AIG" Stelmach

An excerpt from David Swann's latest blog post:

Our member from Edmonton Goldbar – Hugh MacDonald – looked into pay bonuses this week and was shocked to learn that last year about $40 million was given out in bonuses! These bonuses were given primarily to senior government employees like Deputy Ministers and Directors of Boards and Commissions. These are people who are required to work on behalf of all Albertans, not just their Minister. How free can a senior official be if he is getting thousands of dollars in bonuses based on pleasing the Minister? Tens of thousands of dollars on top of salaries of $300,000 to $400,000 per year- and all this at a time when our economy was tanking!

While the AIG executive compensation scandal was dominating the news cycle the story of Senior Alberta Tories getting $40 million dollars in bonuses was floating beneath the radar.

Its probably worth noting that these civil servants are vetted very carefully for their loyalty to the leader and to the party. In other words, the $40 million in bonuses is really another form of partisan patronage. Not unlike the lotteries system apparently.

Bad timing when you just announced you can't seem to find a couple of million dollars to make the office of the Auditor General a bit more effective.

Its ok Ed, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I'll continue to pay my provincial taxes so you have enough money to play a third world big daddy. Please recommend this post

Alberta Children and Youth Services a Mess

The Calgary Herald is calling for the resignation of Janis Tarchuk, Alberta's Minister of Children and Youth Services. Yes, you read that correctly, the Calgary Herald calling for the resignation of an Alberta Tory cabinet minister. I would have to say this is probably the first time this has ever happened. Usually they defend them.

Alberta Children and Youth services has been in a mess for many years. Rachel Notley obtained the departments quarterly reports (for internal use only) through an Access to information request. The fact that she actually got the reports was really astonishing. Someone wasn't paying attention. Usually the way it works in Alberta is the Government asks for a 50 million dollar photocopying fee or some other deterrent. Neither the Liberals or the NDP have a lot of research money to pay for these searches.

The Annual reports for the last 3 years were all tabled on the morning of the recent federal election, October 14, 2008. Apparently there are some major differences between the interal quarterly reports and the sunshiny cheerful external annual reports.

The interim reports paint a picture of a department that is not meeting the needs of children and youth who are in danger from their parents or other unacceptable circumstances.

According to today's Calgary Herald editorial:

Two separate issues are at the fore. One is the shortage of care facilities for children, as revealed by the quarterly internal reports which the NDP obtained. Non-aggressive children were housed with others labelled as sexually acting-out or aggressive. Sexually abused children were returned to parents who questioned whether the abuse was real. Children were placed with caregivers on whom inadequate background checks were done. Children were forced to remain among others who allegedly sexually abused them. Some children were left in situations where all the adults involved knew and agreed that their needs weren't being met.

The Minister replied to the allegations with the usual stuff about how the issues were not presented properly or something like that. The Premier insists the Minister is not going anywhere and that she is a paragon of child loving virtue.

One thing I'm confused about is that if the reports were filed 3 years late, then why does the Minister say that many of the accusations are not substantiated. Do I understand that to mean that it takes three years to figure out if a child is being sexually assaulted or not?

There will be no resignation. Ms. Tarchuk stares into the camera with her dull Sarah Palin expression knowing she is protected from any kind of accountability. Now that I think about it, I really can't ever remember a Alberta Tory cabinet minister being fired for anything. Please recommend this post

Post Election Babble FromThree Premiers

Three Canadian premiers have made comments on the results of the October 14 federal election.

1. Ed Stelmach® wants two things from Harper. First, harmonize the Alberta and Ottawa policies on Greenhouse gas emissions. Basically this means reducing what little interest the federal government has to the lowest common denominator of Alberta. Stelmach is alarmed that Harper is not doing as little as he is. Second, Stelmach does not want the Federal Government to interfere in the shipment of raw bitumen out of Alberta. The Federal Government has expressed the idea of not allowing the export of raw bitumen to places where there is a poor policy on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Presumably Alberta would be prohibited from exporting bitumen to itself. Aside from the numerous environmental issues, shipping raw bitumen out of Alberta ships Albertans jobs with it. Both Ed Stelmach® and Stephen Harper avoid this issue.

2. Gordon Campell weighs in with to tell us that Stephen Harper's missing majority is the fault of Separatists in Quebec. And that's important because...? On the surface it seems like kind of a silly thing to say, but it is just a variation on the old Reform Party theme of how those Ontario folks are stupid and ruining our lives by voting for the Liberal Party. I don't care how other people vote. The Bloc Quebecois is a recognized federal party. I could care less if some fellow Canadian is a separatist. Stop blaming people for their freedom of conscience. Stop blaming people for how they vote. (Insert your own impaired driving joke here.)

3. Danny Williams wants to kiss and make up with Stephen Harper. The Conservatives lost all three seats in NL and more importantly their popular vote dropped by 20 points from the 2006 election. If I were a NL voter I definitely would not have let my premier tell me who not to vote for. I might be a little confused now that the hate on is officially over. What exactly was that all about? I look forward to a picture of those two hugging on the cover of the National Post. Seeing conservative politicians doing man on man affection is always an uplifting event for me. Please recommend this post