Monday, July 30, 2007

2007 edmonton municipal election candidates.

UPDATED: Click here for the official list of City Council candidates!

Because it is never to early to start up a list of election candidates, I have put together a list of candidates running for election or re-election in the Edmonton City Council elections on October 15, 2007 (candidates in BOLD are daveberta approved candidates - I will announce more as the election approaches).

I will try to keep this list as updated as possible (last updated on September 14, 2007), so if you have knowledge of candidates that should be added feel free to post below or email me at

2007 Edmonton City Council candidates
(* indicates incumbency)

Mayor of Edmonton
Dustin Becker
Dave Dowling
Laura Duffy
Peter Lefaivre
Stephen Mandel*
Sonny Pawchuk
Bill Whatcott

Edmonton City Council
Ward 1 (Map)
Betty Kennedy
Andrew Knack
Karen Leibovici*
Linda Sloan*

Ward 2 (Map)
Jabin Caouette
Ron Hayter*
Kerry Hutton
Kim Krushell*
Dave Loken
Mike Sokoluik
Shelley Tupper

Ward 3
(Map)
Kyle Balombin
Tony Caterina
Ed Gibbons*
Jacob Hiller
Chris Martin
George Tsoukalas
Harvey Voogd
(Councillor Janice Melnychuk is not seeking re-election)

Ward 4
(Map)
Jane Batty*
Lewis Cardinal
Judith (Jodi) Flatt
Ben Henderson
Rev. Brian Patterson
Hana Razga
Brent Thompson
Steven Townsend
Brian Wissink
Debbie Yeung
(Councillor Michael Phair is not seeking re-election)

Ward 5 (Map)
Bryan Anderson*
Don Iveson
Brent Michalyk
Mike Nickel*

Ward 6 (Map)
Lori Jeffery-Heaney
Joani Linder
Chuck McKenna
Chinwe Okelu
Ronald Palmer
Amarjeet Sohi
Dave Thiele*
Thomas Dennis Vasquez
(Councillor Terry Cavanagh is not seeking re-election)

Friday, July 27, 2007

poll results.

In June 2007, I placed a poll on this blog to unscientifically gauge the voting intentions of daveberta readers.

With a total of 500 votes, here are the results...

Question: If a provincial election were held today, which party`s candidate would you vote for?

Alberta Alliance 18%90
Alberta Greens 3%14
Alberta Liberals 32%160
Alberta NDP 31%155
Alberta PC 13%67
Alberta Social Credit 1%5
Other 2%9

I was very interested to see that this blog is quickly becoming a favorite of New Democrats. But considering their 1% and 3% showings of support in the Drumheller-Stettler and Calgary Elbow by-elections I don`t think this is indicative of an orange éruption in the next election.

Also, I`ve put up a new poll for your voting pleasure...

(Also, vote for Harry!)

an albertan in chicoutimi.

Because I`ve spent the last 4 weeks in Chicoutimi, Quebec I thought it would be interesting to look at the past federal election results for the city over the past 15 years. So, here they are for your reading pleasure…

Chicoutimi
1993
Gilbert Fillion, BQ – 29,392
André Harvey, PC – 11,038
Georges Frenette, Lib – 4,958
Christine Moore, NDP – 541

1997
André Harvey, PC – 18,598
Gilbert Fillion, BQ – 18,281
Eric Delisle, Lib – 4,839
Anne-Marie Buck, NDP – 853

Chicoutimi-LeFjord
2000
André Harvey, Lib – 20,105
Noel Tremblay, BQ – 15,073
Mauril Desbiens, Ind – 3,797
Douglas Schroeder-Tabah, AC – 2,001
Alaine Ranger, NDP – 689

2004
Robert Bouchard, BQ – 20,650
André Harvey, Lib – 19,787
Alcide Boudreault, C – 2,385
Éric Dubois, NDP - 1,699
Paul Tremblay, Grn – 1,038

2006
Robert Bouchard, BQ – 19,226
André Harvey, Lib – 14,581
Alcide Boudreault, C – 12,350
Éric Dubois, NDP – 2,571
Jean-Martin Gauthier, Grn – 1,226

(André Harvey has run in every federal election in Chicoutimi since 1984 - he served as the Member of Parliament for Chicoutimi from 1984-1993 and 1997 to 2004 - as a Progressive Conservative from 1984-1993 and 1997-2000, and as a Liberal from 2000 to 2004).

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

liberal v. progressive.

Well, it`s a beautiful balmy +31C in the Saguenay today - a nice change from the rain and cloudy weather from the past three weeks.

Though I`ve been mostly cut off from the world outside of the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region for the past three weeks, I was able to catch some of the CNN-YouTube debate between the Democratic Presidential candidates yesterday.

It was an interesting debate and I found the unscripted answers in response to the YouTube questions to be quite telling. I particularily found that Senator Hillary Clinton`s response to the `do you consider youself a liberal?` question by declaring that she is a `progressive` was interesting. It just shows how well the Republicans have been able to change the political language in the United States by making the word `liberal` a negative word. I personally like the term `progressive,` but it also has different conotations in different political environments.

But in the end, it`s all sematics. It`s just a name. Parties and politicians should be judged by their actions and policies, not by their brand name.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

living the high life in d.c.

I may be all the way in Chicoutimi, Quebec but this still caught my attention. It looks like the Alberta Tories Ambassador to the United States of America isn`t having many problems enjoying a taxpayer funded high life in the District of Columbia...
Bills detail lavish perks for Alberta's D.C. envoy
Taxis cost $6,000 despite car; annual allowance of $15,000 added to $223,000 salary
Darcy Henton, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 1:50 am

EDMONTON - Alberta's man in Washington had just the right pitch to get the taxpayers to pay for a GPS for his $42,500 government fleet car.

Murray Smith told provincial officials he needed the global positioning system because he'd been lost for an hour chauffeuring premier Ralph Klein around Maryland during the premier's visit last year.

"Don't want to do that again," he wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Journal under Freedom of Information legislation.

...

But the Canadian Taxpayers Federation expressed shock at the Washington office expenditures, especially the GPS.

"That's unbelievable," said Alberta director Scott Hennig. "What does it cost to buy a map? $5? What about a Google map? That's free."
Indeed...

Also, Jeffery Simpson has some thoughts on Ed Stelmach`s Alberta Tories 34% approval rating...

Monday, July 16, 2007

daveberta à qc.

Yes, I`m still alive and well here in la belle provence.

I was in Quebec City over the past couple days for the festival d`été (with musique) and had a lot of fun. I`ve actually been enjoying the Québec music scene quite a bit. On Friday night, Xavier Rudd played a show at the festival and it was great. I would recommend to anyone in the area during that time to check out that festival.

Nothing else to report. The Saguenay is still beautiful, but I`m longing to gaze across the Alberta prairies once again... soon enough.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

salut!

Bonjour! I just wanted to write a quick message to let everyone know that I`m still alive. I`m enjoying myself in Quebec (I am in Chicoutimi right now and was able to find a computer with les internets).

Since I haven`t been paying much attention to the Alberta scene since I`ve come to Quebec I`m not totally up to speed on the newest news of the day. I was able to do a bit of a blog scan in the past couple minutes, so I would recommend that you check out CalgaryGrit as Dan has had some good posts over the past couple days.

For those of you wondering, the Montreal Jazz Festival was lot of fun. I would recommend it to anyone who just enjoys fun in general.

If I reach another location with access to les internets in the next month I`ll try to post again, but if not, Daveberta will return to regularily scheduled postings in August 2007.

PS: Also, comment dit-ton free fall en francais?

Sunday, July 1, 2007

happy canada day!

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Canada Day!

(I'm in Montreal enjoying the amazing Jazz Festival)