Tuesday, October 30, 2007

more on royalties, politics, etc.

- CBC Edmonton will be hosting a forum on royalties tonight at the Royal Alberta Museum:

Alberta Royalties - Are we getting our fair share? You maybe interested in our upcoming event: CBC PUBLIC FORUM ON THE ROYALTY REVIEW It’s Your Future-Have Your Say! How do oil and gas royalties affect Alberta? Our Jobs? Our Economy?

This is your chance to hear from a panel of industry experts on the controversial recommendation to change Alberta's oil and gas royalties, and have an opportunity to participate in public feedback.

Join CBC for this public forum: Tuesday, October 30th from 7 to 8 p.m.Royal Alberta Museum, 12845-102nd Avenue

Visit our website for CBC's in-depth coverage and analysis at http://www.cbc.ca/edmonton/features/royalties/
- Recently nominated Red Deer-South Stelmach Tory candidate Cal Dallas is now in competition with Calgary-Varsity Alberta Liberal MLA Harry Chase for the best name on Alberta's political scene.

- Kevin Taft's Alberta Liberals have outlined their legislative agenda for the Fall Session of the Alberta Legislature which begins on Monday, November 5.

- In what could be one of the hotest and most watched races of the next provincial election, it is being reported that former NBC news anchor Arthur Kent has announced that he will be running for the Stelmach Tory nomination in Calgary-Currie (then again, it was reported by vast left-wing conspiracy theorist Kerry Diotte - a self-described friend of Kent's - so I'll remain somewhat skeptical until I see more credible evidence).

If nominated, Kent will take on popular former QR77 radio host and Alberta Liberal MLA Dave Taylor. Taylor surprised many when he defeated former Tory MLA and high-profile City Councillor Jon Lord in 2004.

- The Alberta Social Credit Party will be holding its leadership selection this weekend. Get out the digestive cookies!

- With the Fall session of the Alberta Legislature beginning on November 5, Ed Stelmach continues to refuse to fire Energy Minister Mel Knight after Auditor General Fred Dunn singled out Knight's Department of Energy for short-changing Albertans by billions of dollars after failing to collect resource revenues over the past 15 years under the current royalty regime.

Here is what Dunn said of Knight's Department of Energy:

"The principals of transparency and accountability, I believe, were not followed. I'm not impressed."

"The department should demonstrate its stewardship
of Alberta's royalty regime and provide analysis to support that stewardship and
this was not done."

"The department's monitoring and technical review findings were communicated to decision-makers. The question is: Did they hear or were they listening? At the end of the day, I don't know, but they chose not to act."
- Meanwhile, in fairytale land, Rachel Notley is spending her time attacking the Alberta Liberals in letters section of the Edmonton Journal, letting Stelmach's Tories off the hook for his compromising on resource royalties.

Considering that any New Democrat gains will only come in Edmonton at the expense of the Alberta Liberals, it's no surprise that all my Tory friends love the New Democrats. Leave it to a small third-party candidate to completely miss the real target on purpose.

12 comments:

  1. Interesting that in the same post you question Kerry Diotte's credibility and then destroy a little piece of your own.

    Reffering to Rachel Notley's opinion as "fairytale land" takes away from your credibility and provides nothing back.

    We all know you are an unapologetic Liberal and that blogs are about editorializing, but that's still some pretty weak writing.

    Everyone outside of Kevin Taft's party seems to agree that he and his caucus are doing a very poor job as the Official Opposition.

    You can continue to waste your time taking potshots at the smaller parties, like the NDP or the SoCreds all you want, or you can do something productive for your team and ask Dr. Taft to start providing Albertans with an effective opposition.

    Here's a start. Have a response to things like the Royalty Commision early on, not the night before the government reveals its own position. Have a leader who can respond to the government's position the night it is revealed, not the next morning. Watching Kevin Taft literally RUN away from reporters asking for his response last Thursday night was pathetic and sad.

    To crib off another one of your reader's:

    Kevin Taft is not a leader.

    ReplyDelete
  2. michael from calgaryOctober 30, 2007 at 5:26 PM

    That's rich, a speach about credibility coming from an anonymous blog commentor.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The point still stands, the Alberta Liberals are not holding Ed Stelmach's feet to the fire.

    How can Kevin Taft expect Albertans to allow him to form government when he can't even lead an effective opposition?

    ReplyDelete
  4. ahh, looks like the ndp caucus staff is posting anonymously again.

    What? No pounds of bacon to send today?

    ReplyDelete
  5. The problem with Liberals is that they think Alberta should replace a party in bed with big oil with a party in bed with big oil. The rest of us want a real change. Liberals hate it when their similarities to the Tories are pointed out.

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  6. For credible evidence please visit:

    http://www.skyreporter.com/

    I'm sure Mr. Diotte will be pleased to hear that his friendship with Mr. Kent trumps your lack of rational belief.

    ReplyDelete
  7. If the Socreds are able to run a full slate of candidates there is a good chance they will be able to pull 3 - 5% of the vote.

    If the Alliance is able to get another full slate and some more funding from Randy Thorstenstein(sp?) they will probably be able to get around 10% again.

    Then if the Wild Rose party under Link Byfield is able to run a decent slate of candidates - say 50 - they may be able to pull 3-5% of the vote.

    The Alberta Seperatists will probably be able to get about 1% again.

    This all being said - the Right Wing parties could pull 15-20% leaving a great deal of room for vote splitting which could allow the Liberals to take 3-5 Calgary seats, 1 Lethbridge seat, and all three Edmonton seats from the PC's.

    As well the Green Party could easily pull between 5 - 10%. These votes come equally from all parties - not the Liberals and NDP as is common thought.

    All in all - it could be a very interesting election coming up.

    ReplyDelete
  8. vast left-wing conspiracyOctober 31, 2007 at 7:21 AM

    Kerry Diotte is right and Daveberta is a key member of the left-wing conspiracy.

    The left-wing conspiracy is, in fact, the Illuminati (don't tell Kerry Diotte!)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Maybe Kent can help Stelmach find those BILLIONS of DOLLARS of royalties that the Tories just forgot to collect over the past decade.

    He'll make great caucus mates with Craig Chandler.

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  10. It would be unwise for any party to go after more royalties,the call has been made, right or wrong we have stick to it. Alberta's reputation is on the line not the tories, libs, or ndp

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  11. From Graham Thomson's blog, news that fellow blogger and Edm Journal colleague Larry Johnsrude is joining the Alberta Liberals:

    "Hi all,
    With mixed emotions I would like to announce I have accepted the position of Director of Communications for the Alberta Liberal Caucus. It wasn't something I was seeking but was an opportunity that presented itself and I felt I couldn't turn it down. Over the past 11 years with The Journal, I have enjoyed working with all of you. I admire your professionalism and journalistic integrity. Journalism has been good to me, but I feel this is an opportunity to acquire a new set of skills and embark on a new profession.
    Best wishes to all.
    Larry Johnsrude"

    ReplyDelete
  12. So Dave, are you working for Johnsrude now?

    ReplyDelete