oh la la!

Yes, we have triumphantly returned to our lovely hovel just in time for that great annual event we all call "New Year's Eve."

We shall post more soon, but for now we leave you with this lovely doozy.

(props to c-lo for the linkage)

joyeux noël.

As we shall soon be heading out of town for a couple days, the blogging will be light (if non-existant) until our trimpant return... we really hope you can cope without us...

We here at daveberta would just like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season. Have fun, stay safe, and enjoy yourselves! Tis the Season! :-)

god bless milk and cookies.

Today, we found this lovely site with tonnes and tonnes of Family Guy video clips. Check it out, it's on the awesome side of radtacular.

michael ritter scandal - UPDATE!

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology.

Yes, that's right, just in time for Christmas, we bring you an update on our good friend, the former Chief Legal Consel to the Alberta Legislature, Mr. Michael Ritter and his adventures in international money laundering (for backstory see here, here, here, here, and here).

It just keeps getting juicier and juicier!

It seems that the U.S. Department of Justice has sentenced Mr. Larry Toshio Osaki to 20 years in prison for his involvment in the $250-Million Ponzi scheme...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 16, 2005
UPLAND MAN WHO RAN $250 MILLION PONZI SCHEME GETS 20 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON Los Angeles, CA - A man who ran a gigantic Ponzi scheme and continued to offer bogus investments in accounts receivable "factoring" after being ordered to stop by a federal judge was sentenced this morning to 240 months in federal prison. Larry Toshio Osaki, 57, of Upland, was sentenced at the end of a 3 1/2-day hearing by United States District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, who said the defendant "single-handedly caused huge loss and havoc." In addition to the prison term, Judge Wilson ordered Osaki to pay more than $145 million in restitution to victims. Osaki pleaded guilty on March 22, 2005 to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, two counts of securities fraud, obstruction of justice and one count of money laundering. Osaki’s scheme cumulatively collected a quarter billion dollars from nearly 7,000 investors and caused $145 million in losses. That scheme started at his Pasadena company, J.T. Wallenbrock & Associates, and was continued with a second firm based in Edmonton, Canada. Read the rest here.

well... you know what they say about small political parties...

Props to Mr. Smith for tipping us off about the rumoured Progressive Canadian candidate in Edmonton Strathcona, Mr. Mike Fedeyko.

We don't know too much about the Progressive Canucks (we're not sure there is much to know), but from what we can see, they seem like a group of mainly red Ontario Tories who don't want to be in a conservative party with people like Stockwell Day, Jason Kenney, and Myron Thompson while also not wanting to join Ms. Stronach or Mr. Brison in the Liberal Party.

We've updated our Edmonton 2006 Federal Election Candidates list, but also click here for more info on Edmonton Strathcona.

wallpaper blues...

No Joe Volpe or Jean LaPierre desktop wallpaper...? darn.

pierretrudeau.ca

We thought this was a little funny... check out where this little link directs you: pierretrudeau.ca.

they had to hire researchers to discover this?

From the Globe & Mail...

Researchers found that, contrary to popular belief, success doesn't necessarily bring happiness but rather that happy people tend to be more successful.

“This may be because happy people frequently experience positive moods and these positive moods prompt them to be more likely to work actively toward new goals and build new resources,” said lead author Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California, Riverside.

If you like your job, you're probably going to do better at it... Duh!?!

...passing interest in falconry...

It's Sunday. It's winter. And we're slightly stressed out (as usual). Haven't bought any Christmas gifts yet... waiting until the 23rd... :-P

anyway... NEW STRONG BAD EMAIL!

hitch in y'r giddyup update!

As we first began here, we've decided to update the list of Edmonton Federal Election 2006 candidates...

As before, we'll keep updating the list as more candidates are declared, nominated, appointed, or turfed.

ELECTION 2006 MANIA!

EDMONTON CENTRE (2004 results & profile )
Laurie Hawn - Conservative
Donna Martyn - NDP
Anne McLellan - Liberal
Peggy Morton - Marxist-Lenninist
David Parker - Green
Chandra Segaran Swamy, Independent
(Marijuana Party candidate Lyle Kenny dropped out of the race)

EDMONTON EAST (2004 results & profile)
Trey Capernhurst - Green
Arlene Chapman - NDP
Peter Goldring - Conservative
Nicole Martel - Liberal
(Canadian Action Party candidate David Vanzella and Marijuana Party candidate Ken Kirk both dropped out of the race)

EDMONTON LEDUC (2004 results)
Jim Jacuta - Liberal
Ben Pettit - Green
James Rajotte - Conservative
Marty Rybiak - NDP

EDMONTON MILLWOODS BEAUMONT (2004 results & profile)
Kate Harrington - Green
Neal Gray - NDP
Amarjit Grewal - Liberal
Mike Lake - Conservative
Kyle McLeod - Independent (according to nodice.ca)
Naomi Rankin - Communist

EDMONTON SHERWOOD PARK (2004 results & profile)
Ken Epp - Conservative
Laurie Lang - NDP
Lynn Lau - Green
Ron Symic - Liberal

EDMONTON SPRUCE GROVE (2004 results & profile)
Rona Ambrose - Conservative
Brad Enge - Liberal
John Lackey - Green
Jason Rockwell - NDP

EDMONTON ST. ALBERT (2004 results & profile)
Stanley Haroun - Liberal
Peter Johnston - Green
Mike Melymick - NDP
John Williams - Conservative

EDMONTON STRATHCONA (2004 results & profile)
Linda Duncan - NDP
Dave Dowling - Marijuana Party
Mike Fedeyko - Progressive Canadian
Andy Hladyshevsky - Liberal
Kevan Hunter - Marxist-Lenninist
Rahim Jaffer - Conservative
Cameron Wakefield - Green
(Click here for more info on Edmonton Strathcona)

r.i.p. leo mcgarry.

USA Today is reporting that John Spencer, who played the character Leo McGarry on the awesome TV show, The West Wing, has died of a heart attack.

LOS ANGELES — John Spencer, an Emmy-winning original cast member of NBC's The West Wing, died suddenly Friday morning of a heart attack, according to a statement released by his publicist.

Spencer, four days short of his 59th birthday, is best known to viewers as Leo McGarry, the chief of staff to West Wing President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen). This season, McGarry was the vice presidential running mate for Democratic nominee Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits).

Spencer's portrayal of McGarry, a tough politico and recovering alcoholic, earned him an Emmy for supporting actor in a drama in 2002. The character actor, a veteran of theater and film work, also received four other Emmy nominations for the role and a Golden Globe nomination.

Spencer, who grew up in New Jersey, also played streetwise attorney Tommy Mullaney on NBC’s L.A. Law. His film roles include Presumed Innocent, Black Rain and Sea of Love.

Read the rest here...

che guevera to run for the ndp?

From Derek's recap of week 2 of the election...

"Now it’s rumoured that former vice-regal and Manitoba relic Ed Schreyer, 70, is lined up for the NDP in Selkirk-Interlake. Somebody, for the love of god, hide the corpse of Che Guevera before it’s drafted as an NDP candidate."

fun-eh.

Yesterday, we were catching up on the latest from Scotty F's blogboy site... man, this guy is funny... here's a post from December 13th...

Dear Blog Boy: After the Liberals win and the Prime Minister makes you a Senator, can I be your faithful hunchbacked manservant? I'll change my name to Igor and everything. - S.M.

Do I appreciate the offer? Yes. Of course I do. But I've been down this road before with hunchbacked manservants. And it's always the same story. They change their name to Igor and maybe develop a comic-tragic limp of some kind. I go to the trouble of getting their lab coat tailored to fit the precise contours of their hump. And then the problems begin. Igor gets a little sloppy pulling the levers that deliver life-inducing energy to my unholy corporeal abominations that are an affront to nature. Igor starts to ignore the knocks at the door from attractive, underclothed stewardesses whose cars have broken down on foggy nights. Then Igor unionizes my laboratory and joins the Brotherhood of Hunchbacked Manservants, Midget Sidekicks and Steelworkers. And all of a sudden the Invisible Man and Dracula are totally razzing me about it on bowling night. Been there, done that.

chuck norris: nerves of steel.

Okay... last Chuck Norris reference of the week... but seriously folks, did anyone know about Chuck Norris' kid cartoon series from back in the 1980's? Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos.

Not only is this great because we found this action figure pic, but we've also tracked down a clip from the actual show!

You can check out a clip from the "Deadly Dolphins" episode here.

rahim! where's the beef!?!

It appears that Tory Rahim Jaffer is the first local candidate to come out in support of Edmonton Strathcona's bustling rural community!

This would be fine and dandy... but last we checked, there weren't very many farmers in this constituency (which is probably near 100% urban).

No word yet whether Mr. Jaffer is going to take some time off from supporting local cattle ranchers to support post-secondary students (the University of Alberta just happens to be in his riding...)

(To be fair, Liberal candidate Andy Hladyshevsky doesn't have anything about PSE on his website either, but at least he's not out campaiging for local farmers... but, NDP Candidate Linda Duncan does! - PSE that is... not cattle ranchers...)

2 a.m. funnies.

For those of you who don't know, we've become slightly addicted to "you're the man now, dog!" aka ytmnd.com. The quality of most of the clips on ytmnd aren't great, but it's just really funny.

Here are some of our favorites... here, here, here, here, and what has to be one of the nerdiest ones: here.

In addition... this Walker: Texas Ranger clip from Conan O'Brien is ridiculous (apologies for our sick sense of humour)

bold predictions.

Interlocutor, over at Civilization As We Knew It, has made four fairly bold predictions about the state of Canadian politics in the upcoming year...

It's an interesting post. You can check it out here.

bill clinton coming to alberta!

Former US President Bill Clinton will be coming to Edmonton in March of 2006!

Check out more info here!

prez zilla

We're hoping we're not the only one's who find this ridiculously funny...

(props to the radtacular mr. face for the linkage)

alberta tory watch update!

A couple of Alberta political updates...

- It appears that former Tory Cabinet Minister Mark Norris' campaign for the Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership is being backed up by some pretty influential corporate heavy hitters. The list includes Murray Edwards, vice-chairman of Canadian Natural Resources and one of Canada's wealthiest people; Barry Heck, President and CEO of Westaim Corp; Guy Turcotte, chairman of Western Oilsands; and Edmonton Oilers part-owner Cal Nichols.

We find it very interesting that heavy hitters like those mentioned would come out and support Mr. Norris' after he lost his seat of Edmonton McClung to Liberal Mo Elsalhy last November...

We also wonder how long it will take before they jump ship to Team Dinning...

- It's been reported by The Armet Report that former St. Albert Tory MLA Mary O'Neill has been appointed Executive Director of the Edmonton-based Glenrose Foundation. Ms. O'Neill, who served as MLA for St. Albert from 1997 to 2004, was defeated last November by Liberal Jack Flaherty. Our sources in St. Albert tell us that Ms. O'Neill is hinting a run in the next provincial election.

Interestingly, one of Ms. O'Neill's former colleagues, Drew Hutton (Tory MLA Edmonton Glenora 2001-2004) served as Executive Director of the same organization before becoming an MLA. Glenrose Foundation Trustees include former Liberal MLA Sine Chadi (MLA Edmonton Roper 1993-1997) and former Director of the Edmonton Glenora Progressive Conservatives, Ms. Nancy Cumming.

- We find it quite silly that former Calgary Currie Tory MLA Jon Lord still has his MLA website up and running after being defeated by Liberal Dave Taylor over a year ago... (did someone forget to tell him that he's no longer the MLA?)

sir, no sir, sergeant goldring!

Are you quitting on me? Well, are you? Then quit, you slimy f**king walrus-looking piece of s**t. Get the f**k off of my obstacle. Get the f**k down off of my obstacle. Now. Move it. I'm going to rip your balls off, so you cannot contaminate the rest of the world. I will motivate you, Private Pyle, if it short-dicks every cannibal on the Congo.

Could these be the words of a future Canadian Boot Camp Drill Sergeant, Peter Goldring?

Does this have anything to do with THIS?

UPDATE: sure, okay, perhaps this may be a little harsh, but we just think the whole boot-camp thing is slightly looney.

albertans are angry!

According to the CBC reporter who only interviewed one angry Albertan... that's totally proportional, one angry Calgarian equals 3 million angry Albertans... sure...

nerd factor eleven

ATTENTION POLITICAL NERDS: the Prime Minister Forever 2006 simulation computer game is now available for FREE via the wonderful Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Now you can get your nerd-on for free!

poll a little harder.

We're trying out something a little different and have added a little poll on the sidebar - check it out, vote, and let us know if you like it. The jury is still out if we're going to keep it around.

hoisted by our own petard!

Well, the results of the Canadian Blog Awards were released last night and we didn't fair too badly.

When the final ballots were counted, we ended up in a strong second place behind Ms. Samantha Burns. Not too bad considering we only made it past the first round of voting in 5th place by 1 vote (54-53 votes against the Cassandra Pages).

Here are the results from the BEST PERSONAL BLOG category...

1. The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns - 248 Votes (24%)
2. Daveberta - 245 Votes (24%)
3. Jenandtonic - 196 Votes (19%)
4. Postmodernes Sprachspienlen - 192 Votes (19%)
5. Postcards from the Mothership - 148 Votes (14%)

Though we didn't think we stood much of a chance in the beginning, an agressive campaign, followed by endorsements by Buckets and CalgaryGrit almost pushed us over the top!

So, props to all our lovely competitors and make sure to check out their blogs!

Props to Sam Burns for her first place finish - by 3 votes! (now we know how Laurie Hawn will feel on election night when Anne McLellan once against sqweeks through in Edmonton Centre... BA-ZING! :-P )

And of course, %100 props to all those who voted for us! May all your Christmas wishes come true. :-P

we're downtown.

Props to Socialist Swine for the quiz linkage...

Downtown Loft You scored 29 out of 40 on urban-rural and 35 out of 40 land intensity.

People know you as: The Yuppie Quote: "Sushi is so 1990s. How about Lebanese?" Congratulations. You are the coolest type of person. Or you like to think you are, anyway. Your score indicates you are a through and through urbanite who likes to live in the densest, most central part of town. Realistically, though, you're probably a "new money" type who, although you claim to hate chains, still occasionally sneaks a Big Mac and always, always gets your coffee from Starbucks. The main difference between you and The Bohemian Gentrifier is that you have a better job. Examples of places you should live: Manhattan, Chicago's Loop All Categories Secluded Hideaway / Farm or Ranch / Small Town / Little City / Suburb / Streetcar Suburb / Rowhouse 'Hood / Downtown Loft

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 75% on urban-rural You scored higher than 97% on land intensity

Link: The Where Should You Live Test written by TwelveFloorsUp on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

dumb headphones...

Friday, while downtown on business, we headed down to the HMV to check if they had a copy of the Muppet Christmas Carol Soundtrack on CD. Unfortunately, they did not. That leaves us dumbfounded at where to get a copy! Seriously folks! What kind of world do we live in when in EDMONTON - a city of nearly a MILLION people - you CANNOT find a physical copy of a Muppets Christmas Carol soundtrack!

1000% props for ANYONE out there in blog-o-land who can tell us where we can track down a copy in Edmonton. We pondered ordering a copy over Amazon.ca or ebay, but it most likely wouldn't get here before Christmas....

Here are the places we've checked out so far...

1. a&b sound - downtown
2. Blackbird Music - Whyte Ave
3. Megatunes - Whyte Ave
4. HMV - Edmonton City Centre

So... back to the title of the story... while at HMV, we made a purchase or two, one being a pair of headphones. In the past, we have opted to buy the $6.99 headphones (which tend to break after a month or so), so this time we decided to be economically smart and buy the $11.99 pair (in hopes of saving money over the long run). So, very pleased with our purchase, we made our way back to our hovel in Garneau only to discover that the said $11.99 headphones were DEFECTIVE! ARRRR! Imagine our reaction. It twas not pleasant.

So, as time would have it, we broke out of the womb of academic submergence for 1 hour this afternoon to travel back to HMV downtown to exchange our headphones for an undefective set. So, the conclusion of our story is, HMV has nearly no problem exchanging stuff. They didn't even ask us for a receipt! (we also stopped at Staples downtown to pick up some cheap printer paper).

And finally, Edmonton people: Isn't it insanely beautiful outside? It must have been +10C today! Big blue sky! Spring jacket time! Very sweet!

the hancock, unleashed...

Watch out ladies, Alberta PC leadership candidate Dave Hancock is stylin' a fancy new website.

He's hip, he's cool, his website has a picture of old people kisssing, and he's got a Crew.

happy weekend.

mwahahahahahaha!

blog of the week: taracool

This week's Blog of the Week goes to taracool.

Taracool is a fun blog we found a while ago. It's writen by Tara, a fellow political science geek (except in Ontario). Check it out!

Also - 16 days 'till Christmas!!!!!!! :-)

vote vote vote!

It's officially the last day you and your's can vote for this wonderful blog in the Canadian Blog Awards! So GO VOTE NOW!

VOTE DAVEBERTA FOR BEST PERSONAL BLOG!

tory university.

The Federal Tories announced their Post-Secondary Education policy yesterday...

Here it is from Conservative.ca:

• "Providing students or their parents with a tax credit of up to $500 to help cover the costs of textbooks;
• Working with the provinces to increase family income thresholds for student loan eligibility;
• Exempting the first $10,000 of student scholarship or bursary income from taxation; and
• Ensure dedicated funding for education by removing postsecondary education funding from the Canada Social Transfer and placing it in an independent Canada Education and Training Transfer."

okie dokie, here's our take...

a) What's up with using the tax system to fix everything? Seriously, we're glad that the Tories are thinking about the textbook problem, but textbooks are expensive in September and January. Not May. How is a tax credit going to help someone when they need the money? Let's segway into point b...

b) "Working with the provinces to increase family income thresholds for student loan eligibility" ... okay, let's make sure we got this one right... a Conservative government would make it easier for students to get into debt? sure...

c) The last two points are fairly straight forward. We would definitely support a dedicated Federal-Provincial PSE transfer and agree that scholarship and bursary money should be tax-free.

d) We were slightly surprised that some of the more controversial policies included in the Conservative Party's Policy Declaration didn't make the cut... including the dissolution of the Millennium Scholarship Foundation and implementation of an Income-Contingent Student Loan Repayment scheme...

Are these policies "hidden" somewhere? Perhaps in an "agenda?" ;-)

party leaders need to groove it up...

Here's our suggestion to Misters Martin, Harper, and Layton on how to spice up the election a bit.

Shake your groove thing. Shake your groove thing...

edmondo-towne votes

GOOD MORNING!

Partially because we're nerds, and partially because we needed a break from studying environmental assessment policy, we've compiled a spreadsheet of the results of Edmontonians votes in the 2004 federal election for your reading pleasure.

Here are the total Edmonton-wide results...

...and here are the results broken down by the eight Edmonton ridings.

We don't really have a point to prove, this is more for informational purposes.

best google hit EVER!

Someone found our blog tonight by googling: balding actors/ joaquin phoenix.

Awesome.

this tory baby scare us.

Not that we pretend to actually know anything about childcare policy, but take a look at this baby picture for the Conservative Party website!

We can't decide whether it's cute or whether it's possessed!

(Well, Mr. McBeath, is it cute or possessed? or both!?! Is it a TWO-tier baby!?!)
(SECRET AGENDA! SECRET AGENDA! SECRET AGENDA!)

daily props.

Daily props go to...

1. ... Edmonton Strathcona NDP Candidate Linda Duncan - who has linked to us from her campaign website!

2. ... Scott Feschuk's campaign blog. Not because it's particularily good, but because it's damn funny. Additional props go to whoever hired the guy? :-P

3. ... Mr. Steve Smith, who has set up an Edmonton Strathcona election info blog. Not as cool as this blog, but good showing, Mr. Smith.

4. ... Roboraptor and Robosapien! How cool.

5. ... the Revmod Gaffe-o-Meter.

6. ... Mr. Bart Ramson, who has endorsed us as the BEST PERSONAL BLOG in the Canadian Blog Awards! Go. Vote. Now.

*PROPS UPDATE!!* Additional props #7 to Spencer Keys via Steve Smith for this wonderful Labour party TV ad from their last election.

gonzo christmas cheer.

Last night, we made an exciting purchase. We bought the most exciting Christmas movie on earth: The Muppet Christmas Carol. If you haven't figured it out yet, this film just happens to be our favorite Christmas movie. This ends up being so for a number of very solid reasons...

1. It's the Muppets. Nuh said.
2. A Christmas Carol is a SOLID Christmas story. And it has such a good ending!
3. Michael Caine is in it! Michael Caine is in a MUPPET MOVIE!
4. The Great Gonzo rules.

Anyway, for us, this means it is now OFFICIALLY the Christmas season.

Merry Christmas. :-)

up up up updates...

More updates for our 2006 Edmonton election candidates list...

- The Federal Liberals nominated their final candidate in Edmonton last night. Andy Hladyshevsky won the nomination against fellow Liberal nominee, Ellen Schoeck.

This leaves us with even less of an idea of who we're going to vote for on January 23. Had Ms. Schoeck been nominated, we most likely would have supported her (her being the former Director of the University of Alberta Secretariat). So... we remain an undecided Edmonton-Strathcona voter... hmmmm....

- The NDP have filled their candidate spot in Edmonton-Sherwood Park by nominating Laurie Lang. Lang ran in Edmonton North against Alliance MP Deb Grey in 2000, and against Edmonton Manning Liberal MLA Dan Backs in the 2004 Provincial election.

- The Greens have nominated Trey Capnerhurst to carry their banner in Edmonton East.

a test of the emergency...

This found its way into our email inbox the other day...

"Attention Daveberta!

This has been a test of the Jason Kenney early warning system. The system is designed to alert citizens to possibility of a Jason Kenney "supernova."

World-wide, several detectors currently running are sensitive to a core collapse political supernova neutrino signal in the Galaxy. The neutrino signal emerges promptly from Jason Kenney's core, whereas it may take hours for the first photons to be visible. Therefore, the detection of the neutrino burst from the next Jason Kenney supernova can provide an early warning for citizens, and, strangely, astronomers.

In the event of a real Jason Kenney "supernova," please take cover under an umbrella. If a sense of irony overwhelms you, lie on the floor until the feeling passes.

:P

Please contact the Holtopian Ministry of Galactic Phenomena for further information."

we love our chauffage oleostatique.

Due to our house being old, ancient, drafty, and cold in the minus 27C winter as of late (the house was built in 1921, and might be haunted), we've recently aquired a "Chauffage Oleostatique" (for you anglotypes, that's a "Radiator Heater").

Here's how the warning tag read:

WARNING - TO REDUCE THE RISK OF FIRE
1. Do not place any objects such as furniture, papers, clothes, and curtains closer than 3 feet to the front of the heater and keep them away from the sides and rear when the heater is plugged in.
2. Do not place the heater near a bed beacuase objects such as pillows or blankets can fall off the bed and be ignited by the heater.
3. Always unplug the heater if it is not being used.
4. Avoid the use of an extension cord because the extension cord may overheat and cause a risk of fire. However, if you have to use ann extension cord, the cord shall be NO. 14AWG minimum and rated not less than 1875 Watts.

Now, perhaps it has something with us spending the past two hours reading over critiques of the lamer-than-lame, Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, but we found the warnings to be kind of funny.

When we get the energy (most likely tomorrow, or Tuesday, we'll update you on some exciting information! oohhhh, it's exicting!)

grewal nominated in emwb.

no, not this Grewal...

Amarjit Grewal has been nominated as the Federal Liberal candidate in the Edmonton Mill Woods-Beaumont riding. Grewal beat out fellow nominee candidates Indira Saroya, Bruce King, and Charan Saggu.

According to Liberal Campaign Director Jarrett Lalonde, Grewal won on the second ballot with 1,158 votes out of 2,305.

nyuk nyuk nyuk

This one goes out to Jason Kenney and all the Omni-nerds out there!

(lol. "out there")

candidate updates...

A couple of candidate updates for our 2006 Edmonton Election Candidates list.

- Jim Jacuta has been nominated/appointed as the Liberal candidate in Edmonton-Leduc. In 2000, Mr. Jacuta was the Federal Liberal candidate in Edmonton North (against Alliance MP Deb Grey) and the 2001 Provincial Liberal candidate in Edmonton Stathcona (against Alberta NDP MLA Raj Pannu).

- The Marijuana Party has nominated Ken Kirk in Edmonton East.

- Both Edmonton Centre Liberal candidate Anne McLellan and Tory candidate Laurie Hawn kicked-off their campaigns yesterday evening. Look for this to be a battle royale between what probably are the two most organized campaigns in the country.

- Props to Shannon (our "highly placed source in the NDP") for pointing out that the NDP are in the process of renominating candidates in ridings like Westlock-St. Paul and Edmonton-Sherwood Park. They originally had candidates nominated in all of Alberta's ridings back when everyone was expecting a spring election, but they've had to renominate in some ridings since.

- The Green Party has released a document detailing why they think they should be included in the 4 national Leader's debates. We tend to agree. It would be nice to see another party have the chance to take on the 4 traditional party leaders.

- The Greens have nominated Kate Harrington to run in Edmonton - Mill Woods - Beaumont.

- Also, after checking out the Marxist-Leninist Party website, our slightly twisted sense of humour was pleased to find this gem. Can you imagine the Liberals or Tories doing something like this? (A memorial to the 9 Liberal party members banned after Gomery....) No word as of yet if the ML's or the Commie's will be running candidates in Edmonton.

- Also, CBC has set up a "blog report" blog covering the blog coverage of the election. Check it out. It's fun.

not implicated by gomery (yet).

Vote early. Vote often. Vote daveberta for best personal blog.

nerd factor ten.

Nope, this isn't a post about Omni magazine (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. oh, Mr. Feschuk you're silly), but about the wonderful Canadian Blog Awards!

It seems through the stroke of luck that daveberta has made it to the second round in the BEST PERSONAL BLOG category of said awards! We also placed 21st in the BEST BLOG category with 29 votes! (beating out celebloggers like Warren Kinsella and grandinite.

You can see the results of the first round here. We moved on to the second round with 54 votes (compared to 112 for Jenandtonic, 96 for The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, 86 for Postmodernes Sprachspielen, and 57 votes for Postcards From The Mothership. We would also like to send a hello out to the Cassandra Pages, who got 53 votes and nearly knocked us out of the second round. Good showing, Cassie!

We would like to thank all those who got out and voted for us! We hope that all of you who voted for us in the first round will continue to show their support of this great Canadian blog in the Second Round (which will take place from December 3rd to 9th).

This of course, means that we need to step up our campaigning. So, here we go...

If davberta is elected BEST PERSONAL BLOG, we will reduce the GST by 3%.

AND

we will cut income tax by $40-BILLION over 3-YEARS.

(and WE LOVE CANADA)

i'm going to jackson...

ahhh. the joys of the near end of the week....

Since the fall of the government this week, we've saturated this blog with nothing much more than election related posts. Now, we will continue with all the good Edmonton-related campaign gossip, we have some very very important updates to post.

a. We've now seen the movie Walk the Line twice. For those of you who don't know, Walk the Line is an epic story of the life of the great Johnny Cash. Us, being HUGE JC fans, loved the movie. The movie covered the life of Johnny from the time as a young boy in Dyess, Arkansas though to his first marriage to his eventual engagement with June Carter. It was entertaining, the music was awesome, and it only enhanced our desire to listen to more Johnny Cash music.

Here is a list of the Johnny Cash CD's we own:

1. At San Quentin
2. America IV: The Man Comes Around
3. At Folsom Prison
4. The Essential Johnny Cash
5. 16 Biggest Hits

We also have the movie posters on the wall in our office. :-P GO SEE THE MOVIE!

b. It's almost Christmas! Crazy! We took our Christmas Tree out of the basement last night (it looks like this).

c. We've finally started to return to our normal sleeping patterns after 2 extremely stressful weeks of 2-3 hour nightly sleeps.... sleeping is so nice.

d. Okay, maybe this IS an election related point (or letter...), but we're seriously not sure who we're going to vote for in this election. In the last election, we voted Liberal (we were in Edmonton Centre - Anne McLellan's riding - we're now in Edmonton Strathcona), but this time around we're really not sure. The more and more time we spend reading and writing reports on policy issues ranging from environmental assessment to pipelines to post-secondary education, we have really come to the realization that we are not very happy with the way things are going in these areas.

Now, perhaps some people may shake their heads for hearing this and say "duh, daveberta," but it's not like this is a sudden revelation to us, it's something that's been troubling us for quite some time. So, like responsible citizens, we will take a good hard look at the party policies, local candidates, party leaders and their performances, and come January 23, we'll show up and fulfill our civic responsibility.

ndp university

Come the end of December/beginning of January (when we have time), we plan to put on our policy analysis hats and dissect some of the federal election promises.One policy area close to our hearts (and résumé), post-secondary education policy, was the highlight of today's NDP campaign.

Jack Layton announced today that his party plans to "restore what he estimates was $4-billion in cuts to post-secondary education made by the Liberals in the 1990s" by "scrapping the corporate tax cuts the Liberals announced in this fall's fiscal update."

This call by Mr. Layton, not surprisingly, jives with the Canadian Federation of Students' "Restore the Four" campaign... imagine that... what a coincidence...

Mr. Layton wasn't clear on where in the system the $4 billion investment would be directed: Federal-Provincial Transfer, student debt relief, scholarships, grants, research, etc?

Though it's not as nice as the $7 to $8 Billion PSE transfer promised by Prime Minister Paul Martin during the 2004 Great Canadian Job Interview in St. John's, it seems a positive commitment to post-secondary education in Canada.

Thoughts? Opinions?

goldie vs. iggy

Tory MP Peter Goldring and friend.

Edmonton East Tory MP Peter Goldring, above (with the gun), launched an attack yesterday against Etobicoke-Lakeshore Liberal candidate Michael Ignatieff. Mr. Goldring accused Ignatieff of being “arrogant and ill-informed” for comments he wrote in his book Blood and Belonging. The comments were regarding the Ukraine.

Mr. Goldring was quoted as saying "I know how sensitive Ukrainians are to those who would support in any way the behaviours and attitudes of their former Russian oppressors."

According to the Toronto Star, Dr. Ignatieff believes he has been wrongly maligned by a group of Ukrainian-Canadians seeking to derail his federal election campaign in a west Toronto riding.

Now, we haven’t read the book, so we really can’t defend or denounce Dr. Ignatieff either way, but we remain quite skeptical. Perhaps if the attack had been launched by another Tory, say… James Rajotte, Rona Ambrose, Jim Prentice, or just about any other Tory MP maybe we wouldn’t roll our eyes. But for those of you don’t know, Mr. Goldring, an ardent advocate of Canadian expansion in the Caribbean, has been known to sit on the silly side of the Conservative caucus (here's our favorite).

Mr. Goldring forgot to mention that Edmonton East Liberal candidate, Nicole Martel, is from a Ukrainian family. How long will it be before Mr. Goldring accuses Ms. Martel of collaborating with the Russians? :-P

paul martin's emo.

100% props to Ainge from Lotusland for this.

day 1: the wrath of mother nature.

Well, it's snowing in Calgary, Vancouver, and Edmonton - that must mean that Paul Martin wasn't the only one who didn't want an election. Looks like God and Mother Nature didn't want an election either. ;-)

Anyway... back to more serious business... it was announced this morning that the election has been set for January 23, 2006.

- Anne McLellan has her campaign office up and running today in the Edmonton Centre riding. It's located downtown in the old McDonald's building on 117th Street and Jasper Avenue. Anne's in for a tough fight with Tory challenger Laurie Hawn, but her campaign team is more than definately up for the challenge.

- It looks like the Federal Liberals are having some difficulty finding candidates to nominate in Alberta. Last we heard, among others, they still hadn't nominated a candidate in the Edmonton Leduc riding. It wouldn't surprise us if the NDP placed second to the Tories in some of the ridings the Liberals have yet to nominate candidates in. Also, the NDP and Green parties seems to be in a bit of a scramble to nominate or appoint candidates in some Alberta ridings. If one is to believe the party website, one would think that the NDP has actually lost candidates in some rural ridings (ie: Westlock-St. Paul).

- The CBC has their CanadaVotes2006 site up and the Globe & Mail also has their Decision 2006 election site up.

*UPDATE*: More candidate updates for our 2006 Edmonton candidates list.

- George Hodgson has withdrawn from the Liberal nomination race in Edmonton Strathcona. This leaves Ellen Schoeck and Andy Hladyshevsky to duke it out in the Dec 5 nomination meeting.

- It seems that Paul Wallace is no longer the Green candidate in Edmonton East.

"okay shredder! prepare to be turtle-ized! hehe!"

A little bit of pre-writ day fun.

Enjoy.

Take the quiz: "Which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle are You?"

Donatello
You've been described as 'the brains' of your family or group of friends. You're the natural born, 'Mr. Fixit'. You're also considered the most reserved, preoccupied with your own little thoughts and ideas. But that doesn't mean you don't hang with your family and friends! But, you still find it easy to get lost in your own thoughts...daydreaming often. You'd rather talk things out than fight. You long for a day when there's nothing but peace in the world, and when you can finally rest with your own thoughts. Violence is something the world could completely live without. One of your labels may be, 'true to blue friend'. You're strong at heart and powerful at mind.

iggy on war.

For those of you interested, here's a video lecture of Etobicoke-Lakeshore Liberal candidate Michael Ignatieff.

Only 35 minutes left for Jack Layton to try to make another deal with the Liberals. ;-)

the sound a falling government makes is "thump"

Tune in! 3 pm Edmonton time is when live coverage of "non-confidence vote: part 2" is to take place. It should be a fun showdown! We've never seen a federal government fall! (THUMP!)

Good luck to all those involved in campaigns across the country. Play nice and have fun! :-)

We plan to have mostly Edmonton related campaign updates/gossip (for national coverage, we're sure CG will have his share of insight).

btw, we were in a cab last night with a driver who couldn't stop telling us some of the more offensive racist jokes we've heard in a long time. Slightly more disturbing that he was telling us them in the first place...

And finally, thanks to the half-dozen daveberta readers who emailed us commenting on the new template! We're glad you like it (and we love fan mail! [insert inflated ego here]) :-P

got a hitch in y'r giddyup?

*AN UPDATED CANDIDATES LIST CAN BE FOUND HERE!*

In preparation for Tuesday's expected federal election call, we've decided to make up a list of Edmonton ridings and their candidates so far... (let us know if we've missed anyone!)

We'll keep updating the list as more candidates are declared, nominated, appointed, or turfed.

ELECTION 2006 MANIA!

EDMONTON CENTRE (2004 results & map)
Laurie Hawn - Conservative
Lyle Kenny - Marjuana Party
Donna Martyn - NDP
Anne McLellan - Liberal
David Parker - Green

EDMONTON EAST (2004 results & map)
Trey Capernhurst - Green
Arlene Chapman - NDP
Peter Goldring - Conservative
Ken Kirk - Marijuana
Nicole Martel - Liberal
David Vanzella - CAP
(*UPDATE* Nov 29 - According to the Green Party website, Paul Wallace is no longer their candidate)

EDMONTON LEDUC (2004 results & map)
Jim Jacuta - Liberal
Ben Pettit - Green
James Rajotte - Conservative
Marty Rybiak - NDP

EDMONTON MILLWOODS BEAUMONT (2004 results & map)
Kate Harrington - Green
Neal Gray - NDP
Amarjit Grewal - Liberal
Mike Lake - Conservative

EDMONTON SHERWOOD PARK (2004 results & map)
Ken Epp - Conservative
Laurie Lang - NDP
Lynn Lau - Green
Ron Symic - Liberal

EDMONTON SPRUCE GROVE (2004 results & map)
Rona Ambrose - Conservative
Brad Enge - Liberal
John Lackey - Green
Jason Rockwell - NDP

EDMONTON ST. ALBERT (2004 results & map)
Stanley Haroun - Liberal
Peter Johnston - Green
Mike Melymick - NDP
John Williams - Conservative

EDMONTON STRATHCONA (2004 results & map)
Linda Duncan - NDP
Dave Dowling - Marijuana
Andy Hladyshevsky - Liberal
Rahim Jaffer - Conservative
Cameron Wakefield - Green

our qp adventure.

This past wednesday, we visited the Alberta Legislature and watch some Question Perioding. Here's a quick recap of our observations from the visitors gallery... (though they're definately not as exciting as some of our previous Legislature experiences)

(OPENING SCENE: Beautiful +14C day in the City of Edmonton)

1:00 pm - Leave work at the University, catch the train to Grandin station.

1:10 pm - Get off the train at Grandin station.

1:15 pm - Meet up with our friend Ms. Jane on the front steps of the Leg.

1:19 pm - Bump into Rick Miller in the elevator. We have a quick chat.

1:23 pm - Stand in line to get our QP pass... there are about 5000 school kids in the rotunda. crazy. Donna Martyn and Mr. Sharma are in line ahead of us. Dan McLennan is also in line.

1:30 pm - QP starts. Mr. Sharma crosses party lines and sits beside a Liberal (us). Way to go, Anand! ;-)

1:40ish pm - Laurie Blakeman introduces us. Very nice.

1:41 pm - Premier Klein is on his cross-Canada "Torpedo Stephen Harper" Tour, so Finance Minister Shirley McClellan is running the show... man does she have a boring voice...

1:42 pm - Liberal leader Kevin Taft asks the first question.

1:43 pm - Alliance MLA Paul Hinman is here. Sitting all by himself. The ND's are there too. Brian Mason is quieter than his usual "QP bull dog" self. But he does make some good heckles.

1:45 pm - It looks like Ted Morton is playing paddy cake... wha? either that, or he has a Juba song stuck in his head.... crazy right-winger...

1:47 pm - We notice that Dave Hancock is still in his "grey hair period" (as opposed to his
previous brown and black periods).

1:49 pm - Aboriginal Affairs Minister Pearl Calahasen is reading the Hill Times.

1:50 pm - Education Minister Gene Zwozdesky scoffs at an opposition question about hot lunch programs in schools. St. Albert Liberal MLA Jack Flaherty yells at Zwoz and looks like he's going to get up and deck him. For a 74-year old, Flaherty sure has alot of energy.

2:00 pm - Banff-Cochrane Tory MLA Janis Tarchuk is signing Christmas cards. Lucky for her, her seatmate Rob Lougheed is MIA. So she uses his chair to pile her cards.

2:05 pm - QP continues. The opposition asks decent questions, but the Tories give boring answers. They know the media isn't paying attention to QP while Klein is on tour. We're bored. Time to bounce. Adios.

2:10 pm - On our way out, we bump into Agriculture Minister Doug Horner. Have a nice chat with him in the rotunda.

(END SCENE)

buy nothing day.

Can someone explain to us a couple things about Buy Nothing Day?

1. Why does it fall on a Friday?
2. Does beer count? Because... it's Friday... and it's been a long long week.

We're sitting in SUB finishing off a book review and 5 guys dressed in drag just walked by...

Also, this weekend, we will have the full report of our exciting adventure to the Alberta Legislature this week...

Highlights include...
... MLA's signing Christmas cards.
... an update on Dave Hancock's hair colour.
... a certain leadership candidate playing paddy-cake.
... and much much more.

pre-electoral projectation

A friend email this cool election projector to us. It's fun for political nerds!

harper's secret agenda.

Finally! Our suspicions have been confirmed... and we can't help but think it's kind of cool...

"Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada are building a Death Star. Hidden behind the moon and almost complete, the Conservative Death Star will allow us to finally achieve our fondest desires."

fyi. (pronounced: fwy)

After a quick MSN chat with a friend of official importance, we were reminded that this blog (the one you're reading now), has been nominated for some fairly hefty non-monetary awards. Those being that of the Canadian Blog Awards.

As much as we'd like to mock them as the "Canadian Nerd Awards" or the "Get a Life Awards," it would be unfair to judge everyone based on a couple of blogs.

We've been nominated in the Best Blog and Best Personal Blog categories.

Here are the voting instructions as posted by Robert at MyBlahg.

"Tentative Timetable
Thursday November 24th - Wednesday November 30th: Round One voting.
Friday December 2nd, 12pm EST: Round One results will be announced.
Saturday December 3rd - Friday December 9th: Round Two voting.
Sunday December 11th, 9pm EST: Round Two results will be announced.

Voting Instructions
You may vote once per day. To vote, click on a category header to open it and then make your selection. Repeat with each category until you've made all your selections and then submit your vote.

Note: It's not required that you vote in each category, but you must make all your selections before you submit your vote."

So, as you can see, voting begins tomorrow, so if you likey what you see, *go here* and vote early and often.

(We shall post our endorsements later this week)