According to both the Edmonton Sun and Edmonton Journal, Premier Ralph Klein has reiterated that he's sticking around for a few more years despite the fact that many of his cabinet ministers have already begun jockeying for his job.
Klein told reporters yesterday that he plans to step down in late 2007 in order to allow time for a leadership race and to give his successor ample time to prepare for the next provincial election. More here.
Norris is in.
Former Economic Development Minister Mark Norris (who looks suspiciously like this character) reacted to Klein's announcement by gushing "I think it's great news, I am running, there is no doubt about it." Norris was soundly defeated in Edmonton McClung during last November's provincial election by Liberal Mo Elsalhy. So, that makes Oberg, Dinning, Stelmach, Hancock, Morton, and Norris...
And, by the way, Bill C-38 has been approved by the Senate.
UPDATE: More Ralph retirment quotes:
AUPE President Dan McLellan: "I would be surprised if you can put the toothpaste back in the tube, the websites are up, the hospitality suites are going and supporters of the candidates will want a race."
ND MLA Ray Martin: "It is baffling to me. He shows absolutely no interest in the job. The government is running on auto-pilot. Nobody is in charge."
U of C Political Science Professor David Taras "I think Ralph Klein has put everybody on ice..."
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Man a Liberal in Alberta and a cowboy. What a damn minority you are. And you whine and complain about Ralph Klein, haha. Just like one of my other Liberal friends. I guess 333 million dollars stolen for the federal liberal Party is no big deal!
ReplyDeleteSo... I shouldn't criticize the Klein Tories because of Chretien Liberals?
ReplyDeleteYep. Sounds like Ralph Klein logic.
No but maybe you could criticize the federal Liberals along with your rants about Ralph Klein. Try that for a change. You might learn something about Liberals as well as Ralph Klein
ReplyDeleteI still can't get over it. You're a cowboy but vote Liberal. So I guess you don't own a gun or live on a ranch or farm. Man you make no sense to me. Maybe you just like cowboy hats.
ReplyDeleteLol, and since you say you live downtown, you probably don't even own a pickup. You are a poser! I'm afraid a great deal of Alberta voters draw the same parallel between the federal and provincial Liberal parties that emil does.
ReplyDeleteI don't see the difference between federal or provincial Liberals. Both are social activists on gay marriage which most Canadians would prob. vote against if we had a referendum on it and both are tax and spend people. I'll tolerate Ralph Klein even if he isn't perfect. We're still the only province that has no debt anymore and the lowest taxes.
ReplyDeleteoh emil. you funny duck, you!
ReplyDelete"...maybe you could criticize the federal Liberals along with your rants about Ralph Klein."
Maybe you could criticize Ralph Klein along with your rants about the federal Liberals.
I never said I was a cowboy, it's just a picture. Didn't your mother ever tell you not to judge a book by its cover, emil? (I did grow up in a small town though).
I dare you to try to fine a post where I gush as much praise on the feds as you have on Ralph Klein in these comments. I dare you. Dare you I say! :P
"I don't see the difference between federal or provincial Liberals."
You wouldn't, would you?
LOL, emil you are a funny duck.
Emil - Sounds an awful lot like you know nothing about the difference between federal and provincial political parties. Let me illustrated with an excellent example from the beautiful province of British Columbia. Here's the approximate translation of our parties to the federal parties. Also, I believe that the BC Liberal party is not officially affiliated at all with the federal Liberal party, although I'm pretty sure the other two are (with their respective parties), despite their policy differences.
ReplyDeleteBC Liberal ~ CPC without the homophobia and giant "western alienation" stick up its ass, more like the old Progressive Conservatives
BC NDP ~ federal Liberals with somewhat smaller scale scandals, in terms of policy definitely closer to centre than the federal NDP
BC Greens ~ somewhere between federal Greens and NDP
"BC Liberal ~ CPC without the homophobia and giant "western alienation" stick up its ass"
ReplyDeleteBest post ever.
Props to Alison in Vancouver.
the wingnuts have been hiding behind the federal liberal boogeymen for so long they can no longer absorb reality. why is that the canadian taxpayer federation is no longer supporting the alberta government and has'nt for some time? could it be that the alberta tories are big time spenders and wasters of money. shocked, i'm simply shocked.
ReplyDeleteI think Emil needs to get out from under his rock more often.
ReplyDeleteI think you all are just pathetic Liberals. You call homophobia being against homosexual marriage. Well I call people who hate Christians or people of faith bigots, something you all probably share yet despise. You're all just the typical Liberals like the young Liberals of Canada who say "It's the charter stupid"! It's not the charter you fucking idiots b/c homosexuals have never had the right to marry each other. But they can marry anyone of the opposite sex. It's called "MARRIAGE" between a man and a woman. Look it up in a dictionnary if you have time to get off ur arrogant Liberal asses. Haha. Maybe you guys should go to those gay parades and flash everyone your penises. I hear they did that in Toronto. You would all fit in well there. Then stick a clean needle with heroin in your veins. I hear they hand those out in Vancouver. Unless of course you already do
ReplyDeleteBy the way there is western alienation in this country and you are all the problem.
Ahh, a valiant struggle to keep the spirit of junior high school alive.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you guys should go to those gay parades and flash everyone your penises. I hear they did that in Toronto.
ReplyDeleteQuite right, Mr. Vargas, we did do that. In fact, there's a city bylaw here in the T-dot that says everybody with a Johnson Outboard must whip it out at dawn and dusk every Sunday and wave it in the direction of Alberta and chant: "You might have all the oil, but we've got a groovy 8.5% PST and you don't, so nya nya nya nya nya nya." If you fail to do so, you are fined $50 by the Toronto Penis Waving Commission, or TORPWAC as the locals call it. I'm surprised the crazy broad over at Small Dead Animals hasn't let the cat out of the bag on that one yet.
Honestly, arguing with this guy is like competing in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you're still a retard.
Holtopia said: "Ahh, a valiant struggle to keep the spirit of junior high school alive."
ReplyDeleteAhh, and a valiant struggle it is. But alas, our dearest friend Emil has fallen prey to the official "plan B" of a right-wing nuts, "if you're losing an argument, start gay bashing."
It's so predictible, it's almost cute (in a sort of "i'm going to suck your blood" kind of way).
Funny Emil said:"We're still the only province that has no debt anymore and the lowest taxes."
lol. If only that were true. You see, the province of Alberta is not out of debt or debt-free. What they did in the 1990's was download many services and responsibilities to the municipal levels and privatize a whole bunch of others. If we are "debt-free," how do you explain the $8 Billion infrastructure debt here in our lovely province?
btw: very good post, Mr. Raymaker.
Wow! You are great, you are able to deal with all these corrupt and bigotted liberals in polite, respectful and rational manner.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your posts I will vote for the Conservatives in the next election for sure!
Thanks for telling it like it is, you have just saved this former Liberal!
Emil, please, never change, and post on as many blogs as possible.
I'd rather have a 8 billion dollar infrastructure debt than say a 33 billion dollar debt that BC has to pay interest on and pay down or the huge 120 billion dollar debt that Ontario has. Now that we have no debt all surpluses can go to improving infrastructure, improving health care, education and cutting our taxes. I'm proud to be born and raised in Alberta even if I don't live here right now. Klein made some sacrifices in the 90's and pissed off people but now its all paying off so kudos to him. I don't know any other Premier who has done more for a province than him except maybe Gordon Campbell fixing BC. But he still has to pay his debt down. And he has to deal with hard core socialists in Vancouver who reduced him to a bare majority.
ReplyDeleteOh emil, it's so unfortunate that you should contribute to the already deplorable reputation of so called "right wing" ideologues as irrational, overstated and under-informed. I guess it should come as no surprise though, seeing as you subscribe to the concept that cowboys are all fundamentalist conservatives, everyone that disagrees with fund-conservs are "leftist", and that there are only two sides to choose from in political debate.
ReplyDelete'With us or against us' makes things rather simple though I suppose, helps determine what side yer one without having to think a lot about the issues at hand.
The other theory at work here is that a provinces debt or wealth supports your particular political viewpoint? ABs wealth must then be the workings of the genius Klein and in extension, the CPCs? But has nothing to do with natural resources (that which has thousands of years of history, long before the PCPs came around) and international trade agreements. Likewise, population, development, tourism and class related expendable incomes doesn't play into the analysis.
However, Klein certainly deserves some credit for topping off the surplus with public funds, retrieved through the obscene slashing of social programmes, healthcare, and public service related infrastructure. So maybe you've got a point and the rest of us should be extraordinarily leary of the federal CPCs par Ralphies example.
Emil,
ReplyDelete"I don't see the difference between federal or provincial Liberals. Both are social activists on gay marriage which most Canadians would prob. vote against if we had a referendum on it and both are tax and spend people."
It's good to see you're well aquainted with the true motives of the Alberta Liberal Party (which, by the way, I am NOT part of.) I've never actually heard any Alberta Liberal MLA advocate SSM. In fact, it's much to the contrary. Bridget Pastoor is forcefully opposed to Gay Marriage. Dave Taylor MLA, is reluctant to pick up the topic. And David Swann is as socially conservative as any of the PC leadership contenders, save Morton. Half of his campaign team was comprised of LDS for Christ's sake!
Raymaker: I've been looking for a way to expand my curiculum vitae. What do you think the chances are of me getting to serve on the Toronto Penis Waiving Commission? Do you think they would cover my travel expenses? Obviously the way we waive our penises out West is different then the way they do it in Ontario. I just think that all kinds of penises should be include.
I'm sure you will agree that the last thing we need is more alienated penises!
Sen: I heard that the U of C is planning to offer "Penis Waiving 101" along with their "History of Led Zeplin" course. :P
ReplyDeleteI also heard that they may be offering "Advanced Penis Waving 543" and "The History of Critical Thinking and Penis Waving 580" for Graduate Students.
D
U of C will also be offering the 6 credit course (lecture and lab) Nipple Shocking 200 in the Fall/Winter term and a 3 credit course (seminar) Purple Nurple 420.
ReplyDeleteThis was hilarious!!!
ReplyDeleteThere is no shades of gray I gues with some people.
BTW, name a better Premier?
How about the visionary that was Lougheed? At least he had an idea when he would run in an election. Ralph lost his vision once Alberta was 'Debt-free'.
Don't forget "History 439: The History of Penis Waving and Socialism in Latin America" and "History 333: American Presidents and Penis Waving"
ReplyDeleteI'm actually taking one of those module classes this fall. "HIST 429.4: Penises of the Civil War"
ReplyDeleteI hear that Ulysses S. Grant had gigantism... in his trousers!
The things you find out in blog comment boxes...
ReplyDeleteTag. You're it.
ReplyDeletePS... Dave, is there something significant about the difference between a "penis waive" and a "penis wave"?
ReplyDeleteThe U of C's calender didn't specify.
Actually, yes. Calgary is the only place in Canada where you can legally "waive your penis" without fear of legal reprecussions.
ReplyDeleteThere's a whole module on that topic in "Penis Waiving 101" class at the U of C.
An example of "waiving the penis" is when a higher authority of governance declares it's intentions to fight an issue to the very last possible point, but then backs down at the very last minute.
ReplyDelete