hurricane alberta

This was forwarded to us by a very cool Daveberta reader. Thanks, Marianne! :-)

Tory Leadership Survey! Fill it out!

Daveberta reader and EMBA student, Aarn Wennekers, has forwarded us an awesome survey that he has set up as part of his studies at Queen's University (and just like Grandinite's Great Canadian Blog Survey, Aarn's survey is quite awesome).

Aarn's online survey deals with the political question that's at the forefront of every Albertns mind: Who's going to replace Alberta PC Premier Ralph Klein when he eventually decides to step down (and follow John Hamm's lead)?

Will it be former Treasurer Jim Dinning? Ted "Firewall" Morton? Minister of "Staying out of the Limelight" Ed Stelmach? Advanced Ed Minister Dave Hancock? Defeated Minister Mark Norris? Clay Aitken look-a-like Lyle Oberg?

Well, luckily for you, here's a chance to have your opinion counted in an awesome survey!

Stop by and fill out the PC Party of Alberta Leadership Survey!

grandinite's dream meme

Aaron, of Grandinite fame, is trying to start a new blog meme.

The meme includes answering the following 10 questions and then tagging a couple other bloggers to answer the questions.

1. If money were no object, what would you be doing with your life?

Sleeping, volunteering, writing, reading, & traveling.

2. Money is just that - an object, so why aren’t you doing it?

Money - the object - pays our rent. If we could pay our rent and buy food with good thoughts, we’d be all over that like a fat kid on an Oreo.

3. What’s better: horses or cows?

Horses. Because they rock.

4. What do you think the secret to happiness is?

Humility and patience.

5. When was the last time you had a dream that you either remember well or did not want to awake from? Can you share a bit?

Something about being a pirate.

6. When you were a little kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A pirate or a fighter jet pilot.

7. Complete this statement: Love is . . .

...warm and fuzzy.

8. Can you tell a good story? (write one!)

Once upon a time there was this guy who wanted to start a blog-meme. His name was Aaron.

9. Can you remember your last daydream? What was it about?

It was in our Canadian Public Policy seminar. We were dreaming what we would do if we could change Alberta’s natural gas royalty scheme. Nerdlicious.

10. If you were to thank someone today, who would you thank?

Our family, for being so great (and tolerating us).

And so, we tag:

c-lo

interluctor

mark at section 15

socialist swine

steve smith

paul wells

race to the right: the alberta alliance story

You may not know it, but the race for the leadership of the Alberta Alliance is going on as we blog.

The right-wing Alberta Alliance, which was formed in 2003 and led by former Social Credit leader Randy Thorsteinson until March 2005, is in the midst of finding a new leader.

As many of you know, in 2004, the Alliance elected a massive one-MLA caucus and nearly matching the Alberta NDP's massive 1997 and 2001 caucuses by nearly electing a second MLA.
The elected being Mr. Paul Hinman in Cardston-Taber-Warner, and the near-elected being Mr. Dale Leuken in Dunvegan-Central Peace.

So far, the Alliance leadership race has drawn the gaze of three contenders:

Marilyn Burns

Website: www.geocities.com/marilynaburnsllb/

Slogan: A Brighter Future

Political BG: Ms. Burns is a lawyer who ran for the Alliance in the Stony Plain riding where received just under 2,000 votes. She's the Alliance's Justice Critic and that her son , Jeremy, also ran in the 2004 election (in Edmonton Strathcona).

Pet Policies: unknown (website didn't say).

Conclusion: She's an educated woman, which gives her an automatic +1 for running in the first place. -1 point for not having a website with content. So, she sits at 0 points until we find out more.

David Crutcher



Website: http://www.davidcrutcher.ca/

Slogan: New Alberta

Political BG: An engineer and businessman who ran for the Alliance in the Calgary Egmont riding in 2004 and gained a surprising 15% of the vote (the largest amount for any Alliance candidate in Calgary). His connections are strong with the Progressive Group for Independent Business and former Federal PC leadership candidate and Concerned Christians activist, Craig Chandler.

Pet Policies: Alberta Pension Plan, Alberta Police Force, Triple-E Senate, disband the Canadian Wheat Board, Charter Schools, anti-Child Pornography, no Same-Sex Marriage, Referendum, Recall, end of manditory Union membership, Elimination of Corporate Subsidies, Independent Ethics Commissioner.

Conclusion: Perenial right-wing platform issues. We agree with an Independent Ethics Commissioner. We can't really name a politician that isn't "anti-Child Pornography." +1 point for the entertainment purpose of brining Craig Chandler on his team.

Mr. Paul Hinman
MLA Cardston-Taber-Warner



Website: http://www.paulhinman.ca/

Slogan: Moving Forward

Political BG: Hinman, the grandson of former Socred Provincial Treasurer Edgar Hinman, narrowly defeated two-term Tory MLA Broyce Jacobs. From what we recollect, during the last Legislative session, Hinman tended to concentrate his Question Period time on fighting icky gay marriage and mad cow disease.

Pet Policies: Lower Taxes, Smaller Government, Democratic Reform, use the "notwithstanding clause," creation of an Alberta Constitution, put a fixed percentage of natural resource revenue into the Heritage Fund, no more Same-Sex Marriage, protect Alberta's resources from Ottawa, referendum, recall, free votes, develop a tax structure that reflects family values, and the one we loved the most: "Protect families from unnecessary intrusions by the government." Just give yourself a couple of seconds to think about that one.

Conclusion: Perenial right-wing platform. We're not quite sure how a tax-system can "reflect family values." We're also not quite sure how he plans to "protect families from unnecessary intrusions by the government." Maybe he's running to be the leader of Krypton? -10 points from creapy picture. He'll probably win because he's already an MLA.

Thoughts?

Is the Alberta Alliance simply a blip on the radar of wacky right-wingness?

Many speculate that Tory leadership candidate, Ted Morton, may cross the floor to the Alliance if he loses the Tory leadership (and the Premiership in turn).

Is the Alliance the next NDP-of-the-right in Alberta?

Will the Alliance usurp the deep rural Alberta ridings from the Tories if the uber-urban leadership dauphin, Jim Dinning, becomes Premier? Will they split the right-wing vote with the Tories and allow Kevin Taft's Alberta Liberals a foothold in rural Alberta?

Your thoughts?

and yes, the question is...

For those of you on the University of Alberta campus tomorrow, the Students’ Union is going to be starting its ‘The Question Is…’ speakers series.

Tomorrow’s question is… Sustainability.

The day will include:

• A bike workshop from the People’s Peddle and ECOS (in Quad from 12-4pm)
• A session on Forest Purchasing Policies by Christy Ferguson of Greenpeace (from 1-2 in Education 165)
• A session on Presicides and the Community Gardening with Franny Trawluk, and Meredith James of the Sierra Club (from 2-3 pm at Dewey’s)
• A session on Alberta’s Dangered Foothill Forests with Rebecca Reeves (from 3-4 in Education 164)
• A forum on Sustainable Transit with Clare Stock, Linsday Telfour of the Sierra Club, and NDP MLA David Eggen (from 3:30-5pm at Dewey’s)
• A lecture with Dr. David Schindler on Water Issues in Alberta from 5:30-7pm in Education 129.

So, stop by if you get the chance.

happy b-day petey!

That’s right ladies, Mr. Peter Mackay, the currently single and last ever leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, turns the big four-O today.

Mr. Mackay, who is now the Member of Parliament for Central Nova, was first elected in the riding of Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough in 1997 under the leadership of then Tory leader (and for the time-being Quebec Liberal Premier) Jean Charest.

He's now lost the chance at beating Joe Clark’s record as the youngest Prime Minister in Canadian history.

In 1979, Mr. Clark was elected Prime Minister at the age of 39 (and actually turned 40 the next day).

Mr. Mackay, who is considered by many hacks and politicos to be a potential leadership candidate when Stephen Harper eventually steps down, may actually have a chance at taking the Tories over the top into a minority government (or so we here in daveberta think).

laguna beach and the city

Hope you enjoyed the random title.

Surprisingly, the last couple of weeks have been unusually friendly to us. We just got back into the city tonight after a wonderful weekend in our rural Alberta homeland. The air is so much cleaner outside the city, it's rejuvenating.

We also realized while having a cold pint on Friday evening at RATT, that we had spent 3 out of the 5 weeknights there...

Also, we met Reg Alcock last week. He seemed like a nice guy.

We leave you with...


Which Colossal Death Robot Are You?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

(Props to nastyboy for the quiz link)

the michael ritter saga continued...

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology...

The Michael Ritter trial in Edmonton just keeps on getting more and more saucy.

For those of you interested, the "Reasons for Decision of the Honourable Assistant Chief Judge A. H. Lefever", have been published on the Alberta Courts website.

It details the reasons why the Alberta Provincial Court judge denied Mr. Ritter bail (the section on him being flight risk to Belize was particularly interesting). It also has quite a good summary of the allegations made against Mr. Ritter by the American (ie. The $230 million ponzi scheme) and Canadian (ie. theft) authorities.

Even if half the allegations against Mr. Ritter are true, this scandal will sure make a great CBC mini-series one day (post-lockout, of course). It's saucy, international, dangerous, and filled with Canadian content!

wtf alberta.

It seems that our illustrious and beloved leader, Premier Ralph Klein, has decided that he knows best when it comes to what Albertans want. Apparently, we would rather he cut us all a one-time $400 cheque instead of say...

...improving the quality of institutions that have starved for funding under his reign.
...doing something visionary.
...doing anything visionary.

Honestly, a one-time $400 cheque? How is that going to help make Alberta a better place? A $400 cheque isn't going to change improve the quality of life in Alberta. It's not going to build better roads, build better schools, or improve rapid transit. It's more than definately not going to help that homeless guy that was sleeping on our front lawn last week.

What about the people who don't need the cheque?

What about the people who need more than a one-time $400?

*cough*AISH recipients*cough*

And of course, in the true spirit of Alberta's democratic tradition, the decision to spend the $1.4 Billion on rebate cheques was made in a closed-door Tory caucus meeting in Lethbridge. Yes, that's right, a party which in the last election received the votes of only 22% of eligible Alberta voters has decided that it has the authority to spend $1.4 Billion while behind closed doors.

Can we expect any public input into these decisions?

Can we expect any serious debate on the spending of Alberta's future revenues when the legislature is recalled next May?

*cough*probably not*cough*

Alberta: Looking for Vision since Peter Lougheed retired in 1984.

the gods of patronage...

...have once again shone their rath on another Canadian, leaving a trail of patronagistic devastation in their tracks.

For what feels like the 35th time in the past year, the Prime Minister has appointed another lucky Canadian to the what could only be discribed as the tenuristic ivory tower of Canada's upwardly mobile class (aka: the Senate). Ms. Sandra Lovelace Nicholas was appointed this afternoon by Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Ms. Nicholas, who will sit as a Liberal Senator from New Brunswick, actually has a fairly interesting background. According to her bio on the PMO release:

"Challenging discriminatory provisions of the Indian Act, which deprived Aboriginal women of their status when they married non-Aboriginals, she was instrumental in bringing the case before the United Nations Human Rights Commission and lobbying for the 1985 legislation which reinstated the rights of First Nation women and their children in Canada. In 1990, she was awarded the Order of Canada, and in 1992, she received the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case."

So, other than being appointed, she seems like she'd be a much needed fairly decent addition to the Upper Chamber of Parliament.

This appointment leaves the last vacancy in the upper house hailing from the potato-growing province of Prince Edward Island (Stompin' Tom still has a chance!).

stephen lewis on saturday

This past Saturday, we attended the Muttart Foundation's seminar with Mr. Stephen Lewis at the Citadel Theatre. It was a great lecture. Mr. Lewis, for those of you who aren't familiar with him, is the United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and the former Canadian Ambassador to the U.N. (he was also an Ontario MPP and leader of the Ontario NDP from 1970-78).

Mr. Lewis is also part of what could only be called 'Canada's Social Democratic Dynasty' (and that is what we are calling it), which boasts a fairly impressive pedigree of Canadian celebrity socialists. Mr. Lewis' father was David Lewis, who led the federal NDP in a coalition with the Trudeau Liberals from 1972 to 1974, and Mr. (Stephen) Lewis' son is Avi Lewis, who's well known as the former host of CBC's CounterSpin who is also married to anti-globalization activist and author, Ms. Naomi Klein.

We last saw Mr. Lewis speak in Ottawa two years ago and he was equally as amazing this time.

Along with some personal tidbits about one Mr. Brian Mulroney and a certain upcoming book, Lewis' talk focused on the positive and not so positive elements of the United Nations in the wake of it's 60th anniversary, and the work he does with the U.N. and various NGO's in combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. Lewis also had some fairly harsh words for the current Liberal government's lack of real committment to reaching the 0.7% GDP level of foreign aid to developing countries, even though the Pearson Liberals were one of the first advocates of this goal.

We would be blowing smoke if we said his personal stories of his visits to Africa didn't cause us to shed a tear or two during his lecture. What amazes us the most about Mr. Lewis is his persistence, strength, and passion for humanitarianism. After all the political junk and stonewalling he has put up with from various politicians, agencies, and governments, he remains an impassioned man. You could feel it. It's inspirational.

Two of the many agencies he mentioned during his lecture, which we recommend you check out, are the Stephen Lewis Foundation and the Bill Clinton Foundation, both which conduct a large amount of work in HIV/AIDS stricken areas of the world.

blog of the week: doucheblog

Though Rob tends to focuses on the ups and downs of American politics, we've enjoyed this blog for a some time.

Check out the doucheblog.

we want to drink your...

...vulcan blood.

"Please Lord let me have another oil boom and I won't piss it away"

This morning we were feeling particularily frustrated with the Alberta Government's complete lack of vision when it comes to what to do with Alberta's "new found" wealth.

So, we wrote a letter to the Edmonton Journal...

"Please Lord let me have another oil boom and I won't piss it away"

Albertans are privileged to have the option of issuing $300 rebate cheques. But simply because we have the ability to do so, it does not mean we should. We could do many things with this money. We could build a giant statue of Ralph Klein in Churchill Square, but it doesn't mean we should.

Let's invest in our communities. Let's invest in our education and advanced education systems. Let's invest our wealth in the future of our province so that the generations of tomorrow can enjoy the economic wealth that the politicians of today take for granted.

ahhh. That feels a little better now.

who let the ritter out? who? who? who? who?

Not Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench.

For anyone interested (following up from an earlier post), Edmonton's own Mr. Michael Ritter, the former Chief Parliamentary Counsel to the Alberta Legislature, has been making headlines across the world! Well... Albertans do have that "entrepreneurial spirit..."

Edmonton Sun: Ritter fighting to stay at home.
Bloomberg: Canadian Charged with $43 Million Embezzlement of Merrill Lynch.

We'll have more coverage as it comes...

Here's an open ended question for all you loyal daveberta readers: How much legislation was passed in Alberta while this upstanding gentleman was our Counsel?

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology...

Richard Nixon and Project Independence

We're currently reading "The Tar Sands: Syncrude and the Politics of Oil" by Larry Pratt for our Canadian Public Policy class. It's quite an interesting read. We never knew natural resource policy and the history of Alberta's tarsands was so interesting.

As well, we thought this clip from pages 49 - 50 of said book was interesting and quite telling...

One month following the outbreak of the Yom Kippur Middle East war of October 1973, with the United States deep in the grip of Watergate fever compounded by the anxiety over the Arab oil boycott, former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon appeared on American television to prescribe strong medicine, his antidote for the energy crisis.

Nixon named it "Project Independence." The challenge facing the United States, he declared, was to regain the strength of self-sufficiency in energy. This was a key to Americans predominance among the nations. "Our ability to meet our own energy needs is directly linked to our continued ability to act decisively and independently at home and abroad in the service of peace, not only for America, bur for all nations in the world." Calling for "focused leadership" to achieve self-sufficiency by 1980, Nixon likened his challenge to earlier crash programs to develop the atomic bomb and to put a man on the moon. He went on to promise massive public funding for the exploration of American's remaining energy resources-Alaskan oil and gas, offshore oil reserves, nuclear energy and synthetic fuels from coal and oil shale. A few days later, Nixon reiterated his challenge, linking it to rumour circulating Washington that the "blue-eyed Arabs" of Canada were taking advantage of America's energy plant. The United States, Nixon asserted, should be independent of all oil producing countries, "including our Canadian friends," by 1976. Canadians "can be pretty tough on us sometimes when they are looking down our throats." This did not mean that the U.S. would not continue to desire the oil of he Middle East of the gas of Siberia or that she would cease energy cooperation with Canada or Latin America. "But it does mean that the United States must be independent in this area, and we can be."

let the games begin.

It seems that the Alberta Liberals are getting their game face on for the next provincial election.

This evening, the Edmonton Castle Downs Constituency will nominate Chris Kibermanis as their Alberta Liberal Candidate for the next election. You may remember that Castle Downs produced the closest race in the last election, with Kibermanis, 29, originally defeating cocky Tory incumbent and playboy-wannabe, Thomas Lukaszuk, by 9 votes.

But it was not to be. In the days following Kibermanis' election, Lukaszuk and his O.J. style Tory Legal team descended on the Castle Downs results in an orgy of legal attacks which ended in the usurping of the original results which had been approved by Elections Officials. In the end, a 9 vote deficit turned out to be a 6 vote surplus... suspicious indeed.

This time, the rematch looks to be hot as Kibermanis has at least a year to campaign as the Alberta Liberal candidate. It is not known whether Lukaszuk, who as much as we can tell, doesn't do more than sit pretty in the backbenches and jump when ordered, will seek re-election.

Tonight's nomination meeting is the first of what will be a string of candidate nominations in the coming months and also comes on the heels of the Connections 2005 Pasta Supper which drew over 500 Alberta Liberals last Friday in Edmonton.

With the race to replace aging Premier Ralph Klein in full swing and looking to be nasty (our "Deep Throats" in Calgary are witnessing the emergence of a "Ted Morton insugency" in many supposedly Paul Mar... er... "Jim Dinning friendly" ridings), Kevin Taft and the Alberta Liberals are more than definitely in a position to make major gains in soft-Tory ridings like Castle Downs.

Let the games begin!

when visa isn't enough: the michael ritter story.

Money stolen from Merrill Lynch: $43 Million.

Money stolen or unlawfully possed and hidden in offshore bank accounts: $10.3 Million.

Money stolen through fraud in a US pyramid scheme: $230 Million.

Being denied bail AND facing extradition charges to the United States: Priceless.

Because, when Visa isn't enough, there's always theft, fraud, and money laundering.

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology...

privacy is "the cornerstone of a liberal democracy"

Oui, c'est un press release...

Prof probes impact of post 9/11 surveillance

Immediately after the 9/11 Al-Qeada terrorist attacks, government officials in both the U.S. and Canada were quick to pass legislation to increase surveillance of their citizens. But now, four years later, as fear of further terrorist attacks has become less acute and suspicion of government leaders' motives has heightened, more and more people are starting question the increased invasion of their privacy, says Dr. Kevin Haggerty, director of the criminology program in the University of Alberta Department of Sociology.

"Right after 9/11 it was impossible for anyone to say no to anything that would purportedly increase security," said Haggerty, who recently co-authored a paper on the use of surveillance as response to terrorist threats, which was published in the Canadian Journal of Sociology.

Increasing the ability of lawmakers to monitor our Internet use, financial transactions, personal movements and cell phone use were just a few of the measures in the U.S. Patriot Act and the Canadian Public Safety Act that became law shortly after 9/11. But many of these measures had been proposed and rejected as unwarranted privacy invasions in previous years, Haggerty said.

The steep increase in surveillance infrastructure after 9/11 has been "intensive" and has "proceeded with little public debate or protest," he added. "But polling and censor numbers are showing us that people have lost some of their trust in authorities, and we are now looking more critically at the restrictions being placed on our civil liberties."

Read the rest here.

5-6-7 billion!

We thought this was interesting.

Check out the US National Debt Clock and the US Federal Government Budget Spending.

The United States Bureau of Public Debt has some pretty skyrocketing debt numbers as well.

In 2000, the US National Public Debt was $5,674,178,209,886.86.

As of yesterday, the US National Public Debt was sitting at $7,950,034,655,748.03.

holy shite.

oggle the bazoogle.

According to the "Which Big Lebowski character are you?" quiz:

Why don't you check it out? Or we cut off your Johnson!

The funny thing is, we've never seen the movie and have no idea what it means.

Can anyone enlighten us?

(props to funcentral for the link to this quiz)

the oberg effect.

August 30-31: Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation Minister and Tory Leadership Candidate, Lyle Oberg visits the Ukraine and meets with Ukraine's Minister of Transportation and other government and business officials.

Sept 9: Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko fires his cabinet.

Mere coincidence? Decide for yourself.

top scientific discovery.

Top American researchers and analysts have disected the reason for United States President George W. Bush's unique grasp of the English Language.

Brilliant. Freaking brilliant.

(Props to Expat for the link)

still digging our hole...

When we finish digging our hole from Garneau to the other side of the world, we now know we'll end up in the south Indian Ocean!

From That Canadian Girl via Darren Barefoot.

the incredible grandinite blog survey!

An email from Aaron of Grandinite fame...

Friends of the Canadian Blogosphere:

As I stated, not one month ago, on Calgary's QR 770 with Rob Breakenridge: you have not heard the last of Aaron Braaten.

I bring to you the Great Canadian Blog Survey at Canadianeconomist.com.

There's info on the site if you want to direct people straight to the survey and cut out the middleman. If you get a pop-up, that's the survey.

Please help me publicize it. If you link to it, just respond to this email so I can acknowledge you in the final reports.

Let's get 'er done.

The more respondents the survey gets, the faster the report will come out and the sooner you 'linkers' are immortalized in Canada's best blog survey, done by a blogger for his fellow bloggers.

Plus you will be helping a budding young economist finish his master's thesis.

Five minutes out of your busy day of blogging. Five minutes is all I ask.

To those of you who link to it: thank you. For those of you who do not, please take my survey!

Cheers,

Aaron Braaten

--
Founder of:

http://www.canadianeconomist.com
http://www.albertablogs.com
http://www.grandinite.com

born with a tail on martin.

Don Martin that is.

Derek, from Born with a Tail, has posted his review of National Post columnist Don Martin's inward looking five-part series on why Alberta is better than the rest of Canada. We very much enjoy the Raymakerian-style of blog posting.

Check it out.

everytime a bell rings, a political hack loses his moustache.

Rod! Say it ain't so!

From Wednesday's Edmonton Journal...

"...the moustache, Love said he "hacked it off" because he got tired of looking at it after 35 years."

Rod Love (seen here), who is "not a lobbyist," recently re-left Premier Ralph Klein's Office as Chief of Staff for the second time to rejoin the private sector. He also parted ways with his trademark massive moustache.

Mr. Love, who has been heavily involved in Kleinesian politics since 1980 was also one of the geniuses behind Stockwell Day's "leadership" of the Canadian Alliance, and Belinda Stronach's Conservative leadership bid. He is also very supportive of the Jim Dinning camp of the Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership race, so don't rule him out briefly coming back to the Premier's office after Dinning smacks the bejesus out of the Ted Morton/Lyle Oberg/Mark Norris group only to be defeated in the next election (yes, you heard it here first!).

Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft is suggesting that the Alberta Government instate a cooling off period for insiders like Love, who hop in between the private consulting jobs and high level political positions. The issue came up after Mr. Love's new consulting firm took out a large advertizment in last Tuesday's Globe & Mail business section praising the experiences of Mr. Love.

Currently, there is a one year cooling off period for retiring or defeated Cabinet Ministers.

We tend to agree. A cooling off period for political insiders wouldn't be so bad.

And yes, if you would like to see the newly moustachless Mr. Love, check out this coverage by Kevin Rich at CFCN Calgary.

when is a blog dead?

How long does a blog have to be dormant before it's considered to be "dead?"

Is the Child of Reagan dead?

gross? yes.

Warning! Only the eight year-old in us found this funny. Be warned.

the two faces of u.s. senator mary landrieu.

Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu...

Last week: "I'm not angry at anyone."

This week: "If one persons criticizes our sheriffs, or says one more thing, including the President of the United States, he will hear from me - one more word about it after this show airs and I - might likely have to punch him - literally."

(props to Mr. Taylor for the CNN coverage).

debt is good: hancock

From the Calgary Herald...

[Advanced Education Minister Dave] Hancock disagreed that graduating with student debt totalling as much as $20,000 is unacceptable.

"It's the best investment you'll ever make," he said, adding it took him a decade to repay his student loans.

So, at what point did personal debt become good and government debt become bad?

klein on e-bay

Klein auctions off his "maverick brand" on E-Bay...

one good lookin' blog

After some back-to-school shopping, we've brought back some of the latest blogging fashions from the far east.

Any comments?

wtf

Dr. Phil is on Larry King Live talking about New Orleans with US Surgeon General Richard Carmona.

Seriously: WTF?

how mr. smith got his groove back.

As per his email request, we'd like to announce that Mr. Steve Smith has resumed his blogging ways.

the fire that daveberta built...

Isn't it nice?

blog of the week: the wingnuterer

Do we even need to explain this one?

Check out the Wingnuterer!

walk the line

Sweet.

We're looking forward to this one, but we're a little concerned at Joaquin Phoenix's acting... it usually sucks... hopefully he'll pull it off...

links galore...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

zorph is relentless!

and the saga continues...

...as the armies of darkness muster their armies in the west...

the evolution of daveberta...

...according to the Ontariocentric Zorpheous...



...in which we totally kickass.

happy birthday alberta.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the only province that we have ever had the pleasure of calling home. Today in 1905, the Province of Alberta and its sister Province, Saskatchewan, were officially born from the great expanse known as the North West Territories and its respected Districts.



We love our province. We love its natural beauty and diversity. We love that you can drive through the near deserts of Drumheller and Milk River to the majestic and amazing Rocky Mountains to the incredibly beautiful north filled with forests and lakes and the bald-ass prairie which spans as far as the eye can see all within one province. We love that an area so diverse and vast in its own is also part of an even vaster and more diverse country.



Our family first came to Alberta in 1896 as pioneers. They traveled from Sorel, Quebec and settled north of Edmonton. They were hard working farmers, breaking land and farming through brutally hard conditions. Along with thousands of other pioneers, they started with nearly nothing, but together they succeeded in building healthy and vibrant communities across this province.

We remember hearing our grandfather telling us stories about the 1930's when he and his brother drove a covered wagon to homestead in the Peace Country because the local mine had shut down due to the Depression.

We remember our grandfather telling us the story of how our great-great-uncle, Lionel Tellier (who also served as the Independent MLA for St. Albert from 1940-44), fought the Canadian government to the Supreme Court for the right to have French enlistment forms in Alberta during the First World War.



Albertans live in an incredible place. As a Province, we have an unbelievable amount of wealth in natural resources, but we also have incredible potential and an untapped wealth of resources in the form of our citizens.

Alberta has the potential to do great things as we moves into the 21st century; incredible things for our people, and incredible things for Canada.

As we celebrate this 100th Anniversary of this great province, let's not forget the potential all Albertans have, not as politicians or protectionists, but as leaders in strengthening our position as the best province in the best country in the world.

We love our home, our province, and our country.

Happy Birthday, Alberta!