advanced gomery

We're sitting here waiting for our advanced copy of the Gomery Report to arrive via Fedex... it hasn't arrived yet. We're only waiting 1 more hour before we call Johnny G. to see where our copy is.

indeed.

"It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can do only a little. Do what you can."

Sydney Smith
1771-1845, Writer and Clergyman

cold hearted bastard.

Though we deplore AIDS and Cancer jokes, we are less than partial to the odd tsunami joke...

(Props to Nastyboy for the quiz linkage)

kick.

We went to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra last Friday (with our noses tilted slightly higher).

It was nice. Bill Eddins, the conductor, rocks. He was all over the place. It was entertaining to just watch him.

(Also, Canada Post has earned a spot in our naughty book this past week. No Christmas card for them this year.)

boo!

Happy Halloween.

now with 60% more hippies.

The Green Party of Canada is holding a logo design contest... we couldn't help but join the fun!

Here's what we came up with...

olympia.

The Turino Winter Olympics are going to be held February 10-26, 2006.

We're looking forward to it.

what happened after...

...we posted the leaked Alberta rebate cheques designs.

banff vs. jasper.

Being the political nerds we are, we thought we'd look back at some of the results from last November's Provincial Election.

Today, we look at the results from two of Alberta's well-known Rocky Mountain towns: Banff and Jasper. Though this post shouldn't be mistaken for a "cognative analysis" of any kind, we hope you enjoy the charts we made. ;-)

We didn't find it very surprising that Banff voters supported a more right-wing party, but we were a little surprised at the political plurialism found in the beautiful mountain town of Jasper... we knew there was a reason why we like Jasper more than Banff...

A quick look at the electoral history of Jasper, in the West Yellowhead riding, will show that it has elected opposition MLA's in the past. New Democrat Jerry Doyle (1989-93) and Liberal Duco VanBinsbergen (1993-97). In 1997, VanBinsbergen was edged out by Tory Ivan Strang. In 2001, Strang cruised to re-election and was also re-elected in 2004. So, West Yellowhead has a tradition of sometime electing opposition MLA's...



Banff, in the Banff-Cochrane riding, voted fairly solidly Tory, though we were very surprised at the strength of the Alberta Green vote in Banff, edging out the Liberals for second place.



Not that was wanted to prove anything critical with this post. We just like making charts.

AA = Alberta Alliance
AG = Alberta Greens
LIB = Alberta Liberals
ND = Alberta NDP
PC = Progressive Conservative

welcome to the mother ship.

Nice to see that 10 years after the boom began, they're finally thinking about coordinating development in the Oil Sands...

...in a press release from Alberta's Public Affairs Bureau and Alberta Energy released the other day titled "Province Developing a plan to Coordinate Oil Sands Development."

Also...

"The environment is our Mother ship, and it is important that we focus on sustainable development that preserves the natural resources and beauty of our province."
- Alberta Environment Minister Guy Boutillier

Welcome to the Mother Ship...

our scoop.

Holy smokes...

It appears our scoopage of the Globe & Mail on the Alberta rebate cheque designs story (much to the dismay of mr. c-lo) has boosted our blog traffic up a little bit from to the usual daily 90-100ish to around 400 visitors today.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed and come back to visit. :-)

(Extra props go to Calgary Grit, Dust My Broom, Red Between the Lines, and Matthew Good (we own 3 of your CD's...) for the linkage - which had much to do with the boost in traffic - sorry if we missed anyone).

prosperity cheque designs leaked!

The designs of Alberta's upcoming rebate cheques have been leaked to us at daveberta by a crafty individual with close ties to the Alberta government.

Here they are....













UPDATE/WARNING: It's been insinuated that these may not actually be the real Alberta rebate/prosperity cheque designs. As disappointing as this is, we urge you to view them at your own risk - and yes, we realize the irony of having the 'warning' at the bottom of the post... (also, if you like ponies and pachyderms)

diamonds are forever.

It's very windy outside.

For those of you interested, we're currently reading the Canadian Institute for Resource Law's Independent Review of the BHP Diamond Mine Process (June 30, 1997) for our Canadian Public Policy Seminar.

It's more interesting than it sounds.

Also, has anyone listened to the new Franz Ferdinand album? (which of course, could never be good as the first Franz Ferdinand) We're sorry to say we're slightly disappointed this time around...

more tory patronage...

Alberta's Conservative government launched another round of fairly obvious patronage appointments last week...

Karen Kryczka, Tory MLA for Calgary West (1997-2004), was appointed to the Board of the Alberta Foundation of the Arts.

Bob Clark, Social Credit MLA for Olds-Didsbury (1960-81), Socred Leader (1977-81), and Alberta's "Ethics Commissioner" (1992-2003), was appointed to the Natural Resource Conservation Board.

the question is alberta?

Tomorrow, on the U of A campus, the Question is Alberta, and some local and not so local politicians will be speaking...

From 4pm to 5pm, Parkland Institute Executive Director Ricardo Acuna and Edmonton Strathcona NDP MLA Dr. Raj Pannu will be speaking on "Alberta's Lack of Vision for the Surplus" at Dewey's.

From 5:30pm to 6:30pm, Alberta Liberal Leader and Edmonton Riverview MLA Kevin Taft and Calgary Currie Liberal MLA Dave Taylor will be speaking on "Where is Alberta?" at Dewey's as well.

If you have the chance, come out and meet some of Alberta's premiere opposition MLA's and critics...

corn chips are no place for...

...a mighty warrior. The tenth issue-versary edition of teengirl squad is out.

(props to peter and geoff for the link)

Also... new Strongbad email!

from the depths of alberta hansard

"I hear a rattle, Mr. Speaker, I think the minister just had an idea."

Nick Taylor, Liberal MLA for Westlock-Sturgeon (1986-93) and Redwater (1993-96), and Alberta Senator (1996-2002)

if penguins could fly would they make a "THUD" on impact

busy weekend. most posting soon.

in the mean time... this has quite the political message, plus, it's kind of funny...



(props to Mr. Ryan Payne for the pic)

how appropriate...

The idealistic speechwriter is well-liked by just about everyone. He's known for his excellent writing, sense of humor, and tendency to be clutzy. Although being younger than the rest of the staff, he's often treated as so, much to his dismay.

:: Which West Wing character are you? ::

(Ironic props to Sam for the quiz linkage)

better than dingwall.

Ahh. Tonight, as we read about the general lameness of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA), we are also reminiscing about how good the magical first four seasons of the West Wing were. Josh, Sam, Toby, CJ. Political superstars. Total fun entertainment. The assassination attempt, the MS scandal, the re-election.

Last Sunday night, we caught part of the West Wing for the first time in an entire season, and were surprised and confused at what was going on and who was now working for who. Gladly, we weren't the only ones... Ainge from Lotusland also feels the confusion. We recommend other West Wing-a-holics (*cough*henderson*cough*sam*cough*) check out the Lotusland post...

blog of the week: john gushue...dot dot dot

That's right folks! Hailing from St. John's Newfoundland, John Gushue... Dot Dot Dot is this week's blog of the week.

We enjoy John's posts and they're always quite entertaining and informative. His 'Daily Dot's' are also quite cool as well.

Make sure to check out John Gushue... Dot Dot Dot!

dingwallaby.

Due to the entire rediculousness of this issue, we haven't been paying much attention to it. But, today (right now), as we write a paper, we also have the Dingwall hearings on in the background.

Here's our translation of the Dingwall hearing:

Backbench Tory MP: "Mr. Dingwall, are you corrupt?"

Dingwall: "uhhh... Mr. Chair, let me talk to my lawyer."

Backbench Liberal MP: "ohhhh, Mr. Dingwall. Yoou're soooo gooood."

Dingwall: "Bless you my child."

Backbench Tory MP: "For crying out loud Mr. Dingwall! Do you eat babies?"

Dingwall: "Mr. Chair, I'm not an expert on that and I wish to consult my legal council."

Backbench Liberal MP: "ooohhh. David Dingwall, you are soooo goood!"

Dingwall: "Ooohhhh. Legal advice..."

NDP: 19 - 1 = 18

Looks like Ms. Desjarlais will be joining the likes of Ms. Parrish, Mr. Kilgour and Mr. O'Brien in the realm of Independent MP's.

blogging excuses.

okay, yes we realized the lameness of all these random blog posts. We believe Ms. Lo has hit it right on the head. No more posts for a while... blogging will lead to our exile one day.

Also, MSN Messenger is on our list of the Top 10 Coolest things EVER! In one day over MSN, we chatted with our friends in India, the UK, Calgary, Vancouver, and Montreal. How cool.

papus e. barnum.

Perhaps Mr. face can correct our latin...

If you haven't already, head over to one of our favorite blogs: ask the pope. It's just so delightfully entertaining. :-)

Another late night of paper writing ahead... only two more left to do this week...

The one we're working on now is quite interesting. We're discussing the similarities and differences between economic diversification strategies and over-all economic transformation in Alberta and Saskatchewan between 1950 and 1990.

Only 600ish more words to go...

only...

...one month left! huzzah!

too early...

Well, after a great weekend of fun and partying (Sunday night was particularily fun), we went to the Canada Conference which began last night (but we only showed up this morning).

Breakfast at 7:30am took some effort (considering we were up until 2am writing papers...). One of the most interesting parts of the morning was when we got lost looking for the Sutton Place Hotel, where the conference was being held (considering we used to live downtonw... we chalk it up for being 7:00am).

The breakfast was interesting. Some of the early morning risers included U of A Board of Governor's Chair Jim Edwards (who is also a former Tory MP), Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft, and U of A President Indira Samarasekera. The breakfast was interesting.... but too early...

The luncheon was interesting as well. :-) More details soon.

Also, did anyone in Edmonton hear the thunderstorm this afternoon??? It's October!?!?! Rain and thunder? Weird.

bless sundays.

It's a beautiful fall Sunday here in Edmonton. Warmish. Sunny. Big blue sky. Very nice.

John Duffy has a review of Stephen Clarkson's new book"The Big Red Machine: How the Liberal Party Dominates Canadian Politics" in this weekend's Globe & Mail. Mr. Duffy, as some may know, is the author of one of our favorite Canadian Political books: "Fights of Our Lives: Elections, Leadership, and the Making of Canada" (We're a little surprised we beat Mr. Cherniak in posting this, he must be busy this weekend. ;-)

Also, as Mr. Ramson has posted, Federal NDP MP Ed Broadbent has released his party's democratic reform package and it's about darn-toot’n time (yes, darn-toot’n!) someone brought the democratic reform to the forefront in Parliament (save the lame "fighting the democratic deficit" rhetoric). We look forward to seeing how it the package is received in this fall's session in the House of Commons.

Also, the Sugarbowl has the best coffee EVER! yum

ADDENUM 1.1: Care of a link from Will McBeath's blog, the Edmonton-area Federal Tories have set up a central site with links to their candidates websites. It's an interesting semi-website, though the massive picture of Stephen Harper is slightly frightening.

ADDENUM 1.2: Damn. WFT, daveberta readers. It's Sunday and all of our formerly favorite rightie bloggers are suddenly returning from the dead! First, Rempel. And now, Young. Craziness. We thought all the right-wingers were supposed to be in Church on Sunday (or something?)?!?!

the return of sauron.

It seems our favorite right-wing blogger, the infamous Peter Rempel, has returned to his old haunt of RempeliaPrime after a sojourn over at thepolitic.

Welcome back, Mr. Rempel.

presidential wankering.

This is a little outside the realm of Albertus Politika, but if you haven't yet, check out the video of US President George W. Bush's 'video teleconference' with US troops and an Iraqi troop. Not only was this one of the funniest staged and scripted stunts we have EVER seen, but it was also one of the most blatant pieces of political masturbation that we have seen from this President.



This piece had some very memorable moments. The part when Bush dropped his pencil was particularly funny.

Best scripted quotes (in no particular order):

1. THE PRESIDENT: "By the way, you're in Tikrit, as I understand it, as well. It's kind of an interesting place to be."

2. SERGEANT LOMBARDO: Good morning, Mr. President. I'm Master Sergeant Corine Lombardo, with the Headquarters 42nd Infantry Division and Task Force Liberty, from Scotia, New York. First, I'd like to say that this is a pleasure to speak with you again. We had the honor of your visit in New York City on November 11th, in 2001, when you recognized our Rainbow Soldiers for their recovery and rescue efforts at Ground Zero.

THE PRESIDENT: Were you there?

SERGEANT LOMBARDO: We began our fight against terrorism in the wake of 9/11, and we're proud to continue it here in North-Central New York -- North-Central Iraq.

THE PRESIDENT: Let me ask you something. Were you there when I came to New York?

SERGEANT LOMBARDO: Yes, I was, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: I thought you looked familiar.

SERGEANT LOMBARDO: Well, thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: I probably look familiar to you, too.

3. THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Sergeant Akeel, thanks for joining us. I appreciate -- appreciate your service. You've got something to say, Akeel?

SERGEANT AKEEL: Good morning, Mr. President. Thank you for everything. Thank very much for everything.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, you're welcome.

SERGEANT AKEEL: I like you. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that.

(heaps of props on Mr. chris-face for coming down from his tower and informing us of this wonderful video)

gordon gets 42 months for $43 million.

Another Michael Ritter connection from Bloomberg.com...

Ex-Merrill Trader Gordon Gets 42 Months for Stealing $43 Mln

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Daniel Gordon, once the top energy trader at Merrill Lynch & Co., was sentenced to 42 months in prison for embezzling $43 million from the firm.

Gordon, 29, pleaded guilty in 2003 to federal charges that he stole the money by creating a phony energy trade with an offshore company that he'd set up. He also admitted that he helped falsify records at a Merrill energy-trading unit before its sale. Gordon later cooperated with a federal probe of Merrill, which ended without any additional charges.

...

Gordon said after he was told to reduce the risk of a transaction that Global Energy was involved in, he created a fictitious entity called Falcon Energy Holdings SA. He said he told co-workers that Falcon would enter into a deal to reduce Global Energy's risk in return for $43 million. The money was wired to an overseas account Gordon set up for himself, he said.

Gordon pleaded guilty to single counts of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to falsify records of a public company.

...

Last month, in a related criminal case, authorities in Alberta, Canada, charged Michael Ritter with theft and money- laundering for helping Gordon steal money from Merrill. Gordon hid money in offshore accounts that prosecutors say were set up by Ritter's Newport Pacific Financial Group.

...

UPDATE: MORE DANIEL GORDON/MICHAEL RITTER CONNECTION STORIES HERE, HERE, AND HERE.

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

thomas homer-dixonmania!

For those of you interested, the University of Alberta Students' Union will be beginning their annual Revolutionary Speakers Series next week!



The first speaker of the 2005-06 series will be Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon (on October 18th!).

Dr. Homer-Dixon is the author of The Ingenuity Gap, and Director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto.

His lecture, titled: The Ingenuity Challenge: Surviving the 21st Century, will epically cross the following terrain...

"Global warming. Emergent diseases. Energy shortages. Infoglut. International financial instability. Mega-terrorism. Are the problems we’re confronting as individuals, societies, and a species becoming more difficult? If so, can we solve them? Thomas Homer-Dixon will address these questions by looking at how societies adapt to complex change. The 21st century promises to be among the most perilous in humankind's brief history, but it will also offer unprecedented opportunities for renewal and social creativity."

This will be a great lecture, so make sure to come and check it out!

corporate sponsorship....

We just found out last night that next week we'll be attending the Canada 2005 Conference as a guest of the Edmonton Journal. Though we may have many issues with the general declining quality of the CanWest newspaper chain, we thank the Journal for their generous payment of our delegate fee. :-)

It should be an interesting event. You can check out the program here.

So, as you can see (after you check out the program), the political star-studdednes of this conference will make for some VERY interesting blogging. Be prepared for multi-day blog action next week.

The political nerd in us can't wait to chat it up with the likes of Bob Rae, Lorne Calvert, Ralph Klein, Don Getty, Jeffery Simpson, Allan Blakeney, and Grant Devine... more soon.

wine and cheese evening...

This evening, we attended a reception/lecture care of the University of Alberta School of Business at the Westin Hotel. The evening, which hosted guest lecturer Dr. Mark Jaccard of the School of Resource and Environment Management at Simon Fraser University, was interesting.

Dr. Jaccard made a hour-long presentation titled "Sustainable Fossil Fuels: How Alberta's fossil fuels can be this century's cheapest source of clean energy." As he flew through the hour-long lecture fairly fast, it was very clear that the entire evening was a sales pitch for his new book.

As we discussed with fellow attendees at the reception following the lecture (hosted by EPCOR), our definition of 'sustainability' and that of Dr. Jaccard were clearly two different entities (ours being a source of energy that will last potentially forever-hence, sustainable, and his being one which would last for about 100 years-maybe). Also, his seemingly pro-nuclear undertones were fairly alarming.

All things aside, we did have a nice conversation at the reception with Tory MP Ken Epp and Alberta Liberal MLA Bill Bonko, who were also around to check out the show.

Also, the free Chardonnay was nice.

seriousness

People who take their blogs too seriously are knobs. We do it for entertainment. Once it isn't fun anymore, we're gonna shut this thingy down.

Luckily, it's still providing us with ample entertainment.

the guru says...

"...Peter Mackay's visit to campus has been cancelled."

candidatatorial websites

Aside from floating the idea of a K-14 education system, it looks like Advanced Ed Minister Dave Hancock is setting up a leadership website here (it also has a better picture than this one).

Also, for those of you who haven't yet checked it out, Nicole Martel is running for the Federal Liberal nomination in Edmonton East and has set up a website with a cool blog (some you may know of Nicole from her former blog: GoPolitical.ca - which is now automatically linked to her new site). Currently, Nicole is running unopposed for the nomination, but rumours are floating around that Dan McLennan, President of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, and potentally former Edmonton Mayor Jan Reimer (Mayor from 1989 to 1995) may take a run for the Liberal nomination in Edmonton East.

So far in Edmonton East, the Tories have renominated the wanna-be President of Turks & Caicos, Peter Goldring, and the ND's have nominated former coordinator for the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters, Arlene Chapman.

We've known Nicole for a number of years and can definitely say with extreme confidence that she will make a great candidate come the next Federal election.

mari-ju-an-a!

We're currently sitting here in SUB looking at the paper that will not end. The sheer suckiness of it is sucking the life forces out of us. Literally!

We started it last Wednesday and don't feel like it’s EVER going to end. It's not a big paper by any stretch of the imagination. We planned for it to only be 7-8 pages. But, like a mole in a hole, we are approaching the eight pages with no end in sight. Arg! We really dislike these small paper types. All we want to do is write our little heart out, and they restrict us... anyway...

We're sitting here in SUB and we can only be described as a refugee from our massive pot-headed housemate. We're like the Palestinians of Garneau! (kidding...) We have nothing against mari-ju-an-a on its own, it’s the moron on the other side is the problem. 24/7 can be a little overwhelming. It’s like living with Cheech or Chong (the non-cool one-the one that wasn’t on Nash Bridges). Our friend thinks he's a dealer. We don't think he's smart enough to pull that off.

Anyway… for the record, the wireless connection here in SUB sucks in a major way. So far, we've been sitting here for over 3 hours and have had to reconnect over 20 times. We're willing to accept that it could be our lame PC laptop, but we're not ruling out that it's the fault of that shady organization known as the 'Students' Union.' Shady bunch, indeed. ;-) Maybe we’ll write an epic story for this blog soon. We’ll see… Anyway, back to the paper mill...

ADDENUM 1.1: We see that the scoundrel of Calgary himself, Mr. C. Grit has linked us up in a post again. Props for the linkage, Mr. Grit. You are a lady and a gentleman.

ADDENUM 1.2: For those of you interested in heckling, Mr. Peter Mackay will be on the U of A campus on Thursday speaking about how he gave up the chance to be Nova Scotia's Premier or something.

arg.

arg. papers. mindshattering of late.

случайный

At least an hour of wasted time here.

Also, there's a new Strongbad email.

placing odds on the next king of alberta...

We meant to post this a while ago...

For those of you who haven't seen last month's edition of Alberta Venture Magazine, odds have been placed on successors to King Ralph's throne*...

Here they are...

Jim Dinning (former MLA Calgary-Lougheed): 2-1
Dave Hancock (MLA Edmonton-Whitemud): 5-1
Iris Evans (MLA Sherwood Park): 16-1
Ted Morton (MLA Foothills-Rockyview): 8-1
Mark Norris (defeated MLA Edmonton-McClung): 9-1
Lyle Oberg (MLA Strathmore-Brooks): 8-1
Ed Stelmach (MLA Ft. Saskatchewan-Vegreville): 4-1

Obviously, many of the rumours being flushed through the grapevine come our way and trying to filter through them is a definite challenge.

But, if the rumours have a trend, the trend is:

1. Klein will be gone sooner than later (emphasis on *sooner*). Many of the rumours hint of recent and past health problems coming to roost. This shouldn't be surprising when speaking of a career politician in his mid-60s (stress, age, history of drinking problems, etc).

2. Though it's very early in the race, it's looking to be a Dinning/Stelmach race. If Dinning can take it on the first ballot, then he's got it. If not, look for Stelmach to be a force to be reckoned with on the second ballot. We've also heard rumours that the Godfather of Alberta Conservative politics, Speaker Ken Kowalski, has endorsed Mr. Stelmach's campaign... this is huge when it comes to pulling the rural PC vote.

3. Don't underestimate the darkhorse of the race: Dr. Ted Morton. Our sources deep in the Calgary Tory establishment tell us of a right-wing insugency with hundreds of pro-Morton PC memberships being sold. This is a scary thought.

4. Don't forget that in many ways, this leadership race is a battle between the rural and urban factions within the Alberta Tory caucus. There are some pretty deep divisions. Look for them to manifest into some fairly entertaining firework shows in the coming months as the urban and rural leadership candidates begin to seriously position themselves publicly.

*The odds were produced by an anonymous panel of seven Albertans drawn from business, labour, academia, and journalism.

wtf alberta (continued)

(Opening scene: two beautiful maiden's bathing in pristine pools of Alberta crude)

Maiden #1: "ahh. To be an advertizing firm in oil-rich Alberta."

Maiden #2: "Indeed."

(End scene)

voltaire's bastard party.

Watch out Paul. Stephen. Jack.

There's a new political force to be reckoned with.

"The Art of Natural Family Planning: An Examination of Political Upheaval in Paradise."

Stroff Waggardly

Columniste politique and professional pedant.

The political establishment rolled on with its customary inertia today, barely cognizant of the shifting political landscape. And how the landscape did shift, like the earth that moves in a slow slump annually. Today, a new party arose from foam and seashells off the coast of the Hadriantic Sea: not a party of love or of myth, but rather a party politic. Yea unto them who have grown a-weary of Hot Datum's vegetable and vegetative tyranny. The members of the newly-constituted Voltaire's Bastard Party established an executive, a charter, and a raison d'etre en retard. The political parties of convention occupy an ever-wavering position on the left-right political spectrum, but for these Voltacrats, that is passe compose - a tired relic of the political paleontological record. Instead, the Voltaire's Bastard Party intends to occupy the realm of "the unstupid, rather than the unwashed."

Read the rest here.

randomness...

Lawyer, n. One skilled in the circumvention of the law.

Theories are always very thin and insubstantial, experience only is tangible.

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.

You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.

To save time is to lengthen life.

Opportunity knocked. My doorman threw him out.

A full cup must be carried steadily.

$133.00

well, we're glad we don't have to write an entire new post about this.

To see our opinion, click here, and replace 'provincial' with 'federal,' '$400' with '$133,' and 'Ralph Klein's Tories' with 'Paul Martin's Liberals,' etc, etc, etc...

sorry, mr. speaker. the premier's on vacation.

Just in case any of you missed the news from last week, it turns out that Alberta's glorious and beloved leader, Premier Ralph Klein, is planning on missing most of the upcoming session of the Alberta Legislature to continue his 2005 Lame-Duck Farwell Tour.

While Klein spent quite a bit of time traveling through the US, Europe, and Africa this summer, he'll be continuing his tour in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and British Columbia when the Legislature is expected to resume for a 2-3 week fall session in November. Though we're not quite sure what exactly the purpose of Glorious Leader's trip is, we can bet that it'll have something to do with the reason the Harper Conservative's will lose the next election.

Though it's no secret that our dearest Premier holds not much more than arrogant contempt for the role of the elected assembly, he must think that by divvying up $400 rebate cheques to every Albertan, he somehow doesn't have to show up. Wow.

From drunkenly kicking homeless people to verbally attacking women MLA's, to now skipping out on session, this Premier continues to give Albertans no shortage of reasons to be embarrassed about him.

But, if anything, it should be entertaining to watch the candidates for the 2006 Tory Leadership Race kick the bejesus out of each other in their scramble for the spotlight when Klein's skip's town this fall.

the peace of art.

We went to the Margaret MacMillan lecture at the Myer Horowitz Theatre at the U of A yesterday evening. The lecture, which was titled "The Art of Peace," was enjoyable and from what we understand was basically a recap of her Paris 1919 book (which we have yet to read).

But it was an entertaining history lesson none the less.

The pre-lecture period was particularly interesting. It included a number of introductions.... the first began with the introduction of U of A Provost & VP Academic Carl Amrhein by an academic whose name escapes us. In turn, Dr. Armhein introduced history Professor and past-Provost of the U of A, Dr. Doug Owram, who in turn introduced Dr. MacMillan (if we missed an introduction, we apologize, it was slightly overwhelming). The post-lecture period included a somewhat lengthy 'donation pitch' from a Professor Emeritus whose name escapes us. We aren't quite sure on whose behalf he was soliciting, but after paying our tuition fees last week, we were quite happy that the lecture was free.

Interestingly enough, Dr. MacMillan, who is also the Vice-Chancellor and Provost at Trinity College at the University of Toronto has posted office hours: "available to all members of the Trinity community to discuss any subject they wish." This left us wondering whether we would be able to get an appointment to meet with Dr. Armhein if we called his office at U-Hall. hmmm....

And by the way, only 43 more days until Walk the Line is released in theatres! Huzzah!

snobbery...

You speak eloquently and have seemingly read every
book ever published. You are a fountain of
endless (sometimes useless) knowledge, and
never fail to impress at a party.
What people love: You can answer almost any
question people ask, and have thus been
nicknamed Jeeves.
What people hate: You constantly correct their
grammar and insult their paperbacks.


What Kind of Elitist Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

(props to Toronto Tory for the quiz link)

jailhouse blues for ritter...

From Thursday....

Michael Ritter will stay in jail, Court of Queen's Bench rules
Thursday, September 29, 2005

Michael Ritter will be staying in the Edmonton Remand Centre until his case goes to trial, a judge has ruled.

"The court denies Mr. Ritter's request for review of bail," Court of Queen's Bench Justice Joanne Veit wrote in her decision issued Thursday.

Ritter, Alberta's former chief parliamentary counsel, was charged earlier this month in the largest money-laundering case in Alberta's history.

It's alleged he conspired with Wall Street energy trader Dan Gordon to launder $43 million US stolen from the Merrill Lynch brokerage firm.

You can read the rest here....

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