"Liberal scattergun takes shots at premier wannabes
The Calgary Herald
Wed 16 Nov 2005
By: Tom Olsen
Kevin Taft chose the scattergun approach, standing up in the legislature and letting loose with a spray of figurative bullets.
Five Tory ministers were the targets within Taft's first five questions, starting with the three cabinet ministers who want to be king -- Lyle Oberg, Dave Hancock and Ed Stelmach.
This opening day of the fall session wasn't about health care at all. Instead, the official Opposition Liberals trained their guns on the Tories' budgeting process -- which, truth be told, doesn't exist in any real sense.
The government spends billions of dollars. By happy circumstance, it has billions extra. So it spends billions more.
Taft went straight to Oberg, probably the first time the infrastructure minister has fielded the first question on the first day of a session.
"Can this minister tell us how far over budget his department is so far this year?" said Taft.
Oberg was nonchalant, first assuring the legislature his department was right on target, then acknowledging an extra $400 million in spending. Not sure how the two square.
Next up was Hancock, with a question Taft prefaced with "fiscal hawks turning into fiscal turkeys."
The advanced education minister, freshly coiffed and trimmed down as befits a premierial wannabe, used a lot of words to run down all the things the province has done in education lately.
Then it was on to Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stelmach, a guy who seems to be about everybody's second choice for next Tory leader.
Asked Taft: "Can this minister tell the assembly if his department is on target to finish the year on budget?"
Eddie ran through some stuff his department is doing, but no one really cares. It's not like he's building universities or hospitals. ..."
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
alberta bizarro world continued...
More weirdness coming out of Alberta's right-wing columnists... first Lorne Gunter... this time, Tom Olsen from the Calgary Herald isn't slamming the provincial Liberals... weird...
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I meant Tories, oops.
ReplyDeleteThe Tries are a rudderless ship right, with no vision, direction or restraint.
ReplyDeleteEveryone knows, including the Calgary Sun, that the PC must go. They have also realized that the Alberta Liberal Party is the closest we have to a true progressive conservative party, while the PC have indulged in corruption and overstaying their welcome (gee, does that remind you of anyone?) and being neither progressive nor conservative.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. PC's have no reason to be in power. The fact that they didn't even bother to hammer out a platform for the last election showed profound contempt for the Alberta voters.
ReplyDeleteMy first impressions of Kevin Taft where similar my impressions of Kerry and Gore: smart but boring.
But Taft's performance during the last election campaign and his first day back to the leg show that he is ready to govern.
kgp
It actually seems to me that lately Kevin Taft has been sounding pretty conservative. At least in terms of economic issues, and really that's what's important to most Albertans (from my experience at least). If you promise to lower taxes enough, people here'll vote for you even if you call for eating babies.
ReplyDelete-Socialist Swine
P.S. Also the Klein government has been putting a lot of money into various programs lately. No body wants that in this province (at least not in this province's media).