Last night attended a meeting of St. Albert City Council. I found it really interesting to see how a the Council of a municipality like St. Albert operates. Though they deal with their own unique challenges it must always seem like the big capital city, Edmonton, is lurking above them (In sheer size, St. Albert is probably around 6% the size of its capital neighbour).
As my attending was completely work related I'm not going to mention what I was there advocating for, but I would like to give full props to St. Albert Aldermen Christine Brown, Len Bracko, Lorie Garrity, James Burrows, Nolan Crouse, and Neil Korotash for making a positive choice and being leaders in the Capital Region!
(Also, for a more entertaining background on St. Albert municipal politics, I defer to an ancient post by Mr. Smith...)
On the provincial level there are some interesting things going on in St. Albert's political world. St. Albert incumbent Liberal MLA Jack Flaherty has announced his intentions to seek re-election - Flaherty defeated two-term Tory MLA Mary O'Neill in 2004 with a 410-vote margin. Rumours as to who the Tories will run range from Mary O'Neill to former Mayor Richard Plain. I'm sure we'll start seeing more movement from the Tories after they pick a new leader.
In the other semi-St. Albert provincial riding - Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert - Tory Agriculture Minister Doug Horner is one of two PC MLA's supporting leadership candidate Mark Norris (the other being Airdrie-Chestermere MLA Carol Haley). Though Horner will most likely face a tough fight for his seat in the next election (he defeated Liberal Ray Boudreau by a slim 581 votes in 2004) he has been a decent MLA as far as I can tell.
On the federal side of things, the fight to replace long-time Edmonton-St. Albert Reform/Canadian Alliance/Conservative MP John Williams is in full gear.
This fight has former Tory MLA Brent Rathgeber facing former Tory MP Scott Thorkelson and John Kennair for the nomination.
Rathgeber was elected MLA for Edmonton Calder in 2001 by defeating Liberal MLA Lance White. In 2004, Rathgeber was defeated in a tight battle with now NDP MLA Dave Eggen. Thorkelson was the Tory MLA for Edmonton Strathcona from 1988 to 1993 and is the brother of former Paul Martin PMO insider Ruth Thorkelson.
I will keep an eye on this one...
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Wow, Flaherty's running again? I figured he was going for one term only, given his age, but that's pretty awesome to see him sticking around for another term. I hope he pulls through the next election.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be awesome if the Alberta Liberals got Nick Taylor to run for a seat again? I know the dude is over 80, but he's still funny as all hell, and he'd likely make a boring rural race a lot more interesting. Of course this is a pipe dream, though--I'm sure he's enjoying his retirement.
I echo Jim's surprise about Flaherty having another go at it. My impression was that he never intended to win in the first place, and was a little alarmed to discover that he was suddenly an MLA.
ReplyDeleteAlso, calling my post at all entertaining is probably a little generous. But it does explain where the hit I got from a Google search for "St. Albert Election 2001 municipal carlosthejackass" came from.
Yeah, I knew I had read the st. albert recap before, and didn't want to have to read through all your other posts to find it. Hence, google.
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