edstelmach.ca: the daveberta conspiracy.

I don't think you really become a 'someone' in Alberta politics until an Edmonton Sun columnist accuses you of being part of an organized conspiracy.

Similar to the vast left-wing conspiracy behind the youthful non-partisan well-organized campaign machine of now-Ward 5 Edmonton City Councillor Don Iveson, I've been accused of being part of a conspiracy by Sun columnist Neil Waugh.

Well, Neil, you called a spade a spade and caught me red handed. I am part of a vast conspiracy. In fact, I've been a full participant in many vast conspiracies in my years. Here's a list to get you started on your next column...

- The Global Warming Conspiracy
- The Watergate Conspiracy
- The Apollo Moon landing hoax
- The Black Helicopter Conspiracy
- The assassination of Arch-Duke Franz Ferdiniand
- The Reptilian Humanoid Conspiracy
- The Roswell UFO Conspiracy

I'm also a member of the Bohemian Club and Skull & Bones, and am the sinister mastermind behind New Coke.

uniting the right in alberta?

I've always had a bit of a fascination with the non-Progressive Conservative political right in Alberta and the future merger of the Wild Rose Party and the Alberta Alliance into the superparty Wild Rose Alliance is no exception.

I think it will be quite interesting to see the impact that a merger between these two parties will have in the next election. One of the quirks of Alberta politics seems to be the far-right's inability to keep organized between elections only to coalesce in time for the election period.

In the 2004 election, the Alberta Alliance, led by Randy Thorsteinson, ran a full slate of 83 candidates. Though the majority of Alberta Alliance candidates didn't come even close to victory, a few finished with strong second- or third- place finishes. Only Cardston-Taber-Warner candidate Paul Hinman (and now leader) was elected while Thorsteinson was unable to topple Tory MLA Luke Ouellette in Innisfail-Sylvan Lake. With former Tory Broyce Jacobs once again challenging Hinman in Cardston-Taber-Warner, the Alliance leader Paul Hinman's chances of re-election are questionable.

Of course, a couple of questions still remain about the Alliance-Wild Rose Unite the Right initiative such as... will they have time to register with Elections Alberta as a formal party or will they run under an unofficial slate? Will they really have time to organize candidates and campaigns before the next election? Will they hold a leadership race or will Alliance Leader Paul Hinman take the reins as has been suggested? What role will Craig Chandler and his merry band of supporters play in this new party/alliance?

Here's a look back at some of the past-ventures of the non-PC far-right in Alberta electoral politics...

2004
Alberta Alliance (83 candidates) - 77,466 votes (8.7%)
Social Credit (42 candidates) - 10,998 votes (1.23%)

2001
Alberta First Party (16 candidates) - 8,851 votes (.87%)
Social Credit (12 candidates) - 5,361 votes (.53%)

1997
Social Credit (70 candidates) - 64,667 votes (6.84%)

1993
Confederation of Regions Party of Alberta (12 candidates) - 3,556 votes (.36%)
Social Credit (39 candidates) - 23,885 votes (2.41%)

1989
Social Credit (6 candidates) - 3,939 votes (.47%)

1986
Confederation of Regions Party of Alberta (6 candidates) - 2,866 votes (.40%)
Heritage Party of Alberta (6 candidates) - 601 votes (.08%)
Representative Party of Alberta (46 candidates) - 36,656 votes (5.14%)
Western Canada Concept Party of Alberta (20 candidates) - 4,615 votes (.65%)

1982
Alberta Reform Movement (14 candidates) - 6,258 votes (.66%)
Social Credit (23 candidates) - 7,843 votes (.83%)
Western Canada Concept Party of Alberta (78 candidates) - 111,131 votes (11.76%)

(Also, has anyone registered wildrosealliance.ca/.com/.org/.net, or do we need to go through this again...)

edstelmach.ca: governing myself accordingly. day 2.

First, I'd like to thank everyone who has commented, left phone messages, or sent emails of support (or disapproval for that matter). I've been trying to govern myself accordingly, but this story has been keeping me pretty busy since yesterday. I have classes this afternoon and evening, so I will try to start responding to emails after that.

I'd also like to thank Rob Breakenridge, Dave Rutherford, Ron Wilson, Jim Brown, and CityTV Edmonton's Breakfast Television for having me on their shows to talk live about the this issue.

Second, I have yet to hear from Premier Ed Stelmach or the lawyers representing him. The threat letter from Premier Stelmach's lawyer was the first time I was contacted and I haven't heard anything since their imposed deadline passed.

Third, here are some interesting links to bloggers and reporters covering this story:

- "I don’t know where Ed Stelmach’s personality is but I didn’t take it" (Calgary Grit)
- Stelmach threatens to sue blogger (Edmonton Journal & National Post)
- Alberta Premier threatens to sue over domain name (CBC)
- Lawyers for Premier threaten to sue blogger who owns edstelmach.ca (Canadian Press)
- Stelmach threatens to sue over web address (Front page of Calgary Herald)
- Lawfirm says blogger stole Stelmach's personality (Edmonton Sun)
- Alberta Premier to blogger getlost.now (Globe & Mail)
- Alberta have a lot of lawyers or something? (Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy)
- Premier of Alberta sues Alberta blogger (Grandinite)
- A cybe-bully? (Jafo's Journal)
- The Electronic Battleground (Ken Schmidt)
- "Lame and Childish" (Thought...interrupted by typos
- https://edstelmach.ca: tort of misappropriation of personality? (Cameron Hutchison on the U of A Law Blog)

Also, I was understandably surprised to find some support in what I thought would have been an unlikely place:

Ed Stelmach vs edstelmach.ca (Ezra Levant at the Western Standard Shotgun blog)

Fourth, I plan to return to regularity scheduled blogging soon. As you can imagine, I have a lot to say about this.

premier ed stelmach threatens to sue alberta blogger over edstelmach.ca.

Right before Christmas, I received a letter in the mail from Tyler Shandro, a lawyer from the Calgary-based law firm Walsh Wilkins Creighton LLP, representing Alberta Premier Edward Stelmach.

This letter was sent to me regarding my ownership of the domain name edstelmach.ca, which I purchased for approximately $14.00 on April 4, 2007 (four months after Mr. Stelmach became Premier of Alberta). The letter accuses me of interfering with and misappropriating Ed Stelmach’s personality (I’m really not sure where Ed Stelmach’s personality is, but I certainly didn’t take it).

The letter also states that because there are advertisements placed on this blog, Premier Stelmach “is entitled to the amount he would reasonably have received in the market for the permission to use his name.” This makes me wonder how much the owners of a local Edmonton business paid to use Premier Stelmach’s personality last Halloween or how much Rick Mercer paid to use the domain name of another Alberta political personality.

For the majority of the time I have owned edstelmach.ca, I have had the domain name forward to this blog. A week before I received the letter from Premier Stelmach’s lawyer, I changed the forwarding to the wikipedia biography of another Alberta Premier (who also probably would have not thought to register his domain name).

The letter requests that I:

(a) make arrangements with my service provider by December 21, 2007, to ensure that the Website no longer forwards to the blog; and
(b) make arrangements to with my service provider and/or registrar to have the Website registered in their client's name.
(c) govern myself accordingly (I added this one).

If I chose not comply by their imposed deadline, the letter states that they “have been instructed by our client to commence litigation.”

As someone who has never shied away from criticizing the 36-year old Progressive Conservative government, I have always faced harsh criticism from those who don’t appreciate the views espoused on this blog or agree with my political beliefs. I accept this reality.

Though I am still surprised that the +150 staffed Public Affairs Bureau failed to complete the simple task of registering a $14.00 domain name, I am even more surprised that Premier Ed Stelmach’s first reaction in this situation was to threaten to sue an 24-year old blogger and debt ridden University of Alberta student. As a born and bred Albertan, I do not take well to threats from politicians. Therefore I will be seeking advice from legal counsel on how to proceed with this threat.

between $1.3 billion and $2.8 billion in "uncaptured economic rent."

Good morning. Here is an update...

- A censored provincial government report shows that Albertans weren't necessarily getting their fair share in royalty rates...

Alberta Energy told the provincial government in 2004 that the province was missing out on billions of dollars in resource revenue, newly released documents show.

In a 2006 report, the department estimated that since royalty rates were capped at certain price levels, Alberta had lost between $1.3 billion and $2.8 billion in "uncaptured economic rent" for natural gas alone in 2003 and 2004, or between $700 million and $1.4 billion a year.

The department's cross-commodity resource valuation team called on the government to "increase conventional oil and gas royalties to restore Alberta's fair share at high prices."

- The newest kid on the right-wing block of Alberta politics is strolling around the corner... two of Alberta's right-wing political parties are setting the stage to merge. The Alberta Alliance and the Wild Rose Party have announced their intentions to join forces in an attempt to storm the right-wing gates of Alberta's political spectrum. Enter the Wild Rose Alliance.

- The Stelmach Tories are attempting to forge a new day in post-Craig Chandler nomination Calgary-Egmont. It looks like two main candidates have stepped up to the place. Vicki Engel and Don Middleton are lining up to face former Calgary Catholic School District Chair Cathie Williams who is running under the Alberta Liberal banner and now-Independent candidate Craig Chandler.

- Also, Canada had a political leader even half as charismatic as Barack Obama, it would be a gigantic improvement over our current Canadian political leaders. I'm excited to watch the New Hampshire results tomorrow night!

chris samuel - canada's next great prime minister.

Wednesday night, Chris Samuel - Canada's Next Great Prime Minister and his supporters from across Canada held a Democracy Party at the University of Alberta. The event, which rivaled Barack Obama's Iowa victory party, was an epic event filled with entertainment and fierce political drama and debate than any political watcher would revel in. Here are some clips of the improv event and testimonials from Chris Samuel supporters.

Chris Samuel Canada's Next Great Prime Minister Challenge (Clip 1#)


Chris Samuel Canada's Next Great Prime Minister Challenge (Clip 2#)


Chris Samuel Canada's Next Great Prime Minister Testimonials

obama's word of the day: change.

I haven't really focused too much blogging on the American Presidential nominations, but with the Iowa caucuses happening today, I thought I'd post this lovely video from the Washington Post...