good on stephen harper.

You probably won't see me write this very often, but good on Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his response to Stéphane Dion and Gilles Duceppe's questions about Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier's ex-girlfriend.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismissed concerns Thursday pertaining to the past relationship between Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier and a woman formerly linked to the Hells Angels.

Julie Couillard, Bernier's former girlfriend, was once married to a biker and lived with another.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe want to know whether the relationship was a security risk.

On Thursday, Harper called the two opposition leaders "a group of gossipy, old busybodies."

"It's none of my business, it's none of Mr. Duceppe's business, it's none of Mr. Dion's business," he told reporters in Ottawa.

Maybe it's just a slow news day in Ottawa, but I find it hard to believe that the most worthy issue that the Leader of the Official Opposition and the Bloc Québécois had to raise was about the Foreign Affairs Minister's ex-girlfriend. Really, guys?

how about 'make politics relevant?'

In his column yesterday, Graham Thomson wrote about a plan proposed by the Alberta Federation of Labour to forge a "United Alternative" between the Alberta Liberals and NDP to battle the 37-year old Progressive Conservative regime in Alberta. A friendly daveberta.ca reader emailed me a copy of the AFL memo proposing this a couple weeks ago, so I wasn't surprised when it hit the mainstream media.

The AFL plan proposes that:

1) The Liberals, NDP and Greens would "divvy up" all Alberta ridings and agree not to run candidates against each other.

2) The parties would maintain their autonomy and run their own election campaigns but would agree on a list of "core priorities to act upon if they are able to form a government after the next election."

3) If they form government, the parties would look at major electoral reform, possibly adopting a system of proportional representation for future elections where political parties would receive a percentage of seats based on their percentage of votes.

If you're interested in a plan that theoretically might help the currently existing opposition parties win a handful of more seats in Edmonton, this plan is for you. I'm interested in a plan that will make politics relevant to people, which this plan doesn't accomplish. Without relevant politics, it doesn't really matter who has how many seats, and it is clear that the three current parties in the Alberta Legislature aren't making politics relevant to Albertans.

With 42% voter turnout, it is clear that no candidate, MLA, or political party successfully engaged Albertans in the last election. This is what needs to be changed. As long as parties are more interested in winning seats than actually accomplishing good, I can hardly see anyone getting excited about electoral democracy. This is why I was interested to hear the work that Calgary-Mountain View MLA David Swann has been doing since the election.

Calgary Liberal MLA David Swann has been quietly meeting with MLAs and other interested people about starting a new party based on green politics, accountability and democratic reform.

Swann has held two meetings in Calgary over the past months that have attracted around 25 to 30 people, mostly Liberal and NDP supporters and some Greens, including rural land activist and Green candidate Joe Anglin. Swann has also held individual meetings with other interested people.

The purpose, for now, is to simply start a discussion among those who feel left out of the process of governance.

"How do we re-engage the citizens of Alberta?" Swann asked. "If the issues with the citizens of Alberta are not being reflected in either of the mainstream opposition parties, then we have to talk about the possibility of forming a new party. "

Swann said he plans to meet with former Reform Party leader Preston Manning to talk about his experiences starting a new party and about green politics and democratic accountability, favourite issues of Manning's.

Now this sounds more like a plan to me.

time for some straight talk on alberta's tar sands.

Syncrude Canada President and CEO Tom Katinas has offered "a heartfelt and sincere apology" after the nearly 500 ducks were killed after landing in Syncrude's Aurora north tailing ponds. Syncrude's apology is fine, but it doesn't address the real problem of the tar sands and tailing ponds.

The tar sands are driving Alberta's economic engine, and in a time of continental economic insecurity, Alberta's can play a central role in providing some economic stability. This said, the future environmental costs of how the tar sands are currently extracted are too high for my liking.

It's time that Albertans took ownership of this debate and brought it in to the kitchens and coffee shops of the province. The real debate around the tar sands isn't about money or power, it's about Alberta's future.

The death of nearly 500 ducks and their contamination of the food chain is just the tip of the iceberg and opens an opportunity for Albertans to engage in a wider debate on the issue, much like they did during the resource royalty debate of 2007.

The effects of current tar sands extraction can be seen in a number of areas. Tar sands development has caused the rapid decline of indigenous animal species such as Woodlands Caribou herds, to name one. Some groups have suggested that the government compensate this loss by designating new protected areas to protect the species in the area.

Current tar sands operations also use an unsustainable amount of water from the Athabasca River basin - it currently takes up to 4.5 barrels of water to extract and upgrade a one barrel of bitumen from a tar sands mine. Companies extracting the tar sands are currently allowed to continue extracting water from the Athabasca River, even when river levels are at sitting at dangerously low levels.

Larry Pratt warned of the overuse of water and the resulting tailing ponds in the tar sands in his 1976 book, The Tar Sands: Syncrude and the Politics of Oil:

Another severe problem – as with most synthetic fuel projects – is that the existing technology will consume and pollute enormous volumes of fresh water from the Athabasca, only a portion of which can be treated and returned to the river. Disposal of the liquid wastes or tailings left over from the hot water extractions process constitutes the worst single ecological problem in the operation. At GCOS the plant draws in from 6,000 to 9,000 of fresh water the Athabasca every minute, but it returns a good deal less – the difference being stored in the steadily growing tailing ponds. The magnitude of this problem can be grasped from the fact that the tailings ponds being planned for Syncrude. Shell and the other plants will each cover nearly ten square miles of land. The tailings stream is composed of sand, hot water, unextracted oil, fine mineral and clay particles, and some highly toxic chemicals used in extraction. The water is so contaminated that much of it can neither be reused nor returned to the river. Another problem is that the clay particles take a very long time to settle and linger in a state of suspension, thus delaying recycling and reclamation. The result of this could be a truly massive accumulation of oily, polluted waste in large lakes on every developed lease. The GCOS tailings pond sits precariously on the edge of the river, and any serious break in a dyke or seepage underground could cause the ecological ruin of the Athabasca River – a major tributary of the whole Mackenzie system. Whether these oily, heated waste ponds will constitute a hazard to migrating birds is open to speculation. What is certain, however, is that the tailings problem will put pressure on the fresh water supply of the Athabasca: twenty plants would consume up to forty percent of all the river’s monthly flow. The planned in situ steam injection plants will also consume immense amount of available water and have an unknown effect on the groundwaters of the region.

Over the month of May, in hopes of generating some constructive debate on the tar sands, I will be writing about some of the important challenges facing Albertans on this issue. If we are going to allow our tar sands to be extracted, it shouldn't be too much to ask that it be done in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Don't hesitate to join the debate.

are you up for the challenge?

The Alberta Views Magazine blog has launched their May challenge...

1. Create your ideal Albertan cabinet out of non-politicians. Feel free to include biographies, mandates, portfolios or justifications in your cabinet announcement. (You can see Alberta's current cabinet online here.)

2. Take a photo that can be titled either "Why I Voted" or "Why I Didn't Vote".

3. Write an ode to your favourite Albertan festival or your ideal festival (imagine the activities, lineup, location, etc.)

I will be sending in my submissions within the week.

go and see what gives? and revenge of the south sea bubble.

If you're looking for a good show, put What Gives? and Revenge of the South Sea Bubble on your list. I saw this latest run from Stewart Lemoine's Teatro La Quindicina at Edmonton's Varscona Theatre last night and it was a lot of fun.

It's playing from May 1st through May 17, so check it out.

(Read the Vue Weekly preview by Paul Blinov)

how to save alberta's tarsands from the ducks.

Who needs tarsands reclamation? All Alberta needs to save our valuable economy and natural resources from mother nature are cyborg ducks...

Chinese scientists experiment with remote control of animals

Chinese scientists said they have succeeded in an experiment to remotely control the flight of a pigeon with electronic technology.

Scientists with the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center of east China's Shandong University of Science and Technology say they implanted micro electrodes in the brain of a pigeon so they can command it to fly right or left or up or down.

The implants stimulated different areas of the pigeon's brain according to signals sent by the scientists via computer, and forced the bird to comply with their commands.

(link from Wired)

ed stelmach: a victim of responsibility.

As the realization that over 500 ducks had died in one of northern Alberta's tarsands toxic tailing ponds hits home, there was a big contrast in how two of Alberta's political leaders handled the heat.

In Edmonton for the opening of the Mazankowski Heart Institute at the University of Alberta, Prime Minister Stephen Harper didn't hesitate in saying that this loss of wildlife should not have happened and that it was a "terrible tragedy" that is unacceptable to Canadians.

In contrast, Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach came out swinging against environmental and northern community groups by positioning himself as the victim of a "David and Goliath" battle against environmental and public interest groups in Alberta.

If you think it's a little rich that the victim card is being played by a Premier who's government just 1) won a 72-seat majority in the March 2008 election, 2) released a $37-billion provincial budget, and 3) launched a $25-million advertising campaign to "rebrand" Alberta's tarsands, you're probably right.

Stelmach also tried to downplay the real victims of this incident - the over 500 tailing-pond-marinated dead ducks - by claiming that 30,000 birds get killed by wind turbines each year (which isn't true).

As hard as Stelmach tries to play the victim card, whether he likes it or not, he's the Premier of Alberta and the buck stops with him. He has a responsibility to Albertans to deal with disturbing incidents like these ones without complaining or pointing fingers. Occupying the Office of the Premier brings great responsibility, not victimization.

Alberta's government has stood idle as the economic boom in the tarsands have dotted northern Alberta with tailing ponds - giant lakes of toxic chemical water. This week's tragic incident highlights to Albertans and to the world just how damaging current tarsands practices are to Alberta's environment and it is time for Alberta to put a real stop to this type of nonsensical practice.

The responsibility to lead usually falls to the Premier, but if Ed Stelmach's not up for the job, there are no shortage of others who are interested.