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Election call almost believable
In wake of drubbing they're taking over royalties, a vote may look good to some ToriesGovernment MLAs were baffled, opposition MLAs were startled and members of the press gallery were, for a moment, speechless.
For a few brief, panic-filled minutes Wednesday afternoon, a provincial election had been called.
Or so it appeared to the media and MLAs who had innocently logged on to the web site of the Legislative Assembly.
"Writ has been dropped," declared the site.
There was a collective shriek from journalists in the press gallery who had been convinced the election wouldn't be held until March. You could almost hear NDP Leader Brian Mason saying, "I told you so."
Turned out it was a false alarm. Unconfirmed sources said someone on the assembly's web page had made a technical mistake. Speaker Ken Kowalski promised an investigation.
For reporters and opposition MLAs, though, the "error" reaffirmed speculation the government is still toying with the idea of a snap fall election. Government officials have been strongly hinting there won't be a fall election but reporters, being skeptical souls, keep smelling something fishy.
Alta. legislature website mistakenly shows election writ dropped
November 7, 2007 - 23:48
By: THE CANADIAN PRESSEDMONTON - The Alberta government says a glitch caused the legislative website to indicate that the election writ had been dropped.
A news release issued Wednesday evening by Bev Alenius, executive assistant to Speaker Ken Kowalski, says the error occurred "due to unknown circumstances."
The release said the website, www.assembly.ab.ca, temporarily displayed a page which indicated that the election writ had been dropped.
The release said the error caused "some" confusion and has been fixed.
The Legislative Assembly Office staff are looking into the cause.
Ron Glen, senior advisor to Premier Ed Stelmach, says there's no plans for a fall election, "unless the premier changes his mind."
He says they are investigating whether it was due to an overzealous staffer preparing for an eventual election, or whether someone hacked into the system.
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1 comment:
I'm the last person to come to Stelmach's defense, but even I have a hard time criticizing his administration over a computer glitch.
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