Ethically Challenged Ed

Ethically challenged Alberta CEO Ed Stelmach continues the Tired Old Tory tradition of protecting that ultimate special interest group; Tory Cabinet Ministers and MLA's. Smelling pending doom they quickly trashed Ed's first promise as Premier; accountability, transparency and ethics reform. And so once again Albertans suffer a Democratic Deficit.

Premier Ed Stelmach has given a free pass to cabinet ministers and senior aides who leave or get ousted after the election, ensuring that new conflict of interest rules won't apply until a month later.

Trying to distance himself from former premier Ralph Klein's distaste for ethics rules, one of the first moves Stelmach made as premier was to draft legislation that tightens the conditions for how top officials can peddle their skills and insider knowledge once they leave government.

But hours before Stelmach dropped the writ Monday, the Tory cabinet approved an order-in-council to have the Conflicts of Interest Amendment Act take effect on April 1, nearly a month after the March 3 vote. A government worker had earlier told The Journal the rules would be in place before the campaign began.

t means retiring finance ministers Lyle Oberg and Greg Melchin don't have to wait 12 months before they can start lobbying their former government on behalf of auto insurers or oilsands companies -- only the six months for ex-ministers under the old law.

And the premier's chief of staff, his deputies and all ministers' senior aides have no restrictions on their dealings if they hit the exits following the election, which they traditionally do in droves.

In fact, if the Tories get turfed from government, they all avoid the new rules Stelmach trumpeted as part of his approach to open and honest government.

Rivals said this proves Stelmach isn't much more serious about his ethics policies than Klein was.

"Maybe they should change their slogan to 'Change that works for Tory insiders,' " NDP Leader Brian Mason said. (The Tory slogan suggests the party's brand of change works for Albertans.)

"To them, (ethics are) a matter of convenience, and clearly they saw this as an inconvenience to themselves."

SEE

Fire The Bums

Transparency Alberta Style

Socialist Alberta

Where's That Damn Calculator

Alberta's Leaky Ship Of State

Alberta's next CEO


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Ed Deserts His Scud Stud

Bad enough Ralph Klein's Brain; Rod Love, doesn't support the Scud Stud (despite his back pedaling denials), but neither does his leader; Farmer Ed.

As Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid reports;

Tory leader Ed Stelmach stood up his star Calgary candidate Friday to ride his campaign buckboard around Edmonton and the rural north.

And Arthur Kent says the Stelmach campaign wants "nothing but my name, sadly." But he vows to fight on as the Tory candidate in Calgary-Currie.

The episode left local Tories gasping in disbelief, although they should be used to Stelmach's tin ear for Calgary by now.

It's just one more example of a Conservative campaign that has quickly become a mule-train wreck of bad policy, bad preparation, and bad politics.

Kent, the Calgary boy who became famous as a U.S. TV reporter during the first Gulf War, was personally recruited as a candidate by Stelmach.

When Stelmach promised weeks ago to attend the breakfast, Kent easily sold more than 100 tickets. Then the premier's campaign phoned Wednesday to say Ed wouldn't make it.

The call didn't even come to him, Kent tells me.

"I would have thought they'd have phoned me directly."

Later, though, Kent was harshly critical of Stelmach's campaign team. I've never heard anything like it from any candidate during an election campaign.

Kent says Stelmach's close knot of advisers doesn't communicate with him in any way.

"They've asked nothing. They want nothing but my name, sadly. But I'm not letting them discourage me. I'm going after the biggest majority in southern Alberta."

Kent feels Stelmach's people see him and his team "as competitors, somehow, rather than as partners. There should be a more inclusive attitude.

"They should be asking us what we're hearing on the doorsteps and where the campaign should go. They don't do that.

"Instead, they rely on those damn telephone surveys that are really pissing people off."

Then the most damaging zinger:

"One-way communication of the sort we experienced this week is not the way to go. You don't just call the bustling heartland of the most exciting city in North America and say, 'No, we can't make it.' "

This might get the candidate in trouble with his leader, but there's no sign Kent gives a damn.

The delicious irony is that it looks like "Scud Stud" Kent's campaign will be as successful as Saddam's Scud missiles were.

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Why Canada Failed Kyoto

The truth about why the Liberals failure to meet their Kyoto commitments,that the Harpocrites deliberately side step, was revealed last night by Jean Chretien when he spoke at the U of A.

He said his Liberal government of the 1990s had done much to pump up the economy Albertans now enjoy, including helping to push ahead development of the oilsands. "If I had done for Quebec what I had done in Alberta in terms of incentives for the tarsands, I would have won all the seats in Quebec," he joked.

Surprise, surprise development trumped the environment and Kyoto was window dressing. State Capitalism is the source of Alberta's oil wealth, unfortunately it is socialism for the rich. Them that's got gets.

H/T to AlbertaTory

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Ed Gets No Love

I am surprised more folks have not picked up on this earthshaking political shift. Ralph Klein's Brain supporting a Liberal.

The Scud Stud can't get no Love.

Rod Love, the one-time top adviser to former Conservative premier Ralph Klein, remarked Tuesday on a CBC radio show that in the current provincial election campaign, he is endorsing the Liberal candidate in his home riding of Calgary Currie.

That's the same riding where the Tories are running quasi-celebrity Arthur Kent, a former NBC reporter who earned his nickname for his good looks and unfazed live coverage of Scud missile attacks during the Persian Gulf War.

Liberal candidate Dave Taylor welcomed the endorsement, though he acknowledged Love is probably still firmly entrenched in the Alberta Tory camp.

In Alberta, well at least Calgary, you can't tell the difference between the Liberals and Tories. After all Ralph Klein was Liberal for a while. And Lougheed built the PC's on an alliance with Calgary Liberals and Socreds.

And no sooner had loose lips sunk Ed's ship Love recanted. Of course there is no love lost between Ed and Ralph. Which may have been why Love blurted out his preference. A little bit of the old stab in the back.

Rod Love, one of Alberta's most well-known Conservative backroom strategists, wants everyone to know that he hasn't gone "to the dark side" to support the Alberta Liberals.

Love took to the airwaves Wednesday to correct earlier reports that he was endorsing Liberal incumbent Dave Taylor in the March 3 provincial election.

On a radio panel Tuesday, the one-time top adviser to former Conservative premier Ralph Klein had conceded that Taylor has been a "very good" elected representative in Calgary Currie, where Love lives.

But he says his support still lies with the Conservative candidate, former reporter Arthur Kent, who earned the nickname Scud Stud for his good looks and unfazed live coverage of missile attacks during the Persian Gulf War.

Love told The Rutherford Show on CHQR radio that he'd no sooner support the Liberals than cheer for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Taylor, meanwhile, says he represents all his constituents regardless of how they voted in the last election and is pleased that Love is happy with the job he's done.

It seems that Conservatives across North America lately suffer from Flip Flop.

“I woke up this morning to find out that I had gone to the dark side.”

-- Rod Love, long-time Alberta Tory operative, on Wednesday responding to a Calgary Sun story he had endorsed Liberal candidate Dave Taylor. Mr. Love told Calgary radio host Dave Rutherford the “torqued” story arose from a radio interview he gave on Tuesday. Mr. Love said he told the CBC that he lived in Mr. Taylor’s riding of Calgary Currie and he was a competent MLA.

And once the cat is out of the bag well its hard to spin it as yuck,yuck just kidding. Nope this key political strategist and back room boy did not misspeak, he said exactly what he wanted to get out there. The old Klein gang is not happy with Mr. Ed. Haven't been since he lost Ralph's seat in a by-election.


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Liberals Empty Promises

It is not just the Tired Old Tories that are making empty promises this election, so are the Alberta Liberals. They suffer from the me too syndrome.

Liberal Leader Kevin Taft reiterated today his pledge for "an absolute cap on greenhouse gas emissions from all sources" within five years of becoming Alberta premier as part of a plan to control oilsands expansions, offer subsidies for carbon sequestration and bar new coal-power plants that don't use the cleanest technologies.The Liberal leader did not provide specifics on where emission targets would be set, but said he would work with industry to establish caps.

An industry that donates to the Liberal Party.

Liberal Leader Kevin Taft promised today to give the natural gas sector a break on royalties amid its current struggles, but squeeze more from the oilsands to rebalance Albertans' fair share of energy riches.

But he admitted he doesn't know how to tweak the rates Ed Stelmach's Conservatives have already announced, saying only that the Liberal goal is to somehow reap 20 per cent more from royalties.

And like the Tired Old Tories the Liberals lack any plan on how they will cap greenhouse gases.

One prominent environmentalist said she likes that the Liberals were planning quicker short-term steps than the Tories, but contended their agenda was "empty" on detail."They're all great statements, but you have got to outline some steps on how you're going to achieve (the reductions)," the Sierra Club's Lindsay Telfer said.

Yeah no need to have plan now, wait till we are the government then we will plan. Wait a minute I have heard that before.

And like the Tories they are good at recycling, announcements that are not much different than those announced by the Tories. And like the Tories they are calculator challenged when it comes to costing their promises.

Taft explained a plan his deputy leader Dave Taylor first released in October.

The Liberals would temporarily cap rent increases until new housing units get built, hire a provincial housing director to co-ordinate various cities' 10-year homelessness plans, and boost outreach services.

Taylor said the plan would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but couldn't say exactly how much.

Like the mayors of Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer, Ed Stelmach's Conservatives have also pledged to end homelessness in 10 years.

And they also don't follow their own play book when making election announcements.

Liberal Leader Kevin Taft envisioned a day when school closures were banned forever in Alberta - but then he was reminded his party plan is for only a three-year moratorium.

A few hours after announcing a plan for an "indefinite" halt today, Taft was forced to modify his proclamation, because his Liberal policy book promises the more temporary suspension on school closures.

Yep Liberals Tories same old story.

He may say he favours hard caps on greenhouse gasses, but Liberal Leader Kevin Taft and his party voted against motions to that effect when the subject came up in the legislature.

On April 10, 2007, members of the Liberal caucus voted against an NDP motion in favour of Kyoto- compliant hard caps on green house gas reductions. Liberal environment critic David Swann spoke against the motion.

“This highlights exactly what we have been saying about the Liberals and Conservatives in this campaign,” said Mason. “They talk a good game when they want your votes, but when push comes to shove – they support their financial backers in big oil and other large polluters.”

Mason also slammed the Liberals for continuing to call for an end to home heating rebates, noting that the Liberals want to take rebates away from families while subsidizing big oil for carbon capture projects.

“Alberta families will suffer,” said Mason. “The Liberal plan will particularly hurt tenants who pay their own heating bill, but live in homes that have not been retrofitted.”

“Kevin Taft’s ideas are not practical for average families. They simply don’t reflect the reality of the struggles Albertans go through to make ends meet.”

“The Liberals, like the Conservatives, put the needs of big oil over regular Albertans.”

SEE

Careful Of What You Ask For


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Wait For It

Ed promises more doctors and the Harpocrites promise reduced wait times. Yet in Alberta hospital beds are closed and basic surgery wait times are increasing. That is the Conservative legacy. Including the legacy of building hospitals during the Lougheed/Getty era to garner votes and then blowing them up, closing beds and cutting staff during the Klein years. Chickens, home, roost.

And inquiring minds want to know what happened to that Liberal Federal funding Paul Martin gave the provinces to reduce wait times? Why it went into building new facilities named after old Tories like Don Mazankowski who called for more private health care.

The Tories legacy after 37 years is to build infrastructure to win votes, with no plan on how to staff that infrastructure once it is built. A sop to the construction industry in Alberta.

It's ridiculous for Premier Ed Stelmach to promise Albertans an extra 225 doctors a year when current surgeons are being sent home because operations are cancelled, two Edmonton doctors say.

"It's exceedingly frustrating that we can't do our jobs and it's getting worse, not better," said Dr. Clifford Sample, a gastrointestinal surgeon at the Grey Nuns Hospital.

Sample was sent home Wednesday after his two major surgeries were cancelled because of shortages in beds and nursing. Across the region, about two dozen elective surgeries were cancelled.

At peak times this winter, the problem has been even worse, with up to 40 operations cancelled over two days.

"We get announcements from Mr. Stelmach that he's going to bring on all these extra physicians and I ask him: Where are they going to work?" asked Sample, who is president of general surgery for the Alberta Medical Association.

"What are they going to do when the physicians in the system now can't do their jobs due to lack of resources?"

One of Sample's cancellations was a woman who has waited three months to have her stomach moved from her chest back into her abdomen. She can't eat without pain or bend over without losing her breath, he said.

A second woman has waited three months to have a paraesophageal hernia fixed, but will now have to wait at least two more. Sample said the operation ideally occurs within two months, since there's a risk of the stomach becoming twisted in the chest of patients with this hernia. That carries a 50-50 chance of death.

"If that happens between now and the time I can do her surgery, I'll feel pretty awful," Sample said. "I haven't seen any bad outcomes (from surgery cancellations). It will happen eventually."

Sample said the province and Capital Health need to focus less on building acute-care hospitals, such as those set for Sherwood Park and Fort Saskatchewan, and more on immediate creation of long-term care beds.

In Edmonton-area hospitals, 150 to 200 patients a day occupy emergency or acute-care beds while they wait for long-term care spaces. Coupled with a severe nursing shortage, that has kept hospitals from performing more surgeries.

Alberta Health's promise of $300 million in the next budget to open 600 new long-term care beds in the province falls short since the facilities won't open until at least 2010, Sample said.

"These are mythical, long-term care beds in the budget," he said. "I don't believe anything until it's actually built."

He said that until new, long-term care facilities open, beds should be converted in the soon-to-open Mazankowski Heart Institute, the joint-replacement centre across from the Royal Alexandra Hospital and the Lois Hole Hospital for Women.

SEE:

Ed's Ides of March


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Ed Promises More Temporary Workers

Another unrealistic election pledge by Ed leader of the Party With No Plan. Like his more doctors pledge, this too relies on hiring more temporary workers from other countries.

Premier Ed Stelmach made a campaign stop in Red Deer today to announce daycare help for families, but a group of moms who were watching say they were not impressed.

Stelmach promised minor improvements to the Family Employment Tax Credit, but he couldn’t tell more than a dozen moms at the daycare centre how much they would save.

The premier also promised that his Tories would help private groups and others create 14,000 new child care spaces over three years, but again the moms were skeptical.

Stelmach says even existing daycares have trouble attracting and retaining staff, so he says foreign workers would be recruited for Alberta’s new daycare spaces.

But several moms at the campaign event later said they’re reluctant to send their children to daycares where the staff are not adequately trained or don’t speak English.

Gee aren't those called nannies?

And as this Liberal Blogger points out, those daycare spaces were already paid for by the Liberal Federal Government. Talk about recycling Ed and the Tired Old Tories truly are the green party when it comes to announcing nothing new, and nothing they could not have done in the past twelve months.

And apparently the Tired Old Tories are making promises they have not calculated the costs for, again. Tax breaks for instance that do not pay for real out of pocket costs of daycare.

Sharlene Dolan, who has a two-year-old daughter, says she doubts the premier’s announcement will have any significant impact on the $875 a month she pays for daycare.

"OK, he's going to cut our taxes, right, but it still doesn't put a cap on the daycare [fees]," said Sharlene Dolan, who pays $875 a month for her daughter's care. "It can sound really good right now on paper but if the daycare costs go up it doesn't help," she said.

The Tory promise focused on changes to the Family Employment Tax Credit, which Stelmach said would help up to 170,000 families with tax credits ranging from $639 a year for one child to $1,685 for four or more children.

Stelmach could not say how much money those families would receive as a result of having those additional deductions on their tax returns.

These guys cannot budget nor do they seem to know what a calculator is for.



SEE

Padrone Me Is This Alberta

Alberta's Free Market In Labour

The Labour Shortage Myth

Baba Sitting

Feminizing the Proletariat

Build It And They Will Come

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Mitt Quits To Win Bush's War

The American Right is obsessed with using the old Nazi "stab in the back" argument to justify being wrong about Iraq. As Mitt Romney did yesterday. Romney tried to cloak his ignoble defeat in the robe of Imperial triumph appearing as the retiring Ceaser not the vanquished Republican Presidential gladiator.

Explaining his decision, he said he believed it was in the best interest of the country's national security -- he told conservatives a Democratic victory would lead to the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, defeat in the war on terrorism and future domestic terror attacks.

"If I fight on, in my campaign ... I'd forestall the launch of a national campaign and, frankly, I'd make it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win," Mr. Romney said.

"Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

The much vaunted Bush War On Terror was lost the day the U.S. left Afghanistan for Baghdad, and since then it has become the Politics of Fear, which Romney stooped to use as a parting shot in his wimp out speech.

No sir he was no quitter he was doing this for the good of the party and the good of the country and the good of the war, he was a good old boy. Seems though that it did little to quell the split in the party or on the right.

For one long, uncomfortable moment, John McCain was silenced by the boos at a meeting of the influential Conservative Political Action Committee.

They erupted from the back of the ballroom at the Omni hotel in Washington, a lusty chorus of catcalls from conservatives not ready to accept they were almost certainly listening to the next Republican presidential nominee.

And what does it say of Ron Paul the Republican Presidential candidate who also opposes the Bush War and who has not dropped out of the race. I guess he too is a defeatist prepared to surrender America to her terrorist enemies. Logic was never Romney's strong suit, opportunism was.

Ron Paul tapped in to a wide array of interests, and his appeal went well beyond the simple "opposition to the war" explanation arrogant journalists favored. But let's just say he could have tapped in a lot deeper and with more lasting results. It's not like we don't need the help right about now. The country is seeing the beginnings of a real leftwing backlash and the Republicans are about to nominate a "national greatness" conservative who is in every respect the anti-Goldwater. (Good luck getting any libertarian leverage from those Paul delegates at the convention.)

After the smoke cleared at the Conservative Political Action Conference – the public withdrawal of Mitt Romney from the Republican presidential race, and the attempt of John McCain to make friends with the party’s staunchest conservatives – a conservative crowd-pleaser stepped forward .

Ron Paul, the Republican representative from Texas.

Paul was playing on the frustrations in this hall, with many voicing worries about McCain, the all-but annointed nominee.

Now the party has an apparent candidate who is a friend of Sen. Russ Feingold – on campaign finance reform – Paul said. And now the party has an apparent candidate who is a friend of Ted Kennedy – on immigration – Paul said.

He raised cheers in the hall – perhaps the first genuine cheers of the day.

“If you think we can lead this country back to conservative principles… you have another thing coming, because it’s not going to happen,’’ Paul said.

“The answer is found in fiscal conservatism – live within our means,’’ he said to cheers in the hall.

“As long as a government can stir up fear, sometimes real and sometimes not real, the people are expected to do one thing, sacrifice their liberty,’’ he said to cheers.

And then there is the war in Iraq, with Paul the only one of several Republican candidates for president this year who took a stance against the war.
.
“McCain says we should stay there for 100 years if necessary – I say there is no need,’’ Paul said to more cheers in the hall.

“We campaigned in 2000 for a humble foreign policy, no policing of the world – and now we are doing the very same thing,’’ Paul said.

But this is where he started to lose his audience: “Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.’’

The Paulites in the hall were happy, but the rest of the crowd was starting to part ways with a Republican who has sharply parted ways with most of the candidates.

Romney was never the real conservative contender against McCain, Mr. Slick was just another liberal in conservative clothing. The real conservative contender is still in the race; Mike Huckabee. Watch conservative voters swing to him not Ron Paul despite the illusions held by his followers.

However the party establishment and the Conservative Political Establishment won't, most rank and file Republicans will hold their noses and support McCain. While those who remain McCain's critics will remain ineffectual offering no alternative since they backed Romney. And that will put them between a rock and a hard place, as the impact of their denunciations will give the conservative base of the party no alternative but Huckabee.

While the pundits like Chris Matthews, see Romney's quitting as giving McCain his coronation as the Republican Presidential nominee, it ain't over yet. And the divisiveness on the right will not be quelled by Romney's absence. The right and the Republican party is irreparably split.

"I will not vote for John McCain and it is our belief that he will destroy the Republican party," Vincent Chiarello, a retired foreign service officer from Virginia, told Al Jazeera. "I'd rather vote Democrat."

At a Friday campaign stop in Denver, the Texas Republican Congressman spoke to a standing room only crowd of 2,000 supporters-nearly double the number that came out earlier in the day to cheer on ordained front-runner Mitt Romney.

Paul’s speech was greeted with the eagerness of a religious revival. One supporter broke down in tears at the microphone as she described Paul as her “hero.” Sitting next to me in the front row was a 61-year-old lifelong Republican. She said she had never missed an opportunity to vote in her four decades of eligibility. Without Dr. Paul (this is how the obstetrician’s supporters affectionately refer to him) she said she would have sat this election out. She says she is most motivated by his anti-war stance. When greeted by a 20-something activist, they both nod in unison about their frustration with the drug war.

The interaction is a familiar one. This is not your father’s Republican party.

Dred-locked hippies stand united with Christian homeschoolers. Democrats and independents also pepper the crowd, proclaiming our need for renewable energy initiated within the private sector. There are no staged applause lines. On multiple occasions, an impromptu chant begins, “Ron Paul Revolution! Give us back our Constitution!” On stage, Paul is greeted by a drum line dressed as Revolutionary War soldiers.

The Democrats will continue to have the advantage, because even if McCain is now the presumptive candidate, the media will focus increasingly on the horse race that is on between Clinton and Obama. This is an advantage not a disadvantage in particular for Obama who can now make the case that only he can defeat McCain as national polls have shown.






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Careful Of What You Ask For

Some Liberal bloggers in Alberta are wondering why there will only be one leaders debate during the upcoming election.Because this is Alberta and the Legislature only has one 'official' sitting.

They should be careful of what they ask for. The charismatically challenged leaders; Hinman, Taft, and Stelmach will bore viewers into a slumber only to be awakened by the quick wit and sharp retorts of the bus driver who leads the NDP.

And a sleeping voter is safer than an awakened one.





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Gee I Said That

Here.

Red Deer Advocate Editorial , Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008

Amazingly, the Conservatives — who have been in power since 1971 — are campaigning under the slogan “Change that works for Albertans.” They are apparently determined to run against their own record, after realizing many Albertans are tired of their arrogance and mistakes.

“I think we can deliver as much change as anyone else,” said George Rogers, Tory MLA for Leduc-Beaumont-Devon, with no hint of joking in his voice. After 37 years in government? That makes absolutely no sense.

Do the Tories think voters are stupid enough to consider them the party of change?

Apparently they are underestimating the intelligence of Albertans. Comes from Tired Old Tories talking to themselves in caucus.

H/T Cowboys For Social Responsibility

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