My Way

King Ralph made his annual infommercial to the Volk of Alberta just before the opening of the annual and only required sitting of the Legislature. In the radio ads promoting the Ralph Show on CTV it was billed as Ralphs Vision for Alberta. Read or watch the Address to see how other Albertans, and I, imagine Alberta.

The Premier was to tell his volk his vision of Albertas future and we were all to ooooo and ahhhhh and then applaud. It cost us $170,000 because Ralph never uses the already paid for services of Canada's public Broadcaster CBC, and he couldn't use the Provincial TV Radio outlet ACCESS/CKUA because he privatized it.

Well his vision was certainly lacking in orginiality Klein announces $1 billion boost to Heritage Fund and then as predicted here the King embraced the other King, King Coal. But here again his vision was blurred by the rose coloured glasses he was wearing. It wasn't imaginative but it certainly was a fantasy.

Klein also spoke enthusiastically about so-called "clean coal" technology and the need to expand research "to unlock coal's massive potential."

"We already use clean coal to meet more than half of our electricity needs," the premier said.

"The coal beneath our feet contains twice the energy of Alberta's conventional crude, natural gas and bitumen combined."

But Klein's statement about how much power is being generated from "clean coal'' was immediately challenged.

Mary Griffiths, with the Alberta-based Pembina Institute, said the province's coal plants have significant emissions, so there is no clean coal generation.

"They have emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and other heavy metals, and very large emissions of carbon dioxide which causes global warming," she said.

"I don't understand where the premier got his information from."

David Lewin, chairman of the Canadian Clean Power Coalition, also confirmed that Alberta has no coal-fired plants that meet the latest definition of "clean coal."

"We're a fair ways away from having zero emission coal-fired plants. That technology doesn't exist," said Lewin, who also gave a testimonial in the broadcast.

Alberta's newest coal-fired plant uses emissions technology from 2000, while most of the province's coal generators use 20-year-old technology, he said.

Not to be detered King Ralph also Announced that he would find a cure for
Cancer.The man is an absolute wizard.

Curing Cancer, creating clean coal technology out of thin air. He even compared Alberta to a little slice of Heaven.

"In the future I see for Alberta, no one will need to worry about where they’ll live, or who will look after them as they enter their golden years." Yeah unlike today.

Ralph is not only our King he is an absolute Wizard. Wizard of Oz that is.

What is more important is WHAT HE DIDN'T SAY. Not a word about his much vaunted Third Way for Health Care Reform, the real source of his My Way or the Highway. But of course this is classic Klein. He has been announcing Health Care reform for a Decade...and all we get is studies, reccomendations, more studies, focus groups, more reccomendations, Bill 11, more studies, focus groups, International Conference, and finally a private untendered contract to a health care priavteer to see if we can reintroduce the old Alberta MSI scheme.

Nil to say on 'Third Way'

The most interesting aspect of Premier Ralph Klein's annual televised address last night was not what he said - among other things a vow to put some big money in the bank - but what he did not say.

Klein missed a perfect opportunity to explain his Third Way for health care directly to Albertans, says a University of Calgary political scientist.

"If you were going to move very dramatically on health care, boy, this is your opportunity to speak to Albertans. Lay a little ground work, make headlines," David Taras said following Klein's annual televised address.

And he had nothing to say about changing Alberta's draconian pro employer labour laws that became a public outrage this summer during the violent Tysons Strike, which his labour Minister promised would be changed by the legislature. Not done in the the fall session nor apparently on the agenda for this spring session. Another hollow promise to the workers and immigrants in this province.

Yep the outgoing, soon to retire, wait another year, I promise I will go, King Ralph's vision was myopic despite the rose coloured glasses. He is in serious need of corrective lenses.

Mr. Mensah said the popular Premier, who has said this will be his fourth and final term, could regain much-needed credibility with the public if he can quickly outline a clear vision for Alberta's bulging coffers.

"What we've gotten so far hasn't really addressed that question of long-term planning," he said.

Mr. Gibbins agreed, saying that Mr. Klein hasn't communicated where he wants to take Canada's wealthiest province in the coming years.

"He's thinking bigger, but it's hard for Albertans to connect the dots in his thinking," Mr. Gibbins said, mentioning recent spending announcements, including $1-billion for cancer research and treatment.

He is all about doing it My Way, Perhaps he should be singing If I Only Had A Brain or a Heart.

And now, the end is near,
And so I face the final curtain.
My friends, I'll say it clear;
I'll state my case of which I'm certain.

I've lived a life that's full -
I've travelled each and every highway.
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Regrets? I've had a few,
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.

I planned each charted course -
Each careful step along the byway,
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew,
When I bit off more than I could chew,
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way.

Frank Sinatra My Way

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Yes We Have No Bananas

As students prepare to graduate from high school, those following in their footsteps will find themselves with less next year. Thanks to King Ralph and Company. Too Much Money Not Enough Education

'City students will suffer' Edmonton Sun, Canada - 10 hours ago By CARY CASTAGNA, Staff Writer. Edmonton students will suffer if the provincial government fails to come up with an immediate cash ...

Public school board awash in red ink Fort McMurray Today, Canada - 16 hours ago By PAULA OGONOSKI. Fort McMurray Today — A $1.9 million decision by the public school board could put trustees in hot water with ...

School boards deal with budget shortfalls
CBC.ca, Canada - 17 hours ago
Public school boards in Calgary and Edmonton are contemplating cuts to deal with multimillion-dollar shortfalls.

Alberta schools losers in booming province's infrastructure ...
Canada.com, Canada - 4 Jun 2006
... But the struggles also exist in Edmonton and Fort McMurray. The Calgary Board of Education has a $425-million maintenance deficit for public schools and the ...

June 5, 2006

Pamela Anderson says well maintained schools are important

EDMONTON -- In an exclusive commentary in the Sun newspapers on Saturday June 3, 2006, Canadian Superstar Actress Pamela Anderson, who is to be inducted into the Canadian Walk of Fame this week, says; “We have great education. My schools were beautiful and well-maintained.” More...

And typical of King Ralph he blows his cool when he's found out. Just like he did over health care. And remember when he threw the book at.....the page.....yep when Ralph is found wanting he lashes back. Yep bring back the lash for dem' overpaid public school workers says high school drop out Ralph.

Klein lashes back at educators

Klein furiously fired back, saying teachers, unions and school boards may claim they are being forced to work with less, but the truth is they are only being asked to do with less than they would like, not less than they had before, said Klein.

"If you get a raise of three percent and you were expecting a raise of five percent, you are receiving less of more.

"It's less of what they would like ... because they want more of more, of more, of more.

"Whether it's education, health care, infrastructure, whether it's protection of the environment, everyone wants more, of more, of more.

"It's one of the problems of having too much money."

Yep thats a problem alright. Just like not having enough money apparently. So how come school boards are being funded like its 1993-1995 when we are rolling in money?

Cause we have a Repulican like education system in Alberta. Voucher funding which pays schools per student, private school funding, charter schools, schools competing for students, and no money for infrastructure repairs, though it has been promised since 2000.

As I have said here before planning is anathema to King Ralph and the Party of Calgary. They are stuck in the past, hold the line funding for the public sector while the coffers are open for their business pals.

Or maybe its just good old fashioned lame duck politics, we have to wait for the passing of Ralph and the annointment of this guy:

Jim Dinning announces his candidacy for leader of Alberta's Progressive Conservative party. (CP PHOTO/Jason Scott)

In a speech punctuated by shouts of "Hear, hear!" and "Right on!" the 53-year-old chairman of Western Financial Group said his campaign will focus on investing in education, making Alberta a leader in innovation and high-tech, preserving the environment and socking away money during the current oil-driven economic boom. He said he plans to make Alberta's workforce the most highly skilled on the continent.

"Yes, we have no bananas
We have-a no bananas today.
Just try those coconuts
Those wall-nuts and doughnuts
There ain't many nuts like they.
We'll sell you two kinds of red herring,
Dark brown, and ball-bearing.
But yes, we have no bananas
We have no bananas today."

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The King is Dead Long Live the King

King Ralph has announced, finally, that he is retiring October 2007, as he said he would during the last election.

This allows him to stop being made a fool of on April 1 when the Party of Calgary (PC's) gathers for its annual meeting and leadership review.

The knives are out and ever the populist Klein thwarted the embarassment of not having the parties support, which he demanded earlier this year when he challenged them to support him or else.

Alberta is now being governed by the Retirement Party, after Premier Ralph Klein confirmed he plans to step down as head of the Conservative dynasty -- but not for 19 long and aimless months.

And while his announcement not means that the leadership race which has been occuring in the back rooms will not become official till November of 2007, the infighting and backstabbing will make the Chretien and Martin struggles in the Liberals look like a fight in a sandbox.

Jim Dinning, who some consider the front-runner among six leadership hopefuls, said "there's still some confusion" about when the official leadership race will begin."If the date is October 2007, does the race start now or does the race start then?" Dinning said in an interview.

As I have noted before this is a struggle between the Calgary Capitalist Class which are classic liberals and the right wing social conservative rump in the party.

Ah there is no joy in mudville with this announcement, it merely delays the inevitable. The King is in his counting house, mad as a hatter. He is following his own agenda despite his party, his caucus or his MLA's. He is saving his own ass at the expense of his party.

More articles on King Ralph.

Tories risk taking same trip over a cliff as Socreds

That means the Conservatives won't have a new leader in place until February 2008 -- which gives the party little time to rebuild before the next provincial election is held, likely the same year.

Disaffected Tories are afraid Klein is giving himself too much time to say goodbye and the new leader too little time to say hello.

For them, 19 months is more than enough time for Klein's distracted, at times grumpy, leadership style to drive more supporters away from the party, and to drive the party over the same cliff that claimed the Alberta Social Credit Party and the federal Progressive Conservative Party under Brian Mulroney.

The grumblers are a paranoid lot and they're overstating their worst-case scenario. But they'll be voting at the party's convention and the only way they'd give Klein a ringing endorsement to stay is if he announces he's leaving -- soon.

Klein might still win the leadership vote by a comfortable margin, but then what?

How can he govern for the next 19 months?

He is such a lame duck he'll need crutches to get around for the next year.

Klein to step down next year
Globe and Mail - 4 hours ago
EDMONTON -- Ralph Klein, the country's most colourful and longest-serving Premier, ended years of speculation yesterday by finally announcing his official retirement date: October of 2007.
Klein says he'll quit in October 2007 Toronto Star
Klein locks in retirement date CBC.ca
Canada.com - CTV.ca - Calgary Sun - Edmonton Journal (subscription) - all 47 related »

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Return of the Socreds

Presto Manning is contemplating a run for the leadership of the Party of Calgary. Somethings never change. Preston Manning Expresses Interest In Replacing Klein

That would mean 35 years of Socred power that ended with his father, Ernest, being replaced with a lame duck Premier, then 33 years of PC power starting with Peter Lougheed and ending with a lame duck Premier, and then the possibility of that strange beast the Reformed PC Socreds under Presto.....noooooooo.

Preston Manning, who was once the second-most-powerful leader in Canada as leader of the opposition, is apparently now considering his chances of becoming the second-most-powerful leader in Canada as premier of Alberta.

King Ralph is dead
The Alberta Tories' regicide of Ralph Klein was big news for 12 hours. Then Preston Manning trumped it, telling reporters he was considering running for Klein's job.

Daddy Ernest Manning gave up party power to Peter Lougheed, thus assuring a Liberal Conservative Socred Alliance that was Seventies PC's. That alliance was shattered as neo-cons took over under Klein, the fiscal right was far less powerful than the social conservatives. The social conservatives align behind Oberg, the Reform types around Morton, and the liberal wing under Dinning. Alberta Tories in disarray

Dining did the dirty deed of balancing the budget on the backs of the working class, with wage and benefit cuts to the public sector. Then with victory in his back pocket he left the government.

The neo-cons in the party then went on to shape the Ralph Revolution, using the the debt and deficit hysteria of the ninties to impose their Republican Lite vision on Alberta, while promoting it for the rest of Canada with Prestos Reform Party.

Government that governs least is best — or not

When Mr. Klein became premier, the province had a $3.4-billion deficit and a $23-billion debt. He argued these burdens arose, in part, from governments having involved themselves too much in the economy. There were bad investments. The government taxed too much. Government regulations were too onerous. The free market, he asserted, would be encouraged if the government got out of the way.

This contrasted with the approach of Peter Lougheed, who led the Conservatives to power in 1971. Mr. Lougheed was no socialist, but he did believe the government should try to direct, cajole and even force the market in directions he believed Alberta needed. Only that way, he reasoned, could Alberta's economy be diversified and energy revenues used not just for today's needs, but for the future.

Mr. Lougheed's dirigiste preferences evaporated under Mr. Klein, but now some Albertans want that kind of guiding hand back, at least in a modified form. In a free-enterprise province, the critics are now demanding a “plan” for using the revenues that would be more than driving up spending on ongoing programs.

Presto would be an interesting add to the mix but his chances of winning are less than none. Unless he has something up his sleeve, oh like say Medicare Reform. If anyone could enunciate and promote the Third Way in Medicare it would be Presto.

“Where I think we're headed is a system of universal care, where everybody is covered ... with two tracks for delivery, and two tracks for payment. It's not a question of private versus public, but what mix of the two is appropriate.”

Mr. Manning left what he likes to call "active partisan politics" in 2002 to become more involved in the public-policy debate. He quickly got on board with the Fraser Institute and the Canada West Foundation, and he set up the Manning Centre for Building Democracy.

He and Mike Harris authored the Fraser Institute Report on exactly the musings that King Ralph has been tossing about for the past decade. And perhaps that would be the reason for him to run, otherwise Third Way Medicare Reform is dead in the water.

Third Way predicted to meet Klein's fate

Dead-end way Tories mull future of health-care reform if Ralph exits scene



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Social Credit

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Union Busting Alberta Style

Class War in Alberta

Alberta is awash in class war, not unlike our neighbour B.C where the teachers union is in an 'illegal' walkout forced on them by the Klein-Lite B.C. Liberal Government.

B.C. teachers strike at a stalemate: mediator

Unfortunately the labour movement here has not linked the struggles at Lakeside, Telus, ABS Casino in Calgary and now Finning, together and created a call for a General Strike. Or even a Day of Protest as the BC Fed of Labour would call it. Instead they ask folks to lobby Ralph to settle the dispute.

What do these stories all have in common? Two things. Contracting Out of work and the complicity of the Alberta Government or its political hacks in the companies involved.

Casino Calgary strike day 29

The Alberta government licenses Casino's and gambling in Alberta, and the taxes it makes off gambling are more than they make from oil and gas royalties and taxes combined. The government is addicted to gambling profits, and again this strike is over a first contract, in the home town of the Party of Calgary and its ruler, King Ralph.


Workers walk off job at heavy equipment dealer
Finning Canada, a Caterpillar dealership, is a major service and parts supplier About 900 heavy duty mechanics, technicians and parts people set up picket lines around the company's head office, located in the city's west end, at noon.

In the case of the Finning Strike, Finning has set up secondary plants contracting the work out to them, and their workforce is organized by the fake union CLAC. And my my who sits on the board of Finning if not Jim Dinning the man who would be Premier. Former cabinet minister who brought in the brutal budget cuts in the ninties, Jim retired from cabinet, but is now running an all out for leadership of the PC's when Ralph finally, maybe, real soon, not till 2007, retires. Dinning's handler is none other than Ralph's old pal, Rod Love. Finning supplies all the heavy equipment in Alberta in particular the Tar Sands which is seeing a construction boom. So in order to make even more profits, it is outsourcing its work not unlike those companies it supplies equipment to Flour, Bechtel and Halliburton.

Scuffles, harsh words as voting starts on Telus contract
Faisal Panju says that the main issue of job security doesn't seem to be more entrenched in the tentative agreement than in the working conditions Telus posted in July, which precipitated the labour disruption. The TWU said it was fighting to keep Telus from contracting out jobs to other countries, such as the Philippines.

Telus was once Alberta Government Telephones, until it was privatized in the Ralph Putsch. As Telus it cobbled up Edmonton Telephones, something that AGT had wanted to do for years, thanks to a sell out Mayor and City Council. They promised to keep Telus headquarters in Edmonton, and like the asying about the cheque in the mail, well that lasted about two years until they cobbled up B.C. Tel and moved HQ to Vancouver. Now all the well placed poltical mandarins in both Telus and Ed Tel got cushy jobs while they are screwing their workers. And again it is Alberta and Edmonton in partiuclar that they are looking to....wait for it....outsource/contract out jobs to call centres in the Phillipines. And while we are speaking of the Phillipines it's where NAIT a provincially funded Tech School has contracts to outsource tech education and links to Universities in the Phillipines, so the contracting out goes both ways.

Man arrested after RCMP officer assaulted on picket line
Claude Dupuis, a labour relations professor with Athabasca University in Calgary, says because the plant can't operate at full capacity, the strike is costing Lakeside's parent company, Tyson Foods, a lot of money. But he points out that the Arkansas-based multi-national has deep pockets.In July, labour relations experts had predicted that a strike at the Tyson Foods-owned plant would be lengthy, similar to the last job action at the facility in the 1980s, which killed the union.

In Alberta the government admits that there are no labour laws to protect workers, only a lap dog labour relations board that works for the bosses. Considering that this is the case, the labour movement who has reps on this anti-worker board have yet to take action and remove their reps proving once and for all proving that the LRB is NOT a neutral agency. It appears according to King Ralph that in Alberta if you are not deemed an essential service, without the right to strike and forced binding arbitration, there is nothing the government can do to for you.

If you work in Alberta pay taxes, raise your family, well your shit out of luck if you go on strike for a first contract. Cause Ralph and his pals are more interested in your bosses good fortune and sharing the Alberta Advantage with them than with you.

After giving Tysons millions in funding for its plant operations during the BSE crisis, after supporting the union busting strike in the 1980's, after supporting and funding land grants for the expansion of town development in Brooks, due to the increased number of immigrant workers brought in by Lakeside to operate the plant, there is nothing this government can do. Tysons is counting on the racist redneck culture of Brooks to divide the workers between White Albertans and the immigrants who are people of colour. That's why they brought in immigrant workers, to create a fiscal divide in the plant between the well paid locals versus the underpaid immigrant workers. And they get away with it with the complicity of both the provincial and Federal governments.

Well thats cause our labour laws are all geared for the good of the company not the workers. There is no first contract legislation in Alberta, one of only two provinces in Canada not to have such legislation. And of course their is no legislation against scabs, oh excuse me replacement workers. And no legislation against whipsawing, as Finning has done. In the case of Finning again their outsourcing of work to secondary plants was approved by the LBR.

Yep in Alberta its class war like in B.C. Now if only the labour movement would recognize it, these are not just single isolated battles, these are the battle field writ large across the province....its time for mass action against the bosses and their government.

Two dead, four hurt in collision near strikebound Lakeside Packers in Alberta

Earlier Thursday, two senior Lakeside Packers managers were cited for misconduct by the Alberta Labour Relations Board in the O'Halloran incident.

The board ruled there is direct evidence that Andrew Crocker and Carey Kopp deliberately pursued Mr. O'Halloran near the plant last week.

“Portions of the pursuit were reckless, putting the lives of O'Halloran and other drivers on the road in danger,” said the board ruling.

“The board declares that the employer, Kopp and Crocker engaged in dispute-related misconduct . . . as a result of the careless and dangerous pursuit of O'Halloran.”

Mr. Crocker, the head of security at the plant, and Mr. Kopp, the manager of human resources, must desist from any further conduct related to the strike, said Nancy Schlesinger, vice-chairwoman of the labour board.

She banned the two managers from having any further contact with pickets or union officials. They also must stay at least 200 metres away from the picket line.

Hundreds of Lakeside workers walked off the job to back demands for a first contract.

Hundreds more have shown up every day in school buses and cars willing to go into work.

The plant processes more than 40 per cent of Canada's beef.

When asked about two of its managers being banned from going anywhere near pickets, Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for U.S.-based Tyson Foods, which owns the packing plant, repeated that the company doesn't want anyone to get hurt in the dispute.

He also suggested there are two sides to every story -- including the incident involving Mr. O'Halloran.

“We're still trying to gain a better understanding of what happened,” Mr. Mickelson said.

Mr. Hesse said earlier in the day the ruling had bolstered morale on the picket line. “They feel vindicated,” he said.

Meanwhile, RCMP released the name of a man who allegedly assaulted a Mountie on the picket line Wednesday.

James Achuil Kuol, 35, of Brooks, has been charged with one count of assaulting a peace officer.

Details of the alleged assault, including whether the suspect was a union member or not, were not released.

RCMP have already charged six people, including senior Tyson executives with Lakeside, with dangerous driving and other charges after last Friday's incident.

Mr. O'Halloran also faces charges of mischief and possession of a weapon related to a scuffle on the first day of the strike.

Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, was to join union members on the line Friday.

That's great but Ken by himself or even with this executive in tow is NOT the whole membership of the CLC or even its affiliates. Mass mobilization of all unionized workers in this province is needed not tokenism by labour bueraucrats. Yep Tyson's is shaking in its boots with Brother Georgetti on the line. And the AFL still calls on the government to act not on mobilizing its affiliates to take action.

LRB Decision Banning 2 Lakeside Managers from Picket Line, Negotiations Unprecedented

Highlights Tyson's Contempt for Fair Bargaining, Government Needs to Step In, Says AFL

"How can we expect the union to sit down at a table with people who, directly or indirectly, just tried to injure the union president?" asks McGowan. "There is no hope of good faith bargaining from Tyson given this incident."

McGowan renewed the AFL's call for the government to step in to resolve the strike. "How much more evidence do they need that Tyson is not interested in negotiating a resolution? This company has no intention of signing a collective agreement. The government needs to intervene to protect the democratic rights of these workers."

"What does it take for workers to be protected in this province? Do we need to see more illegal acts?" wonders McGowan.

Yes we do brother McGowan, we need mass pickets, and a Day of Action! With the press supporting the Lakeside workers, including the right wing Sun, this strike is a challenge to the Klein government, a challenge we have not seen in the last decade.

It has clear popular support and the labour movement needs to mobilize a mass demonstration against the government and its collusion with union busting businesses, that get taxpayer money, in a province that is booming. Boom or Bust this government beats up on workers while wining and dining the bosses with our tax money.

Thunk Tank

King Ralph gets a nice perk from the retirement home for neo-cons the Fraser Institute. Not unexpected since the Fraser Institute spent the last thirteen years gushing over Ralph, giving him an annual award for putting into practice what they preach. Retiring Klein will join the Fraser Institute

King Ralph will continue to suck at the public teat as the right wing think tank is a charitable institution. King Ralph will be in good company with other political porkchoppers Preston Manning and Mike Harris. Love these neo-cons who complain about the Nanny State but suckle off the public teat with their 'charitable' foundations, and political consulting firms.


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Albertas Birthday Whimpers to a Close

As the year comes to a close so does the Alberta Saskatchewan Centennials. In Alberta the occasion was one of bungling, banality and basically a non celebration. Cause Colleen Klein was in charge. Communities were not funded for centennial celebrations, instead a Tory bueracracy hunkered down with money and doled it out to its friends. Gary Mah was put in charge of the celebration and he didn't know what was going on.

If you can believe it King Ralph is claiming that we spent oddles on celebrations. Celebrations we have yet to see.

The province spent $500 million on so-called legacy projects and $16 million on the festivities. A final accounting of the costs and projects will be available in the spring.

$16 million on festivities. What the hell was it spent on? Heck we could have given everyone the day off on Sept. 1 for that kind of cash.

Now in Saskatchewan they had a year of celebrations worthy of speaking of. And I did all year I blogged about the embarassment that poor old Saskatchewan was able to out do its rich neighbour in creating a spirit of the provinces Birthday. Here was the spirit of the Centennial celebrated in Saskatchewan. While in true Scrooge fashion King Ralph penny pinched on our celebration. Even the Queens visit was more spectacular in Saskatchewan, rain and all. In Edmonton her visit was rained out.

Go figure.

The best thing King Ralph could have given Albertans this year was his resignation. Sigh, didn't happen. We will have to wait till 2008, a year before the annual five year provincial election in Alberta.

tags

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Cenntenial
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Klein Kills Homeless

Relentless sub-zero temperatures are now being blamed for contributing to the deaths of four people in Alberta who were either living on the street or didn't have appropriate permanent shelter.

Man dies trying to keep warm in camper trailer

The grandstand building on Calgary's Stampede grounds has been open since Friday night to provide a temporary emergency warming shelter for up to 300 homeless people because all of the regular shelters were full.

Not satisfied with a drunken brawl in a homeless shelter in Edmonton several years ago now King Ralph can take responsibility for further deaths of the homeless in Oil Rich Alberta.

Well where else do you lay the blame. Remember this is the guy that admited he 'had no plan' to deal with the boomtimes. He was only good at cutting funding to things like homeless shelter programs.

And when the Mayor of Calgary recently complained about not enough municipal funding from the province for progams like homeless shelters, Klein told him to stuff it.

When you are King you are responsible for your people. The bucks stop with Ralph.

Baby It's Cold Outside

See:

Drunk Holds Court

Klein Steals From The Poor And Disabled

Klein Outta Control

Killer Klein

Severely Normal Albertans Go Bye Bye

Ralph Klein

King Ralph


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Ralph Says Ompph

This is a tragic comic classic for April Fools day. But this is no joke. So befiting the man who would be King forever. Now humbled on this famous day that makes fun of all rulers and their pomposity. Poetic justice indeed.

It's all over but the whailing. King Ralph's tragic tumble in slow motion from his throne began with his ill called 2004 election, is peek aboo healthcare reform, his threatening and challenging over how long he can retain power.

Klein takes devastating blow to leadership

And now his own party shows a massive 45% vote opposed to his continuing to linger in office. Ouch.



His big mouth has gotten him into trouble again. He announced he would be quiting if he wasn't supported at this convention. Well it has instantly come back to haunt him.

Klein dealt a crushing blow in leadership review

The press will badger him mercilessly about it, like a murder of crows after the battle.

So I ask is he more Hamlet or is he more Richard the III?

We shall see this afternoon when and if he meets the crows, err, press.

Will he retreat and hasten his retirement? When a leader gets only 55% support, he has lost the confidence of his party and his Volk. Ironic. Like his 'defeat' in the 2004 provinical election. His loss of seats, but left with an overwhelming majority the envy of every dictator in the world, left him rudderless, and the party adrift.

The PC's want, and need, a leader who swill steer their good ship of State somewhere, anywhere. The last thing they need is a lame duck leader who gooses the party while leading from the stern.

CALGARY (CP) - Alberta Premier Ralph Klein has received support from just 55 per cent of his fellow Conservatives at the party's annual convention in Calgary. It was not immediately clear what action Klein would take, though the numbers could only be seen as a crushing blow. Many observers had suggested Klein needed at least 75 per cent to avoid a serious challenge to his departure plans. Klein has traditionally enjoyed an approval rating of more than 90 per cent.

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Klein Steals From The Poor And Disabled

Ebenezer Klein, King of Alberta likes to kick the poor, the disabled and the homeless around.

Last election he made an issue of the disabled and those on AISH as being less than deserving then Martha and Henry, his severely normal Albertans.

During a protest about Alberta AISH payments being below the poverty line King Ralph with royal disdain claimed that most folks on AISH were probably faking it cause they smoke and drink just like him.

Well today the poor, the disabled and the widowed who have had the Alberta Government stealing their federal funds from them have had their day in court. The Alberta government spent years clawing back federal payments and failed for over a decade to increase AISH until this year. While pocketing the difference.

Now who looks stupid. Alberta settles $100M case over financial assistance payments

In Alberta when you first don't succeed in stealing folks money that is sent to them from the Federal government try, try again is the Klein Reich motto.

Disabled hail AISH settlement

The class-action lawsuit was brought forward by two men representing those who were either underpaid by government support programs or who were subjected to what they claim were illegal and abusive debt collection processes initiated by the province.

AISH recipient Donald Fifield of Tees, in the County of Lacombe, was underpaid more than $10,000 in the 1980s. At the time, government policy limited restitution to six months' worth of losses, regardless of how long the underpayments went on. Under the terms of the settlement, Fifield will be eligible for as much as $30,000, which includes compound interest and the effect of a multiplier formula.

The policy was changed in 2005 and now the government will pay the full amount owed, if it is found to have underpaid pension and social assistance recipients.

The lawsuit said the government erred when collecting debts it claimed were owed by program recipients.

Due to a bureaucratic error, Curtis Roth of Tofield received an overpayment from the province to top up his monthly $980 Canada Pension Plan payment for several years when he was unable to work due to illness. When the $16,000 error was discovered, the government began to deduct the amount owing from Roth's monthly AISH payment, reducing his cheques to $40.

The class-action suit, filed by Edmonton lawyer Philip Tinkler, contended the government went against its own policy on debt repayment, which required the government to seek permission from the Court of Queen's Bench to reduce the pension payments, or reach an agreement with the recipient.

Uditsky said it's important government follows its own procedures.

"I think it's incumbent for the government to be an exemplary model for following procedure because they expect individuals with disabilities to do that all the time."

The government has changed its debt collection rules so that payments can be recovered without going through a court process or securing an agreement with the client. People who receive government payments can turn to the Citizen's Appeal Commission for redress if they have a problem with government decisions.

And here is the $100 million dollar question.

Bev Matthiessen, executive director of the Alberta Committee of Citizens with Disabilities, wonders why the government didn't deal with this issue on its own years ago. "Why is it that we have to wait and wait until it goes to a lawsuit before we can do the right thing and be fair?"

It wasn't in King Ralph's Interest. Get it Interest. Interest on $100 million. Interest and money made off the backs of the poor, widowed and the disabled. Equal to the taxes and royalties paid by Ralphs pals in the oil industry. Interest made off by the real Martha and Henry, Albertans who are not 'severely normal'. So it's ok.



Now perhaps some single mothers on welfare will sue the government for clawing back the federal child tax credit. Another clever money making ploy of the Alberta Government.

Guess the rest of us will have to wait for our prosperity bribe, err bonus cheques a little longer while Ralph digs around in his treasury to make things right.
$400 rebate cheques will arrive in the new year

More Ralph Stories

Also See Alberta Surplus and Alberta Uber Alles

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Democracy Is Messy

Sources tell CTV the regulatory changes to the registry will be fast-tracked through cabinet to avoid a messy parliamentary debate. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office reportedly want quick action on the file because it's a key campaign promise. Federal gov't planning a gun amnesty:

Ah yes that business of democracy is so messy.

Harper is once again showing his mastery of Alberta politics where King Ralph despite his overwhelming majority, and one party state, uses the same tactics to push through spending and policies to avoid facing question period in the legislature. As I have said Welcome to Ottawa, Alberta.

Harper's comments came during a rare press conference where reporters were allowed to pose questions to the prime minister. He touched on a number of topics including the recent murder of a Canadian couple in Mexico, Alberta's move towards a two-tier health system, and his plans to legislate the election of senators.

Press conferences are rare in Alberta and tightly scripted. Don Martin should feel right at home. Martin has just published a book called King Ralph, an unofficial biography on the life and times of Ralph Klein, the premier of Alberta.


Oh yes and remember how consultative Harper promised to be. Well forget that when it comes to Senate Reform. Harper is the ultimate autarch, he is acting positively Presidential. To bad this is Canada where we don't elect a President seperate from his party no matter Harpers illusions that this is so. Since we are a parlimentary system the PMO is an autarch now under Harper the PM is King. In Ottawa, Alberta we now have King Stephen I.

Harper said nothing stopped him from unilaterally creating an electoral process to have simultaneous elections for the Commons and Senate."While I obviously would like to see the co-operation of the provinces, it's a commitment our government has made to pursue Senate elections and that's something we believe we can do from Ottawa.'' Harper plans quick action on elected Senate

Yep he will impose his version of Senate reform on parliment in the grand tradition of that other English parlimentarian King Henry VIII. The fact is that the Senate itself is an elitist institution that denies youg or poor Canadians and renters the right to representation in the Red House. It is the very essence of the British Aristocracy the propertied rentier class.

Senators must be at least 30 years old, hold $4,000 in mortgage-free property. They earn more than $100,000 a year, plus pensions and benefits.

Real electoral reform would be to Abolish the Senate and expand the House of Commons through proportional representation.

Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, who champions abolishing the Senate as fundamentally undemocratic, had a cautious reaction to the prime minister's announcement.

"Every Canadian knows that reform or abolition is needed and if Mr. Harper can come up with a scheme that addresses both the election of senators and the powers of the Senate, that would be a great contribution.''

"If he aims at just dealing with the elections, I'm not optimistic of the outcome.''

Harper said he did not need the provinces' OK to reform the upper house, but urged them to support his initiative.

The King is dead! Long Live the King!

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Martin Luther King: A Revolutionary, Not A Saint

Michael K. Smith

 January 22, 2026

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Photo by Unseen Histories

“When I say poor, I don’t just mean black people.”

–Martin Luther King Jr.

“The true enemy is war itself.”

–Martin Luther King Jr.

For thirteen years he lived and worked with the knowledge that a violent death awaited him, that it might come at any moment from a knife thrust out of a crowd, a sudden gunshot, a bomb tearing him to pieces. His wife was plagued with nightmares about it.

Reminders were frequent: a shotgun blast through his front door, the bombing of his home, a dozen sticks of dynamite found smoldering on his porch, a razor-sharp Japanese letter-opener plunged into his chest by a crazy woman, and, of course, the regular late-night phone threats that began with, “Nigger . . . .”

Prayer and a deep Christian faith dissipated his paralyzing fear, giving him the strength to act. His eloquence, soaring idealism, and amazing composure under relentless pressure inspired millions to act with him, leading to the fall of Jim Crow, and contributing to the collapse of public support for the Vietnam War, the most criminal military intervention in U.S. history.

Unfortunately, the public image of Dr. King handed down to us by our mind-managers bears only the faintest resemblance to the impassioned rebel he was in real life. These days Dr. King tends to be remembered as a reformist, African-American preacher who went to college to better himself, believed in God and his fellow man, and won a Nobel Prize for Peace, along with the admiration of both whites and blacks for his decency and non-violent reminders of the nation’s essential goodness. Lost completely are his feverish intensity, tactical brilliance, and anguished incomprehension of a society permeated by racism, exploitation, and deceit.

From the very beginning King was a political radical whose aspirations went far beyond reform, a Christian revolutionary who dedicated himself to creating a culture of social justice that would give substance to the freedom and equality the U.S. political system merely talked about. He opposed in principle “systems of oppression” like colonialism, imperialism, and segregation, and denounced capitalism for being “predicated on exploitation.” He saw racism not as a feudal anachronism of the Old South, but as anational problem implicating all Americans. He found all those isms incompatible with “the natural goodness of man and the natural power of human reason.”

Though he had gone to school in the North and only with reluctance returned to the South, he was never naive about the informal apartheid that characterized life above the Mason-Dixon line. (No one had wanted to rent to him during his student years in Boston.) As a pastor, he regularly traveled to the North years before the ghetto rebellions of the 1960s, plugging into activist structures pushing back against racist exclusion and police brutality.

One such visit was to Los Angeles in the wake of the police killing of Ron Stokes outside a Muslim mosque in 1962 (an event usually associated only with Malcolm X), where King supported locals calling for the ousting of openly racist Police Chief William Parker,* expressed zero tolerance for police brutality, and talked of the need to build black power, by which he meant blacks organizing themselves into a force for real democracy.

The year after the Stokes killing he visited Los Angeles multiple times to protest segregation, and did so again right before the Watts rebellion (1965), when he declared that Los Angeles schools were as segregated as those in Birmingham. In all, he made more than fifteen visits to the area prior to the black uprising, and followed up with another visit in the wake of that event, calling for a Civilian Complaint and Review Board to deal with police brutality, which proposal was angrily shot down by Mayor Sam Yorty, whose racial instincts weren’t all that different from Bull Connor’s.

King understood that blacks being manhandled by police was related to their being corralled into ghettos. Thus, he was deeply critical of California’s Proposition 14, passed in 1964 (supported by 75% of whites), which he called the “vote for ghettos” initiative, since it re-affirmed the practice of deeded covenants mandating that homes remain exclusively in the hands of white owners. Such deeds were common in the North, and King criticized Northern liberals for their hypocrisy in applauding the end of official segregation in the South while perpetuating an informal apartheid in the North.

When the Watts powder keg inevitably exploded, King was devastated by the destruction (thirty-four people were killed) and shocked at the attitude of residents, who cheered on the destruction of “their” communities.

“Burn, baby, burn,” they chanted, as store after store, building after building, was put to the torch and consumed by flames. In a sea of police roadblocks, broken plate glass, and strewn rubble, they cut the hoses of firemen battling the blaze and lobbed Molotov cocktails into the expanding inferno.

Though it may have looked like they were destroying their communities, in fact the residents were fighting for the resources to maintain them, and were, in any case, ironically conforming to the logic of their degraded capitalist environment: Looters loaded up cars with as much merchandise as they could carry off, surrounded by signs celebrating instant acquisition on easy terms.

According to Bayard Rustin, King was deeply affected by Watts, realizing more acutely than ever before the real depth of economic oppression, which overlapped with racism, but also went beyond it.  Having the right to sit at a lunch counter and order a hamburger, for example, meant little to those who lacked the money to pay for one.

With his usual amazing patience, King put himself to the task of explaining to those who thought that black grievances should have ended once civil rights legislation passed, that the urban uprisings in Harlem (1964), Watts (1965), and Newark and Detroit (1967), were caused by longstanding socially-sanctioned crimes committed against blacks, not by them. Building and housing codes were routinely violated to perpetuate slums, meager social allotments owed blacks were often slashed or denied them, and black civil rights didn’t even rise to a theoretical concern for police who brutalized them.

After seeing the devastation of Watts, King moved on to a fair housing campaign in Chicago with a renewed sense of urgency in 1966. He didn’t call the slums there “neglected areas,” nor did he describe its residents as “deprived” or “left behind,” code words the professional servant class uses to imply that mass poverty is somehow incidental to capitalism, when, in fact, it is characteristic of the system, since profit-takers are encouraged to “externalize” costs (i.e., make the public absorb them), among which mass poverty is especially prominent. King called the wretched Chicago ghettos a system of “internal colonialism,” comparing it to the exploitation of the Congo by Belgium. In charge of the system was Mayor Richard Daley and his corrupt regime, who loathed King for shining a public spotlight on their activities, at the same time finding it incomprehensible that he couldn’t be bought off.

Crazed mobs repeatedly turned out to scream racist obscenities and pelt Dr. King and his fellow marchers with bottles, rocks, cherry bombs, and lumps of coal. On a Sunday march a nun was struck in the head by a rock, and the crowd cheered when her wound began to bleed visibly. On a march through Marquette Park and Chicago Lawn Dr. King himself was felled by a fist-sized stone that slammed into his temple. A hurled knife missed him but struck another marcher. Stunned by the depravity, King confessed to reporters that he had “never seen – even in Mississippi and Alabama – mobs as hostile and hate-filled as I’ve seen in Chicago.”

Except for Operation Breadbasket, most people involved in the Chicago campaign ended up writing it off as a failure. Nevertheless, King was impressive, even convincing gang members to lay down their arms and peacefully march for change, but the massive resources needed to end slums in Chicago were being allocated to obliterate Vietnam, not deal with the tragic legacy of slavery at home. Meanwhile, King’s sincerity and eloquence were as powerful as ever. On a trip to rural Mississippi he spoke so movingly that a five-year-old-girl started sobbing and repeating over and over, “I want to go with him.”

After Watts and Chicago, King publicly stated the need for revolution: “I think you’ve got to have a reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values.”

More clearly than any other civil rights leader, King saw that racism abroad was related to racism at home, that freedom for American blacks was tied to self-determination for the Vietnamese people, then fighting to expel the United States from their country. He had already begun speaking out against the war starting in 1965, continuing to do so until his death, in spite of strong criticism from other leaders, a hostile press, and harassment by the FBI. When told he was alienating friends and supporters with his stance, King remained unmoved: “I am not a consensus leader.” “I don’t care who doesn’t like what I say about it.” “This madness must stop.”

He was especially gripped by the suffering of the children, but also protested that twice as many black soldiers as whites were dying as cannon fodder in an imperial war whose crimes rivaled those of the Nazis. Water and land were poisoned, harvests destroyed, and people tortured and murdered in staggering numbers, using funding that should have been allocated to ending poverty at home.

In his 1967 “Beyond Vietnam” speech, Dr. King called out the U.S. for being, “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today,” and did not mince words about the form that violence was taking in Vietnam:

The peasants watched as we supported a ruthless dictatorship in South Vietnam which aligned itself with extortionist landlords and executed its political opponents. The peasants watched as we poisoned their water, bombed and machine-gunned their huts, annihilated their crops, and sent them wandering into the towns, where thousands of homeless children roamed the streets like animals, begging for food and selling their mothers and sisters to American soldiers. What do the peasants think as we test our latest weapons on them, as the Germans tested new medicine and tortures in Europe’s concentration camps? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones? We have destroyed two of their most cherished institutions: the village and the family. We have inflicted twenty times as many casualties on them as have the Vietcong. We have destroyed their land and crushed their only non-Communist revolutionary political force – the Unified Buddhist Church. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators!

A year later he was cut-down by a bullet full in the face at the age of 39, leaving behind an astonishing list of achievements, all attained against the pressure of barbaric segregation in the South, horrendously complex racism in the North, a prolonged vilification campaign waged against him by the FBI, considerable jealousy on the part of other civil rights leaders, a savage imperial war that devoured the resources needed for social transformation, and a vengeful Lyndon Johnson.

In spite of such formidable obstacles, Dr. King reached more blacks, more Americans, and more citizens of the world, than any U.S. reform leader of the 20th century, and at a depth of understanding few leaders ever even entertain. Referring to King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech, John C. Bennett, then president of the Union Theological Seminary, said that “there is no one who can speak to the conscience of the American people as powerfully as Martin Luther King.”

January 19 is the fortieth anniversary of the U.S. national holiday for Dr. King. This remembrance is a nice gesture, but if we are to truly honor him, we’ll have to establish the culture of social justice he struggled to create, in order to reign in a lawless U.S. government carrying us to utter destruction.

*Chief Parker explained the 1965 Watts uprising this way: “One person threw a rock and then, like monkeys in a zoo, others started throwing rocks.” (italics added) Taylor Branch, At Canaan’s Edge: America In The King Years 1965-68, (Simon and Schuster, p. 399)

Notes

MLK visits to Los Angeles, Theoharis interview

Racist housing covenants, see (Branch, p. 637)

Watts rebellion, description of . . . (Conot pps. 40, 99, 219, 239, 362, 364)

MLK can’t be bought . . . (Oates, p. 408)

Sobbing five-year-old girl wanting to go with MLK, (Oates, pps. 399-400)

MLK on Chicago mobs being most hate-filled he had ever seen, (Oates, p. 413)

MLK on the need for revolution .. . (Cone, p. 257)

MLK, “This madness must stop” . . .(Cone, p. 297)

MLK, “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” (Cone, p. 237)

“Beyond Vietnam” excerpt (Oates, p. 435)

John C. Bennett quote, (Cone, p. 294)

Sources

Jeanne Theoharis, MLK Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside The South, Counterpunch Radio, www.counterpunch.org

Conot, Robert E., Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness, (Bantam, 1967)

James R. Ralph Jr., Northern Protest – Martin Luther King, Jr., Chicago, and the Civil Rights Movement,” (Harvard, 1993)

David J. Garrow, Bearing The Cross, (William Morrow, 1986)

Stephen B. Oates, Let The Trumpet Sound – The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr., (Harper & Row, 1982)

James H. Cone, Martin & Malcolm & America – A Dream or a Nightmare, (Orbis, 1991)

Taylor Branch, At Canaan’s Edge – America In The King Years 1965-68 (Simon & Schuster, 2006)

Michael K. Smith is the author of  The Madness of King George, and Portraits of Empire