Redmonton Not In The Bag for the Conservatives

The Liberals are behind the eight ball in Redmonton. You'd think they only found out about the election last night. They still have to nominate eight more seats in Alberta and three of those are in Edmonton. Huh?

And as I reported here yesterday their national webpage is soooooo far behind that they claim only to have 12 candidates in Alberta. Today the have updated it for the twenty candidates they do have nominated.

Yep Alberta is NOT IMPORTANT TO THE LIBERALS OR CONSERVATIVES.... Its in the bag..... Big mistake......there are four ridings that could be contenders;

Landslide Anne's Edmonton Centre, where Laurie Hawn PC has run before and kicked off the attack ads on the radio on the weekend, his focus Crime and Punishment, he is punishing Anne for having been justice minister, being soft on crime and the Gun Registry....might work in Calgary but we're more urban than gunslinger here......

Edmonton- Beaumont where Kilgour stepped down and the PC's nominated a white guy to replace him in this huge East Indian community (ohhh thats smart...must have figured since Kilgour did it any white guy can.....Kilgour had a base in the community......opps this could be a strategic blunder......) Must figure since he works for the Oilers that will help.....The NDP have nominated a White Guy to run here too, though his campaign manager is Anand Sharma of the NDYA, problem is that this guy has no profile.......the Liberals have still to nominate anyone here..... rumour has it And speaking of Dan Maclennan, the popular Union leader of AUPE,( a guy that even the right wing Sun media loves) may be the Liberal candidate here after losing the nomination in Edmonton East.......and if Dan does run this could be one to watch.......

Nomination meetings are set for Dec. 3 and Dec. 5 for Edmonton-Strathcona and Millwoods-Beaumont.

MID-WINTER BLAHS If there's an election, the only interesting local ridings will be Edmonton-Beaumont, with David Kilgour retiring and non-ethnic Mike Lake winning the Conservative nomination. In Edmonton East, it's another odd situation for the Liberals, with this Nicole Martel campaigning as if she's the Liberal nominee, while the PM invites Alberta Union of Provincial Employees president Dan MacLennan to run in the riding. In Strathcona, the Liberals will sic Andy Hladyshevsky on incumbent Tory Rahim Jaffer.

Edmonton East only had their Liberal candidate nominated Sunday night and despite some failed arm twisting it ain't Dan its unknown Nicole Martel ......She is running against NDP candidate Arlene Chapman who has a good profile in the community,and unlike the Liberals who can't count on their Provincial party to help out, can count on her NDP MLA to help out. So I predict its a two way race between the NDP and PC's.

Edmonton Strathcona is one to watch as well. Vote splitting has allowed Rahim Jaffer to come up the middle and get elected in this left wing riding where the MLA is popular former NDP Leader Raj Pannu. The NDP gained an enormous amount of votes last election, putting them neck and neck with the Liberals.

This time around their candidate Linda Duncan ,an experienced parlimentary lobbyist for the Environmental movement may be able to win votes away from the Liberals, with Laytons send more NDPs to Ottawa campaign. Will that be enough to defeat Jaffer? Place your wagers.

With the Liberals nominating for Edmonton Strathcon newcomer Hladyshevsky, an Executive member of the right wing Nationalist Ukrainian Canadian Congress and partner with the Liberal dominated law firm of Fraser Milner Casgrain, they are hoping his connection to the University and its Ukrainian Ctudies department will help out. Nicole Martel is also Ukrainian and Edmonton East has a large Ukrainian community, though it is mostly old timers.

The Liberals may be trying to make up for the Ignatieff factor in Toronto with Ukes from Edmonton, see we're inclusive....I wonder what Hladyshevsky has to say about Ignatieff since the UCC has denounced him.....

Local candidates gear up for looming election

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by KAREN KARBASHEWSKI
Examiner Staff

On your mark.

Get set.

Campaign!

The race is on as federal political parties gear up for an expected election in early 2006, and have most of their candidates in place, ready to trudge through sleet and snow to spread the message.

“All of our campaign teams have been ready to go since May,” says Tony Clark, federal NDP organizer.

One familiar name on the NDP ballot is Donna Martyn. She ran in Edmonton-Riverview in the 2004 provincial election under the New Democrat banner, attempting to take down incumbent MLA and Liberal leader Kevin Taft. Though unsuccessful, she remains undaunted and has thrown her hat and passion into the federal camp.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” she says, adding she’s been out meeting constituents since the spring.

Martyn is running in Edmonton Centre, Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan’s riding. Edmonton Centre will be the focal point for political watchers this election as McLellan, Alberta’s lone Liberal member of parliament, fights for her seat for the fifth time.

It was a nail-biter in Edmonton Centre in the 2004 election as McLellan beat conservative candidate Laurie Hawn by 721 votes. Some pundits questioned if voters were confused about the Conservative party’s name. The Reform party and the Progressive Conservatives had merged under the name Conservative Party of Canada or CPC. But a candidate also ran under the banner of the PC party, or the Progressive Canadian party.

Conservative Laurie Hawn is gearing up for another duel in Edmonton Centre and says there’s no doubt people who voted for the PC party candidate in 2004 thought they were voting for the Conservative party.
“They used the old (Progressive Conservative) fonts and colours, they were on the ballot as PC. We had observed on that to Elections Canada and they said there wasn’t any confusion, but of course, there was. It was annoying and it was deceitful ... We’ll deal with it if it comes up again,” says Hawn.

He says the loss motivated the ‘heck’ out of him and he’s ready to take a leave from his position as the manager of Union Securities Limited to hit the campaign trail when the need comes.

He’s already secured office space in a former bank building at the north end of Westmount Mall and has built on his volunteer base from the last election.

Anne McLellan’s camp is also ready to go at a moment’s notice, says team member Ray McKall.

“We will be prepared. It appears now to be coming sooner, not later, even though that’s not the prime minister ‘s schedule. If it is forced early, we will be ready to go early,” he says.

Volunteers have been securing new office space for the expected campaign as McLellan’s campaign headquarters for the last two elections is now home to a gardening business.

McLellan’s team will also have help from Dan MacLennan, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), who was rumoured to be running for the Liberals.

“It was something I was looking at seriously. I’d had lots of meetings (about it) but I just go re-elected three weeks ago to this job. I met with my new six-person executive and not one of them has more than a year’s experience. What I’m going to be doing instead, is taking some holidays and helping Anne McLellan,” he says.

“I think she’s going to have the toughest fight ever, so I think that’s where my energy is going to be spent,” he added.

Edmonton-area Liberals have some candidates in place and continue to hold nomination meetings to determine who will run in some ridings. Calls to the party’s election readiness co-chair went unreturned.

Mark MacGillivray, Alberta coordinator for the Green Party of Canada, says the party will be running a full slate of candidates in the area and has people in place for all but two Edmonton-area ridings.

Edmontonian Harold Knippschild doesn’t think a January 2006 election is a great idea as it will force candidates to campaign over Christmas.

“I’d rather them come after the holidays because it’s so hectic. I think we have to do something about this government. I just hope this time something is done. It seems everybody complains about the Liberals, but when it comes right down to it, they get back into power,” he says.

Kitt Sampley says she’s all for an election and now is as good a time as ever.

“I’d love to get the Liberals out of there. Soon is good, but sooner is better,” she says.

Sampley’s sister Chris Caddey says an early year election means candidates will have to campaign during Christmas and be away from their families.

“They never come to my house,” counters Sampley. “I’ve lived in Mill Woods for 10 years and never had one there.”

Both women say sleet nor slow would stop them from heading to the polls to cast their ballots. When that will be is still up in the air, but a motion of non-confidence is expected to be entered into the House of Commons on Thursday, with the vote expected on Nov. 28 or Nov. 29. If his minority government is defeated, which is widely expected, Prime Minister Paul Martin would then be forced to call an election which is expected to be Jan. 9 or Jan. 16.

CONFIRMED CANDIDATES


EDMONTON CENTRE
Anne McLellan - LIB
Laurie Hawn - CPC
Donna Martyn - NDP
David Parker - GREEN
EDMONTON EAST
Peter Goldring - CPC
Arlene Chapman - NDP
Unknown - GREEN
EDMONTON LEDUC
James Rajotte - CPC
Marty Rybiak - NDP
Ben Pete - GREEN
EDMONTON MILLWOODS BEAUMONT
Mike Lake - CPC
Neal Gray - NDP
EDMONTON SHERWOOD PARK
Ken Epp - CPC
Unknown - NDP
Lynn Lau - GREEN
EDMONTON SPRUCE GROVE
Rona Ambrose - CPC
Jason Rockwell - NDP
John Lackey - GREEN
EDMONTON ST. ALBERT
John Williams - CPC
Mike Melymick - NDP
Peter Johnston - GREEN
EDMONTON STRATHCONA
Rahim Jaffer - CPC
Linda Duncan - NDP
Cameron Wakefield - GREEN

Ruling Class Gossip

Hey this is even better than As The World Turns. Belinda who? MacKay seen with new heiress -Sophie Desmarais: Mila Mulroney played matchmaker a month ago

To rule in Canada is to be connected to the Desmarais Power Corporation of Quebec. Whether through the back rooms, friendship, old party ties or by family.

And it isn't called the Power Corp for nothing, it is the largest private capital fianancial corporation in Canada. And Desmarais sits with the Bush cabal on the Carlyle Group.

Paul Desmarais is not only one of Canada's richest men he is a maker of Prime Ministers. He made his employee Paul Martin what he is today. His son Andre is married to Chretiens daughter; France.

Unfortunatley for Peter those political ties are once again the the Liberal party. Whats with this boy? It gives new meaning to being a 'social' liberal and fiscal conservative. Thats two for one on his dating card.

No wonder the Harper doesn't trust him...his taste in women is for Liberals who Dominate....hmmm......

A tip o the blog to Grandinite for this...I orginally saw it on the gossip page at Bourque; "Nice", she wonders, "imagine Christmas around the giant Desmarais Christmas tree, all decorated with trinkets from Tiffany's, and all those packages under it from Holt's, Harry Winston, Hermes, Chanel, and Harrod's. Peter and Andre and Paul and Sophie and ...""And Jean Chretien's daughter France", he adds.

Dodgey P3's

Lost in the hoopla of the defeat of the Liberals is this announcement by David Dodge head of the Bank of Canada Dodge touts public-private deals

Governments' inability to successfully harness the hundreds of billions of dollars that pensions control is hurting the country's productivity, Mr. Dodge is expected to argue. He is speaking at a conference on public-private partnerships (P3) in Toronto Monday. That's because infrastructure needs — demand to build roads, schools, hospitals — are enormous and growing. Toronto-Dominion Bank figures the gap between what is needed to maintain or replace existing capital, and the amount actually spent, ranges from $50-billion to $125-billion for Canada. Pension plans, on the other hand, are actively shopping for long-term, stable investments, and infrastructure is a good fit for them, Mr. Dodge will say. Pension plans control $800-billion in assets, and are constantly on the lookout for projects that have a lifespan of 25 or 30 years that can give them a steady and decent rate of return. A man with a plan

I blogged here on this just the other day, and I hate to tell you I told you so but, well ..ok I told you so. The neo-con state in Canada, has failed to sell us on their P3 notions. And private capitalism is not up to the challenge just look at the failure of the privatized highway deal in Ontario. So where can capitalism find some capital just sitting around doing nothing.....well in OUR pension plans. Whether those are public sector plans or the CPP.

While private sector pension plans face deficits public plans are flush with capital and capitalism hates capitals that just sits around being unproductive, that is not inversted and earning interest.

What Dodge does NOT want, nor does existing capital markets is the direct control of public pension funds by the workers who fund it. Currently these funds are managed by private managers whose litany of investments are driven by the sole ethic of the market; profit.

Unions whose members fund these pension plans must demand more control over the investment policy and management of these plans. Otherwise the managers and the State will use them to fund P3's which are NOT in the workers interests.

The time for direct democratic control and transparency of public and private pension funds by the workers who fund them is now. The battle lines are being drawn by the corporations, the banks and Mr. Dodge. It is time for labour to fightback by demanding workers control of our pension funds public or private.

But the biggest roadblocks to P3s and attracting pension money to public infrastructure are probably public opinion and outright hostility from organized labour.

“[P3s] are part of a broader neo-conservative agenda that argues that all that is public should be privatized,” Canada's largest union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), said in a statement on its website.

P3s cost the public more than straight government funding, they are not accountable to the public, and they lead to higher user fees and laid-off workers, CUPE argues.

Mr. Dodge's speech Monday will be the second time in a month that he has clashed with organized labour.

Earlier in November, Mr. Dodge said that employers should have more of a say in what happens to the surpluses in defined-benefit pension plans.

“I say to David Dodge, keep your hands off our pension plans, because workers are in no mood ... for any more scams,” said Sid Ryan, president of CUPE Ontario.

More debate around Ignatieff

The debate is heating up both in the blogosphere over Ignatieffs appointment as the official Liberal candidate in Ontario's Etobicoke-Lakeshore riding which is in the heart of the Ukrainian community.

It is also on going in the pages of the Globe and Mail in the comments attached to this article.

It also occured this afternoon on CTV's Mike Duffy Live when longtime political affairs reporter Craig Oliver sneeringly refered to quotes from Ignatieff denying he was Canadian, saying he was a proud American. That American foriegn policy was 'our' foriegn policy.

Craig Oliver, sneered. The rancour on his face was visible and his disdain for Ignatieffs hypocrisy was literally seething. Craig Oliver never sneers. Things do not look good for Ignatieff.

Harpers Gaffe

"I know being the opposition is a hard and dirty job but you were up for it" Stephen Harper speaking tonight to his MP's in response to the defeat of the government.

Opps the Harper is implying that they got down and dirty to defeat the government like playing tricks with tapes like Gerwal did, or calling the Liberals 'mafia' err 'organized crime'. I think he meant to say its a hard and thankless job. Ah well the truth is out, the mudslinging and playing dirty was their strategy all along. Ooo like we didn't know that.

He frowned and looked waaaay to serious as he approached the podium, and when he wasn't forcing his cold fish smile he was looking away distracted. Never have I seen a politician frown while he smiles. How does he do that?

The Conservative messaging Vote Us to Build a Better Future and a Better Canada.

Martin on the other hand was bouyant and ready for the pugilistic battle coming on. The Liberals message is Keep the Good Times Rolling.

Both spoke from their caucus rooms. The difference was the Conservatives showed the diversity of their party with younger members, ethnic diversity and women. The old white guys that dominate the party were in the back of the room.

And as I said here before Laytons message was Canada can do better with more New Democrats.

Ok folks we are off and racing, place your wagers now.

And They Are Off And Racing

The Globe and Mail online reports:
Countdown to confidence vote The no-confidence motion that will likely topple Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority Liberal is only minutes away. The early evening no-confidence vote, set for 6:45 p.m. EST, is likely to trigger the fall of the government after only 17 months in power.

CBC and CTV are covering it live quick go to the TV.

While watching the Party Communications directors on the extended broadcast Don Newmans Politics show we were given the messaging for this election. The Liberals will say; "We kept our promises", The Conservatives will say "Its about ethics" and the NDP will say "More NDPers make a difference."

Ready Set Go.

Now if the NDP want to really stick it to the Liberals they would steal their message The Liberals Made Promises, the NDP kept them.

Ignatieff Imperialist Apologist

A Tip o' the Blog to Simon Pole for bringing this to my attention.Ignatieff Angers Ukrainian Canadians

Where Liberal Candidate and apologist for Empire Ignatieff says; "My difficulty in taking Ukraine seriously goes deeper than just my cosmopolitan suspicion of nationalists everywhere. Somewhere inside I'm also what Ukrainians would call a great Russian and there is just a trace of old Russian disdain for these little Russians."

As someone of Ukrainian Canadian origin I, like the Ukrainian Canadians in his riding (one he has been parachuted into) consider such a comment a form of bigoted racism thinly disguised as national differences.

And as I come from the anarchist tradition of Makhno, Kroptokin and Bakunin, the former Ukrainian the later Russians, I have no cant with nationalism. But I do recognize the Ukraine as a country, and more importantly a peasant culture seperate from the old world Great Powers of Poland and Russia.

Ignatieff has made his role as a public intellectual to be a defender of liberal capitalist democracy ala Fukuyama, which in reality is the defence of American Imperialism and the hegemony of Empire.

The comparison of Ignatieff with PET is apt, for Trudeau had the same self hate and disdain for his country; Quebec, while wanting to be seen as the Great Canadian.

So I left this comment on Simons blog;

Leaving aside the fact the Kiev the capital of the Ukraine is older than Moscow or St. Petersburg and as a city the original city state was known as the RUS from which the so called Russians took their. The very acceptance proudly, not sheepishly, not apologetically (though with the tone of apology), by Ignatieff shows his Imperial attitude, an acceptance of the world as it is, one dominated by Empires. In his case like many anti-Bolshevik opportunists who ran to New York to declare themselves Dukes, Dutchesses and Counts to impress the New Empire with their titles from the Old, so goes Ignatieff. In his case it is to defend and take advantage of his new master. Interestingly Prince Kropotkin, a real prince and a classic Anarchist never glorified his Russian origins when defending Ukrianians or the Dukhbours. The existance of the Ukraine, known as the Borderland, was historically disputed between Moscow and Poland, as these two clashed over the region as part of their Imperial domains. The term little Russians is as much a class and racist remark as it is one of Imperial disdain. For the Ukriane was the sole area peasant serfs from both Empires could escape to and be free. Ignatieff regrets this freedom, while defending the freedom of Empire.

Link Byfield Goes AA

No not Alcoholics Anonymous, the fledgling right wing rump of the PC's the Alberta Alliance. In his column in the Calgary Sun he whines;

"Not much attention was paid on Saturday to the election of Cardston MLA Paul Hinman to lead the Alberta Alliance Party."


And why should we? This is another sorry reincarnation of the Old Socred Party, no not the original party the recent revisionist party under the leadership of Randy Thorsteinson which failed to mobilize any wins in several recent elections.
Thorsteinson was deposed as Leader of the Socreds for his Mormon ties, and went on the create the AA.

The AA got its first seat when the PC MLA for Norwood declared himself an independent after his party eliminated his riding before the last election He joined the AA and became their first member. Paul Hinman won a seat in the last election in Mormon dominated Cardston home of the old Western Canada Concept and the Western Seperatist notion. This southern bible belt community identifies its politics as Republican, not Canadian so Hinmans win is a no brainer. It was a rural right wing reation to the the big city politics of the Party of Calgary and their culture of urban entitlement under King Ralph.

Will they be a threat, will they go anywhere, will they become as whiny Byfield hopes the new party on the right. Well history says no, they are a flash in the pan. Just like the WCC was.

Hinman though could use Byfield to help with his sound bites. He got quoted the other day about Klein's prediction that the Liberals would win a minority government by saying Klein should shut up come home and take a vacation.
Excuse me???!! The Legislature is currently sitting so King Ralphs place is in the house. However considering the last sitting thats exactly what Klein did in the final days.

A Tip o the Blog to AlbertaAvenue for this story. He rightly points out the Liberals and NDP gained seats in the last election and gained in popular support farmore than the AA despite Byfields statements to the contrary in his column.

Byfield's wishful thinking may be some sort of hallucininatory revelation from hanging out with his right wing friends for too long, listening to his father (no not Jehovah but Ted) or perhaps something he smoked. In any case his prognosis is of a ground swell of political popularity for the AA is a shining example of the thinking of the lunatic right.

WWI Xmas Mutiny

It was Christmas Eve 1914 and the soldiers in the trenches, Brits, Canadians, Germans and French, muddy, covered in blood and guts, coughing up bloodied mucus of poison gas, called a truce in the War. A truce that remains a mutiny on the books of the ruling clases and their military to this day.

A new film has been made of this famous mutiny for and it will be shown to British Troops in Iraq.

Now if they sneak in the Americans to watch this that just might be the inspiration for the American all volunteer working class army to down arms and end this war.

So subersive is the legend of the Christmas Truce of 1914 that the French still refuse to allow their soldiers to see this film and refused to be part of the production effort.

Brit troops to see 1914 Xmas 'anti-war' film
During the ceasefire, German, British and French troops stopped shooting, got out of their trenches and shared cocoa and cigarettes. They sang hymns together and returned to fighting a few days later.The French army refused to participate in the making of the film, saying soldiers who participated in the Christmas truce were disobeying orders. German troops have already taken in the movie, but it will not be presented to French soldiers. The ceasefire was seen as treason by superiors on both sides.

It was of course this famous truce that gave rise to the 1960's comic Christmas song Snoopy's Christmas by the Royal Guardsmen Listen to it here.

And it was the inspiration for Dalton Trumbos classic Anti-War novel, Johnny Got His Gun.

During the summer of 1914 in a crucial battle in Mons Belgium British troops claimed to have seen St. George and a group of Longbowmen in the skies, which they claimed to have turned the battle in their favour.

This is known as the Legend of Mons, and occult horror author Arthur Machen claimed at the time that it was based on his short story called the Bowman which had been published in the popular press of the day. However historian A.J.P Taylor believed the story and recorded it in his history of WWI.

The fact that the tale and trench rumours of Angels of Mons appeared the summer before may have had a subconcious effect on the soldiers in the trenches facing the first industrialized war of mass murder.

Such was the horror of WWI and the introduction of mechanized death, mass slaughter by machine gun, huge mortars and giant Big Bertha guns that deafened you, poison gas, tanks, trench warfare, etc. the veritable impass of the No Mans Land lead to the need for a moment of humanity, human contact that became the Christmas Truce.

Shell shocked, cold, wet, facing certain death, suffering what was called Battle Fatigue, the first time it was ever recorded in war and we know now as Post Traumatic Syndrome, soldiers fled the field not in cowardice but in terror. And the officers on both sides of the trenches shot them mercilessly.

The Officer Corps of all the Armies of WWI were the last vestiges of the Aristocracy while the soldiers in the trenches were the original grunts, and like modern industrial capitalism which the war so effectively modeled itself after, they were expendable cogs in the machine.

Canadians know this well for even our officers like their men were expendable, as colonial troops, in both WWI and WWII. In the case of the later the battle of Dieppe saw the ruthless sacrifice of Canadians on the whim of Lord Mountbatten for his personal ego trip in securing a position of command.

23 Canadians were executed for desertion or cowardice in WWI. 2 were executed for murder (murder in war you ask well...) one after he suffered a head injury went nuts, the other was a case of shooting a superior officer, a Sgt. Major, the guys who were particularly brutal to their men. We would call it fragging today.Thousands more died in the trenches, including almost all the 1st Royal Newfoundland Regiment.

All those boys from the prairies, the cities, from the farms and the factories, from Saskatchewan, Iowa, Sheffield, Paris and Berlin died for the glory of Imperialism and Capitalism. When they came home there were no jobs, a depression, and no Veterans benefits. It was not such a Great War.

Happy Christmas (The War is Over)

There's nothing noble about dying. Not even if you die for honor. Not even if you die the greatest hero the world ever saw. Not even if you're so great your name will never be forgotten and who's that great? The most important thing is your life little guys. You're worth nothing dead except for speeches. Don't let them kid you any more. Pay no attention when they tap you on the shoulder and say come along we've got to fight for liberty or whatever their word is there's always a word.

Just say mister I'm sorry I got no time to die I'm too busy and then turn and run like hell. If they say coward why don't pay any attention because it's your job to live not to die. If they talk about dying for principles that are bigger than life you say mister you're a liar Nothing is bigger than life There's nothing noble in death. What s noble about lying in the ground and rotting. What's noble about never seeing the sunshine again? What's noble about having your legs and arms blown off? What's noble about being an idiot? What's noble about being blind and deaf and dumb? What's noble about being dead. Because when you're dead mister it's all over. It's the end. You're less than a dog less than a rat less than a bee or an ant less than a white maggot crawling around on a dungheap. You're dead mister and you died for nothing.

Imagine

I Smell Another Tax Cut Coming

Trusts still have tax advantage over corporations: TD
Wait for it folks here it comes.......Monte Solberg and the Conservatives will demand.....yep another Tax Cut for the Corporations to keep up with the tax dodging Income Trusts. Forget the tiff over the organized crime comments here is a far more serious crime, insider information released by Goodale prior to his announcement, which allowed the banks and others to profit. NDP finance critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis issued a statement demanding that the RCMP look into the affair.And not to be outdone on the eve of the election the Tories have chimed in with a 'Me Too' response.