Is Alliance Better Fit For Morton?

When Ted Morton made a splash with his bid to lead the Alberta Progressive Conservatives, the focus by media and Morton supporters alike was on the so-called re-emergence of the rightwing to the mainstream of the party. Morton, only a few years into his M.L.A. career, surprised many by making a strong run at the crown fueled by his experience as co-creator of the Alberta Agenda.

What was missed by all was the fact that the Alberta P.C. party has never been particularly rightwing. Sure, economically and culturally they lean to the right, but they have maintained a mix of both progressive and conservative since they came into power in 1971. Under the first of a list of consecutive P.C. premiers was Peter Lougheed, whose government shied away from getting deeply involved in social issues. Instead, it was Lougheed who help to reinforce our strong Albertan sense of individuality with his battle against Ottawa over the National Energy Program. Too bad he caved.

Don Getty's forgettable government became embroiled in bad business deals, and it was after public thrashing that the party's creed of 'getting out of the business of being in business' was born. He came close to losing the reins of power in 1989, even losing his own seat (he later ran in a bi-election and regained his seat in the legislature).

Ralph Klein's legacy will be the continued front of Alberta libertarianism within Canada. Considered a maverick and loose cannon by the pseudo-intellectuals down East, Klein might not have always shown it through his governments actions, but the independent bravado was still there.

Through the different eras of P.C. governance, few instances of what could be considered ultra rightwing doctrine has appeared. Issues like opposing the federal Same-sex marriage law was mostly for show, and is an opinion that isn't limited to social conservative support. In the realm of social issues, the P.C.'s have a legacy of taking more of a libertarian position. This, as much as the habitually weak opposition parties, has contributed to the success of the Tories. Albertans have their own opinions on these issues, but we place our belief of liberty and individual freedom ahead of most anything.

Instead of trying to take over the P.C.'s and move the entire establishment over to suit his ideology, why didn't Ted Morton simply join the Alberta Alliance? The A.A. is based at least partly on the very same Alberta Agenda concept that Morton helped to champion. With all due respect to current leader Paul Hinman, Morton's arrival to the fledgling provincial Alliance party would not only instill some instant credibility, but he would possibly bring a group of P.C. members with him.

Morton is heading into the new session of the legislature under a new leader. As part of Ed Stelmach's team, Morton will have a say in the direction of the province. The question is, will his say be enough for him?

Rant Bouquets: Year End Edition

It's Christmas and the end of the year is here, so without further ado here come the Rant Bouquets.

The Stomp-out Communism Bouquet: Minister of Agriculture Chuck Strahl for taking the first steps to eliminate the Soviet-style Canadian Wheat Board, amid much opposition. Farmers in the West can and have gone to jail for attempting to sell their own product without going through the CWB. Farmers in the East have the freedom to sell to whom ever they wish without the threat of prison. And we call ourselves a free country.

The I'm Still Standing Bouquet: Environment Minister Rona Ambrose has been the opposition's favorite punching bag over the federal Conservatives lackluster environmental direction. Still, she remains committed to opting out of the hazardous Kyoto farce, and to developing a made-in-Canada solution that will attack not only greenhouse gases but real pollution. And not a hair out of place.

The Is al-Jezeera Hiring? Bouquet: Journalist and borderline terrorist sympathizer Eric Margolis is respected for his wealth of knowledge about all things Middle Eastern. He's also well-known for his blatant anti-American slant and his undying belief that, in some way, the West had it coming.

The I'm Surrounded By Idiots Bouquet: Alberta P.C. leadership hopeful Jim Dinning was the odds-on favorite to win the Premiership. He had the media. He had the Party. He also had advisors who made strange and problematic decisions during the run for the prize, which ultimately cost Dinning the Big Chair.

The Political Gymnastics Bouquet: The entire federal Liberal party gets this one. They were the government that committed our troops to fight a war in Afghanistan, but now that they are sitting in the opposition benches, they have begun an exercise in flip-flops that would make the Rumanian Olympic team envious. Their support for the war seems to depend on the location, weather, stage of the moon, and choice of shirt any Liberal M.P. happens to be wearing when asked about their individual opinion.

The What-Me-Worry? Bouquet: Jack Layton, leader of the federal New Democrats and Canada's number one socialist, struggles on. He's oblivious to the fact that, now that the Liberals have elected the ultimate 'green' leader, his N.D.P. team has become even less relevant. A shallacking is in the works at the next election, but in Smilin' Jack's world, all is well.

The Shut The Hell Up Bouquet: We've sent this one out by overnight express just to get it there as fast as possible. Rosie O'Donnell has now become a caricature of herself. There's nothing more annoying that someone who hasn't realized that no one cares about her opinion, but keeps on talking. We don't all hate gays, Rosie. We just can't stand overbearing, crass, loud-mouths who use a perceived defense of their own sexual orientation as a reason to verbally attack others.

Rosie vs. The World Part II

With the Kelly Ripa - Rosie tiff fading from the media spotlight, the mess that is a co-host of ABC's 'The View' decided to jump back into the gutter by slamming The Donald. I wonder how much more Barbara Walters is going to let go?

Alberta Separatists New Best Friend?

The victory of newly-minted Liberal leader Stephane Dion has made some in the Alberta separatist movement sit up and take notice. After several months in snooze mode, with the provincial P.C. riding an eternal wave of popularity and a comfy federal minority Conservative government in Ottawa, most in the movement have been taking a 'wait and see' position. We've kept the web forums buzzing with chatter, but overall we haven't been overly unimpressed with the Harper regime. Aside from a few questionable moves and slightly embarrassing episodes, the Tories have stuck to their promises and has restored, even in a small degree, some credibility to the House.

Although I believe that the Harper government will remain in control of the Parliament after the next election (spring?), Dion's rise to the top of the Liberal party has bumped their poll numbers up. If he can somehow overcome is horrible image in his home province, Dion could conceivably become the next Prime Minister in another minority government. Stephane Dion as P.M. would signal the biggest threat to the Alberta economy since Pierre Trudeau. With his staunch commitment to the Kyoto Accord and his willingness to attack Alberta's energy sector as part of a futile attempt to reach unattainable emission targets, Dion would put Alberta in the economic crosshairs. Albertan's have been wary of the next National Energy Program, and a Dion government would surely deliver on that threat.

New Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach has already talked the talk when it comes to his intention to defend Alberta's interests in the event of another economic raid. Albertan's are already getting the impression that our new King is going to be moving the government a little bit to the right, and the interests of Alberta will be a bigger priority with the new leadership.

With the potential of a Dion-led federal government in a position to write it's own environmental rules, Alberta better be ready for yet another battle with Ottawa. We lost the fight in the early 1980's and suffered the effects for a long time. We have to make sure we are ready for the next round.

Dion Believes Stronger Democracy "Completely Irresponsible"

The long-awaited move to an elected Senate has finally come. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Canada would finally start transforming into an actual democracy in action, and not in name only. The second level of the federal government system would not only be revitalized with a new purpose, but some real and honest power might be part of that new purpose. As Harper put it: "Imagine that after a century and a half, democracy will finally came to the Senate of Canada."

Alberta's traditional desire for Senate reformation has been around long enough that it has become ingrained into us as a people. I can safely assume that the highest number of citizens, including Liberal and New Democrat supporters, that are in favor of an elected Senate are from the Wild Rose province. More than once we have held votes to make our democratic choice for Alberta Senator, and even make history in the late 1980's when Reform Party candidate Stan Waters won the inaugural vote and was actually appointed by then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. No surprise that it was a Conservative government that did the right thing; no surprise that the other choices in the following acts of democracy were summarily dismissed by successive Liberal P.M.s, either. The Liberals have never been real fans of the people and their right to choose who leads them. Fair and balanced government could potentially decimate their populous strongholds, and furthermore loosen their 'rightful' grip on federal power. The concept of checks-and-balances works against the Liberal's favor, and they know it.

Green-as-grass Liberal leader Stephane Dion, who has already made leading with your chin an artform, somehow managed to slip both feet into his mouth simultaneously when he claimed that, in essence, democracy was ' completely irresponsible'.

"The very moment the two chambers would be elected, they would have (the) same behaviour, a greater likelihood that you would have a stalemate without some kind of dispute mechanism," he told reporters. In other words, how could the Liberals get their future hands on things like Alberta's wealth so easily if their Kyotoish socialist laws were subject to a second round of scrutiny? What if the Senate wasn't full of old Liberal cronies and benefactors? Yikes! A stronger democracy! We can't have that!

The Liberals under Dion are going to be fun to watch, just as long as we keep them on the proper side of the House of Commons. And if they are truly serious about their belief that Canadians do not want stronger say in our government through greater democracy, then they should have no problem putting the matter directly to the people. If no one cares, no one will show up, right?

Christmas Wish List 2006

The Holiday season is upon us yet again, and it's time to make my Christmas wish list. I know that it isn't politically-correct to refer to the Holidays as 'Christmas', as shown by my kid's elementary school which think's it's a better idea to have something called a 'Peace concert'. John Lennon's Imagine instead of the apparently racially-insensitive Jingle Bells....um, sorry...I got off topic on a different rant, there. Anyway, here it is:

New Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach: A healthy slice of Ralph Klein's charisma.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper: A majority.

Rosie O'Donnell: chloroform.

Federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion: A lump of Alberta coal.

Failed Alberta P.C. leadership hopeful Jim Dinning: another chance.

The Alberta Separatist movement: one strong, single Party to rally around.

Our Troops in Afghanistan: our unending gratitude and overwhelming public support.

The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos: a t-shirt that isn't black.

Liberal P.R. Meister Scott Reid: the usual - beer and popcorn.

Michael Moore: a hooker. That guy NEEDS to get laid.

Captain Kyoto!!!

For years, many Albertan's have worried about another economic raid on our economy by the big, bad federal government. Those of us who remember the dreaded National Energy Program shudder every time the Liberal party is voted into power. We fear the thought of having our children go through the same situation we faced in the early 1980's - insane double-digit interest rates, high unemployment, small and medium businesses having to close, big business moving out of Calgary, and on and on.

It took over a decade for Alberta to recover, and only by making harsh and very controversial cuts to government programs did we manage to pull out of our nose dive. After nervously getting through the Jean Chretien/Paul Martin years of Liberal governments (and their passing of the poisonous Kyoto Accord), Western Canadians relaxed slightly with the election of Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government. Newly-minded Environment Minister Rona Ambrose had repeatedly re-affirmed her government's position of opting out of the all-too-obviously socialist international agreement in favor of a made-in-Canada solution that would go after not only greenhouse gases, but would tackle actual air pollution as well.

Lately, however, Ambrose has taken a slightly different tone. Under intense attack by the opposition (and, for some reason, failing to get the truth about Kyoto out to the public), the Tories have caved in to the pressure and put the whole program up for debate and examination. The worst thing that could happen now would be to have an ultra-pro Kyoto Liberal win the leadership of their party. And, Bingo! Here's Captain Kyoto!

Known as a staunch environmentalist, Stephane Dion will no doubt attack the Conservatives on this issue. He will push Kyoto hard on the government, and it will be one of the few weapons that the Liberals will be able to use in the next election campaign. Public opinion is heavily in favor of the agreement throughout Canada, with the strongest and only real opposition coming from Alberta. Those of us who have studied the agreement in depth realize that it has less to do with actual environmental repair and more to do with the concept of redistribution of international wealth. It is a United Nations-created Robin Hood policy. And it would be a direct hit on the Alberta economy, with effects not seen since the N.E.P.

If Stephane Dion managed to somehow shed some of the baggage he brings with him, such as being part of the Adscam government and his miniscule popularity in is home province - sorry, nation - of Quebec, he would present a clear and direct danger to Alberta. The proverbial other shoe would drop. The fallout from a Dion-led Liberal government would depend on the leadership of Alberta. Is Premier-elect Ed Stelmach willing to go above and beyond in the event of another Ottawa cash grab?

Let's hope that the current Conservative government stays on course and continues to live up to most of it's campaign promises. Losing Harper right now might force Albertans to make a serious decision.

The Leadership Campaigns: An Analysis

The races are over, the winners have won. After watching two hard-fought political battles running simultaneously, it's good to finally be done with them. In both the federal Liberal and Alberta Progressive Conservative contests, the eventual victor was a long-shot who worked the voting system to their advantage. In both cases the favorite of the majority of party members didn't win. In both cases, deep divides were exposed within each party.

The federal Liberals: Ontario hopeful Gerard Kennedy assumed the role of kingmaker when he dramatically dropped out of the race and delivered over 90% of his delegates to new leader Stephane Dion. This made the final ballot a two-horse race between Dion and part-time Canadian Michael Ignatieff. Dion won, and by doing so, ended the Liberal party's chances of gaining back any ground in Quebec. Reports of many delegates stomping out of the building while shouting that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's wish for a majority after the next election was now a given hit the airwaves.

The West should be comfortable with Dion. He's a whimpish federal leader who claims to speak our language, but we can't understand anything he says. Just think Chretien.

The Alberta Progressive Conservatives:

Ned Flanders wins! With an ever-growing party rift occurring during the campaign, the 'come up the middle' strategy by new Premier-elect Ed Stelmach worked perfectly. Despite all of the rhetoric on the internet and television media by Ted Morton supporters, the P.C. faithful made it clear that a move back to the far-right (and back in time to 1971) isn't wanted. Morton made some noise in the beginning, but when it came down to crunch time Morton just wasn't who we wanted. Too scary? Probably not. Too rightwing? Maybe. Too out of touch? Perhaps. You can bet that Ted Morton isn't going away, however. He has a very loyal following within the membership.

Albertan's first impression of Ed Stelmach is generally 'Ed who?'. Most definitely the lesser-known of the three finalists, he rallied rural support in a big way. As well, Stelmach was the favorite in Edmonton, the capital city that seems bound to an anti-Calgary mindset. While Calgarians would hardly worry about where their favorite lives in the province, Edmontonians show their inbred envy of the 'real' capital - Calgary - by refusing to vote for a Calgarian, even if they agree with that candidates platform. Outgoing Premier Ralph Klein was seen as Calgary's Premier, and was often accused of placing Edmonton second to Calgary in the pecking order.

Stelmach is a local-boy, who has represented his riding effectively during his time as MLA. As one of his constituents, I can attest to his hard work ethic and his 'everyday guy' persona. Around these parts, Ed can do no wrong. Elsewhere in the province, people have no clue about the man or what he stands for. His lack of style doesn't help, either. While it's a given that Ralph Klein's sizzle would be a hard act to follow for anyone, Stelmach swings the pendulum 180 degrees the other way. Boring might be too strong a word, but when Stelmach speaks to the public it's always a good idea to have an espresso handy.

Why Dinning lost: From the start, Jim Dinning was everyone's front-runner. He was the man to beat. While he did consistently get the most votes in each round of voting, as well as the most MLA support during the race, Dinning's image was that of an actual politician. Too slick and stylish, too polished for the Stelmach and Morton 'every day guy' voters. Dinning's resume that includes being the person who killed the debt dragon in the 1990's didn't matter to members. All they saw was someone who was from the Calgary corporate world, or someone who was too 'liberal'. Of course that is in itself a contradiction, as I haven't met too many big business/fiscal conservatives who are actual liberals, but that's just me. The truth is that Dinning was the only real 'progressive conservative' in the running, but his campaign smelled too much like money for party faithful.

I predict:
...barring the federal Conservative's habit of shooting themselves in the foot, the Stephane Dion win might give the Tories enough support across Canada to win a majority. Dion's win won't pull too much support from the New Democrat's as a Bob Rae win would have, and Quebec has no desire to support Dion in any way. Harper might as well get comfy.

...strong, moderate policies and an easy transfer of power would be the best tactic for the Alberta P.C.s. Fixing the divide within the party is going to take some work, but Stelmach has proven to be a deft politico - even if he makes you yawn. It's going to be tough for Kevin Taft's Alberta Liberals to throw mud at Stelmach, so unless the Lib's can create an innovative and impressive new platform, the P.C.s are sure to continue on as Alberta's Natural Governing Party.