One Alberta Voice

Remember the $83 800 trip that Redford and 5 others were taking to the Olympics to promote tourism and industry? Ah... Well... First, it actually cost just those 6 over $87 000. The full cost of the trip was over $500 000 (yes, you read that correctly, over 1/2 million $) because they for some reason paid the way for artists and performers and chef (why a chef? no clue)--all told, 29 people. Not only that, but because they decided to not send another 18 people who were originally slated to go--the 29 alone is questionable given it's all taxpayer money, isn't it?--they saved some money, but could not "get rid" of some of the hotel rooms, supposedly, which means they ended up paying $113 000 for rooms they did not use. Can we do the math for a second here? $113 000 divided by 18 (let's pretend they all get individual rooms, which would be ridiculous imho, but anyhow) is $6277.78. For 5 days. So let's do more math, let's say it's 6 nights: $6...

Another article has passed by me today: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/edmonton/Redford+dismisses+concerns+about+Alberta+budget+woes/7181495/story.html I'm so sick of Redford and the PC government. I recall well before the elections that the budget was criticized by non PCs for being too generous with estimated revenues. And here we go--those criticizing were correct! And then you have this: Redford also defended her government’s controversial decision to report the first-quarter fiscal update in a new format that makes virtually no financial projections, omits capital planning and financial assets, and dramatically reduces the number of raw figures available for public scrutiny. Critics, particularly the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, blasted the move as undemocratic, non-transparent and a violation of the Government Accountability Act. It is so infuriating! To brush things aside like they don't mean anything and then be blatantly non-transparent. I do hop...

There has been so much this summer... Here's some of it, including about the $3 billion deficit : http://www.globaltvedmonton.com/premier+redford+weighs+in+on+summer+of+controversies/6442707420/story.html

I just saw this article: One in Four Canadians Ready to Kick Quebec Out Frankly, it doesn't surprise me. With the on-going protests by students, I've noticed more and more people looking at Quebec as a province that really doesn't know what it's doing, has "spoiled" people and really doesn't have a part in Canada. It's completely unCanadian behaviour. Back when I was in school, we were learning about the then-impending referendum: do we allow Quebec to separate? I was completely against them separating. Even after learning more at the post-secondary level about the deep-seated issues that have led to that desire in their province, I still felt like they should stay. But times change: Consider me now one of those people ready to kick Quebec out. I'm done with them. I could be accused of being one of the English-speaking majority who is done with them, but, guess what? I'm also one of the French-speaking western Canadians, married to a Fr...

I flipped through this week's edition of The Edmonton Examiner and stopped on the editorial. What a surprise (sic) to see another unflattering mention of Deputy Premier Lukaszuk. And the editorial is, in my opinion, absolutely right with what it says. I can't find a link online to it, so here is a rough summary of the part about Lukaszuk: After the landslide that stranded 600 people in the area of Fairmont Hot Springs and I'm not sure what other effects the disaster caused, not long after 4 people died in another landslide, Lukaszuk, in his ever thoughtless way, put on his Facebook page a photo of the landslide with the caption: "Fairmont in Hot Springs has a good deal on rooms today. If a little bit of mud doesn't bother you, book now!!!" When people complained, he removed the post and tweeted: Sorry for my FB post. I’m out of Canada and was not aware of the scope of the situation in B.C. I removed the post. Frankly, it doesn't matter if people d...

It was on the front page of the Edmonton Sun as I walked by it and I decided to have a look online to find out more about it: Redford heading to London at a cost of $83 800. That's a lot of money. I was relieved to find out that it's not just for her: 2 ministers and 3 staff members. Except... 5 days and nearly $84 000? That's $14 000 per person for a 5-day trip! Let's say it's $3000 return (with all the taxes and whatnot) for the flights (and that was one of the more expensive flights), and London's expensive and it's the Olympics and they are government, so let's be generous: the Savoy is about $400 per night, so let's say $500 per night per person with the hotel taxes--if they are staying 6 nights, which can happen with 5-day trips, that's $3000. So, $6000 for flight and accommodation together for one person, leaving $8000 for transportation and food??? Are you kidding me? That's $48 000 for 6 people to eat and get around London for 5...

From an article here http://www.inews880.com/Channels/Reg/LocalNews/Story.aspx?ID=1736498. Lukaszuk has gotten himself another role:  Ministerial Liaison to the Canadian Forces I find myself very puzzled by Redford's decisions with Lukaszuk. Here is a man who has shown clear narcissistic traits, has had problems in various departments (yes, I know people in the know) and yet, she's placing him in positions where he has to deal constantly with others in a reasonable way. Is she clueless? Or is she keeping him too busy in certain types of roles to minimize the problems? I guess time will tell.

I find it very interesting: so many people I know were unhappy with the Conservatives before the election, were reading the news and seeing the nonsense and decided to vote against them. And yet, the PCs still managed to pull off a majority government. I like to believe things happen for a reason or that, at the very least, good things can come out of bad situations. I have hope that, while it may take some time, the good to come out of the current bad will be clear. There has been so much in the news this past week against our latest installment of the PC government that if I had the time to write, there would be at least daily posts. It has not been good news. And we have another 4 years with them. If this is how things are starting off... The thing to get my attention today was the following article by Don Braid from the Calgary Herald: http://www.calgaryherald.com/Braid+Scapegoat+turn+tables+former+Alberta+employers/6719269/story.html The former chief elections officer, Lo...

If only I had more time, I would be writing so much more in this blog right now! What I do want to share is an article about another Alberta PC flip flop. (Makes me think of a fish out of water flipping back and forth--isn't that kind of what's going on here? The PC's are no longer in the safe zone and are trying to save their political lives?) http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Alberta+reverses+stance+publicizing+illegal+donations+political+parties/6704371/story.html Btw, seeing Lukaszuk's picture reminds me of a tweet I saw this morning: It sucks that I have to hear what my MLA tweets through   @ JoeAlbertan   because @ LukaszukMLA   is blocking me.   ‪ # ableg ‬ ‪ # pcaa ‬   ‪ # wrp ‬   ‪ # transparency ‬ https://twitter.com/Sirthinks/status/208048614365339649

Premier Redford has announced her cabinet: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Lukaszuk+named+deputy+premier/6586941/story.html (The following is copied and pasted from the above article:) The portfolios are as follows: — Thomas Lukaszuk, deputy premier — Ken Hughes, Minister of Energy — Doug Horner, Minister of Finance and Treasury Board — Fred Horne, Minister of Health — Dave Hancock, Minister of Human Services — Diana McQueen, Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Resource Development — Jonathan Denis, Minister of Justice and Solicitor General — Jeff Johnson, Minister of Education — Doug Griffiths, Minister of Municipal Affairs — Verlyn Olson, Minister of Agriculture — Stephen Khan, Minister of Advanced Education and Enterprise — Manmeet Bhullar, Minister of Service Alberta — Heather Klimchuk, Minister of Culture — Ric MacIver, Minister of Transportation — Christine Cusanelli, Minister of Tourism, Parks and Recreation — Robin Campbell, Minister Aboriginal Relat...

Here's an article by Ezra Levant about how Redford managed to win. I couldn't agree more! http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2012/04/20120428-113313.html

I thought I would make a separate post about the people who left the PC Party--or got kicked out--since the last election in 2008. The numbers represent the seats before this election: First to leave was Ron Stevens who resigned because of a judicial appointment. A by-election was held and Wildrose Paul Hinman won that seat. PC caucus count down to 71. Wildrose 1. Guy Boutilier was kicked out of the PC caucus in July 2009 for publicly criticizing the government. (Please keep in mind one of the criticisms of the PC party of Alberta is that all MLAs are to "be the same"--there is no free vote and Premier Redford was quoted just the other day as having said that all her members thought the same way. Frankly, I find this to be a red flag: no diversity nor free speech allowed? all are supposed to be little clones when it comes to government affairs? All right, enough of my interjected opinion.) He eventually joined the Wildrose Party. PC caucus down to 70. Wildrose 2. Januar...

Danielle Smith says they will have a look at some of their more problematic policies: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/wildrose-may-reconsider-policies-smith-says-021313681.html Here's a chance for you to have your say! Especially if you are a Wildrose supporter, they will want to hear what you have to say about their policies. Look them over, ask your questions, tell them which ones you love, which ones you don't. :D

Here's an article out today: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2012/04/24/albertavotes2012-redford-plans.html Speaking in Calgary on Tuesday, Redford rejected theories that many Liberals voted PC to block the Wildrose from gaining power. I believe this to be a rebuttal to Danielle Smith's election night speech. And yet, in my post yesterday , I shared from another article the following: A Conservative strategist said moving to the progressive side of the spectrum made the party more representative of the views of Albertans and better able to convince NDP and Liberal voters in the province that a Wildrose majority was not in their interest. This was one of my criticisms about the PCs before the election: Redford saying things completely opposite of what others in her circle were saying. Why is this? The other incidents that come to mind are when Minister Lukaszuk said that Bill 2 was dead; Redford said it wasn't yet. She ended up calling the election ...

Despite telling myself to take a small break from political reading - it really is just getting me very frustrated at times - I ended up reading this article: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1166726--alberta-election-after-a-divisive-campaign-voters-cast-their-ballot There is a quote from a PC supporter in the article, as follows: “So what we ended up with is an Americanization of our Alberta politics,” said PC supporter Anita Loowell of Edmonton. “What we’ve got at that end, the Wildrose, is people who believe that private health care is okay, that people should look after themselves, that public education doesn’t matter and we’re all on our own. That’s not what I want." Here we see the likely effects of misinformation through the media. I can grant that someone may have read the Wildrose Policy and believed such a thing, but those are not the facts. As of their 2012 policy, here is Wildrose's stance on health care:  http://www.wildrose.ca/policy...