One Alberta Voice

My lack of posting the past couple of years was not for want of some opinions; there has been plenty going on with Redford alone to warrant posting. Which is why, as I come back to this blog (having finally found the email account tied to it *rolleyesatself*), my first thought after the Wildrose-crossing-the-floor mess was: Where is Redford now? To be honest, my online searching has resulted in me having to say: I don't know. Where she could be sometime in the future is dealing with court and repercussions for illegal activities. The most recent news article I could find was this http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alison-redford-could-face-criminal-charges-review-finds-1.2821834 I suspect there will be enough found to press charges, but not knowing enough about the criminal system and what constitutes worthy evidence, I can't do more than suspect. Well, I can hope, too. While her political career is over and her acts have probably closed many doors to her, it ju...

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

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.

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

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 ...