Don Braid - Donn Lovett in drag

Don, thank you for reviewing the blog and agreeing with my assessment; no fall election, by-election and on with setting a direction that speaks to Albertans;

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Braid+After+vote+about+timing/5463089/story.html

Bill Kaufmann is still dreaming of a white Christmas and a fall election;

http://www.calgarysun.com/2011/09/26/mar-sets-120-day-gameplan-as-premier

What do you think

My prayers are with Alison and her mother.

Gary Mar and I agree on no fall election

As I blogged earlier and now it appears substantiated by the Mar Campaign, there will not be a fall election in Alberta.

https://garymar.ca/2011/09/mar-ready-to-hit-the-ground-running-if-elected-premier

Furthermore, if Gary is able to set the 120 day agenda outlined in this release, he will speak to Albertans in a language that Albertans understand and have been looking for from the opposition parties in this Province.

I have been saying long and loud since October 2009, when I attempted to get the Alberta Liberal Party to move to the Centre; If you speak to Albertans about the issues that Albertans want to discuss you will have their attention and their vote.

Albertans, rural or urban, all economic classes, male or female all want the same things; A well-functioning, accessible public health care system, accessible education at high standards to make Albertans competitive globally, security of the home.  These are common values we all share in Alberta. They make us moderate, caring, accepting people.

Mar seems to have captured.that sense and along with the majority of Albertans, I trust he will deliver the promise.

I am  optimistic as always, but watching with the reality of having been in politics way to long.

First step, October 2nd, 2011.

If we believe in the plan we need to get Mar elected!

Sun TV Interview on Alberta Politics

Here is the link, to bad it is not so clear;

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/featured/news/868018287001/alberta-tory-leadership-race-heats-up/1170444167001/page/3

Wake Up Canada - A View From Afar

Hello from The Sultanate of Oman

I have been watching as the Harper Government takes it's new found neo-Conservative, social-Conservative majority out for a test drive with the introduction in Parliament of the omnibus crime bill.  We are wading in  unemployment, markets in the toilet, Canadian dollar dropping and Harper shows us the crime bill.

Further to this, our international reputation has never been as weak as it is now in those parts of the world I frequent, the Middle East and South-East Asia.  Witness the world's re-action to the Harper  statement concerning the Palestinian issue at the last G8 meeting.  It's as if Bush is still in power in the US and our Government is trying to see how far up their butt they can stick their head.

For the record, Canada is in a 30 year plus decrease in violent crime.  Never mind that the folly of this initiative has been a colossal failure in the US and other right minded countries.

After Harper tells us how afraid of ourselves we should be and gives us the crime bill to make us feel secure tightly locked in our homes he will march out the next neo-Conservative, social-Conservative item on his agenda, either giving back the guns by removing the gun registry or taking away political opposition voices by stopping the funding of Opposition Parties in Parliament.

Nothing will phase Harper and his toadies, John Baird and Jason Kenney.  Yes it's the religious and political hypocrites with the influence on their master.  Moderates such as Peter MacKay are told to sit in the back of the room, keep quite and vote for and when they are advised to do so.

Lest we forget, Harper and his henchmen were the authors of the infamous Alberta firewall letter of 2001, see the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Agenda  The letter was a bid to build a neo-Conservative wall around Alberta, he now feels he has the tools to do this to Canada.

More to come.

PLEASE BE AWARE!

Alberta PC Leadership Race

Hello from Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.


I own a small oil & gas service company in Oman (http://www.omanenergyservices.com) and that takes my attention but I am missing my political fix and have been participating in and otherwise watching with re-newed interest the outcome of the PC Leadership race.

Prior to my departure on September 4th, 2011 I had been working through Mr. Ed Tam to support Gary Mar for the Leadership. I feel I need to state that up front because obviously I am a little biased.

I chose to work with Mar having left the Alberta Liberal Party in October of 2009 because they could not define themselves as Centrists in Alberta and therefore did not represent me any longer. Having worked closely with Dave Taylor, I moved to the Alberta Party trying to find a fit politically. This has caused some frustration due to lack of organization and other difficulties. However, I still maintain my membership and my foot in the door.

I met Gary Mar after he announced his intentions to seek the Leadership. The follow-up meeting allowed me to dialogue and get answers to my concerns with Alberta politics in general and PC politics specifically. I was convinced to support Gary and started the task of getting him elected, more importantly for me was to ensure that Alberta maintained a moderate leadership.

That leads me to the thoughts I have from a review of the initial results and what I believe will be the outcome of the Leadership race.

First let me say that people should see the first vote results as a move to the Centre in Alberta politics. Tory voters chose the 3 moderate candidates (so-called Red Tories) including a woman in 2nd place. This flies in the face of the perception from the rest of Canada that we are a bunch of back water conservatives, guns cocked, woman in the kitchen, etc...

Here is the outcome scenario;

Leadership hopefuls who did not make the cut will endorse Mar.

Mar wins the October 2nd vote convincingly.

He changes out the Cabinet in a clean sweep. Not to say all Ministers will be removed but changes are desperately required,

Mar calls Danielle Smith requests she re-join the family, she refuses, still he is seen to be opening up to Wildrose.

He then arranges a time to make an economic statement.

A by-election will be called because either Dave Hancock (destined to the Bench) or Teresa Woo Paw (don't know what they will do here) resigns and a seat is available.

Mar governs for several months to show Alberta what his Government will look like and to convince those who departed for the right that they need to re-think their choices.

May call a June election, most likely a fall, October vote.

From the voice of politics.

Homelessness not an issue during Stampede

He's Back!

After being away from the site since February for a number of reasons I found an urgency last evening to get back in the saddle.

The issue is homelessness and the attitude of the Calgary media to stay away from such issues during the Calgary Stampede because their owners don't want negative stories during the 10 days of a spending spree in Calgary. Apparently homeless people do not exist during the Stampede.

They refuse to cover the Cross Canada Tour by Mark Horvath.

I need to explain the concern; first, read the following background.

InvisiblePeople.tv road trip keeps getting bigger continuing to be a catalyst for change in the fight against homelessness. Communities have rallied to house people experiencing homelessness and others have created housing programs, a farmer donated land that is now being used to help feed low-income families , and miracles that cannot be explained continue to happen. Last year, YouTube allowed InvisiblePeople.tv to curate their homepage for a day, that one day resulted in 1.6 million people touching homelessness that would have never rolled down their window at an exit ramp.

Thanks to Calgary Homeless Foundation and Community Action Committee InvisiblePeople.tv goes international traveling extensively throughout Canada. The road trip then returns to United States and continues from Maine through the Midwest and back to Southern California.

This year our friends at Pierce Family Foundation have donated a $10,000 matching grant. That means that every dollar donated will be matched dollar for dollar up to $10,000. Your donations will immediately double resulting in more impact to fight homelessness. Our friends at Razoo created this website for online donations and for you to “ride along” on the road trip. The site includes a live “Dash Cam” and real-time Google map so it’s almost like you are in the passenger seat. Make sure to bookmark http://invisiblepeople.tv/razoo and visit often as we travel Canada and the United States.

Then go to the website to see first hand;

http://invisiblepeople.tv/blog/invisible-people-homeless-road-trip

If you agree with me that the media should be covering this issue call your media outlet and let them know how you feel.

Thank you!

Leaderless Politics - Alberta

We are at a crossroads in the history of politics in Alberta.

Who would have imagined as they woke from their New Year's stupor that a few weeks down the road we would see;

1. The Alberta Party entering the Legislature via the new Alberta Party MLA, Dave Taylor.
2. The Progressive Conservatives would be leaderless.
3. The Alberta Liberal Party, leaderless for years, would now make it official.
4. The NDs, good boy, stay where you are, we'll let you have the 2 seats.
5. The strongest leader in Alberta politics is Danielle Smith.

This is the day we are supposed to pay tribute to Dr. David Swann and as an individual one can do that willingly.

However, as the Leader of the Opposition in Alberta he was an unmitigated failure leaving the Party in ashes. I once commented that Swann was so politically naive that he could not see his way and therefore could not hold a political thought or conversely, he was so calculating that he was willing to re-build the Liberal Party in his image no matter that only 6 members were standing when he was finished. I think the latter may be the case.

The winds of change are blowing. As my daughter Kate watches first hand from her house in Dahab in the Sinai, Egypt I m envious of here for being so close to change while as a parent also concerned about her safety, nonetheless she is witnessing history.

In Alberta over the next few weeks albeit a little less important on a world scale, we will watch history unfold in Alberta politics.

See you all February 14th when I return from the Sultanate of Oman.