Up Close and Personal with Jane

Deja Vu Cabinet Tour

2012-01-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

I feel like I'm in a time warp. I wrote a piece in April 2010 and upon re-reading it, it seems nearly as applicable today.

Read the piece and substitute Redford for Stelmach and see if you don't agree as well.

Link to article: Stelmach: Alberta’s Seinfeld, but we’re not laughing.

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Alberta Political Finance: why you should be outraged

2012-01-14T12:36:00.004-07:00

Over the summer of 2006 I was in discussions with senior representatives of the then, Alberta Alliance Party, regarding being appointed as their Chief Financial Officer. It would be a volunteer role, with no training or remuneration. Talks also included moving their office, from a space in Red Deer they could no longer afford, to my business office in northeast Calgary.

The move and my appointment as CFO were completed by mid September. Before the end of that same month, unbeknownst to me, three RCMP officers would descend upon my office. They would comb through every piece of paper ever generated by the very young Alberta Alliance. They took copies of hundreds of pages of documents. In some cases they took possession of the originals and left us with the photocopies.

The RCMP recorded audio statements from me on matters that occurred before I was even involved and I would sign off on a number of written statements as to my role with the Party, specifically in relation to the financial matters.

That was my baptism by fire to the world of political finance. Those three paragraphs are an excerpt from the introduction of "Before the Bloom". It will be many months yet before its complete, but recent events have prompted me to share this tidbit and my perspective on topic of political finances in Alberta.

Fundraising (and alleged illegal fundraising) has been the hot topic this week in Alberta politics. Some say it is a blip and it won’t resonate with voters at election time. Yet I’ve heard from both Wildrose and PC candidates who are out door knocking that indeed the subject is coming up. Let’s face it, when it comes to how politicians handle money (our money) it should be front and centre. It is one area where I feel there must be the most transparency and accountability.

On Thursday Paul Hinman, MLA for Calgary-Glenmore, was on the Rutherford show on QR77 discussing this topic. Well worth a listen via the audio vault; January 12, 10:00 AM. (Starts at about the 7:30 minute mark) The first caller says he doesn’t like when one party is “criticizing and basically throwing another party under the bus”. He goes on to say the Wildrose hasn’t had a turn at the table, so shouldn’t be commenting on this issue.

The reality is every party can and should be vocal on these issues. Regardless of whether a party is the governing party, the opposition or has zero seats; they are ALL subject to the same electoral finance laws. A brand spanking new party like the EverGreen Party (registered last month) is subject to the same rules as the PC’s who's origins go back over 100 years.

Which brings me to my first concern about electoral finances; how people learn the rules. In Alberta every party, every CA and every candidate must have a Chief Financial Officer (CFO, sometimes also called a Treasurer). The vast majority of these roles are held by volunteers, some with little or no formal training in accounting or bookkeeping; let alone the laws governing electoral finance. Some say it’s not a complicated role; “if you can balance a cheque book, you can handle the duties of being a CFO”. This is true to a point.

Tracking and receipting for donations and expenses can be fairly straight forward. However knowing if you can “accept” certain monies is another matter. Some volunteers receive training from their predecessor or as in my case no training at all.

I relied upon reading pamphlets from Elections Alberta, the Elections Finance Act and asking a LOT of questions. Even with my own concerted effort I made mistakes. Elections Alberta was always available and offered tremendous guidance.

Occasionally, usually in the rush of a campaign, Elections Alberta will hold training sessions. And some parties provide training to their CA and candidate CFO’s. Generally though in both cases, they are far too short and lack the depth that the topic deserves.

This is a snap shot from the 2008 Elections Alberta report on training. (Page 39, click to enlarge)

Approximately 180 attended information sessions. In 2008 there were nine Parties in Alberta. Granted they didn't all have CFO's in each constituency and they didn't all run full slates of candidates. But we do know there were 407 candidates (plus CFO's is 814). If we assume only the three major parties (at the time) had 83 constituency associations, that's another 249. Over 1000 individuals who should be fully trained.

This lack of training is why we see the same mistakes happening repeatedly; mistakes that violate Election Finance laws. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to justify these occurrences. Simply pointing out that if one is instructed that it is “okay” or that "it has always been done this way" they tend take it at face value. I believe we there should be detailed, formal training directly from Elections Alberta. It should be offered frequently and be a requirement for all CFO’s.

The second issue I have with current Election Finance law is unfortunately how closely it is tied to the governing party via Alberta Justice. For example:

Back in 2007, then-chief electoral officer Lorne Gibson reported his office had investigated nine examples where Alberta politicians and parties had received improper contributions from municipalities and publicly funded organizations. He recommended Alberta Justice prosecute all nine cases. Penalties under the act include a maximum penalty of $10,000.

Instead, in six of the cases, Alberta Justice said there wasn't enough evidence to proceed and in three of the cases officials missed the two-year deadline to prosecute. Shouldn’t it go through a process and the courts decide if the evidence is sufficient?

It does make one wonder though, if Mr. Gibson was able to investigate far enough to recommend prosecution, he must have found something. Yet the government of the day was able to dismiss the cases by saying there wasn’t enough evidence. Ironically, (or maybe not so ironic) Mr. Gibson’s contract wasn’t renewed. It's also interesting to note that since then (2009) the new (well re-run) Chief Electoral Officer, Brian Fjeldheim, hasn't made any (as in zero) recommendations for prosecutions.

This brings up a third area of discussion. Who is involved? I can understand Elections Alberta not revealing who they are investigating. That would be like the police putting out a list of suspect drug ops. However, in my opinion once charges are laid it should be public information and I do believe they have been, as we see here, a case involving PC MLA Pearl Calahasen.

Now if a party wants to demonstrate they are “open and transparent” and willingly reveal any entities under investigation; that is (in my opinion) purely up to them. Plus any party that pressures another to do so better be prepared to walk that path as well.

The Lorne Gibson example above also mentions that a couple of cases missed the two year time limit on prosecution. (I believe the law now has a 3 year window) Either way, this will be the case for the University of Lethbridge, where the most recent alleged infraction appears to have been in 2005. If we (meaning Albertans) want infractions investigated and charged in a timely fashion, we will have to demand that Elections Alberta be given the means and authority to do so. While I’m not familiar with the current resources of Elections Alberta, I can tell you that from 2006 to 2010 (while I was CFO/Executive Director of the Wildrose) they appeared to be understaffed and underfunded.

The most recent case that has been unveiled is with the Medicine Hat Catholic School Board, they admit they bought tickets to the recent Premiers dinner and in fact have purchased fundraising tickets for some seven years now. This is a prime example of how political donations can get downright messy.

According to the PC President:

……. Bill Smith said the party had no inkling the board paid for the tickets and said a purchase receipt was given to the individual who bought them.

Tickets were purchased with a corporate credit card, which bears the name of the board employee and the term Medicine Hat Catholic.

While I hate to side with the PC’s, Bill is likely right on the money (no pun intended) as to how this came about. There is no way every CFO in the province can run searches or ask every donor what boards they might sit on, who they might work for or who might be reimbursing them for the expense.

Where it gets messy is with this person who got the receipt. They get the taxable benefit from that contribution and if they are also getting reimbursed by other attendees to the event or by group that is not allowed to contribute, they are double-dipping. More importantly though, it would be tax fraud.

While fellow blogger Dave Cournoyer questions why he doesn't feel outraged by the illegal donations, I believe we should not only be outraged, we should bear some responsibility for it.

Outraged that these things can happen in Canada of all places; we are not a third world dictatorship.

And responsible because we have allowed it to happen. We need to all demand better. Regardless of your party affiliation or your political leanings; we need to demand that Elections Alberta be given the resources to carryout their mandate. We need to demand that all CFO's be provided the training and tools to adhere to the laws.

Strange sounds in Conklin, Alberta

2012-01-13T22:27:00.000-07:00

This video was posted on YouTube yesterday. Give it a listen, let me know what you think.

Both my husband and son are currently working in Conklin. I've asked them to see if they can find out who these guys are. Cory is pretty certain this is a slashing crew.

This has been posted on a couple of other websites and forums, with many theories being generated. Including some who think it is a hoax.

Heart of the Beast

2011-12-09T10:36:00.004-07:00

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As many have likely heard already, Occupy Calgary packed up and moved out on their own timeline; rather than have a stand off at today's court imposed 2:00 PM deadline.

Kudos to them for doing this.

In place of their tents this morning was a large metal sculpture titled "Heart of the Beast".

I just heard Bill Bruce (head of by-law) say on the news it will be hauled away as debris left in the park. He went onto explain putting things on property that don't belong there is in fact vandalism.

Given Cory and I were victims of a similar stunt just last night (a tent was erected and other things left in the back of Cory's truck) I can relate to what Bill is saying. However, there is one important difference. What happened to Cory and I was intimidation; the sculpture I see more as a peace offering.

Someone spent time creating it, likely with a great deal of emotion. Whether those emotions at the time were directly connected to Occupy or not isn't important. It would be very interesting to hearing the artists story behind the artwork. I see it as a gesture to remind people our rights to speak out; even when some may not like what you have to say.

I don't think it should stay in Olympic Plaza, but I certainly don't think it should be scrapped or stored away somewhere. In my opinion one of the better ideas coming out of the Occupy group was for there to be a "Speakers Corner" of sorts. This would be the perfect opportunity to combine that idea with this artwork.

My suggested would be to have it installed at Shaw Millennium Park (skateboarding park). I think there are a few reasons why this would be a good fit.

First, it is predominately a concrete park and this would add an element of interest. Second, this is the only park in Calgary that is open to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; a speakers corner needs to be available around the clock. And lastly; it is most popular with our youth. I believe one of the greatest lessons we can instil with our youth is to speak out for what they believe in, even when the odds seem against you.

If someone has a clear picture of the "Heart of Beast" I would like to add it to this blog entry.

Thanks to @can_kt for sharing her picture.

Occupy Calgary - Some Determined to Stay

2011-12-08T12:06:00.002-07:00

I was disappointed to read the following by Chelsea Pratchett. Chelsea, in my opinion, is one of the more well-spoken occupiers. And I also thought more level-headed.

(11:00 AM, Dec 8) Click on image to enlarge.

Too date they have accomplished very little through their antics; to continue down the same path will not help and potential could make things much worse.

Midday discussion.

Occupy Calgary - Ben Christensen Legal Beagle

2011-12-07T18:43:00.001-07:00

Earlier I posted a couple of videos under the "Gems of Occupy Calgary" tab of commentary from Ben Christensen. He presents himself as the legal representative for Occupy Calgary.

If you watch the first video you will see he clearly believed that yesterdays' court decision was a hoax and it is evident in their own comments from yesterday, that a lot of people believed him. Only coming to the realization today (2nd video) that it was in fact real. Today on their Facebook page he was quite short with some one of the other members, I suspect he might have been a tad upset about the reality of the judge's decision.

Below you will find the conversation as it currently exists. You will note some of the responses don't seem to make sense, this is due to Ben deleting his commentary, which he does make mention of as well.

Click on images to enlarge.

My source is working on retrieving Ben's deleted comments. When (and if) they become available, I will add them to this posting.

Edit at 9:30 PM:

Ben's missing comments have been retrieved. These are from an email notification, so they show in the opposite direction time wise to what shows in screen shots above.

Mayor Nenshi - "Adult Conversation"

2011-12-07T06:00:00.001-07:00

During his election campaign Mayor Nenshi repeatedly used the phrase; "adult conversation"

Some examples.

In short, they engaged Calgarians, in Nenshi’s words, in “adult conversations.” This was not a campaign of sound bites; it was a campaign of thoughtfulness.

He fields an aggressive question about raising taxes. Nenshi won’t promise not to (“if any candidate tells you that, they’re lying”), and argues for an “adult conversation” about priorities.

You get the idea. Personally I didn't much care for the phrase. To me it sent the message that all conversations up to that point had somehow been childish. I found it condescending.

Alas, he became our mayor and I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt; that what he really meant was that he simply wanted to change the tone and direction of the conversation.

However over the last couple of months I'm seeing less of the "breath of fresh air" approach and more of an "I know best" and others opinions be damned. One area where we have seen this in his recent run ins with fellow council members.

There has been evidence on Twitter as well. Yes, there is a lot of good to be said about a person in public office who uses Twitter. However, in Mayor Nenshi's case he has gotten to the point where he simply answers puff ball questions, he deflects and/or outright ignores people.

As was the case in my very brief discussion with him last night.
Click on image to enlarge.

When he realized where my line of questioning was going he quickly deflected back to the "lawyers".

Does he answer my follow up questions, no. Once again goes into ignore mode.

By the way, if you enjoy your time on Twitter, I highly recommend against challenging Mayor Nenshi unless of course you have very thick skin. He has a huge following with blinders on. Tweet something positive, they will retweet like lemmings. Tweet something less than flattering, they turn to piranha and you will be thoroughly attacked. Actually, I'm quite certain this blog posting will get me sent to the Twitter gallows.

At any rate, I've determined that in my case, Mayor Nenshi and I can't have an adult conversation on Twitter. So I'm sending him an email and see if we can have success when not limited to 140 characters.

Judge Rules in Favour of City of Calgary - Occupy Calgary Must Dismantle

2011-12-06T15:22:00.006-07:00

The Judge's decision has been filed. Remember you can click on images to enlarge.

Copy of the decision is here.

Occupy Calgary initial reaction.

When reality starts to set in they start a new thread.

Now Stephen, I have never once claimed or accused them of being unemployed or hippies.

Hon. Chief Justice Wittmann Decsion

2011-12-06T13:37:00.002-07:00

The following images are a copy of the judgement from Honourable Chief Justice, Neil Wittmann in respect the the injunction the City of Calgary filed against Occupy Calgary.
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Looks like a couple of the pages are wonky..... I will fix and repost.

Page 4 now fixed. Some are missing pages numbers, but I don't think any content is cut off.

Click on each page image to enlarge.

Sean Quigley

2011-12-05T21:38:00.000-07:00

I love Christmas music. It's usually all the standard fare, but then every once and awhile we are blessed with a new twist.

As with this video, that I just had to share this video from Sean Quigley of Winnipeg.

Quote from a news clip:

Sixteen-year-old Sean Quigley, a grade-11 student at Winnipeg's Oak Park High School, produced, directed and edited the video of his going-viral rock-heavy rendition of "Little Drummer Boy." Quigley arranged, composed, recorded, mixed and mastered the song, in addition to playing all the instruments on the track.

Amazing. Enjoy.

City of Calgary Reopens Negotiations with Occupy Calgary

2011-12-04T12:47:00.002-07:00

Looks like the City has reopened negotiations with Occupy Calgary. Why?

Response from one of the key Occupiers Chelsea Pratchett.

Her last line is very telling:

I recommend that requests for accommodating future events be brought to the weekly general assembly (which is on Saturday at 1:30pm) by someone from your department, preferably yourself.

Are they now the "keepers" of our park?

Click on images to enlarge.

Updated at 2:15

Here is the Facebook response to Chelsea's letter thus far.

Colin Wenger

2011-12-04T05:03:00.004-07:00

On Dec 2, 2011 I posted the following as a blog entry.
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Apparently I've gotten under the skin of Occupy Calgary.

Case in point.

Colin please explain where and how I have slandered you or your group?

My previous post was a collection of your own words and commentary from Twitter, mostly media reporting on the days events.

So please point me to where I have slandered.

~~~~~~~~~~

There have been many comments, including a response from Colin. He uses the name DecryptedNight. I promised him I would respond to he comment. Rather than it getting lost in the comment section, I've opted to create this page for it. Later I will archive this as a post. Colin's comments are in red with my responses below.

In response to earlier comments... I am NOT one of the "Squatters". I have a career of 10 years in electronics manufacturing, so no I'm not a jobless whiner either.

Colin I've read and reread the comments. No one has said you were unemployed, jobless or anything to that effect. Perhaps you inferred that from the one commenter who said "If he is one of the squatters..." in which case you've assumed the writer thinks all the campers are unemployed or that is your own belief your are applying to the comment. Also I don't recall anyone saying you were a whiner.

And for your information taking other people's words (especially in text form), cutting out the parts that are no good for supporting your agenda. then spinning the rest to imply that the people in this movement are constantly at each others throats. Is in fact slander... You have removed the "context" of the actual conversation, and largely ignored anything that is actually good or progressive.

I have no "agenda". I'm simply sharing some insight on the goings on of the Occupy Calgary group.

The screen snapshots, which I get from one of your very own active members, are not altered in any fashion. You will note that what this person has been doing is repeating the last bit of stream at the beginning of the next one, to show the continuity.

When you say "text form" I'm not clear if you might be referring to the comments section of my blog. Those can't be edited, they are either accepted or rejected. Have I rejected some, yes.

Slander (as Matt pointed out in the comments), is the spoken word. Specifically, someone would have to speak a lie to be guilty.

Libel (which is what I think you really mean) is the written word. Specifically, someone writing falsehoods.

To the best my knowledge, I have neither spoken nor written any lies about you or the Occupy Calgary group. If you feel there is "missing information" that will somehow make anything I've posted be seen in a better light, by all means send them to me.

It is inevitable when you bring a diverse group of people together that they will in fact disagree. But there are also ways to work together and around that. Case and point, I personally don't actually support the continued presence of the camp itself and I have made that known before. However I am getting ready to head down there again to bring people food and even warm clothing.

I do this because they are PEOPLE! Standing up for what they feel is right. I might not agree with the specific methods, but if simply spit that in someones face, it destroys any chance of working together on common ground.

However as for you, and anyone supporting your little laugh riot here. You are achieving nothing that is even the slightest bit productive. Nothing you are doing right here is ever going to solve any problems. You are from what I can see only scheming the next way to get a laugh out of people over how the supposed 'dirty hippies are arguing with each other'.

If that's all you can manage in the expenditure of time you put into this, then it saddens me to realize you, likely have any real self-worth deep inside.
And if you think a electronics manufacturer don't have the ability to make such a pronouncement. This particular worker happens to spend a great deal of his free time reading philosophy, Psychology, neuroscience and even theoretical physics... Because I like it and it's fun.

Colin I realize you don't know me and you likely don't know my position on the Occupy movement. I also think you and possibly others, are confusing me with my husband. So let me share some things with you to give you a better idea of who I am.

I have a full-time 40 hour a week job.
I volunteer in my community and as a director for the Wildrose Party. Both of these tie up another 20-25 hours a week on evenings and weekends.
We occasionally help homeless individuals by providing them transitional housing. (Currently we are helping two)
We give regularly to the food bank, charities and we give blood.

I've been blogging for four years now. I blog about very personal things and about current issues. On average it's worked out to less than 50 posts per year. Actually I wish I could spend more time doing it, but I'm also working on a book.

My recent posts come together very quickly simply because someone else is creating the images for me.

As for Occupy.

I fully support everyone's right to protest and stand up for whatever they believe in.
I also believe the laws (and bylaws) should be applied equally to everyone.
I've never called them hippies. Nor have I made any assumptions about you.
I haven't posted the threads that show worst of the bickering. Besides, you and I know they deleted most of them and kicked out the "problem people"
These blog postings are not meant to solve any problems.

Having said all that, the occupiers and their supporters can't expect to go through life and not be questioned as to their motives and rationale. I'm not the first, nor will I be the last, to examine what your movement is doing (or trying to do). Frankly, I've by and large used the groups own words. That can hardly be construed as libelous (or "pathetic slander" as you've stated.)

Added at 11:15 PM

The Occupy Calgary Facebook page was changed to "secret" a couple of days ago.

They have now also made their forum private.

This is exactly the type of thing that lead people to question the sincerity of the group. They repeatedly say they want an "open vibrant discussion" yet their actions don't demonstrate that.

This entry was previously available via a "page" tab. I've converted it to a posting and only way I could move comments was to screen snap them. They were as follows:

Under Their Skin

2011-12-02T22:36:00.002-07:00

Apparently I've gotten under the skin of Occupy Calgary.

Case in point.

Gems from Occupy Calgary

2011-12-02T17:41:00.004-07:00

** WARNING ** Images may contain language not suitable for minors.

I've decided to start this separate page as there is just so much comedic gold coming from the Occupy Calgary group.

Dec 8, 2:00 PM

Dec 6, evening. This was day the judgement was released, at this point they thought it was still a hoax.

Dec 7 Seem to have come to terms with fact that it's real.

Dec 7, 1:00 PM

Dec 6, 12:00 PM

Today's gem comes from occupier James Jesso

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You can read his entire post here.

Odd at 1:00 he has changed it, ever so slightly by putting the offensive remarks in "quotations".

Dec 4, 9:20 PM

Dec 3, 10:25 AM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dec 2 approx 7:30 PM

This entry was previously available via a "page" tab. I've converted it to a posting and only way I could move comments was to screen snap them. They were as follows:

Occupy Calgary Court Date

2011-12-02T09:19:00.048-07:00

The city has filed an injunction and today the Occupy Calgary goes to court. I will be monitoring the Twitter traffic and their Facebook page for interesting (sometimes comical) tidbits.

I will add to this post as things come in. You can click on images to enlarge.
BTW: These are not in chronological order, I've made notes of times on a couple.

This example is from a couple of days ago, but it has generated nearly 100 comments and is still very active in their feed. Not everyone took to kindly to Stephen's advice.

What "end this" really meant.....

11:35 AM Running Rabbit gives her thoughts on this advice.

More advice:

Apparently they are making history. Time will tell I guess.

Ahh yes, the global awakening.

9:55 AM Despite being minutes away from court appearance, they still find time to debate this(?)

Some well-wishers. What the heck is a hypnotoad?

More advice and asking for an adjournment.

Jen Gerson of the Calgary Herald tweets on the courts response to adjournment request.
You can follow Jen on Twitter @jengerson

Oh, oh.....

And the infighting begins.

You're fired!!

What's a bar?

And it continues.....

After a recess, the court session moves to a bigger room.

Bar discussion continues... but Ben Kendrick's posts are gone. Hmmm.

Can you smell that smell.. (it's a lyric, don't be offended)

New thread started about the "split"

Update at 12:45 PM

1:00 PM

Painful

Ending this (?)

11:50 AM Ben reappears in the "fired" thread.

2:14

What "end this" really meant.

Lunchtime update from the Occupy in-house reporter on the scene.

Also very good written summary from Heather Gilbertson here.

This could be fun. 1:15 PM

No actually it's not me taking screen shots... it's one of your own... who is then sending them to me. I was kicked out of the group on Nov. 24. I was kicked out minutes after I posted this. The only one that I know of who was following that forum was Joanne Costello, she is also an admin on Occupy Calgary Facebook page and had the ability to remove me from group.

1:30 PM Infighting results in losses

ROTFLMAO Seems group has now gone from "private" to "secret"

2:15 PM

And their response to this news... Updated at 3:15 PM

When all else fails go back to blaming media....

From Heather who is in the courtroom.

3:20 Calgary Sun

Olive branch (?)

The Facebook group is busy deleting people trying to find my buddy.

At start of today they had over 250 members, now down to 240. I'll give you a hint the "mole" is an active poster.
Correction down to 237.

Never thought I would see this.... a post by Moon Snail that I can agree with.

Okay, am going to close out today's post. Likely the longest I've ever done, or at least in terms of images.

In closing I recommend reading Heather Gilbertson's summary.

And if you want one final chuckle check out my husbands solution. "Squat be Gone"

Petition requesting equal enforcement of civic bylaws in the city of Calgary. - Petition Online Canada

2011-11-01T23:51:00.007-06:00

You can now also print the petition to collect "in person" signatures.

Click on image to open in new screen, then print from there.

As the Occupy Calgary has continued, with no clear message and blatant disregard to our local by-laws; my husband and I have become more vocal.

Cory has blogged about it in several posts on his blog.

He also started a petition to encourage our Mayor and Aldermen to do the right thing and uphold our bylaws. This has been covered by our local media.

Today he was interviewed by QR77. You can hear it here.

Select November 1 st. then 5:00 PM Press "Listen"

Click the little black arrow to open up bar, from there you can move the grey slider to about the 17 minute mark where the discussion starts.

There is also an article in the Calgary Herald.

Click here to read and sign the petition.

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Fun contest for a GREAT cause

2011-10-29T14:53:00.000-06:00

My husband Cory has entered our bulldog, Stewie in the Fido "model" contest.

The great thing about this contest is that for each vote $1.00 will be donated to Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides, up to a maximum of $200,000. That's enough to support 10 guide dogs. Imagine being able to positively impact the quality of someone's life.

Click here to vote for Stewie.

You don't need to register or even give your email.

You can vote once each day, up until November 17, 2011.

Amazing Tweet from Occupy Calgary

2011-10-28T20:21:00.001-06:00

There have been some off the wall tweets from the people who are "Occupying Calgary"; but this one is so out there I just had to take a screen shot of it to save it for historical purposes.

You can click on it to enlarge if needed.

Time to take back Olympic Plaza! - Guest post

2011-10-28T12:59:00.000-06:00

The following is a guest post from my husband, Cory.

This embarrassing and expensive scene has gone on long enough. A small collection of squatters has been camped in our taxfunded park illegally for weeks now and the damages and costs are beginning to mount up. These kids have done an estimated $40,000 in damage alone to our park and the costs will only rise.

The Muslim Heritage day event which was booked and paid for in good faith will now have to hold their event in a dirty park (cant maintain and clean properly with squatters camping) and they will have less space than anticipated due to these tenters. Another group that had booked the plaza for Monday is now seeking a new location as will another group that is booked for Wednesday if we do not kick these kids out of our park.

Olympic Plaza was never designed for camping and due to that the damages are mounting up fast. Costs for extra policing and additional maintenance are building up. How many thousands of dollars will have to be refunded to the legitimate groups that have booked and paid for the plaza that will have to relocated due to the city allowing illegal squatting in our park?

This is a sad and expensive joke and is an embarrassment to our city. There is NO reason that we can’t evict these squatters from our park. There is a hollow and weak case being made that these squatters are protected by the Canadian Charter in this. That again is simply a load of BS. Speech is protected as is expression. Both speech and expression are possible without illegally camping in a downtown park. No rights are being repressed through evicting these kids.

If indeed that cowardly excuse of possible charter issues is valid, then I suggest that none of us in the entire city of Calgary need abide by bylaws ever again. The “occupy” group has never really explained exactly what they are protesting. I guess those of us who ignore other bylaws will not need a real reason for our protest either. If I refuse to licence my dog, I have a charter defense in it. I need only say “I don’t like social inequity and I am not licencing in protest”. By city council logic I am covered by the charter. Can I use this defense if I don’t pay parking tickets? Can I occupy a free seat on the C-Train in protest and make a charter challenge if I get a ticket?

Storage is expensive. I suggest that people should park their RVs and fifth-wheels in Calgary parks. Heck you can even camp there when you please. Dig a firepit for yourself. Vandalize the local bathrooms and displace other people using the park. It is OK. Just claim some vapid complaint about the way the world is and claim your action is your means of expression.

Is it becoming clear yet why making an exception in our bylaws for this gang of camping kids is a big deal? To most people it is something of a no-brainer.

Our city council is hiding in collective fear of the potentially poor optics that may happen if we actually enforce the law and kick these kids from the park. We need to take away their excuses. The fear of a charter challenge is utter BS as demonstrated above. I don’t think we really need to sweat a bunch of ragtag hipsters organizing and taking the city to court on a charter challenge anyway. That is simply way too much work for them. There is no charter right for squatting.

Another common dodge used by city councilors is claiming that there have been few complaints. From what I heard from the person on the other end of a 311 call, there have been many complaints already. Still, we need to ramp up the complaints.

Don’t let our city officials hide on this issue and lets not let these squatters cost the taxpayers any more than they already have!!

We must register our complaints and it must spread. Below are the means to contact city hall and your councilors. Use them and spread the word to neighbors and coworkers who are tired of this. Clearly city hall won’t move without some heavy prodding on this issue.

To begin with, simply call 311. There is an option for bylaw complaints. While on a coffee break give the number a dial and make a formal complaint of people camping after-hours in Olympic Plaza.

Calling is most effective but online complaints can be filed here if that is preferred.

Contacting the aldermen themselves is effective as well. They do try to hide direct contact information when possible. The beginnings of contact information for aldermen can be found here and here though.

On twitter many of our aldermen follow the #yyccc hashtag. Tweet them directly if you are on and demand that our park be cleaned up. Some but not all of our city council is on twitter. Their twitter handles are below.

@nenshi @yycgael @councilorkeats @pootmans @aldjonmar @bpincott @bigredyyc @peterdemong @druhfarrell

This issue will not go away until we as citizens make it go away. We can’t let city hall bury their heads on this while countless thousands of dollars are wasted, our park gets further damaged and innocent groups get displaced from events booked and paid for in good faith. Email tweet and call whoever you can on this folks. It has to come to an end and soon.

Any comments can be posted at www.corymorgan.com

Still mayor and still just a part-time leader

2011-10-14T00:09:00.004-06:00

On May 28, 2011 Glenn Taylor was elected as leader of the Alberta Party. Glenn Taylor is also the Mayor of Hinton. I discussed this conflict at length in a previous post, which I wrote on May 31st. Some said I jumped on him too soon; that I should have give him some time; that he would step down as mayor in due course, etc, etc.

On September 27 via Twitter, I asked Glenn this: "When will you be transitioning from your Hinton Mayoralty position?" I figured four months was plenty of time for him to have stepped down.

This was his response:

I'm still working on that. My wife and I, my council and I are discussing.

On October 1st I suggested he should blog about his transition; he replied with “OK".

Four months and counting on what should have been a “no brainer” decision. I think it’s clear the party doesn’t have the funds to pay him a salary. It’s also clear they are very happy with having a part-time leader.

To me this boils down to a matter of ethics. It shouldn't take someone four months to decide what is the right thing to do in this situation. In fact it should have been something he gave a lot of thought to BEFORE he ran for leader.

OR perhaps it's a case of the party not being honest with the leadership candidates. Were they advised that there would be no salary? That it was to be a completely unpaid, part-time volunteer position?

Let’s not forget he has the bulk of the Hinton town council sitting on his local Alberta Party constituency board. It makes one wonder exactly how much “party” work they are doing while they are being paid by the municipality.

BTW Glenn, that's a pretty sweet car. I had looked at the Crossfire, but damn they were pricey.

Editted to add:

Just had a bizarre conversation with this Alberta Party supporter. Best quote from her:

everyone relies on taxpayers (duh) but if u reference some rule I hv no idea about - I hv no idea. Ideas r what counts.

You can read the entire string here.

Informal polling on Alberta politics

2011-10-07T10:43:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I had a conversion with someone who had no idea that we had a new Premier or who Alison Redford was. For that matter, they didn't know who Stelmach was.

This has prompted me to do some informal polling today of random people I encounter at work and elsewhere.

These are the questions I'm asking.

Who is our current Premier?

Can you name any of the political parties in Alberta?

Have you ever heard of the Alberta Party?

I will post my findings this evening.

Kyle (Fawcett); That isn't what I signed up for....

2011-10-01T13:01:00.001-06:00

Let’s start with full disclosure.

I have known Kyle Fawcett since we ran against each other in the 2008 General Election. We have gone from calling each other Mr. Fawcett and Ms Morgan, to being comfortable with first names. We have communicated via email several times.

As my MLA he has answered my questions, sought my input, obtained passes for me to attend significant events at the Alberta Legislature, we’ve had lunch together on more than one occasion and he even helped me get my misplaced wallet safely returned to me.

His personal communication with me has been through his Legislative email of Kyle.Fawcett(at)assembly.ab.ca. Or in the case of community issues they come as bulk newsletters from his constituency office and are totally non-partisan; which I signed up for and can opt out of anytime.

I was a little surprised today to find an email from Kyle in my Spam folder. On closer inspection, it came from what looks to be a personal email address for Kyle and one I’ve never received emails from before.

More surprising though is that it is address to “North Hill Constituents” and it is a very partisan email soliciting for the Progressive Conservative Party.

I realize Kyle has my email and had he emailed me personally, I probably wouldn’t have thought anything of it; but he clearly is soliciting all constituents with whom he has an email address. And as a constituent ……that isn’t what I signed up for.

This is the contents of the email.

Vote on Saturday for Alison Redford

Calgary-North Hill Constituents,

I wanted to bring to your attention a very important moment in the history of our province. This Saturday, the 1st of October the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta will choose a new leader, and Premier of our province. This is your chance to have a direct say in the future of our communities and our province. In doing so I would like to encourage you to vote for ALISON REDFORD.

Over and above her impressive resume of international and domestic policy work, ALISON is the best chance for CHANGE in both the PC Party and our province. ALISON understands that your government needs to work for you, and not for special interests and the political elite. She knows that the province is at a political crossroads and that the PC Party needs to continue to earn the trust of Albertans if it is to continue its legacy of excellent governance in Alberta.

Additionally, ALISON represents the constituency of Calgary-Elbow, which is similar in geographic and demographic composition as Calgary-North Hill and shares similar challenges. She knows the challenges that faced by your family and community.

ALISON wants to do politics and government different from the past, and this means bringing forward new ideas, and ensuring that the PC Party undertakes substantial renewal.

You can vote for ALISON this Saturday at the Highland Park Community Centre (3716 – 2 Street NW) between 9am – 7pm. All you require is an up-to-date PC Party Membership, and two pieces of ID (one with a picture and your address). If you do not have a current PC Party membership, you can purchase one for $5 at the polling station on Saturday. If you are no longer a resident of Calgary-North Hill, but still want to vote on Saturday, please call ALISON’s Campaign Headquarters at 403-264-2001 to find out where your polling station is located.

For more information about ALISON’s platform download the attached document (5 Reasons to Vote for Alison Redford) or visit ALISON’s web-site at www.alisonredford.ca

If you would like to purchase at membership before voting day or need a ride to the polling station, please contact 403-478-7748.

Sincerely,
Kyle Fawcett, MLA
Calgary-North Hill

Editted at 3:20 PM to add Kyle's explanation from Twitter.

Well, I'm not a federal conservative member. But looks like others who are might have also received the email.

What to make of Alberta Party agriculture policy?

2011-09-25T12:58:00.005-06:00

I would like to applaud the Alberta Party for being open and transparent by not only live broadcasting their AGM, but for leaving the videos available for all to see.

Unfortunately though, I do have to question the transparency of some of their policies. I don’t get me wrong, this is not a problem unique to them; all parties are subject to this. In many respects it boils down to human nature. We all have preconceived ideas on what certain words mean. When words are strung together as policy, we envision different outcomes from them based on what we personally believe the implications to be.

In my opinion policies should be as clear and concise as possible. Certainly, not everyone will agree the policies and that’s why the various parties (and supporters) debate the merits of particular policies. What really muddies these waters though is when a policy says one thing and the members of the party who approved the policy don’t even agree on what it really means. This is in essence was came out of a debate on Twitter last night.

I was watching (and/or listening) to the video segment from the Alberta Party AGM on agriculture policy. At the conclusion of passing the various AG policies, a question was asked about how urban candidates would discuss the agriculture policy at the doors. I was taken aback when I heard someone say “the consequence of what we have voted for … are policies that restrict urban sprawl by preventing the movement of farmland to be sold to developers.” This is paraphrased; you can hear the exact wording here at the 1:30:40 mark.

My immediate interpretation based on that statement was; Alberta Party would restrict farmers whose land borders on cities from selling their land to developers. But let’s be honest; that would be an absurd policy.

I noted that Danielle Klooster was on Twitter. She is the Alberta Party candidate for Innisfail – Sylvan Lake, a predominantly rural constituency. She was also at the AGM and spoke to a number of the policies. Who better to ask for a clarification of what I had just heard. You can see the conversation string here.

Basically she says “restrict” is not the right word. And goes onto say there needs to be a balance of what’s best and fair. Remember this is their policy that they hope to enact if elected. It would be the government deciding what is best and fair; thus interfering on who the private landowner could sell to.

Then Chris Labossiere, past-president of the Alberta Party, came into the conversation. Twitter stream. He says regarding the policy it’s an “INCENTIVE to find a way for farmers to get the value of their land.” By this time I’ve located their written policy proposals so I can read the exact policy in question. It reads as follows:

Be it resolved that the Alberta Party will work with the agricultural community to help develop initiatives that facilitate the continuing availability of farmland in Alberta through succession strategies, the promotion of initiatives to increase farm income, and to bring new farmers into the industry.

I point out to Chris that the policy has no mention of land value. Of course he asks “Then where did you get that idea from?” Well, let’s see, the initial comment I heard in the video, Danielle referred to it and so did Chris himself. That’s about when Chris lost it and responded with this. You can click on image to enlarge.

Rereading the policy now it’s really not clear on the definition of farm income. Granted the first thing that pops to mind is revenue from the sale of product; but really it could be revenue from the sale of land as well.

I’ve gone back to the video to locate where the policy was discussed to get a clearer picture of the intent of what looks like to be a benign policy. Surprisingly there was no debate on it. Simply commentary from Michael Walters, Alberta Party candidate for Edmonton – Rutherford. (Who the Liberal party recently tried to woo over) You can hear the policy read out at the 1:08:35 mark, Michaels comments and then the quick successful vote passing it into their policy platform.

I’ve listened to it several times and I’m no closer to understanding what they really mean to accomplish with this policy.

Is anyone clear on it? I would love to hear what you think; especially Alberta Party members who will be conveying this to Albertans.

Predictions on PC Leadership Race

2011-09-21T23:27:00.000-06:00

I said it (Twitter ‘ed it actually) a couple of months ago and a few weeks ago; that I thought Alison Redford might pull off the win. I had no basis for my prediction, it was a just a gut feeling. Now that they are going into the second round I’m getting a clearer picture of how this might come about.

Despite umpteen current MLA’s lining up behind Gary Mar and his high percentage in the first go round, there seems to a lot of hatred out there working against him. I think in order for Gary to win he has to achieve his 50% at the first count on October 1^st. If it goes to the second count it will go to Alison.

Here’s why (in my opinion)

Gary Mar’s supporters likely won’t put a second choice on the ballot. They will want to avoid a “Stelmach” or “Dion” third placer coming up the middle. Redford and Horner supporters are far less likely to be worried about this; their main beef is with Gary and keeping him out of office. They will mark a second choice. Redford supporters for Horner and vice versa.

I think Horner will be in third. This is partly based on the showing after the first round and I believe Redford has a more organized campaign. (Granted, I could just be thinking this way because I know some of the people involved and I live in Calgary where she has a greater presence.) Either way, I think his supporters will be quite comfortable in putting a ‘2’ beside Alison’s name. She is from their current cabinet, but still new enough and she is saying the right things to offer that glimmer of hope the PC’s so desperately need.

Conversely Mar, is so many things they are trying to distance themselves from. Bussing in “supporters”; rumors of leaking a members list to media; rumors of offering plum positions to those who back him; generally old-school distasteful politics.

Should Redford pull it off… well she will have monumental, if not impossible task ahead of her. As I understand it Alison has the backing of a handful of MLA’s: Doug Elniski, Kyle Fawcett, Art Johnston, David Xiao and Dave Rodney. With the exception of Rodney they are all first term MLA’s and Johnston won’t even be running in the next general election, having lost his local nomination. She will have to regroup the other MLA’s; mostly made up of long term members who now clearly stand behind Mar, and there are a LOT of them.

If I’m wrong though and Mar wins, there are two things I’m looking forward to.

1) The caucus funding to the PC’s to be cut since they no longer will have a Leader in an elected position.

2) Their caucus putting out press releases, but not being able to name their “yet to be elected as an MLA, Leader”.

If you aren’t familiar with the background, one might say, “That’s absurd. Why would those things happen?’ You can read it for yourself, here and here. It’s exactly what the PC’s did to the Wildrose.

PS: I don't choose the ads that display on my blog and in no way support nor endorse any candidate who might happen to show up. :)

Hinton Mayor Goes to Edmonton

2011-06-08T18:08:00.001-06:00

I had promised in the comments of my last posting that I would respond to some questions and comments. I had this lonnnggg post all planned where I was going to give several scenarios about holding two positions (at least one being an elected one) and the ramifications from that. It’s long overdue, ironically due to my working two jobs; a paying one and a volunteer role managing my husband’s campaign.

So this will be shorter than I initially planned and limited to responding to my good friend Rhys; who left these questions:

When does it become unethical to be a party's representative\candidate and a municipal politician at the same time?

Or is that just if you're a party's leader -- not a lowly candidate in a riding, say?

Rhys hits on a key distinction relevant to the Glenn Taylor situation. He has been “elected” to two positions. If he had been a part-time plumber and elected leader of the Alberta Party, likely no one would have cared other than maybe his plumbing customers. As it is he is paid by the taxpayers of Hinton. Will they know or care if his attention is elsewhere? Are they okay with paying him when he might actually be doing work the Party at the time?

More to Rhys’ point though; he is asking at what level of candidacy and at what point does it become unethical. I’ve done some digging and there are indeed a few people who sit on town councils and have been elected as candidates for provincial political parties.

I think we need to examine what the expectations are for those candidates to fulfill their roles. Some may not anticipate doing anything until an election is actually called. Others may do some campaigning on evenings and weekends. If it is the latter; I think they would have to be very cautious of making a crystal clear distinction between their elected duties and their candidacy efforts. For example; if they attend a meeting as a councilor and are selling memberships to their respective party… then yes, that’s out of bounds in my opinion.

To be very open about this, past Alberta Party leaders have held or kept their other jobs and its never been an issue. Partly because their jobs weren’t elected positions. But more importantly there were none of the huge expectations of the current incarnation of the party.

I think Glenn Taylor’s situation boils down to two things:

- What are the expectations of the Alberta Party members
- Can he maintain a crystal clear distinction between his two roles

If the members are happy with a part-time leader then so be it. If they had expected a leader who can do the summer BBQ circuit, fundraising, attend CA formation meetings, attend caucus meetings and much, much more… well then they will be very disappointed.

As fate would have it; Glenn Taylor today provided us with an example of how his two roles conflict.

This picture was posted on Twitter today along with this comment.

@NDPview: #abparty ldr Taylor uses Town of Hinton vehicle to visit MLA Taylor at #ableg all afternoon. Naughty ldr.

Apparently Glenn Taylor went to the Alberta Legislature today to meet with Dave Taylor. It seems quite obvious he drove a vehicle belonging to the town of Hinton. Now is this a vehicle for his own personal use? Is it shared with other members of council?

Hmmm and there "all afternoon"? I wonder who is going to pick up the cost of the parking ticket?

Seems Mr. Taylor is creating more questions than he is answering.