Phendrana Drifts

In real life Six Meetings Before Lunch asked my opinion on a new arena for the Edmonton Oilers, what with all the hubbub (I'm not sure hubbub is a real word, like brouhaha) around the new report recommending a $450 million new downtown arena. Not being a native Edmontonian nor a committed fan of the Edmonton Oilers (I still hope they make the playoffs of course) I'm not terribly invested in the conversation. I do not want to say I am indifferent - after all when they say "public investment" they really mean "Duncan's tax dollars" but I do not have a strong desire one way or another. However, two thoughts from opposite arguments:

I'm too lazy to figure out inflation pre-1988. StatsCan has it following 1988, at an average of 2.5% a year - let's assume it was like that between 1974 to 1988. Rexall Place was built 34 years ago at a $19.4 million, with our 2.5% annual inflation that works out to $45 million in 2008 dollars. Is the new stadium really going to be ten times the arena Rexall is?
If Edmonton, centre of the Alberta oil sands boom and an epicentre of Canadian hockey awesomeness can't have a modern, fantastic hockey arena, why does Broward County in Florida get one? Or the massive American Airlines Centre in Dallas at a cost of $420 million?

Labels: hockey

Dear Sharks, Wild, Ducks, Stars, Canucks, Avalanche, Predators, Coyotes and Oilers:

When you play any team, especially those inside our division other than the Flames, please do not let the game go to overtime. Whatever happens, win or lose, just stop the three-point games. That is all.

Love,
Duncan

Labels: hockey

I have a soft spot in my heart for people whom "politician" would not be the highlight of their resume but decide to throw their hat in the ring anyway. The people who could be doing anything, who could be changing their world for the better in a dozen ways and decide to serve in politics anyway are the people who make government work and ensure that it works for real people rather than for a political elite. Looking at Alberta's new Minister of Justice and Attorney General Alison Redford you see someone who has an astonishing list of credentials. She is almost lowering herself to helping keep Albertans safe. But I doubt she sees it that way.

Prior to being one of five new Ministers in Premier Stelmach's cabinet, Alison Redford had:

Managed a judicial training and legal reform project for the Ministry of Justice and Supreme People's Court in Vietnam;
Worked as a human rights lawyer for 16 years;
Appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations as one of four International Election Commissioners who administered Afghanistan's first parliamentary elections;
Served the Privy Council Office on Canada's involvement in Afghanistan; and
Volunteered for the Lycee Louis Pasteur Society, the Heritage Park Foundation, the Calgary Winter Club, the Lakeview Community Association and the Alberta Human Rights Education Advisory Board.

As Graham Thompson said in his column yesterday about her: "Exceptionally smart and capable with an impressive legal record that includes a stint with full body armour in Afghanistan to help run that country's elections. By all accounts, a rising star." Interesting tidbit on Redford's political past - she was the one who challenged Rob Anders for the federal CPC nomination in 2004 for Calgary-West. Nothing like someone who tries to right wrongs regardless of the odds stacked against you.

Alison Redford unseated Liberal Craig Cheffins in Calgary-Elbow, which no doubt adds to her clout within caucus and in the eyes of the Premier. After all, many Tories point to the by-election loss in Calgary-Elbow as the low point of the last 15 months and Redford succeeded where Brian Henninger couldn't. At 414 votes her victory wasn't quite as comfortable as the 2,034 Ralph enjoyed in 2004, but we should be impressed that Redford found 2,000 votes more than Henninger did just eight months earlier and approached Klein's 2004 total votes. Indeed, when you factor in the 949 votes cast for former Alderman Barry Erskine who wanted to be the PC candidate but failed to file on time in the nomination along with the impressive 961 votes won by the Alliance, you can see Redford was not just fighting Cheffins.

In her campaign Redford made two issues a focus: safety and the Calgary ring road. Having lived right beside the Tsuu T'ina reserve prior to university, I remember the endless discussions and maneuvering. As I got older and maybe a little more objective, I realized how big and complicated an issue this is. But I think Ms. Redford is the right person to help steer this project to its conclusion. Her position on the matter is reasoned and sound - and importantly she is obviously well-prepared to represent her constituents on the matter.

Crime was an issue that dwelled below the surface in the election, always present but never the highlight of a news cycle. Naturally when the governing party is seen as the best party to tackle the issue and always has the best plan it is rare an opposition party will want to make it the issue of the day. With the election over and the team ready to govern that will change.

An aggressive agenda awaits the new Minister of Justice - Alberta is growing by leaps and bounds, there is an overheated economy with lots of people with way more money on their hands than they know what to do with, and that all comes with difficult challenges on keeping everyone and their property safe.

Of the Premier's new five priorities, crime and safety takes centre stage, with the government focused on "reducing crime so Albertans feel safe in their communities." The previous priorities focused the government in their first 15 months and was continually referred to by government as the road map for every major initiative. No doubt the new government will operate the same way, and Redford will be the quarterback for the government on meeting their goal in reducing crime.

Redford mentions the work Crime Reduction and Safe Communities Task Force and how we have hired more Crown prosecutors, more court staff and more funding for police officers but in her campaign she emphasized that the status quo is not acceptable.

Importantly she has stressed a balanced approach to making our society safer - not just more bars and more walls, not just more police officers and not just more programs aimed at the margins of society to prevent crime. The right strategy is one that balances prevention, intervention and enforcement.

Links:
www.alisonredford.ca
CBC story on cabinet
Enlightened Savage's profile on Calgary-Elbow

Labels: alberta politics

If I was sent off into the wilderness to find a new Minister of Infrastructure for Alberta two thoughts would roll about in my head.

You don't find Ministers of Infrastructure in the wilderness.
You would need someone who understands both rural Alberta and our urban municipalities.

If Endiang, Alberta is in fact in the wilderness, I would in fact be wrong on the first count, but in newly sworn-in Minister of Infrastructure Jack Hayden we definitely have the latter. Before becoming the MLA for Drumheller-Stettler, Hayden was a former Councillor and Reeve of the County of Stettler but that isn't where his talent for understanding rural and urban Alberta will come from. His depth of experience in dealing with municipal governance and the issues facing our communities comes from:

Serving as director and president for the central district of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties;
Being on the Board of Directors of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities; serving as the chair of the FCM's Transportation and Communication committee and as a member of the Environment committee;
His appointment to the Prime Minister's External Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities, which completed its work and was presented to Prime Minister Stephen Harper in June 2006; and
Being placed on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Roll of Honour.

What I find more intriguing about Hayden is his proximity to Premier Ed Stelmach and obvious political track record for getting stuff done. Jack Hayden was Ed Stelmach's rural campaign chair during the PC leadership race in 2006 - given how well Premier Stelmach did in rural Alberta during that race is a testament to Hayden's obvious political skills. As albertatory said about Hayden in his post on the cabinet appointments:

"Mr. Hayden is rumoured to be one of the Premier's closest advisors in caucus... with someone going as far as to say that he should have been the Chief of Staff. As a stand-alone from Transportation, Infrastructure will get to deal with a whole lot of capital planning issues... issues that the Premier loves to sink his teeth into. Expect the boss and his new Infrastructure Minister to be working together very closely."

Alberta has serious infrastructure issues. As the Premier pointed out at every opportunity, we're growing at an unprecedented rate, and families do not move here with roads, schools and hospitals packed in their suitcases and moving vans. How serious is this issue - and how serious does Premier Stelmach take it?

"Providing the roads, schools, hospitals and other public infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing economy and population," is one of the government's top five priorities as they enter their new mandate. Hayden will have a full plate today, day one of his new job, and will get to look forward to all sorts of challenges on the way.

Splitting Infrastructure and Transportation into two ministries will help, as Minister Luke Ouellette gets support from Hayden in the task of building the stuff Alberta needs, and importantly getting the political will around the cabinet table to meet this objective. As any politician should tell you, building new schools and hospitals is sexy yet expensive, while working on the deferred maintenance to an old facility is a thankless yet expensive task. This team from central Alberta should be able to make the case for sustainable and prudent investment into new and existing infrastructure.

On a side note, I was enthused by Hayden's core promises to his constituents: maintaining open, honest and accountable representation with an open-door policy; spending as much time as possible in the constituency (the Premier just made that one harder...); keeping his constituents informed through a column in local newspapers and through three constituency offices - Stettler, Drumheller and Hanna; and actively listening to concerns and responding to each inquiry in a timely manner.

Far from the scandalous lifestyle former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer made it seem, being a politician is about helping people and treating them with respect while you try and make a difference in their life. Going out in the community as much as possible and responding to each concern in a reasonable amount of time is something that many politicians find hard to do once the ballot box is put away, and good on Hayden for making it a firm promise to his electors.

He made another promise to the people of Drumheller-Stettler that brought a smile to my face. He promised to engage young people by holding quarterly meetings with a constituency-wide youth advisory council. It isn't a brand new idea, but it is rare, especially in rural Alberta.

He's made reasonable and sustainable commitments to his constituents and earned their trust; I doubt we will get anything less from him as Minister of Infrastructure.

Links:
www.jackhayden.ca

Labels: alberta politics

The new cabinet has been announced, and it seems the new ministers and parliamentary assistants are ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work. Given the level of turnover and renewal in the PC caucus, there is not a tremendous amount of change, but there is enough to be noteworthy.

There is a lot of stats that could be trotted out such as how many seats at the cabinet table were gained or lost by a certain geographic area or certain demographic group, but that is a bit dull in my mind. That said, the cabinet does achieve a greater balance on that front.

From where I sit, the biggest promotion was not to a person but rather a portfolio, that of International and Intergovernmental Affairs. Deputy Premier Ron Stevens will now be handling those files, and the shortlived marriage between IIA and Aboriginal Affairs is over with Gene Zwozdesky getting a promotion to Minister of Aboriginal Affairs. Ron Stevens is well-respected and has been given dozens of difficult files over the past ten years and is now set to tackle our relations with Ottawa and the United States.

Who else wins? The natural choice would be the five MLAs promoted to Minister:

Alison Redford (Calgary-Elbow)
Mary Anne Jablonski (Red Deer-North)
Jack Hayden (Drumheller-Stettler)
Lindsay Blackett (Calgary-North West)
Heather Klimchuk (Edmonton-Glenora)

I must confess I only know Alison, Jack and Lindsay by reputation and passing, but I can say that Mary Anne and Heather are fantastic additions to the front bench. Both have been effective advocates. Add to the winners list Gene Zwozdesky, Yvonne Fritz and Cindy Ady who were promoted from associate minister to full minister.

Labels: alberta politics

Old news unfortunately, as I really meant to blog about this last Tuesday, or maybe Wednesday, or Thursday, well you get the picture. But I didn't. And now almost all of it has been said. So how to add? Well, a couple of observations.

The importance of organizing: The PCs did well in Calgary, and I'm happy. But I don't think the polls prior to the election were lying, Calgary has a fair number of people who didn't plan on voting PC. So why did Calgary remain a conservative strong hold, winning Calgary-Elbow and containing the losses to McCall and Buffalo. I was sitting in my campaign office, working on getting people out and realized that even if there are some voters in Calgary who would vote Liberal if they got to a poll on March 3, the Liberals might not have the organization to call them. For thirty years the idea of being Liberal in Calgary is kind of alien. There are not a lot of long-time Liberals there, especially ones who would volunteer for a month. That might come in time, but for now the PCs win Calgary not just because they are the better choice, but because they are more organized.

How important was money: Regardless of how the vote turned out, I bet the loser would blame money. If the PCs had lost, eventually the labour campaign of "No Plan" would have got the blame. Or possibly the nearly $1 million spent in Edmonton by the NDP (which would rival and possibly be more than what the PCs spent in the capital region). Add the lefty special interest groups and it turns out it wasn't just the right throwing money around this election. I still believe money is second to volunteer efforts and good planning.

We're not stupid, so stop telling us we are: This has been covered elsewhere, but all the same it can't be repeated enough - political parties don't win government by telling people they are stupid. Dr. Taft's decision to tell Albertans they made a huge mistake electing 10 consecutive PC governments was the stupid decision. The bizarre decision to run against Ralph Klein when he wasn't even on stage should go down as the reason the Liberals lost. Maybe it appeals to your base, but as it turns out the Liberal base is not that big.

Labels: alberta politics

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