More "Business as usual" in Alberta.

On Monday the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers or CAPP were found to be in "full compliance with the requirements of the Lobbyists Act" by Alberta's Ethics Commissioner, but on Tuesday that finding has been put into question.( A PDF of that report can be found here)

Internal government documents obtained by CBC appear to contradict some of the evidence upon which Alberta’s lobbyist registrar dismissed allegations of illegal lobbying against the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

 Under the act, lobbying is distinguished from collaboration by which organization initiates the communications. If an outside group initiates talks with the government that is lobbying. In the case involving CAPP, Odsen found that it was the government that initiated talks with CAPP. But documents obtained by CBC, and statements made by the government itself to CBC, directly contract Odsen’s findings.

Sadly this is business as usual in Alberta.

Where the PC government would rather work behind closed doors with industry to develop communications strategies and write press releases and would rather lie to Albertans then tell the truth about their own legislation.  

When this kind of crap becomes an almost a daily occurrence, it really is time for a change.

Friends of the CBC mocks US culture by using well known Canadian porn promoter in its ad.

Friends of the CBC have put out an ad mocking US culture and television by showing what may happen if the CBC were to be taken off the taxpayer funded dole. The ad (see below) titled CBC's new owner gives the news some action shows "new owner" Lance Fury's, an American former pro wrestler, plans for the new CBC; hot babes and lots of 'action' with not so subtle shots at the conservatives with a picture of PM Harper visible in some background shots.



The ad intentionally mocks the culture, or what many on the left believe is the culture, of our neighbors to the south and their television programming. Scantly clad women and lots of action is what the Friends of CBC claim will become of the CBC if it were to be privatized.

And how do the 'Friends' mock the culture of our American neighbours? By using a known Canadian pornography photographer and promoter Uncle D, known as "the Canadian Ass Man" in their ad. (because our culture is so much superior to that of the US)

 Uncle D as seen in the Friends Ad. Note the unique tattoos.

Uncle D as seen on CBC's Dragons Den, so it is not as if this guy was totally unknown to the CBC or its so called friends, where he was openly promoting his porn work and asking the Dragons for some cash to help his business. Some more info on Uncle D can be found here.


Financing the CBC............... 1.3 Billion taxpayer dollars a year.
Helping the Assman.............. 250K (as asked of the Dragons)
Mocking US culture by using a Canadian porn promoter... Priceless.

Alberta's new "impaired" driving legislation.

More bad law written by a bored government trying to pander for votes.

From the St Albert Gazette: The government also plans new suspensions for drivers caught with an alcohol limit between 0.05 and 0.08. Drivers caught within that range the first time would face a three-day suspension and three-day vehicle seizure, rising to a 15-day suspension and seven-day seizure on the second offence and 30-day suspension and seven-day seizure on a third offence.

There are plenty of reasons why this is bad law, and I could write pages as to why, but just for the fact alone that one is tried and convicted at the side of the road with NO chance of an effective appeal makes this legislation a farce. While I realize that arguing against drunk driving law is like arguing against kittens, I would hope that most Albertans can see that this legislation for what it is. Written for optics and pandering.


From the comments: "The argument seems to be that not enough drivers are being caught and convicted, therefore the limit must be lowered."


Updated with link to newer post on Bill 26.

The Alberta Redux Act of 2011.

The Redford government announced today that in an effort to be more efficient that they would be putting forward only one bill in the second part of the fall sitting of the Alberta Legislature. The legislation entitled "The Alberta Redux Act" would effectively erase the past five years of PC government from the memories of Albertans and wipe out any legislation passed during this period.

"It will be much more efficient and save us a lot of time," said Alberta's Minister of Miscommunication, "instead of putting forward numerous bills to fix our flawed legislation, we will just pretend as if the past 5 years never happened and start from scratch." "It is both efficient and transparent" quickly adding, "and change too; must not forget to use the word change a lot."

The second part of the once cancelled fall session begins today.

Jennifer Ditchburn and I agree on something.

Jennifer Ditchburn and I agree on something. Too bad that her own history reveals her to be a hypocrite on the subject.

There was plenty of discussion yesterday about a blog entry the Citizen's Glen McGregor wrote about former PMO d-comm Dimitri Soudas showing up at an event with current MP Eve Adams, and whether or not gossip such as that should be considered news. To McGregor's credit he did a follow up today talking about the controversy which can be found here opening up the discussion further. I myself do not think that such nonsense is worth writing about as does not even come close to what I would consider 'news' but something I read in his follow up struck me as interesting.

"And  on Evan Solomon’s Power and Politics on CBC News Network, an entire panel segment was devoted to a talking about whether it was appropriate to talk about it. By a three to one decision — four to one if you include Solomon — the pundits ruled that it was not. Canadian Press reporter Jennifer Ditchburn denounced the reporting most emphatically while only NDP strategist Ian Capstick defended it. Ditchburn compared the issue to the outing a gay MP, which I think is an unfair comparison, as neither Soudas nor Adams appear be hiding their relationship." 

Here is the part that piqued my attention: "Jennifer Ditchburn denounced the reporting most emphatically..."  Yes she did do so most emphatically, in fact here is what she had to say on the subject. Ditchburn: " I got a lot to say about it. This is not a story. Someones personal life, their relationships with someone; I don't believe is a story, a national news story, first of all." In response to Capstick she also said the following: "When does gossip become news, that is what I want to know?"

While I do agree with Ditchburn that gossip should not be news, I have to wonder how she could sit there and defend that position after she wrote the following back in 2010.

Guergis had a history in the clubs with hometown playboy: acquaintance.

Ottawa- Helena Guergis may have nurtured the image of a straightlaced cabinet minister on Parliament Hill, but people who knew her in younger days paint a picture of a regular club-goer often seen on the arm of a hometown playboy.

 A story based on Guergis's personal life, her relationships with others, gossip & allegations not even from 2010 but from 10 years earlier, combined with the now proven false, allegations surrounding her and her husband at the time of writing.


So what was it that you were saying about relationships and gossip not being news Jennifer?


Related: Another post I wrote on Ditchburn can be found here.

How long before we see these pop up all across Alberta?

Ed Stelmach: Miss me yet?

An Alberta Sales Tax: The final nail.

Alberta Finance Minister Ron Liepert says it’s time to consider implementation of a new provincial sales tax.

Still think that there is anything even remotely conservative about Alberta's PCAA government?

Updated: Sun story: Sales tax cometh. 

Karl Heinz Schreiber's revenge!

Now: Lawyer says a government committee could be violating the Constitution if they force the CBC to turn over documents.

Then: The Liberal run ethics committee demanded that private citizens Karl Heinz Schreiber and Brian Mulroney hand over personal private documents, including tax and bank records (both domestic and foreign) to the committee. Nothing was off limits, as it was the will of parliament. The committee also believed that they had the right to release that info, no matter how sensitive.

If these things could be demanded by a government committee of a private citizen, which if I remember correctly was cheered on by many at the CBC at the time, then there is no possible reason why the same could not be demanded of the CBC, a crown corporation owned and funded by the government.
 
Sorry CBC but when you claim to have more rights than a Canadian citizen, you lose.




Optional title: Those that defended the Liberal run ethics committee when they ran the Karl Heinz Schreiber / Brian Mulroney circus have the "will of Parliament" bite them on the ass.

Update: Video: Ezra on the hypocrisy of the CBC. Oh, and their 728 cars.

11/11/11 We Remember.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month an armistice was  signed to end the war to end all wars. 

Lt Col John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.



We Remember.

The state of the Canadian news media.

Summed up in a single tweet.
 
Jane Taber:  "Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo on @ctvqp about XL pipeline with @KevinNewmanCTV! Good get"

Meanwhile, in boardrooms all across the land, network executives huddle and wonder why they are not only losing viewers/readers but also why they are rapidly losing credibility and the respect of the general public.


Related: Some interesting background on pipeline expert Mark Ruffalo.

And from CTV comes this description of a video:

"CTV's Question Period: Breakdown of pipeline: Despite the debate that the Keystone XL pipeline will create jobs, actors and regular citizens are coming together to fight the project saying it isn't needed." (Because actors are so much better than the rest of us)

Next week on CTV's Question Period: Lindsay Lohan talks peace in the Mideast and Kim Kardashian discusses her plan to solve the European debt crisis.

Hey look at me. The latest Liberal strategy.

It is hard to be the third party and even harder when you believe that you are 'the natural governing party' of Canada. A disinterested public doesn't really seem to care and the media all but ignore you in favour of covering the governing party and the official opposition.

So what do you do?

Easy; you stage some sort of event that will garner attention from the press and try to get some media time to yell look at me into the cameras so that you can appear relevant.

Not a bad idea in theory but it is important to pick the right issue and personally I don't believe that a uni-lingual AG is that issue. You know that this will eventually come back to bite them in the ass at some point in the future and I think that most Canadians would rather see these things awarded on merit rather than on fluency in both official languages, which makes the Liberals move appear self-serving.

However it appears that the Liberals do not share my thinking on this as earlier today under interim leader Bob Rae they staged their little attention grabbing walkout. While we don't know how well it will go over with the public, who seem to have issues when Liberals don't show up to work, according to Bob Rae the media bought into it big time.

Bob Rae: Well I think actually in this case it is more effective, your talking to me today so are many other reporters. (CTV video clip approx 4:30)

Update: Kelly McParland on how out of touch the Liberals are on this. 

Civil servant and Ignatieff donor walks away from his job.  (Pure coincidence that he uses the same lame tactic as the Liberals I assume.) Further update:  Dorais quit the committee to select a new AG after a new AG had been chosen and there is no longer a need for the committee.  Wow, what courage.