Today's PC smear: Conscience rights. But what is the role of government?

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:

"
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

(a) freedom of conscience and religion;

(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and

(d) freedom of association.                                    "

Our Charter provides us as individuals with certain rights, and is intended to protect us from any government passing laws infringing on those rights.

So would anyone who is currently aghast about the PC smear du jour of conscience rights and spinning that rights are going to be violated, why should anyone have to surrender their charter guaranteed right of freedom of conscience just because they happen to 'work' for the government?  And that invitation also includes Premier Redford, a lawyer and 'human rights' expert, who called the conscience policy "frightening". Our charter is frightening?  I don't think so but would be happy to hear you try to defend that and your playing politics with charter rights.

So now that we got that charter right business out of the way lets look at what the governments role in all of this is, or at least should be.

Someone is entitled to receive a 'government service'. They get that government service.

Done. That's it.

That is the role of government.

It isn't to force a specific individual to surrender his freedom of conscience by forcing them to perform that service, it is just to make sure that the service does get performed.

And that is why this isn't near the issue that it has been blown up to solely for political reasons. The truth is that no one has been denied a government 'service' because of conscience rights and everyone who has been entitled to be married has been given that opportunity and everyone who was entitled to any other government service has also received that service.

It just isn't happening and it hasn't happened for a long long time in Alberta and even then it they ended up getting the services they were due through the courts. Because that is what courts are for when it appears that rights collide.

Which incidentally is exactly what Danielle Smith said this morning.

The facts on Alberta, the PC Party and electricity.

Seen your power bill lately?  Wondering about why the PCs plan on spending billions of dollars, which WILL increase your power bill in the future, on new power lines? Interested in knowing the real facts on electricity in Alberta?

If you are interested, and even if your not, I suggest that you take some time, sit back and watch the following videos of a recent presentation from Joe Anglin on the subject. The 6 videos total about 1&1/2 hr in length ; watch them all at once or one at a time, but they are definitely worth watching and will open up your eyes to what is really going on here in Alberta. This is important and it does effect every person and business on Alberta.

1 (if you are having problems watching the videos here try this link)



2


3


4


5


6




Bonus video. Minister of Transportation, Luke Ouellette, and Minister of Sustainable Resource Development actually flew down to southern Alberta on tax dollars to bully their way onto the stage of one of Joe Anglin's presentations on electricity!








A must read on the subject. RETA: Responsible Electricity Transmission for Albertans.

Wildrose TV ad debuts

"It's time to put Albertans first."





Or you can watch it here or here.

The Alberta PC campaign is running scared and after yesterday it is clear why.

Former Ralph Klein COS Rod Love wrote in a blog posting titled "Three weeks of hell":
 I haven’t been in government for a while, but I sure know a bad few weeks when I see it.
And the question a lot of provincial Tories are asking themselves is:  WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN EDMONTON??? (Be sure to read the entire post. It is an eye opener and a good primer on what is wrong with the PCs)


I wonder what Mr. Love has to say about the disaster that Wednesday was?

A recap:

First up we found out that their has been a government committee where 21 members have been receiving $1,000/month to sit on a committee that has not met since 2008. The money spent has cost Alberta taxpayers $261,000 over the past year alone.That is bad enough but to make matters worse PC Bonnyville-Cold Lake MLA Genia Leskiw sounded almost foolish when she answered questions, or tried to, on the matter.  You seriously have to listen to this nonsense.





Next up we learned that patronage is still alive and well within the PCAA as already failed candidate for Calgary-Hawkwood and money man for Redford's leadership campaign, Farouk Adatia was appointed as the PC candidate for Calgary-Shaw.  With the recent shenanigans in Calgary-West with former AHS superboard head and Redford pal Ken Hughes, I am surprised that they would be so blatant with this appointment, but when it comes to arrogance the PCs are second to none.


And finally we have what has to be topper of the day and confirmation that the PC's are running scared as news broke of the PC ad campaign, which as Don Braid noted "The Tories haven’t done anything like this before – not ever, not once in the long period since they were elected on Aug. 30 1971" directed squarely at the Wildrose where they purposely misrepresent the Wildrose position on Bill 26 and fear monger purely for votes. And all of this after PC Campaign Manager Susan Elliot  claimed that they would not run attack ads.



The PC spin on this is unbelievable. They want us to think that they are so concerned about impaired driving that they decided to run political ads on it but yet DO NOT plan on implementing the law until September. The fact that Premier Redford promised that the law would be in place by Christmas of 2011 has of course been completely forgotten in their attempt to again use this as a political wedge to their advantage.



The PC for the first time in 40 yrs are running scared and judging by their failed record on health, electricity, the budget, along with Redford's many broken promises, and mishandled communications (this in spite of recently doubling the communications staff in the Premiers office) it is easy to see why. They are in trouble and they know it.   As I noted last week, we can expect them to lash out even more and the nastiness to increase as the reality of their situation becomes more apparent . Which probably means tomorrow because no one is buying their BS anymore.


A bit on Bill 26. It is flawed legislation for a number of reasons:

The legal limit in the criminal code is 0.08.

Police become the judge and jury and can take your license and seize your vehicle without appeal or due process at the roadside.

It does nothing to improve enforcement of existing law and in fact may do the opposite as limited police resources will now be tied up dealing with people who are not doing anything illegal.

If existing law, including losing your license for 1yr, heavy fines and insurance increases, are not deterring drunk driving, how can one expect that another piece of paper will manage to do so?

Put simply it is bad law written to make the Redford government appear that they are doing something about a serious issue. Having them delay it until September (so they have something to use against the Wildrose?) puts all of their spin about it being a safety issue into the BS pile.

A comment made on this blog a while back sums it up nicely: The PC's argument for Bill 26 seems to be that we are not currently catching enough impaired drivers so lets lower the limit and create even more.

Think about it.

And think about it again when you are at the ballot box.

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Update: Some related reading.

Searching for Liberty has a interesting look at the real numbers.< good job with this one.

It's our money.

The PC's are a well oiled machine.

Anymore questions as to why Ted Morton walked away?

Whether it is a 3.4 billion dollar deficit or a 6.1 billion dollar deficit, the Alberta Progressive Conservatives have made a colossal mess of the finances in what was the only debt free province in the country.

Time for someone new at the helm.


And I don't mean just a new leader either.

Guy Boutilier joins the Wildrose Alliance.

Just in:

WRA leader Danielle Smith announced that Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA Guy Boutilier has joined the Wildrose Alliance.

Boutilier has been sitting as an independent after Premier Ed Stelmach kicked him out of caucus for standing up for his constituency back in July 2009. Boutilier joins Heather Forsyth and Rob Anderson,who both crossed the floor from the PC party January, along with Paul Hinman in the WRA caucus.

This announcement coming one day before the Wildrose Alliance Party AGM which is being held in Red Deer this weekend.

I wonder if we are going to have some more surprises before this weekend is out?

Premier Stelmach worried, puts off Senate elections

Premier Ed Stelmach announced today that Alberta will not hold a new round of Senate nominee elections, and will instead extend the terms for the province's three remaining senators-in-waiting; Betty Unger, Cliff Breitkreuz, and Link Byfield who were elected to 6 year terms. Those those six-year terms expire in November and the provincial government has already moved to have new senators-in-waiting appointed, passing a bill extending to 2016 the expiry date of legislation governing senatorial elections in Alberta. This all coming just two days after the federal Conservative government introduced legislation urging the provinces to follow Alberta’s lead and hold Senate nominee elections. ( Update: the actual legislation passed in May extended the term to 3 years and not 6 as was stated at the time of writing)

I have mixed thoughts on this.

First, these Senators in waiting (SiW) were elected for 6 year terms; that is what we voted for and now the Premier wants to change the rules of the game. They were not elected for life, although if appointed to the Senate that WAS what would have happened, which is not really fair to all of us who did vote in the election and for those out there that may want to run for the positions. Let these 3 run again for another 6 year 'term' if this is a problem. (btw Unger and Byfield have said that they'll likely run again in any election)

Now that all being said there is a case to be made that by extending the terms of the current 3 senators in waiting and not holding a new election it could save us some money. Saving taxpayers dollars is almost always a good thing, but since these elections would be tied in with already planned fall municipal elections, those cost savings would be minimal at best.

Not one to get upset over saving the taxpayer a buck or 2 I might be applauding the Premier for this decision except for one thing.

That is not why he did it.

This is.

Wildrose Alliance Leader Danielle Smith announced plans for the WRA to run candidates in any upcoming SiW election, and the Premier is running scared because he knows what the results would be. It is the ugly truth and Stelmach knows that he is in trouble with Albertans and most likely his own party if he keeps this nonsense up.



Another article on the leadership of Premier Stelmach.


Wiki: Alberta Senate elections.

And then there were 3.

Not willing to have Premier Stelmach decide their fate for speaking out against the long in the tooth governing PC's, think what happened to Guy Boutilier, Fish Creek MLA Heather Forsyth and first termer Rob Anderson have crossed the floor and joined the Wildrose Alliance Party.

Anderson said, “Unfortunately, the current PC Party Leadership has failed to address my constituent’s concerns and will not permit me to speak publicly about these issues,” he said.

“Instead of remaining silent I have decided to stand up with even greater force for the people who elected me.

“I have no interest in investing any more of my life and taxpayers’ money defending poor public policy that has been developed by a small band of out-of-touch government appointees and insiders.”

A few more and David Swann will be looking for a new office.

BC Teachers, Wildrose, Ogopogologogate

I was out with the flu for a couple of days and need to catch up on a few thoughts.


So the BC Teachers union invites their members to the following event. "Teaching 2010 Resistance," aimed at developing ways to teach children about the dark side of the Olympic Games, to be held Oct. 28 at Lord Strathcona Elementary, is being organized by the Olympic Resistance Network and Teach2010.org, which calls itself "a collaborative website for teachers to post and find resources for teaching the 2010 Winter Olympics from a critical perspective."

If the BCTF's claims that this is not political agenda, but rather just an exercise in critical thinking are to be believed, then when can we expect to see the BCTF invite their members to teaching seminars on such topics as objections to gay marriage, or why global warming may just be the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on man kind take place? This reeks.

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It is not all bad for Ed Stelmach; now when he is nervously looking over his shoulder he gets to see Danielle Smith right behind him rather than David Swann. Hey Swanny, all it would take would be a couple and BOOM, you are out of that cozy OLO office. Be careful.

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Ogopogologogate! Copyright The Alberta Ardvark 2009. More political games and faux scandal from from the Liberals.

How much will one picture cost? No really. What will be the total cost, paid for by the taxpayers of Canada, to proceed with all of the investigations that the Liberals are now asking for:

• the Liberals have filed dozens of complaints with the ethics commissioner,
• they have asked Elections Canada to begin an investigation,
• they have asked the Public Service Commission to investigate,
• and, the Liberals have requested that the auditor general investigate

over something that the PM has already said was wrong and will not happen again. The overplay on this may backfire on the Liberals because it re-enforces the notion of the Liberals playing political games; but hey, that's just me thinking out loud.


The public is tired of this crap from all the parties. Do your fricking MP jobs and re-write the rules so we don't have ANY PARTY doing this in the future and stop playing expensive games of gotcha with my money.

Latest EKOS poll reveals a big problem for the conservatives.

By now you have all seen the numbers from the latest EKOS poll and it does not look good for the Liberals anywhere in the country. Anywhere in the country that is except for ALBERTA.

Yes your eyes are not deceiving you, I said Alberta.

Take a look at the numbers: While the conservatives are up EVERYWHERE in the country, and some times by as much as 5%, the conservatives actually went down in Alberta 2.1%! Worse yet are the Calgary numbers where the conservatives have actually went down a whopping 13.9%!

If this keeps up PM Harper had better be careful or he might not get re-elected in his own riding of Calgary Southwest.



Why is this happening? The answer is simple.



This guy is so toxic that he has done the impossible in the most conservative leaning province in Canada; he managed to actually derail the Harper juggernaut that has swept across the entire country including Quebec and Atlantic Canada. That is some accomplishment.

Sorry Rob, I know you are a supporter of his but there is NO other possible explanation as to why this has happened.

Wildrose Alliance: The official opposition in Alberta?

I am not sure how accurate this is but if it is true............

McLoughlin is reporting as many as 10 Tory MLAs could join the Wildrose Alliance Party if Danielle Smith takes the reins. That's a big shake-up that could place the Wildrose Alliance as the new Official Opposition. McLoughlin attributes his information to unnamed credible sources.

Stelmach boots out MLA for speaking out on an unkept promise.

Fort McMurray MLA Guy Boutilier got a phone call from Premier Stelmach Friday informing him that he was being kicked out of caucus for speaking out about a long term care facility that was promised for his riding and approved 18 months ago but which has now been put on hold.

You can read the story here.


Classy move Mr. Premier; not only have you not kept a promise which would improve the health system overall by freeing up much needed hospital beds occupied by elderly patients with nowhere else to go, but you couldn't even meet the man face to face to fire him and had to do so over the phone. That sure is some leadership you are showing there. If you take this latest example added along to some of the other great moments of your governments record such as reckless and now deficit spending, the total disregard for rights and fairness with your support of the AHRC, your regulating what a private business can charge their own customers for product, and other such nanny state ideas, I can see it is going to be a banner year for the Wildrose Alliance Party and all thanks to your great leadership.

Keep it up Mr. Premier and you could go down in history as the man who destroyed a dynasty.