Disgruntled Alberta Refomers See the Province as the Way to Change Ottawa

Link Byfield made it known 2 weeks ago on the home page of his Citizen’s Centre for Freedom and Democracy that this group was “going political.”

The inspiration appears to be the Firewall letter of 2001 which Links calls the end of the Reform Party Era. He sees the way to reform Ottawa is now in the ands of the provinces and that Alberta is in the best position to pick up the torch or cudgel, depending on how you see it. So they have started a new Reform provincially based political party...the Wildrose Party.

I see Ted Morton’s picture along with Stephen Harper who both signed the infamous Firewall Letter to then Premier Ralph Klein in 2001. This was before these gentlemen were successful in elected politics.

So I expect Link sees the Firewall Letter spirit as a fulcrum and a provincial political party as a lever to get the job done. With so many strong egos and different perspectives on the far right, it is hard to see a way that a coalition will emerge…but a strong man might. Who might that strong man be? Alberta’s SRD Minister Ted Morton and Edmonton City Councilor Mike Nickel are names you hear bandied about for that role.

Waterloo

This came from a good friend. I love clever people with meaningful messages

Stelmach Steps In on Teacher Pension Issues.

Congratulations to Premier Stelmach for taking the conditions off the additional $25M "goodwill" contribution of the Alberta government to the unfunded pension liability for teachers. Putting conditions as to how the funds were to be allocated distributed is not the government’s business.

Now he must continue his leadership and ensure that the resolution of the pension issue is not part of the labour negotiations. This separation of the two issues became a clear message coming our of the PC Leadership forum. It is my understanding that is consistent with the Premiers position then too. For the record, I have worked for the ATA in the past on finding ways to resolve this pension issue and I also working to try and fix the mess left by a former Minister who's bullying tactics was the real cause of the recent teacher strike

The Task Force on the unfunded pension liability the Minister of Learning has set up is also been redirected by the Premier. It merely needs to find the most expeditious way to resolve this issue. It does not need more public hearings on this issue. We have too many of those going on right now. We also have all the actuarial expertise it needs within the fund management and the government finance people so that part of the original mandate is unnecessary…in fact it is obfuscation at its worst.

This unfunded pension liability is one of the most unfair holdovers of mismanagements of past governments all the way back to Social Credit. The 1992 resolution that was reached was not effective for the long term because it assumed the education system would be in constant growth and there would always be more new young teachers coming into the system than older ones retiring. We know how wrong that has proven to be. Even the cuts to education that resulted in significant numbers of teacher lay offs in the debt and deficit days undermined the logic and effectiveness of the 1992 “resolution” of the issue.

Premier Stelmach, Alberta is not out of debt until this matter is resolved once and for all. Continue to take the responsibility to resolve this matter personally and dedicate some of the Sustainability Fund or Heritage Fund interest proceeds towards this problem. It will never be less expensive to do than now and it will never be more important for the long term benefit of our youth and the province as a whole. Do it now. Get it done.

Harper Trade Casey for Comuzzi - What is He Thinking?

Bill Casey gets the boot by Harper for voting against the budget in support of his constituency and joltin’ Joe Comuzzi,recently turfed by Dion, joins the Harper Cons because, as he says, he voted for something (like the budget) that benefited his constituency.

Political Parties? We don't need no stinkin' Political Parties.

Senator Anne Cools gets turfed by the Cons as a Senate rep after defecting from the Liberal awhile ago because she also spoke her mind...while in each party Tut Tut Madame appointed Senator! You are to do as you are told and if that means you have to park your principles and your consciousness at the Senate door – so be it - surely you knew that. Tip of the hat to Cowboys for Social Responsibility for reminding us of this escapade.

Political parties are becoming tribal and bad caricatures of the Survivor reality TV series…it seems as though everyone is getting voted off the island one way or another.

By the way Steve…Comuzzi is no Casey…with those player trading skills like that you can always coach the Maple Leafs after the next election.

Wildrose Party Of Alberta Emerges on the Right

I got an interesting email this afternoon. The Wildrose Party is on its way emerging from 76 people who attended a meeting in Red Deer last week end. It is in the process of setting up a non-profit society and will then proceed to register as a political party.

The founding principles are:
1. That the party's Leader and MLAs will remain accountable to the membership.
2. That provincial policies espoused by the party will reflect and strengthen the mainstream values and priorities of Albertans.
3. That the party will take a constructive stance favouring earned prosperity in all regions of Canada and the full exercise of Alberta's rights under the Constitution of Canada.

The website has been opened (www.wildroseparty.ca) and a founding convention is scheduled for Edmonton on October 26 and 27. They say they need to enlist 6004 founding members to register as a political party and they anticipate a spring 2008 election. So they have lots of work to do and a short time to do it in.

The founding executive is interesting as well:

Rob James, president (Calgary)
Link Byfield, executive director (Morinville)
Sharon Maclise, vice-president membership (Edmonton)
Gordon Lang, vice-president fundraising (Calgary)
Gordon Stamp, vice-president policy (Edmonton)
Don Weisback, vice-president communications (Brooks)
Eleanor Maroes, treasurer (Edmonton)
Marilyn Burns, secretary (Edmonton)

Southern Directors:
Don Gebauer (Calgary)
John Hilton-O'Brien (Calgary)
Rosemary Craig (Calgary)

Northern Directors:
Faye Engler (St. Albert)
Phil Gamache (Edmonton)
Daniel Johnson (Edmonton)

Ah yes…the freedom of association, ya gotta love it! I smell democracy in the air.