Is Jaffer on His Way to the Senate?

Congratulations are called for given the “secret” post-campaign marriage of Rahim Jaffer and Helena Guergis. Mr. Jaffer has also recently conceded the election to Dipper Linda Duncan.

Jaffer Severance Pay:
Don’t cry a tear for Mr. Jaffer and his campaign loss. He will collect $77,700.00 severance pay complements of the Canadian taxpayer. He will have to wait about 20 years to collect his $53,000.00 per year pension.

Senator Jaffer?
In the meantime it would not be a surprise if the Harper Party appointed Mr. Jaffer to the Senate. Jaffer would have to move to Ontario permanently because there are no Senate vacancies in Alberta right now, but Ontario has two openings. How hard will that be to relocate to become an Ontario Senator, especially since his wife is from Ontario?

Senator Jaffer will collect a basic entitlement of $134,400 per year for almost 40 years - until he is 75. If he takes on another role in the Senate he will get a significant top-up in the pay envelope. Dirty work but someone has to do it.

Senate Reform - Bert Brown is now Cool to the Idea!
I wonder if part of the Senate appointment will require Jaffer to support Harper’s campaign promise to institute 8 year term limits for the Senate. Bert Brown is the other Alberta Senate Reform champion but he is reported to be cool to Harper’s ideas on Senate reform all of a sudden. Brown was recently and finally appointed to the Senate as an “elected Senator” from Alberta. Newspaper reports indicate Mr. Brown is now cool to the idea of term limits but he still supports provinces electing Senators. Is anyone surprised?

This seems to put Mr. Brown totally off side with the Harper Party on Senate Reform. Brown does not want to see Harper unilaterally impose term limits because it would create a Constitutional crisis – likely lead by Quebec with Ontario and Atlantic Canada support. That would cause a provincial court challenge and further divide the country. But would Harper care if he is not going to stay in politics much longer than the life of his minority government?

Would Harper want to give up the discretion for Senate appointments to a bunch of wild-eyed reactionaries who might get elected from Provinces who would expect Harper to honour that democratic process? I think not.

Senate Reform is going to be a political sideshow given the serious economic, environment and social issues Canada really faces these days. That does not mean Senate reform will be ignored by the Harper Party. It is still a handy bone to throw to the radical right base that Harper still needs…even more than he needs Quebec…for the short term anyway.

CTV Decides to Defend Themselves on the Dion Interview NOW? SPARE ME!

Here is an example of rationalization after the fact. CTV News is apparently now offering a defence to the airing of the Dion interview where he had to repeatedly ask for a clarification of the question to the effect of what Dion would do differently than Harper "now" if he were Prime Minister.

The question was ambiguous in that "now" could mean if Dion was PM for the same time Harper had been like 2.5 years, or during the current election campaign or afterwards in how he would govern differently if Dion won the election. Dion was seeking a clarification as to which time frame the interview was referencing. The answer would be significantly different in each case.

CTV thought this was so critical to quality journalism that they has a "responsibility" to air it. They had a responsibility all right. Starting with a responsibility to clarify the question would have been a professional place to start, especially in a second language.

Harper spun the event in yet another direction, being the congenitally misleading politician that he is...but that is just the same old mean-spirited politics that seem to be standard in Canada these days.

CTV- this just doesn't cut it. At least CTV you didn't go as far as the RCMP did in the last election and announce a criminal investigation publicly on Income Trusts. The spirit of "being responsible" sure seems to be in the same vein. Later the RCMP found no wrong doing by any politician and only some bureaucrat benefited with insider information. But those facts and that story got little to no play after the "facts."

Re-Engaging Culture Creatives in Public Policy Design

The Alberta Rally for Arts happened in Edmonton near the end of the federal election campaign. It was one of many events across the country to protest the Harper Party arts and culture funding cuts and to mobilize people to get involved in the election. I was asked to help out and here is a clip of part of my comments.

Based on the turnout being the lowest in history one wonders if people are grumpy but not angry enough to get seriousy engaged in effective citizenship.

The culture creatives and progressives in Alberta are a key group that need to re-engage in civics and citizenship if we are to have a cohesive, inclusive and creative society. I am a big believer that the world needs more Canada but Canada has to be more than mere myths of creativity, innnovation and inclusion.

I intend to try to continue to engage progressives and culture creatives in public policy design and development from now on. So you can expect some more "Free Speech" blog posts to those ends going forward.

Canadian Election - The Daily Show

This insight into Canada and our relationship with the USA and our election is so much fun. I love being Canadian just for the reasons Jon Stewart talks about.

Alberta Includes Midwifery Under Health Care Services - Finally

The Stelmach government once again shows its progressive side by including midwifery in the fully funded public health care system. This has been a long time coming and credit is due to the Stelmach government in this positive policy position.

I acted as legal counsel for the Alberta Association of Midwives many years ago and managed to get them legal status as a profession. A breakthrough in the “negotiations” happened when a Red Deer doctor complained to the RCMP about a mother having a home birth that had no complications. Charges were laid and the public saw this as ridiculous and abusive – which it was. It was also seen as by the public as turf protection by some members of the medical profession. To their credit, not all physicians had this attitude.

The mom hired a lawyer to push the matter through courts and I pursued it in the court of public opinion. We won in both courts and midwifery became legal as the political barriers that many backward thinking politicians had put up suddenly disappeared. Midwives became recognized as a profession under Alberta law – but the province refused to include them in the health care system for years.

Midwifery services have always been part of the access to services and wait times solution. With the shortages and aging of family physicians and obstetricians midwifery service is not so much an innovation as a necessity.

Alberta is slow to get up to speed on midwifery services compared to other provinces. We were never able to get them included in the public health care system for pure political reasons. The same backward attitudes slowed down seatbelts, smoking bans and unfunded teacher’s pension liability. Well Ed Stelmach has changed all that and now he adds enlightened policy on midwifery to his accomplishments. Congratulations Premier Stelmach and to all those who involved in this wonderful decision.