Saturday, February 23, 2008
I turn my back for one minute...
What on earth has been happening in Alberta since I left?
A mediocre showing of candidates in Edmonton-Strathcona I am disappointed, but not surprised, about. It's nice to know Raj has a feisty successor in NDP candidate Rachel Notley, who actually seems to have thought carefully about what she would do in the legislature beyond thumbing through her party's platform. But the Liberal and Conservative candidates... Tim Vant really couldn't remember if the Liberals support putting a stopper on any new oil sands development immediately or not? And kudos the PCs for finding a sacrificial lamb after all, but TJ Keil sounds less and less informed every time I read about something he's said. Thank you to terahertz for blogging the all-candidates forum (minus Green candidate Adrian Cole) and making my decision very very easy.
What I did not anticipate in this election was the extent to which the PCs' shamefully lazy sense of entitlement would apparently lead them to think they could just rig this election anyway they please:
That's right. Half of the returning officers in the province have "strong ties with the Progressive Conservatives." If you're going to rig an election, do it with class, man! Does Stelmach really think the "optics" of this are going to get any better for having appointed Katherine Harris as Chief Returning Officer - Harris of Florida's cheery hanging chad fame? (Kudos to Calgary Grit and to Dave Cournoyer of daveberta, who is a very nice fellow and a decent tipper, which is an important thing)
My province, my province... I leave for one semester and suddenly we've got all the usual apathy of an Albertan election compounded with the absurd electoral shenanigans of Putin and the gang?
Fortunately one province out west doesn't seem to have completely lost their minds... BC has been moving to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by over 30% from 2007 levels by 2020, and they've actually got a plan to do it - starting with a carbon tax! Which is reasonable, since by 2006 their emissions had gone up by 30% over 1990 levels. Crazy. It's happening.
A mediocre showing of candidates in Edmonton-Strathcona I am disappointed, but not surprised, about. It's nice to know Raj has a feisty successor in NDP candidate Rachel Notley, who actually seems to have thought carefully about what she would do in the legislature beyond thumbing through her party's platform. But the Liberal and Conservative candidates... Tim Vant really couldn't remember if the Liberals support putting a stopper on any new oil sands development immediately or not? And kudos the PCs for finding a sacrificial lamb after all, but TJ Keil sounds less and less informed every time I read about something he's said. Thank you to terahertz for blogging the all-candidates forum (minus Green candidate Adrian Cole) and making my decision very very easy.
What I did not anticipate in this election was the extent to which the PCs' shamefully lazy sense of entitlement would apparently lead them to think they could just rig this election anyway they please:
That's right. Half of the returning officers in the province have "strong ties with the Progressive Conservatives." If you're going to rig an election, do it with class, man! Does Stelmach really think the "optics" of this are going to get any better for having appointed Katherine Harris as Chief Returning Officer - Harris of Florida's cheery hanging chad fame? (Kudos to Calgary Grit and to Dave Cournoyer of daveberta, who is a very nice fellow and a decent tipper, which is an important thing)
My province, my province... I leave for one semester and suddenly we've got all the usual apathy of an Albertan election compounded with the absurd electoral shenanigans of Putin and the gang?
Fortunately one province out west doesn't seem to have completely lost their minds... BC has been moving to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by over 30% from 2007 levels by 2020, and they've actually got a plan to do it - starting with a carbon tax! Which is reasonable, since by 2006 their emissions had gone up by 30% over 1990 levels. Crazy. It's happening.
Labels: alberta, bc, democracy, politics, sustainability
posted by Christopher at 12:33 a.m.
0 Comments:
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