Free Republic

In being witness to the plight Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach has found himself in, I cannot help but recall the final year or so of the Bush administration.

Politicians and their advisors are frantically trying to decide if the public mood has changed and by how much, and even more critically trying to balance the appeasement of the people and the appeasement of the still pro-environment business community (aka: their real friend$.)

A report by two environmental groups and financed by Toronto-Dominion Bank finds that Canada can meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets only by limiting economic growth in the oil-rich provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The report, from the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation, broadly concludes that Canada can lower greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent compared with 1990 levels by 2020 while maintaining a “strong, growing economy, a quality of life higher than Canadians enjoy today, and continued steady job creation across the country.” But the study, which relies on an economic model from M.K. Jaccard and Associates,...

As the kids display symptoms of post-Halloween MSIH (Massive Sugar Intake High) on this first night of November, I thought I'd take the opportunity to get a head start on this years Christmas list.

We promise to keep French on our cereal boxes if we don’t have to subject our children to the joys of ‘French immersion’ programs in our schools. And no Celine Dion. Ever.

Police are negotiating with a gunman reported to be holding as many as nine hostages in the Workers' Compensation Board building in downtown Edmonton. Edmonton police spokesman Jeff Wuite said authorities received a report Wednesday of a man armed with a hunting rifle inside the building, which is close to the legislature for the western Canadian province. "Now that we have communication with the suspect, we feel good that we can move forward to resolving it," Wuite said. "We want to find out what this guy wants and what we can do to end this peacefully."

The Alberta Human Rights Commission has accepted a complaint brought against an Edmonton-area Catholic school board by a substitute teacher who was let go after she announced she was 'becoming' a man. Janet Buterman, 39, had been employed by the Greater St. Albert Catholic School Board for about four months when, in June 2008, she informed deputy superintendent Steve Bayus that she was undergoing a 'sex change' and now wished to be treated as a man. The following October, Mr. Bayus responded with a letter indicating that Buterman had been removed from the substitute teacher list because the procedures she...

A random sampling of the best by the best.

It could be all that fresh mountain air. Or maybe it's the altitude, a different time zone or even jet lag. Otherwise there's no excuse for what makes tourists ask the dumbest questions. There are some real gems, and it happens all the time. Just ask the patient and good-natured folks who make a living showing tourists around Banff National Park. "We get a broader range of people (in summer)," says Daymon Miller, general manager of Discover Banff Tours. "They're coming from a broad range of urban centres with generally no concept of the wilderness." When the speak-before-thinking zinger is...

CALGARY - Canada will apply existing foreign ownership laws to PetroChina’s bid to buy Canadian oilsands assets but will not introduce further barriers to investing in the country, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday. PetroChina, the world’s most valuable oil company, is set to pay $1.9 billion for a 60 per cent stake in two planned Canadian oilsands projects. It’s the biggest Chinese investment yet in Canada’s oilsands, which have reserves second only to Saudi Arabia, and a test of the Canadian government’s bid to thaw once-frosty relations with Beijing. Harper said he recognized that PetroChina’s plans were controversial, but...

Energy: We balk at importing "dirty" oil from Canada, but others aren't so reluctant. Exempt as a "developing" nation from Kyoto-like agreements, China has decided to help Canada develop its energy-rich oil sands.The Financial Post reports that PetroChina International Investment Co. has struck a deal to buy a 60% interest in Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.'s McKay River and Dover projects for $1.9 billion. China has been establishing energy beachheads around the world in its quest to keep its growing economy fueled. With possible conflict brewing between Israel and Iran, Beijing recognizes the need for reliable suppliers like Canada in an...

CALGARY -- China has used its significant financial firepower to once again wiggle its way into Canada's oil sands, home to the largest source of crude outside Saudi Arabia. PetroChina International Investment Company Ltd. has struck a deal to buy a 60% working interest in Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.'s MacKay River and Dover oil sands projects for $1.9-billion, as well as "certain financing arrangements" for AOSC. "Oil sands projects are very capital-intensive long-term investments and difficult to fully finance in the traditional equity market," said Bill Gallacher, AOSC's chairman said in a statement. "AOSC therefore decided to look for joint...

The people are becoming restless and, more potentially damaging to Stelmach, they are beginning to lose faith. Descriptions like ‘aloof’ and ‘the Les Nessman of Alberta politics’ are replacing ‘nice guy’ regarding Ed. Notice: at no time do you hear the Premier described as ‘leader’.

Anytime a fresh political movement begins to gain momentum and begins to enjoy a higher level of credibility in the critical eye of the media, not to mention the public, there grows a danger of attracting the more controversial members of society.

If the most difficult aspect of democracy is finding yourself having to make a choice from a group of sub-par and undeserving candidates, then deciding who to vote for between two exceptional candidates has to be considered a very close second.

Alberta’s Energy guru Mel Knight made yet another Energy sector-friendly ‘incentive’ announcement today, bringing the number of similar updates/boosts/don’t-admit-we-screwed-up-…royally announcements to at least three. Do you hear the sound of kissing lips every time Knight holds a presser, or is it just me?

Talk about a good gig – every once in a while you throw a referendum (French for ‘tantrum’) that you never intend on winning, thereby ensuring another decade or two of pandering and bigger cheques from Ottawa. Crafty, them Quebecers.

OTTAWA — The Canadian Press has learned federal officials are set to announce the swine flu virus is believed to have infected pigs in Alberta. A government source says the animals were thought to be infected by a farm worker who had recently been to Mexico and fell ill upon his return. This may be the first time this particular swine flu virus has been found in pigs. The H1N1 virus, which is made up of swine flu genes, is believed to have jumped to humans some time back and has been passing person to person. The World Health Organization...

Ironically, the very things Morgan was accused of saying – questioning of Hinman had the ‘charisma’ to attract voters – is something I had brought up before.

Then Evans made what could be regarded in the future as The Exact Moment Her Career Died when she did not rule out the idea of a provincial sales tax. For the uninitiated in the Alberta culture, let me explain: we are the only province that does not have a sales tax. The very idea is so poisonous, so distasteful, so completely unacceptable under any circumstances, it has been responsible for the deaths of an astronomical number of political dreams. Simply put: we will not have it.

But my party – my government – lied to me. The party I have supported since becoming politically aware has destroyed my trust in them. I find myself as many Albertans do today, wondering if the next sound bite or government statement is the truth or another ‘its in the courts’ untruth.

EDMONTON -- Alberta appears ready to give up its bragging rights as a debt-free province as the government adjusts to a new economic reality. Premier Ed Stelmach is musing about using Alberta's gold-plated credit rating to borrow money at low interest rates to catch up with road, school and hospital building projects. This would be a major policy switch for Alberta's Progressive Conservative government, which shunned debt and borrowing for years when Ralph Klein was premier. "The province of Alberta has a triple-A credit rating," Mr. Stelmach told the legislature yesterday. "We also have $6-billion cash in the bank to...

Complete with what has been described as ‘stark’ photos of tailing ponds, made famous by the discovery of about 500 dead ducks that caused every leftwing granola eaters head to explode, the article itself is said to contain the fair and balanced description of the scene – smoke stacks and mills chugging away – as ‘dark’ and, I’m not kidding here, ‘satanic’.

Today I received a message from WBTA V.P. Daniel Doherty which should put the issue to rest. Doherty confirmed that the WBTA has received correspondence from Johnston in which he officially resigned his position.

Back then, the issues were the usual suspects: the flawed multi-cultural policy that has exposed gaps in our national security, forced English/French bilingualism, the national attitudes towards the West (Lesson One: stereotyping an Albertan on the CBC is comedy, stereotyping a French Quebecer is racism. Test to follow).....

They have been creating a little bit of a buzz, to be sure. But are they for real? Can they break away from the long-standing shackles that have held the pro-independence movement back? After lots of consideration, it appears the answer is no.

You drink diet soda, so you must be healthier. Right? That's what New York Gov. David Paterson is talking about with his proposal for an "obesity tax" — a 15 percent slap on non-diet sugary soft drinks. Think $1 for a Diet Coke, $1.15 for a Coke. There's just one problem: Studies have found links between drinking diet sodas and obesity and diabetes. A 2005 study at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, and separate studies released in 2007 at the University of Alberta in Canada and the University of Massachusetts found that diet soda drinkers were...

In what could be more than just an astute political move, the upstart Wildrose Alliance party has come out as supporting the idea of taking the idea of Alberta separation to the people via a provincial referendum.

Once thought of as a fringe movement populated mostly by the far rightwing and the over 50 crowd, those Albertans who now publicly support the idea of independence in the face of yet another Eastern hijacking of national power – and an unmistakable rejection of Albertan and Western Canadian values – are from every background, race, religion, and financial spectrum.

Hinman says that as long as Quebec separatists are calling the shots in Ottawa, Stelmach should do three things immediately: 1. Serve notice of Alberta's intent to withdraw from the current Federal Transfer Program. (brilliant!) 2. Initiate measures for Alberta to begin collecting its own taxes; (....again!) 3. Initiate discussions on a Regional Equalization Program involving the four Western Provinces. (three for three!)

The teenager behind a "Kick a Ginger" group on Facebook is being investigated by police after reports of attacks on redhead children. Nearly 5,000 people joined the online campaign which urged members to "get them steel toes ready" for a day of booting this week. The website appears to have been inspired by a recent episode of the cartoon South Park, in which a young character called Cartman describes people with red hair as evil and soulless. Dozens of children left messages on the page claiming to have carried out attacks on "National Kick a Ginger Day" on Thursday,...

From Edmonton to Edgeley, Sask., and points in between, people reported that the brilliant fireball streaking across western Canadian skies on Thursday seemed mighty close. Hundreds flooded phone lines at police stations and media outlets with accounts of a multicoloured meteor. No meteorite fragments have been found yet, but some of the witnesses who said they saw something fall are likely right, said Dr. Christopher Herd, a University of Alberta earth and atmospheric sciences professor. Herd was getting reports of the meteor touching down in all parts of Alberta. "It's a massive fireball; it's one of the brightest that we've...

HIGH PRAIRIE, Alta. — About 2,700 patients — including hundreds of children — need to be tested for HIV and hepatitis because a handful of hospital staff in a northern Alberta farming community administered drugs with dirty syringes for nearly two decades. Health officials said Monday they want to perform blood tests on 1,300 patients who had endoscopy procedures at the High Prairie Health Complex over four years dating back to March 2004. Officials said fewer than five staffers were routinely injecting pain killers into intravenous lines with syringes that had already been used in lines attached to other patients....

Former CSIS strategist David Harris says a weekend explosion near the town of Dawson Creek in northeastern B.C. fits the description of terrorism, despite police statements to the contrary. Sometime overnight Saturday, someone detonated a large explosion next to the sour gas pipeline about 50 kilometres from the B.C.-Alberta border. The blast did not rupture the pipeline but blew a 1.8-metre crater in the ground, which was discovered by a hunter on Sunday. "How on earth anyone could declare this was not terrorism at this early stage is beyond me. Terrorism is associated with an attempt by threat or actual...

They deny the nation the chance at a solid and stable government heading into the choppy financial waters. At least we know what they consider important in la belle province. Screw the economy – Quebec needs to pay the buskers!

WINNIPEG - The family of a young man stabbed to death and beheaded on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba on Wednesday night finally spoke out Saturday, calling 22-year-old Tim McLean "a little guy with a heart bigger than you could know."

It is an example of the stale and distasteful practice of social engineering that many Canadians outside of Alberta have come to think of as part of Canadian culture.....

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Canada is a cultural dichotomy. We are a collection of very singular and – dare I say? – distinct peoples who have very little in common, yet are feebly tied together through pseudo-patriotic themes such as beer commercials and donut shops. Confederation, that wonderfully impossible concept of complete and total Canadian national unity, has never worked and never will. One trip to a different part of the country proves that unequivocally. That is what became apparent to me during my camping venture in British Columbia.....

Media AdvisoryOur fallen soldier returns homeLFCA MA 08-008 - July 8, 2008OTTAWA, Ont. — Our fallen soldier, Private Colin William Wilmot, 24, of 1 Field Ambulance, based out of Edmonton, Alberta is scheduled to return home to Canada tomorrow. Where: 8 Wing Trenton, Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ontario. When: Wednesday, July 9, 2:00 p.m. What: Media are invited to view the arrival; however, no interviews will be given. Present to pay their respects at tomorrow's repatriation ceremony will be the Honourable Peter Gordon MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and other dignitaries. Pte...

In a nation where around 25% of the citizens categorize themselves as ‘French’, and a province where that number is drastically lower than that, we find ourselves now force-fed a different language and a different culture. And people wonder why I am an Alberta separatist.

Using the Greenpeace-friendly term ‘dirty oil’ in reference to crude drawn from the sand, the leaders of some American cities took lines that sounded right out of Treehugging For Dummies, stopping just short of equating Alberta’s oil industry with the Final Event of Revelations.....

Alberta's energy prominence makes it a terror target, conference toldJoel Kom, Canwest News Service Published: Friday, June 20, 2008 CALGARY -- Alberta's emergence as an energy superpower already has made it a target for international Islamic terrorists, but the province's growing oil and gas wealth could also help breed homegrown terrorism, law enforcement officials and advisers said Thursday. After opening an anti-terrorism conference in Calgary for security professionals in government and law enforcement, city police Chief Rick Hanson said it's not just extremism from abroad that has to be on the radar. "The risk of homegrown local terrorists, in the...

Re. June 7 Advocate news story Human rights ruling disputed: The story is about the Alberta human rights commission ruling that orders me to offer Darren Lund a written public apology. It quotes Lund saying, “I certainly didn’t request an apology, so that was a bit of a surprise.” “I don’t see the value in an insincere apology.” Lund’s response fails to surprise me. What’s interesting is that an apology is precisely what he sought for almost six years. Lund’s original complaint to the rights commission asked that I pay thousands of dollars in fines to him and to Egale...

...try it: pick a day next week, walk into your boss’s office and inform him/her that you have voted yourself a 34% raise, with a clear 1/3 tax-free, with all the perks that go with public office. Depending on your boss, you will be considered the ‘life of the office’, tagged for some ‘employee therapy program’, or escorted out the front door....

Alberta’s envoy to the United States, Gary Mar, says the province expects a U.S. working group to classify oilsands fuel as a conventional resource to overturn a tough restriction on imports. An energy bill passed last year prohibits the U.S. government from buying “alternative” fuels that produce more greenhouse gas emissions than other sources. Canada argues that oil from the oilsands is processed in conventional facilities. A change from the American working group could take care of the problem, says Mar, but doesn’t preclude legal action from outside groups. Alberta Deputy Premier Ron Stevens is joining Mar this week to...

EDMONTON - TransCanada Corp. alone plans to ship more than one million barrels a day of oilsands production to the United States with an expanded pipeline construction program unveiled today. The Alberta oil and gas delivery mainstay added a second leg to its new Keystone export service that would more than double the system's capacity and extend it to the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico. TransCanada president Hal Kvisle said the added route is a companion instead of competition for projects underway by Enbridge Inc., which is also advancing more than one million barrels daily in new oilsands...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- A boom of unprecedented dimensions is sweeping Canada's spectacularly scenic western province of Alberta, the Texas-sized territory with a population of 3 million that is home to a pair of world-class cities -- Calgary (population 1.2 million) and Edmonton (population 1.1 million). Most important today, though, is that Alberta is the source of the world's largest trove of tar sands, the sticky substance locked in rock that North American Indians have used for centuries to caulk their canoes but that also can be mined and processed into oil. Refining it makes sense if and when ordinary...

AUSTIN - When it comes to road improvement and maintenance, by most accounts, the South Plains and Panhandle are fortunate. Despite a $1.1 billion accounting error, the Texas Department of Transportation recently reported no projects in the region have been canceled or delayed while cities like Dallas, Houston and Laredo had at least a half dozen highway projects delayed. But the $1.1 billion-error, which occurred because TxDOT inadvertently counted some bond money twice and consequently allocated more funding than it had, is just the latest problem plaguing the beleaguered agency. For months, TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz and other transportation...

4 in serious condition after bus hits moose Miners were being transported home to Hinton, Alta. Last Updated: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 | 9:15 AM MT CBC News Four people were seriously injured Tuesday night after a bus transporting miners home to Hinton, Alta., hit a moose and rolled onto its side about 300 kilometres west of Edmonton. One person was brought to Edmonton's University of Alberta Hospital with critical head injuries, Scott Donaldson of the Aspen Regional Health said Wednesday. Three others remain in hospital in Hinton and are listed in serious condition. There were 32 people on the...

Continuing in the fine tradition of Trudeau, Chrétien, and other Eastern Canadians afflicted with delusional self-importance comes the latest example of ‘them’ telling ‘us’ in Alberta how to live. Montreal journalist Bill Marsden’s new book, “Stupid to the Last Drop” targets the most evil of all evils, the Alberta tar sands, and our nonchalance to the impact he claims it is having on our environment. Painting a picture that seems right out of some apocalyptic science-fiction story, Marsden attempts to describe our province as some backwater community whose citizens can’t get the oil out the ground fast enough, trees and...