It sounds like a scene out of Seinfeld. A show about nothing! Three guys sitting in a board room trying to convince would-be supporters that a “show about nothing” will fly. Is Ed Stelmach a show about nothing!
A new poll suggests support for Ed Stelmach's Progressive Conservative government has dropped significantly in August to 32 per cent from 54 per cent in January.
In a Cameron Strategy poll provided to The Globe and Mail showed during that same time period the
number of undecided or unsure voters has risen to 36 per cent from 18 per cent. What this spells out is a minority government after the next election. The only question is, will that minority government be Conservative or Liberal?
For a fleeting moment I though of running half naked to my garage and grab a spade. I needed to dig fast and see if ‘hell had really froze over’. This is Alberta, the heart of redneck country. We are salt of the earth folks that bury firearms in cans, flirt with all the bad words, and spit on the ground just before walking into a Walmart. (Man that drives me nuts.) A liberal government!? No amount of greenhouse gas could make Alberta vote in a Liberal Government. The sky is falling!
Stelmach in true, duh, fashion is reported as blaming the influx of Eastern Canadians as the reason for the drop. A 22% drop in popularity in Alberta is like losing over 360,000 possible voters confidence in less than a year.
Good Job Ed! The sad thing really, is that as a ‘card carrying conservative’ I am looking at other pastures for leadership.
What ever happened to the Alberta Alliance? How about the Rhinos? The problem really is that Ed Stelmach is living up to his name ‘Steady Eddie’. Like a lumbering 1940’s Cockshutt tractor, pulling 8 foot machinery, the job is getting done but you could time the second hand or your watch by it. It’s like watching snails mate. Unlike his predecessor Klein, there really are no surprises. We don’t hear anything interesting about Ed in the press. He’s not insulting homeless people, or spilling a drink or two. Ed is just not giving Albertans something to gossip about.
People like to talk about our leaders and celebrity types. If folks aren’t wagging tongues about poor table manners, or disorderly family members in a desperate need for stimulation we will actually point to the only thing we see Ed doing. NOTHING!
Get the lead out Ed. As a conservative member we voted a farmer into office, and one we know to be very smart. Stop being so smart and spill a drink or two. Get our attention with the left hand, while you manipulate the right hand. As Canadians we have come accustomed to being manipulated.
So for the sake of all Albertans, Ed, please do something interesting and at the same time do the
job. I personally don’t want to be forced into seeing a Kevin Taft type looking out the big office window.
All our Premier really needs to do is let the press in just a bit. Because as the old saying goes; Everyone is normal until you get to know them.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Take China for Example
Last month the Chinese government announced that it was going to purge it’s government of corruption by first removing any and all public officials who have in the past committed adultery or is currently keeping a mistress.
This move was motivated by recent media pressure showing corruption on many levels of the public service. "As anti-corruption pressure of the central government is increasing, the number of direct corruption of the executives is reducing, but the indirect corruption (by the family or the mistresses) increases", says Hu Xingdou, specialist in the Chinese questions and professor of the Institute of technology of Peijing. (rough translation)
Interesting how sexual immorality is seen as a root cause of corruption in the Chinese government. This effort by the chinese is an attempt to remove the curse of corruption and restore the faith of the people.
It’s easy for us to peer across the pond and point fingers to our global neighbours, whilst lounging in front of a TV with a false sense of security at the state of our political processes. It was not too long ago that our press core were hammering the past Liberal government over “Adscam”. Interesting after a few trails how we Canadians tend to allow our memories to fade.
Maybe we trust the conservatives, but we should always hold our government officials to higher standards.
But is sexual immorality connected to other forms of corruption, or should we be ‘god-like’ and treat all sin as equally offensive? Maybe we can learn of our communist neighbours.
Former US President Bill Clinton would not have fared well at the hands of the Chinese if he held a post as a National Postmaster, would he? There would not have been millions of dollars spent on public hearings, and a huge amount of airtime examining a stained dress. Clinton would have been purged from the process as he should have been. Did Clinton's sexual romping damage the US government? I say it did.
Clinton’s romp resulted in “Filegate”, a misuse of FBI files to compile a list of democratic enemies. Of course, unlike the Chinese, that was swept under the carpet. The same year Clinton was on his knees, the United States campaign finance controversy arose where twenty-two people were eventually convicted for fraud or for funneling Asian funds into the United States elections.
A number of the convictions came against longtime Clinton-Gore friends and political appointees. It was “TeamsterGate” that exposed Clinton’s 1996 campaign money funneling between his campaign fund and the campaign to reelect the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
In all, the Clinton administration had sixteen scandals to deal with, all that were eventually quelled in an effort to ‘save the american image’. Maybe the US of A should instigate the ‘Chinese Corruption Purge Policy’. By the looks of things it may have saved the Americans some grief. But what of Canada? In our case, where there is fire do we have smoke?
I truly hope not, but in light of the fact that PM Harper’s weak Anti-Corruption Bill the Federal Accountability Act (Bill C-2) has done nothing to make us feel protected from the hands of our leaders, I would suggest that the Chinese solution be at least considered.
Cigar anyone?
This move was motivated by recent media pressure showing corruption on many levels of the public service. "As anti-corruption pressure of the central government is increasing, the number of direct corruption of the executives is reducing, but the indirect corruption (by the family or the mistresses) increases", says Hu Xingdou, specialist in the Chinese questions and professor of the Institute of technology of Peijing. (rough translation)
Interesting how sexual immorality is seen as a root cause of corruption in the Chinese government. This effort by the chinese is an attempt to remove the curse of corruption and restore the faith of the people.
It’s easy for us to peer across the pond and point fingers to our global neighbours, whilst lounging in front of a TV with a false sense of security at the state of our political processes. It was not too long ago that our press core were hammering the past Liberal government over “Adscam”. Interesting after a few trails how we Canadians tend to allow our memories to fade.
Maybe we trust the conservatives, but we should always hold our government officials to higher standards.
But is sexual immorality connected to other forms of corruption, or should we be ‘god-like’ and treat all sin as equally offensive? Maybe we can learn of our communist neighbours.
Former US President Bill Clinton would not have fared well at the hands of the Chinese if he held a post as a National Postmaster, would he? There would not have been millions of dollars spent on public hearings, and a huge amount of airtime examining a stained dress. Clinton would have been purged from the process as he should have been. Did Clinton's sexual romping damage the US government? I say it did.
Clinton’s romp resulted in “Filegate”, a misuse of FBI files to compile a list of democratic enemies. Of course, unlike the Chinese, that was swept under the carpet. The same year Clinton was on his knees, the United States campaign finance controversy arose where twenty-two people were eventually convicted for fraud or for funneling Asian funds into the United States elections.
A number of the convictions came against longtime Clinton-Gore friends and political appointees. It was “TeamsterGate” that exposed Clinton’s 1996 campaign money funneling between his campaign fund and the campaign to reelect the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
In all, the Clinton administration had sixteen scandals to deal with, all that were eventually quelled in an effort to ‘save the american image’. Maybe the US of A should instigate the ‘Chinese Corruption Purge Policy’. By the looks of things it may have saved the Americans some grief. But what of Canada? In our case, where there is fire do we have smoke?
I truly hope not, but in light of the fact that PM Harper’s weak Anti-Corruption Bill the Federal Accountability Act (Bill C-2) has done nothing to make us feel protected from the hands of our leaders, I would suggest that the Chinese solution be at least considered.
Cigar anyone?
You'll Put Your Eye Out with that Kid!
Well hunting season will be upon us this fall and the lake areas will be run-amok with mad hunters armed to the teeth with shotguns, and high powered rifles. NOT!
When was the last fall that you heard the sound of gun fire in the air, or the days when you could drive down any country road and come across fathers and sons patrolling the countryside for geese or ducks. Or even the backroads of Alder Flats with vehicles pulled into the ditches while hunters hiked into crown land looking to bag a moose. It just does not happen anymore. It certainly happens less.
The disarming of common folk at the hands of federal liberals at the turn of the century has reduced hunters and gun owners at a rapid pace, and at the same time gun crimes is up in the country while federal spending to disarm the public has run-amok.
I was one of those ‘gun nuts’ who years ago had a Browning 30.06 Semi-Automatic rifle, a Cooey 20 gauge shotgun, a Winchester 12 Gauge shotgun, a Remington 3030, and a Cooey 22 single shot.
I was raised by a father who taught me gun safety and gave me an appreciation of weaponry. My father was a career policeman who also instilled in me a respect for the law. A respect that saw me enter service in 1980. I last worked in uniform in 2001 on a First Nations Reserve near Hobbema, Alberta.
When the new gun law regulations came in effect, I like many, were perplexed because I knew as a police officer that it would not make any difference in reducing gun related crime and it was only a liberal money grab. The bad guy, who wanted to procure a firearm for the purpose robbing a convenience store would not be the type to fill out a application form, not to mention registering it.
Refusing to ‘go through the ropes’, I did the next best thing. I sold all my weapons to a qualified couple on the Indian Reserve. Those folks have the ability to hunt when they want and I am sure they are in the hands of very responsible people.
So there I was, a man without any of his rifles that were handed down by my father. The government had in essence told me that unless I came under scrutiny I was not trustworthy enough to possess weapons used for hunting.
Yep, I was a man in uniform that conformed to the regulation is spades. Did you catch that? The government did not trust me, an average citizen, like all other Canadians, so my guns were no more. But on my hip in the course of my employment I carried a Semi-Automatic GLOCK hand gun, which I was fully qualified for, and scored a perfect 300. The irony of it all.
Today, I am reduced to hunting with a Daisy Red Rider BB gun with a muzzle velocity of 273 fps. Yess- siree, I don my red cap with a bow tied on the top and plaid jacket, while slinging my Daisy over my shoulder and head out at fall. With a Daisy I can raise welts in the backsides of them there critters.
“Oh Wabbit, come out a Pway!” is a call of the sportsman in Alberta. You’ll put your eye out with that kid!
When was the last fall that you heard the sound of gun fire in the air, or the days when you could drive down any country road and come across fathers and sons patrolling the countryside for geese or ducks. Or even the backroads of Alder Flats with vehicles pulled into the ditches while hunters hiked into crown land looking to bag a moose. It just does not happen anymore. It certainly happens less.
The disarming of common folk at the hands of federal liberals at the turn of the century has reduced hunters and gun owners at a rapid pace, and at the same time gun crimes is up in the country while federal spending to disarm the public has run-amok.
I was one of those ‘gun nuts’ who years ago had a Browning 30.06 Semi-Automatic rifle, a Cooey 20 gauge shotgun, a Winchester 12 Gauge shotgun, a Remington 3030, and a Cooey 22 single shot.
I was raised by a father who taught me gun safety and gave me an appreciation of weaponry. My father was a career policeman who also instilled in me a respect for the law. A respect that saw me enter service in 1980. I last worked in uniform in 2001 on a First Nations Reserve near Hobbema, Alberta.
When the new gun law regulations came in effect, I like many, were perplexed because I knew as a police officer that it would not make any difference in reducing gun related crime and it was only a liberal money grab. The bad guy, who wanted to procure a firearm for the purpose robbing a convenience store would not be the type to fill out a application form, not to mention registering it.
Refusing to ‘go through the ropes’, I did the next best thing. I sold all my weapons to a qualified couple on the Indian Reserve. Those folks have the ability to hunt when they want and I am sure they are in the hands of very responsible people.
So there I was, a man without any of his rifles that were handed down by my father. The government had in essence told me that unless I came under scrutiny I was not trustworthy enough to possess weapons used for hunting.
Yep, I was a man in uniform that conformed to the regulation is spades. Did you catch that? The government did not trust me, an average citizen, like all other Canadians, so my guns were no more. But on my hip in the course of my employment I carried a Semi-Automatic GLOCK hand gun, which I was fully qualified for, and scored a perfect 300. The irony of it all.
Today, I am reduced to hunting with a Daisy Red Rider BB gun with a muzzle velocity of 273 fps. Yess- siree, I don my red cap with a bow tied on the top and plaid jacket, while slinging my Daisy over my shoulder and head out at fall. With a Daisy I can raise welts in the backsides of them there critters.
“Oh Wabbit, come out a Pway!” is a call of the sportsman in Alberta. You’ll put your eye out with that kid!
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