It's baaaaaaaack

After a rather long, techno-crash imposed hiatus, the albertatory is back in action online!

Most sincere and deepest thanks go out to Allie and Duncan, without whom I would not have known about the problem, nor would I have been able to fix it. Their web/blog skills are beyond compare, and they're pretty irreplaceable as friends, too.

There's a fair bit to talk about and i'm anxious to get to it, but first a pause to remember...

LeRoy Johnson, the MLA for Wetaskiwin-Camrose, is one of the truly good people in this world. He is genuine, sincere, and honest to a fault. His entire family also shares these qualities, which is why I was deeply saddened to learn that his wonderful wife Dianne lost her battle with cancer last week.

Dianne was a community leader in her own right, and just much a servant of her husband's constituents as he is. I know the good Lord will grant Dianne the rest she so richly deserves, and that He will be a source of strength for LeRoy and his family as they mourn their loss.

Godspeed Mrs. Johnson.

Now then, on with a summary of what's going on:

• I'm trying to draw some parallels between the federal Liberal leadership race and the provincial PC leadership race. It doesn't completely work, but there are a couple of distinctions that can/have been drawn. The most obvious one is that Ed Stelmach is our Ken Dryden. Nobody has anything substantially bad to say about Ed, and he's your safest bet as a second choice. Will it translate into votes? Will it make Ed the Kingmaker? Too early to tell, but it'll be fun to watch. The other parallel i've heard is between my candidate, Jim Dinning, and Michael Ignatieff in the sense that we're both leading the first ballot with little room to grow. I don't know that I totally agree with this conclusion, but its an interesting thought nonetheless.

• McBeath and Chapman are having a great back-and-forth about what is really driving voters away from PC Alberta. I'm not really sure if I side with one argument over the other, but its sure is fun to read.

• I caught two absolutely hilarious sound bites from federal QP over the past couple of weeks. One was Hon. Monte Solberg who, after quoting Michael Ignatieff, said "Mr. Speaker, that was the Honourable Member from Haaaavud". The other was Hon. John Baird who, in a series of replies to hapless Liberal backbenchers, spoke of "the Honourable Member from Six Feet Under (Joe Volpe)" and the "shakedown of school children for their milk money". Damn fine political theatre indeed.

• I, for one, like the Belinda Stronach-Tie Domi affair. I hate them both, so I can now hate them as a couple.

• Life in BC has been an adjustment, for sure. Its a fun place to live, although I do have "Alberta moments". I'll be putting up some reflections of life on the coast soon over on my other blog.

Thanks for reading... i'll be back with more soon!