The ghost of Liberals past

It seems as though i'm being called out by a few of my more Liberal readers. Some may wonder if my silence thus far today meant I had nothing to say. To them I simply offer that they obviously don't know me that well ;)

This issue i'm being called out for comment on is the supposedly startling revelation that an order-in-council was passed before the election that would have the new lobbying rules come into effect on April 1st. The proposed changes would see the minimum cooling off period for potential lobbyists increase from 6 months to 1 year. The Liberals, naturally, have raised a holy stink about this.

You may all be surprised to think that this really isn't a big deal. Not because i'm a "tory insider" would stands to benefit, but because I really think that raising a battle cry over a 6 month difference is like splitting hairs.

I do find it interesting that some Liberals balk about former government folks lobbying for private auto insurance and the oil companies. We all know that the Liberals aren't too keen on either of these industries, but do they ever consider that other sectors lobby government? Education, the Arts, and a plethora of other causes find reason to lobby government... gonna go after them too? Of course not. Its more evidence of these Liberal double-standards that clearly identify the sectors that they're going after in this campaign.

Mind you, it may all have been an attempt at a clever diversion from Taft's latest campaign blunder. That's right folks... the Liberal redbook for Alberta is so bad that even the Leader didn't bother reading it.

Speaking of redbooks that aren't worth reading, Jean Chretien was in Edmonton today. He told a crowd at the U of A (including, i'm sure, quite a few friendly provincial Liberals) that Alberta should share more of its wealth with the rest of Canada.

Perhaps Chretien forgets that Alberta already sends more oil revenue to Ottawa than we keep in our own coffers. And perhaps Chretien also forgets that we might not need to be propping up so many other provinces if his government had actually done some proactive things to help supplement and eventually replace aging industries (Ontario, this means you).

When asked, Chretien also said he got along well with former Premier Ralph Klein until "we had a problem on Kyoto". I can only assume that the problem was that his government signed the treaty and then proceeded to do nothing on the file while simultaneously failing to address the ramifications that would have been thrust upon the nation's most successful economy.

Still, Chretien's visit serves as an important reminder for Albertans.

Liberals are Liberals.

They can dress themselves up differently, throw up prefixes on the party name, and ramble on about being separate from their federal counterparts, but they're the same. They share volunteers, donors, and ideas.

Liberals are Liberals, folks. And in recent history, that hasn't been very good for Alberta.