Thursday, February 7, 2008

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.

10 comments:

  1. Cretin makes me gag, that bastard should be in jail. He's a mobster by definition and I can't believe we allow him in this province. And thanks for the help during the depression, the salt cod was delicious. My wish before I die is to see him hauled before an enquiry and investigated for all the fraud his Liberal government committed during his time at Prime Minister.

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  2. You've lived in BC, right? Would you vote for Gordon Campbell there? After all, if all Liberals and Liberals, he really shouldn't be elected, right?

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  3. A Liberal is a Liberal is a Liberal.

    The Alberta Provincial Liberals are even worse because they are trying to pretend to be something different.

    BC is a great example of a province that has been destroyed by left wing governments and policies. Destroyed! The economy, employment opportunities, job quality, home life quality, families on perpetual welfare, low education standards (BC students are a whole grade behind Albertan students when compared in the same grade), and more. My friends in BC are moving to Alberta, and it's not for a potential Liberal government.

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  4. I am sure Jean Chretien was not here in Alberta yesterday as a coincidence - he was here to help with the Liberal campaign strategy.

    Is that the kind of help Albertan's think that an Albertan political party should have?

    Did the Liberals under Jean Chretien ever do anything good for Alberta?

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  5. Wow albertatory...
    things must be going really bad for you and the Tories, if this is the best anti-Alberta Liberal rhetoric you could come up with.

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  6. Headline News: Alberta Liberals are Liberals.

    Does that mean that Conservatives are Reformers? If so, you should be reminding Canadians that Stephen Harper wants to build a firewall and thinks Kyoto is a "socialist scheme to funnel money to the third world."

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  7. Touché, Calgary Grit.

    In fact, if you visit BR's old blog, Blake on the Coast(http://blakeonthecoast.blogspot.com/), you'll see he has a link up there for the BC Liberal Party, right beside the link to his beloved Alberta PCs. These are the only provincial party links up there. Interesting stuff.... Given that a liberal is a liberal is a liberal, Blake couldn't possibly be supporting the Liberals there?

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  8. Sorry, typo in the last sentence. Should have read:

    That's great, but do it for reasons that don't involve the thoughtless, automaton-like rote repetition of a ridiculous, decades old provincial mythology that has virtually no grounding in reality.

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  9. "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."

    Yeah the amount of insidious corruption linked to Big Humanities in this province is out of control. When is Stelmach going to get out of bed with the Alberta Ballet and the Northern Jubilee Auditorium? It's f-ing disgusting.

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  10. From the Globe and Mail Alberta Election web site today (Feb. 8, 2008)

    Where's Ed?

    Tory leader Ed Stelmach will be "campaigning in his constituency" this weekend, but those are all the details his media team are releasing about his whereabouts.

    Since the campaign started, reporters have been emailed a detailed break-down of Mr. Stelmach's daily appearances.

    Mike Norris, a campaign spokesperson, told Alberta Votes that the former farmer from Andrew, Alta. (pop. 550) has no formal events planned and will be meeting with his constituents.

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