Yes Virginia, It Is Your Culture Of Violence.

     Like many Canadians I have relatives in the U.S. and have pondered what makes us different in a meaningful way. The events of Friday at the Elementary school in Newtown really put that into perspective once again for most Canadians. When I was a boy in the 1970's we once traveled to Oregon to visit my dad's cousin who lived on a beautiful acreage and had kids my age. It was amazing, and so different than my suburban world in Canada! For one they had a pool, which I thought was the height of luxury, there aren't a lot of private pools in Alberta where we have a 3 month warm period followed by a never ending winter. As I mentioned earlier it was also in the country, which was kind of amazing too, full of trees and critters that we do not have on the high plains, like tree-frogs, that my 2nd cousins liked to blow up with firecrackers. Oh yeah, it was also around the 4th of July so there were a lot of dangerous fireworks for kids to play with, which would be totally illegal back home for anyone to possess. My world was all about putting something like a frog or other curious beastie in a jar or something and studying it, these kids just wanted to blow them up. Ok, so that's a different approach to nature and what I was taught were all God's creatures. The thing I remember most, second to running into a patio door and getting a bleeding nose was a little deer that ran through the back yard, those of us from Canada were all "ohh look how cute" and the Americans were all "get the gun!" Which I never understood, since you live in the country and seeing deer would be one of the benefits? I always thought it illustrated a huge divide in American/Canadian thought process.
     The shooting in Connecticut seems to have a lot of Americans asking what is wrong with our culture? Is it the American culture of violence? And as a Canadian I would say yes it is, obviously we have guns in Canada and a lot less violence, my relatives in Saskatchewan have tons of guns for hunting yet no mass shootings. America was conceived in violence and buoyed by slavery which later became a Civil War which later became a war of Civil Rights which later became a Culture War until you elected Barack Obama which we (around the world) hope is a signal that the war-on-everything culture is ending!?!?!? In contrast, Canada was conceived in compromise, yeah we had some small wars in the 18th Century, but we could never make all the Quebecois speak English and be loyal to the British Monarch so we just said fine, we can handle that we'll just be officially bilingual. We didn't have a War of Independence, we just asked the British if it was OK if we ran everything over here on our own and 120 some years later wrote a Constitution. We didn't ghettoize people or certain groups of people, we had periods of racism but everyone seemed to get over it in a generation or two. We did treat the Chinese pretty bad for which we said sorry 90 years later and we also interned the Japanese in WWII, for which we also said sorry and if memory serves me right from High School History, we got the idea from the U.S. anyway! Our history as Canadians has been mostly peaceful and full of compromise.
     How does one tell a Canadian from an American abroad? Well, the Canadians will be the quiet ones minding our P's and Q's and maybe trying out our P's and Q's in the native language of whatever country we're in and your average American will be talking loudly, drawing attention to themselves and probably not using P's and Q's in any language! Of course there's always exceptions so spare me the hate mail please! So many Americans act like they are here to cure the world of a lack of McDonalds and a lack of American English and oh yes a sense of American Justice. When 9/11 happened it was the time to talk of war, War on Terrorism and war in Afghanistan and Iraq, there was no hesitation, When mass shootings happen a lot of Americans say now is not the time to talk of gun control, because emotion might take over? I guess we should wait until the time we are desensitized to the idea of 6 year olds being shot to death, which might come with 100 hours of news coverage. Or so the pro-gun lobby hopes.
     One hopes that this is "the tipping point" in American culture and it very well may be. The idea of 6 year old children, the most innocent of society, being shot by a lunatic is beyond the pale. I'm sure a lot of us, desensitized to violence in the Middle East, took notice of the Assad regime in Syria when they shot small children execution style in the head. It goes beyond language and culture, it is beyond the pale for all of humanity. In some ways I think we could comprehend the motive of the loner bullied teenager, angry at society character shootings like Columbine. Then the Tuscon shooting of a sitting Congresswoman which got politicized by the right but there was no motive except schizophrenia, and I'm not sure why the Aurora shooting didn't start a gun control debate since they were just watching a movie? It was in the summer during an election year? No one wanted to talk about it? There was also a  shooting at a Sikh Temple that summer that went fairly unnoticed, I'm sure many Americans think Sikh's are Islamic and didn't care? There was the shooting at an Amish School a few years ago but I wonder if many think it's not our culture so we can't comment? But this Newtown shooting  is kind of too much to bear for all of us, I barely like children and am completely upset! As Oprah used to say "This is going to be BIG!!!", on that Friday the Networks suspended regular daytime programs for about 4 hours, Saturday Night Live did not have a comedic opening but rather a children's choir dedicated to Newtown, Football teams held hands on the fields in moments of silence, we haven't seen something like this since 9/11. Also the time of year, a week before Christmas, it's pretty heavy. We can all imagine that the parents have bought gifts already, made Christmas plans, have brothers and sisters and grandparents and everyone else in their entire extended families that will not enjoy the most festive time of year. Given most people's adoration of Christmas, a shooting of children at this time of year almost anywhere in the world is enough to send most people over the edge! So, yes, I totally believe this is the tipping point to some form of gun control in the U.S.
     I am hoping the Americans go through a period of introspection right now, it's the Holidays so maybe they will be doing more visiting with each other and less watching FOX News? Introspection, check it out, it's a non-American idea the rest of us do in the world. With rights come responsibilities, the 2nd amendment does not give the right to bear as many arms as humanly possible. Maybe you should just remove it from your Constitution? Like the Slavery part? and the Prohibition part? The right to life and liberty in our times seems to be trumped by crazy people who have access to military style weapons. You can't have a society where people are afraid to be in a public place so my guess is that life and liberty will win out in the end. Is it time to cling to the 1700's or time for some Hope and Change!?!?!?
     
     

We Need To Talk About Grover

     Ding dong, hello Americans, it's your neighbour Canada.Sorry, but could you please keep all that noise down over the Fiscal Cliff? our children are trying to sleep. We have been friends for many years which has been great, in so many ways the swanky lifestyle of our neighbourhood depends on you. We need you on sound financial ground to buy a lot of the extra stuff we have laying around our backyard, oil, timber, iron ore, in fact just the appearance of your house affects the appearance of ours, so could ya tidy up a little. I heard one of your little brats, Ann Coulter, say on CNN "Canada is lucky we let them exist." That seemed a little disrespectful and I hope she's had a talking to and was sent to bed early!?!? Oh and while you're here another one of your little brats has been lying about us on TV, he goes by the name Grover Norquist. By the way, thanks for sharing your Network and Cable TV with us all these years! We enjoy it immensely! Anyway, back to Grover and his lies, it was on Bill Maher's Real Time a few months ago,episode 244 in case you want to know. He swore up and down that Canada did NOT have a stimulus package and hey look how great they're doing! Well, thanks for noticing, we did manage to avoid our Banks from collapsing thanks to regulations put in place years earlier by Paul Martin and we've had regulation on mortgages since I don't know when and we do have lower unemployment, however, in 2009 our current Prime Minister enacted The Economic Action Plan or Plan du Action Economique as our French cousins say, they're so funny! For a time we couldn't go anywhere without seeing those signs touting Federal dollars for highways, bridges and various buildings all over the place. In fact they spent so much on the signs they became a growth industry on their own! Some people wrote strongly worded letters about that last part! Apparently our government spent anywhere from $47 to $35 Billion on infrastructure projects all over the place, we even loaned money to GM and Chrysler because our upper management guys always copy what your guys do, thanks for the positive example! Uh, so back to Grover, you know I heard him say "The President was elected on the basis he was not Romney and that Romney was a poopy-head." Given his age I'm wondering if he needs to see Mrs. Smith in the special kids class??? Sorry, But it seems really inappropriate, no offence? Be that as it may, it's the lying I'm concerned about, especially when it's in earshot and so easily disproven, he could just look over the fence and see the signs, I mean really, someone has to have a talk with him. Don't tell Grover, but, his argument could have suited him better if he said, look Canada had a stimulus program and their economy is slowing down now. Yeah, that's our problem, right??? It's because 3 years in, actual stimulus ceased, and the program has now mostly become propaganda for upper management, I predict more strongly worded letters from some of us! Have ya seen our European cousins though?, holy cow! What a mess their yard is!!! Everything is old, the foundation is cracked and they owe so much money! I don't even know what they pay for their upper management but I hear you have to be born into it. A lot of their kids are just milling around and joining Neo Nazi or Communist gangs because they have refused stimulus programs, they should build more stuff or at least put their kids in University. I heard they lost almost everything betting on Banks and refuse to raise taxes, does that have anything to with your Grover? I know Grover is roaming around with his friends telling everyone not to raise taxes, hell, we even lowered our Corporate Tax rate, I wonder what consequence that will have on our much loved Public Health Care? We will see, but for now, you've got to do something about him, I would try separating him from his friends and ignoring the dumb stuff he keeps saying, how about stop putting him on TV? Just for starters, maybe some outdoor activities? Maybe a girlfriend? I know he has been caught fantasizing about the size of the National Debt, it just doesn't seem healthy. Anyway, I have to go back next door now, I've got a lot of Canadian things to be doing, shoveling snow, Christmas shopping at Canadian Tire,going for X-rays after slipping on ice, it was nice talking to you. Hey, could you keep your guns from coming over the fence? Thanks.

Oh, here's a snapshot of an Economic Action Plan sign, in action!

Have a Merry Christmas! Hope you get those finances in order!

Highway Sign for Canada Economic Action Plan

Left-over

     I'm not surprised Joan Crockett won her seat in Calgary Centre last night although the Conservatives should be maybe a little worried it was only by a few hundred votes, with the Liberal in second. She got a not-so whopping 37% of the vote in an election where 27% (according to CTV) of the eligible actually voted. So, I'm not sure which is worse, Conservatives gloating that they won an election where 73% of the population chose not to vote or the lives lost in Afghanistan fighting for democracy?Because obviously many of you couldn't care less about democracy in your own country. Well, my fellow Calgarians and Canadians if you want to leave elections to a minority voice I guess you get what you deserve. I suppose you're all too busy texting and driving, or are maybe afraid of making choices? Why don't you text your friends and ask them? I guess I'm really feeling middle-aged these days because the young people I know seem self absorbed and flippant and the elderly people I know also seem self absorbed and flippant and racist, homophobic and out of touch from reality. Unfortunately it is mostly the latter who exercise their right to vote, and is likely their exercise for the day too! Yeah, sorry, a lot of old people I know have had their day and their say. While reading about US Presidents I learned that shortly after Richard Nixon's inauguration in 1969 there were no living Presidents, he was alone on the stage and free from any living conscience of past administrations. It's because in those days people used to have heart attacks or cancer with their cigarettes, martinis, and skirt chasing. Now we have a generation of Baby Boomers and older who take care of their health and thus things change a lot more slowly! I have elderly people in my life, maybe you do too, they think cute things like Black People are merely slang words or women should be forced to carry babies they don't want or the gays just haven't met the right girl yet and should just go back in the closet, women should not have careers (probably to take of those babies they had no choice over) and many don't have the internet because it's so expensive. OK, well the ones I know don't have internet but people tell me many elderly are on the internet in increasing numbers these days, surfing porn and getting scammed by Princes in Africa. They are so out of touch I'm certain it's the elderly who are watching Two And A Half Men, I think this show is potty mouthed filth which is the first time I have ever agreed with a 7th Day Adventist! Well, someone is watching it, no one I know is, I prefer my filth with actual swearing on a Cable channel! I agree whole heartedly with Tina Fey who recently said "If I have to listen to one more grey-faced man with a two dollar hair cut explain to me what rape is, I'm gonna lose my mind." She was speaking on women's reproductive rights and certain Tea Party candidates such as Todd Aiken who thinks rape is the will of God and a gift to womankind.  I too am getting very tired of Grey-faced men telling all of us what morality is, or the state of the economy (that they soley have benefited from), or that Obama will lose the election, hmmmm so many of them were soooo wrong on that last one!!!
     Anyway, if I can bring this back to Canadian Conservatives, one need not be an actual old person to be a grey-faced man, one could just be a bloviating charlatan like Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto who was recently the victim of his own stupidity and then blamed the "Left-Wing Media" for his downfall. I'm not getting into the conflict of interest charge here what I find out of touch is blaming some mythological left-wing. I hear and read this stuff everywhere, apparently if you do not agree with the self appointed right-wing twitterotti you are either a "leftie", "paleo-liberal" or a "Lie-beral" my goodness! Why are some so willing to call names? I guess it's because they don't have an argument or enough words in English? Well, my Canadian Neo-Con friends you should be paying more attention to the American media right now after the Obama victory. Instead of trying to define your opposition you should define yourselves lest ye become the Republicans as led by Mitt Romney. So many of the right-wing pundits are scratching their heads and wondering why they lost so many votes, as if only appealing to rich white men was, well, only appealing to rich white men in an America where more and more people are Hispanic, Women, Gay, and Underemployed, who knew!?!?!?!? Mitt Romney allied himself with the biggest bloviating entrepreneurial charlatan of them all, Donald Trump as well as religious driven anti-abortion candidates and the handsome, faster than a speeding bullet, Ayn Randian, Paul Ryan. They were defining themselves narrowly, as only a churchy party for the rich and it didn't work! Beware, Canadian Neo-Cons! Pssst, did anyone tell you that being a "Neo-Con" went out with the George W. Bush regime? Oh Canada, always 10 years behind the rest of the world! The Conservatives had better start doing some soul searching because I cannot see their policies "winning" in our society that echoes American society more than any other on the planet. This heavy-handed Omnibus, ram it through the Senate without due process stuff is going to wear on Canadians some day. Let alone the abortion talk, remember when the Minister for Women, Rona Ambrose voted against abortion rights? Or how about the ever expanding budget deficits? From more incarceration to the F-35's they appear increasingly out of control budget wise, not a Conservative value. In fact they seem more concerned with spending money to monitor Jason Kenney's image in multicultural newspapers,the War of 1812 and other poto-ops to be seen as anything but an expensive propaganda machine. Maybe if you weren't so concerned about people liking you and swindling a few hundred people in Calgary to vote for a  skitzy Wendy Malick-type character, and actually governed openly and honstly and fairly you could ease up on the media machine. Imagine me, an apparent leftie arguing for openness and honesty?, hey I thought that's what you guys were supposed to be all about? Your problem will become, like the Republicans, you don't know who you are, the "left" is all about inclusion, civil rights, expanding civil rights, war if necessary not as Neo-Con leverage with public opinion, caring for the planet we live on and not denying science, we know who we are and what we stand for, the Conservatives are as empty and devoid of substance as Rob Ford's charge the media is against him. No, you do it to yourselves. If only a fresh young charismatic leader could persuade enough young and minority folks to vote next time, nahh, it's never happened anywhere you stupid leftie!

Matter of Time

     Howdy y'all!

Apparently I have been ignoring my blog to the dismay of many fans. Hello to new followers, including my bi-polar sister and some other new ones who are either from the Conservative Party or just really like reading intelligent writing!
     I have been busy doing my summer things of course and then the American election had me tied up for months, more on that later! What's really got my goat this week is the Calgary Centre by-election. I wish I lived there right now, we used to back in my College days. We loved the Mission district where we lived for many years, back when there was affordable rent, gay bars and an exciting 17th Avenue! Now, I'm afraid a few things have changed but the Center of Calgary remains our little version of  Downtown Toronto or Vancouver, it is no bland suburb my friends! The area is still a mix of  young renters, urban professionals and  the LGBT community unfortunately this urban area got gerrymandered into a huge area encompassing Mount Royal, Elbow Drive and others whose income should make them blush. The district goes all the way to Sarcee Trail and 50th Ave, just north of the Glenmore Resivor, these are pretty wealthy areas and likely pretty Conservative. I live in Calgary Centre-North and am gerrymandered in a different way into wealthy neighbourhoods, go figure, wouldn't it be nice to have all the urban areas in one riding? Sorry we don't have the same issues in an urban area compared to a wealthy inner city suburb. Alas.
     It is with great delight I hear the by-election in Calgary Centre is very very close! Apparently the polls are saying that Conservative Joan Crockett is only 5% ahead of the Liberal Harvey Locke, it's a big deal because usually the Conservative is ahead by something like 55%! Perhaps that's because it used to boast qualified candidates like Joe Clark! Remember him? Back when the Conservatives were Progressive and not  just insane right-wing parrots? I do, I remember when Joe Clark was the Marshall for the Gay Parade, I don't think that's going to happen with this bunch of Neo-Cons. Take Joan Crockett..........Please! I remember her from appearances on CBC and Alberta Primetime and most recently for her vocal support of the Wildrose Party. Yet for all her years of public rambling she has little presence on the internet, not even a Wikipedia entry!  So I can't tell you much, I remember her mostly for supporting the most far right ideas with little to go on except feelings and perhaps a Sun Media article to back her up, I would usually change the channel at that point. I did have to look up what the hell she is constantly on about with this charge that the CBC is funding a porn site! Since she couldn't be bothered to attend campaign debates or talk to the media except for "it's on the internet, look it up!" So I did. Turns out this non-scandal started in February 2012 and was made up by the Sun Media, surprise! Apparently it is the brain child of Ezra Levant who has talked about it ever since, to what end? I'm not sure because this is the first I head about it. Story goes that Radio-Canada the French version of CBC in Quebec was broadcasting (?) a soft core porn channel from France and little Quebecois children everywhere were being exposed to it. That sure is nice for Sun Media to be so concerned about the kids in Quebec. Well.....aren't you outraged????Maybe, if you're 80 years old and don't know that children can access internet porn at any time of day, let alone the soft core porn that is supplied by Shaw Cable every night on Movie Central or Video on Demand or just on regular TV! It is a bit of an exaggeration and sky is falling, rhymes with T and stands for trouble! Yes we got trouble right here in River City!!!!! Stop the CBC!
     I think it's pretty rich that every time I am watching Power and Politics with Evan Solomon on CBC the Conservatives are beating a path there as fast as they can to over-talk any opposition or whiff of scandal. For a station they hate so much they sure are there a lot! Oh yeah and Crokett was there almost on a daily basis, if you got rid of the CBC where would y'all go? The Sun News Channel? No one watches it, even though it's been on air for over a year many people I know don't even know of it's existence. They seem to have a little fantasy that if the CBC were no more then people would watch them, and not all the great American TV that's on!!! I digress, sorry!
     Anyway, so what does defunding the CBC have to do with the citizens of Calgary Centre? Probably nothing. Just like the Neo-Con flunky my riding sent to Parliament, Michelle Remple, if you elect these yes-women you'll never hear from them again! Except for maybe appearances on CBC. My MP doesn't even send those newsletter things anymore. There was one once asking people to check off what concerned them most The Economy, Morality Issues and The Wheat Board, to name a few. Dear Ms Remple, since you do not live in my riding I would like to inform you that there are no grain farmers in Calgary Centre-North so no the Wheat Board is not a major concern of mine! As for morality, I am only concerned that the Conservatives have none as you ask all of us to work longer and continue to collect huge salaries and retirement packages so I guess my concern is the Economy as in the one you are ruining! I'm not even sure why we elect MP's to Parliament anymore as none of them are allowed to disagree with the PM.
     I will congratulate the Sun Media however for drudging up this smear campaign against Justin Trudeau and a big thumbs down for the rest of the media including CBC for buying into it. By now I'm sure you've heard 2 years ago in a lengthy French interview Justin said he didn't like Albertans taking over Canada's social values and taking us in the wrong direction. It's nothing like the time Stephen Harper said Maritimers were part of a culture of dependency. It smacks of swift-boating which comes right out of the George Bush playbook, remember the campaign against John Kerry? I see this as American style politics I wonder how the Quebecers see this??? It is truly low and desperate on behalf of the Sun and the Conservative Party.
     Crockett may very well win, if I may borrow a term from the Sun here, "sheeple" it's what they call anyone who disagrees with them because they think people just follow what the mainstream media tells them, I know, it sounds like something Sarah Palin would say. But there are a lot of Calgarian sheeple, and I don't mean it the way they do. There is a prevailing attitude that Conservatives good, Liberals bad and it's pretty much on that kind of Frankenstein "Fire bad" level.I'm just waiting for them all to die off or the current government to really fuck up, either is a matter of time. I will just remind any undecided voter out there that the Harper government has increased the National Debt to $600 Billion today, November 23 2012, and is increasing $74.6 Million a day. All you rich Calgarians should be out with pitchforks over this! How about the state of food in this country, how can you trust beef again and especially those who monitor it? I guess city dwelling Albertans don't care about our Beef industry? As long as you can go to upscale restaurants and order it, who cares I guess? Just like the American right-wing, our Conservatives have pursued close ties to big Corporations including Oil and Phramaceuticals, why did the Health Minister move to let manufacturers put crushable oxy-contin back on the street? Because it's profitable for drug companies, never mind the addictions and deaths and drug smuggling and associated crime,this from the government of Law and Order?
The war on the middle class and unions, how many times has the Minister of Labour interfered with striking workers or change the rules for business so they can hire foreign labour at a much cheaper rate and with no benefits, wonder where your kids or you will get a job, if you're the so-called Blue Collar worker? Canada has created thousands of part-time jobs so don't let the stats fool you, these are not good signs for the economy in the future.People need good full-time employment with retirement benefits for the economy to grow. Maybe people just aren't feeling yet, you will, just as George Bush ruined the Republican Party and the economy in the U.S., Harper will ruin his party and country too. We've lived through many Prime Ministers in Canada, they all have too much power and often make a mistake wielding it, it's all just a matter of time!

The Wildrose Mandate

    I have been spending the last few days drilling down on the Wildrose agenda and candidates and have come up with some very alarming things. Yes, I did obsessively read every single candidates profile online and noted their gender, race and profession or background. Not surprisingly most of them are from or involved deeply in Oil Companies and other big business, what I did think was kinda weird was the large number of Real Estate people (10% of candidates) and candidates coming from the Forestry Industry (7% of candidates), does this have meaning? I'm not sure but I have met enough Real Estate agents to know that I trust them about as much as a used car salesman! What really has meaning here though is the glaring white-maleness of the Party, White Men make up 88% of the Party, 12% are Women and 4% are visible minorities. Compare to Conservatives at 23% women and 14% visible minorities, Liberals at 21% women and 13% visible minorities and the NDP at 39% women and 6% visible minorities. Yeah, we do have a long way to go when it comes to representing women in our politics but clearly the Wildrose Party is a step backward in representation of all Albertans.

     So, who are the Wildrose representing? A simple Wikipedia search reveals a short history of the Party, formed out of the Alberta Alliance Party, and the Social Credit Party who apparently were so full of Christian Evangelicals they raised concerns about limiting the number of Mormons forming the new Wildrose Alliance Party back in 2008. If you think that sounds crazy have a look at the the many Evangelicals in the US who also raised concerns over Mitt Romney's Presidential Candidacy, Evangelicals don't think Mormons are Christians but merely a cult. Anyway, I digress, the Wildrose Alliance drew many supporters from the old Reform Party, and still have deep ties to many in Stephen Harper's government, including the very sleepy and irritable Rob Anders. For me the scariest of the Wildrose candidates today include;

Link Byfield, running in Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock, publisher of the Right-Wing Alberta Report Magazine, my mom was an avid reader so I am very familiar with it, and also the founder of Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy, a lovely group of people including Ralph Klein, Jason Kenney, Preston Manning and Alberta separatist Leon Craig. They advocate that Provinces should have the right to decide social and moral issues on their own, through referendum, and despise the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

John Carpay, running in Calgary-Lougheed, in 1994 he wrote an op-ed in The National Post criticizing Ralph Klein for not invoking the non withstanding clause on gay marriage. Recently he was part of the legal team defending anti-gay activist Bill Whatcott. Mr Whatcott has a wonderful history of distributing anti-gay flyers in Calgary,as well as anti-abortion flyers and anti-Islam flyers, he was recently detained by the Calgary Police for graphic anti-gay literature delivered to North West Calgary homes.

Ron Leech, running in Calgary-Greenway, an Evangelical Pastor who wrote an article in The Calgary Herald in 2004 that said " to affirm homosexuality is to distort the image of God, to insult the nature and being of God." But he looks like such a nice 60 year old white guy!

Don Koziak, Edmonton-Glenora, I'll bet my Edmonton friends know him from his Mayoral bid in 2010 where he said LRT expansion was "enormously environmentally unfriendly" and proposed more intersections and wider roads instead, drive baby drive, right after we drill baby drill!!!! I guess???

Andrew Constantinidis, Calgary-West candidate who was Rob Anders' Constituency President and Media Coordinator. Just reading this guys resume one really wonders why and how he could serve as an MLA? He has held senior positions in Exxon Mobile, Citibank,Deutche Bank and is currently VP of an Oil Company. It reminds me of the old George W. Bush days with all the big oil connections, it was stuff like this that inspired Michael Moore's bookStupid White Men. Can you say conflict of interest, are you representing people or your own oil company???

Allan Hunsperger, Edmonton-South West, yet another religiously driven character in this crew and a fairly influential one. He founded  Heritage Christian Schools in Alberta 30 years ago and also helped change the law in Canada to bring us Christian Radio stations. Wow and they call the gays a special interest group? His bio also lists his involvement with youth sports and inspiring them to become "world-changers". Yikes, I remember when articles inAlberta Report would rant on about the Communists and Socialists brainwashing our children, a large number of these Wildrose guys cite how involved they are in Youth groups.

Danielle Smith, running in Highwood and also Party Leader, her only political experience is serving one year as a trustee on the Calgary Board of Education. She was on a Global National Sunday show no longer in existence, and as a political pundit on radio and TV, yay for her, so are people like Ann Coulter, doesn't mean you know anything but can argue and shout down people. She also describes herself a "moderate Libertarian", whatever that means, like being a little bit pregnant or a moderate Nazi I suppose? I'm guessing she is Libertarian when it comes to her religious friends distaste for gays and abortions but maybe not Libertarian when it comes to Civil Rights in general. I think Libertarian is just a ruse to sound appealing to a general audience and to cover-up the very radical Right Wing ideas of her party. The old switch and bait, don't get sold down the river Albertans! 

     I also spent a couple of painful hours reading the Wildrose online policy platform, and surprise I was not impressed! In fact, most of it just left me scratching my head and thinking, huh?, many issues they bring up are Federal not Provincial! Despite its whining tone of change and practically calling the Alberta Conservative Party corrupt Socialists in league with Fidel Castro, the lovely stock footage of people of colour, Alberta scenery, and red-necks toting rifles, a few things pop out. There is a laundry list of Stephen Harper platforms such as ending the long-gun registry, electing the Senate, and marine laws that apply to oil shipping, which are not Provincial issues no matter how much money and influence Alberta thinks it has.Strangely, the Wildrose would like to control Immigration to Alberta because Quebec does as well as pull out of the Canada Pension Plan,CPP, and have an Alberta Pension Plan instead, sounds complicated as we are still allowed freedom of movement in Canada thus far and perhaps another battle with Federal issues that we don't need to have.

     Quite stupidly the policy statement includes "The discussion surrounding Global Warming has become highly emotional. There is obviously still healthy scientific debate as to the extent man made emissions of CO2  are affecting global temperatures-and this debate will likely carry on for many years." It's like the discussion over weather the Earth or the Sun was the centre of the Universe 500 years ago. There is no debate over Global Warming in science, it is only the oil companies and the politicians that support them that this issue became emotional at all. It just illustrates where exactly these folks stand, maybe one day they will get emotional over Evolution, don't say I didn't warn ya!

     On Education, which actually is a Provincial mandate, not surprisingly they would like to divert Public funding to Private Schools and would like to encourage more freedom in choice for parents. Which to me is code language for sending your kids to religious schools so they don't have to learn secular ideas like science, civil rights or equality. I wonder if Smith would make someone like Allan Hunsperger Minister of Education???

     The scariest issue for me is the repeal of certain lines of the Human Rights Act, namely the part that's about spreading hate through print or media, but not to the point of genocide! Gosh, the Wildrose Party isn't the Nazi Party!!! They hate you but don't say they want to kill you! Anyway, the Justice, Policing and Human Rights chapter of their manifesto is one of the largest parts, because they are very concerned about Human Rights, namely that people like me have them! One of the nuttiest things in this document under the Human Rights chapter is "...the Human Rights Commission in Alberta have probably been the single worst offenders of Rights ie: freedom of speech: politically correct activists have used them to punish religious and right-wing social commentators." I know because the real victims are the religious and right wing who only have The Sun The Herald and Sun Media TV to push their views, like publishing articles from Link Byfield and Ron Leech, as well as the Religion Column in The Herald on weekends, I'm still waiting for the Gay Column, even bi-weekly!  It's also a lot like the time I received a post-card from an unidentified religious group, before Parliament voted on gay marriage in 2005, that equated gay marriage to terrorism and said it would be the downfall of society. I wonder if it was because I appeared on my local Global Newstelling them that I would contact the Human Rights Commission that they got scared of people like me? Well I did file a complaint, it took months and nothing ever happened legally or financially, but thought I got my point across. Since I have such a personal view of this issue it is not hard for me to imagine what they want to do, namely try to scare folks about the gays, scare women with bloody pictures of abortion and likely go on a Crusade about Islam just like their friend Bill Whatcott. But not to advocate genocide, jeese, we only want to scare the Lord into ya!

This is also indicative of their platform to put civil rights issue to popular votes. No, absolutely not, it is unconstitutional let alone immoral and undemocratic, it is a battle they will lose Federally and a total waste of time on their part. We are foremost Canadians, Albertans second or third, until then we live under the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it's also the thing that allows any nut-case to believe any religion they want and myself to love anyone I want. There is not great threat to anyone here only one that exists in the mind of the self appointed righteous.

     So, there's a few reasons why I think the Wildrose is unfit to govern, it's too radical, too religious, too male, too Separatist, too Republican! I watch a lot of American Politics, it's my hobby. So I can tell you a lot about where these Oil people and graduates of Brigham Young University, like party founder Paul Hinman, are coming from, which is the radical right wing of Republicans. They despise energy conservation, especially electric and hybrid cars, they still love trickle down economics and think it works. They hate the poor and gay marriage but have found hating the gays too unpopular and since have switched to abortion issues. Did you know over 200 anti-abortion laws have been passed by Republican led states this year? So much for the Tea-Party charge of lower taxes and more jobs! The Tea Party Republicans are trying everywhere to pull funding of Planned Parenthood and force unnecessary Untrasound on women seeking abortions. This my friends is where I think the Wildrose Party is coming from, most Canadians are just too innocent and polite to think it could happen here.

Please inform as many people as you can with my research, there are a lot of innocent people out there who just don't know what they're voting for.