CalgaryLiberal

Archive for August, 2010

Again, again, and again candidates give the same spiel about accountability, experience, and transparency. So much so that, for a constant listener, those buzzwords lose their original meaning. Then, when a mayoral candidate actually comes out with a solution to back door deals and what is currently tantamount to corruption in other areas of the country I myself cannot help but listen and pay attention.

Kent Hehr (website), the anti-crime, pro-police, and smart-growth candidate, has promised to set up a lobbyist registry and push the details of who is meeting who at city hall online.

And why should Calgarians pay attention?

Remember rhat “Peace” Bridge? Back room dealing all the way and council attempting to spend “free” cash from the province that they hadn’t thought of where to spend it yet. As Rick Bell has a lot of poignant points about this bridge here.

Or, perhaps, the $30 million purchase of a $10 million golf course for housing… that cannot be developed for housing because of zoning issues? Almost twenty million is riding on the changing of zoning of the Shawnee Slopes Golf Course and the unwatched and hidden lobbying going on behind the scenes right now is enough to make a mafia boss blush.

Kent Hehr today has come out pledging to set up a lobbyist registry so that Calgarians know who is influencing who. Hehr notes that Ric McIver’s 2007 campaign was halfway covered by the development lobby and that Calgary’s growth has been mismanaged to the extreme. Personally, I’d like to make the connection between mismanaged growth and the zilch transparency, with the relations between public officials and companies be just one instance of such inadequacy, seeing that if there isn’t accountability for decisions, accountability for politicians who have been bought and sold, and accountability that’s just at citizens’ finger tips in an online database.

“That’s why, if elected, I’ll immediately take steps to set up a lobbyist registry, post information online and introduce a more open, honest and accountable government to the citizens of Calgary.”

• The Hehr For Mayor Campaign’s Press Release [PDF]

If Mr. Hehr keeps on going this route I’ll likely end up voting for him. Nobody else seems to really be offering real solutions in this mayoral race–except, of course, for sweet nothings like “fiscally conservative with a big heart.”

There is a serious problem in Ottawa.

• Canada.com posted a story two years ago about a hallway completely dedicated to portraits of Harper.
• Kim Leaman writes of an image-infatuated Harper.

I thought it was all satire for a moment. It’s the kind of stuff you would expect from, say, a site like The Onion News Network. But it isn’t. Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green party of Canada, has seen this hall. So has Kady O’Malley.

There is an entire gallery dedicated to the Hon. Stephen Harper. According to the Canada.com article all you need to see it is a Commons Pass and a Conservative Party of Canada membership card.

I missed this article in 2008, though. And now that I’ve seen it… I just don’t know what’s going on in Ottawa and in Harper’s head. It’s just mind-numbing even thinking about the amount of ego required to establish an entire gallery for oneself. Tell me what you think below in the comments.

Someone is trying to pull my chain. This twitter feed has gone up and down for the last few days and seems to be the twitter feed for Harley Shouldice, the campaign manager for Low campaign in ward 4. At least allegedly it is.

Personally, I think someone is trying to pull my chain with this account.

See below for a picture:

Click to enlarge.

Someone yanking my chain, in two parts:

• Part I
• Part II