{"id":1655,"date":"2008-02-09T12:02:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-09T17:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=1655"},"modified":"2008-02-09T12:02:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-09T17:02:00","slug":"this-week-in-alberta-politics-week-1900-of-tory-reign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=1655","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Alberta Politics – Week 1900 of Tory Reign"},"content":{"rendered":"

On The Web: \"\"<\/a><\/strong>
-Visit www.edspedia.ca<\/a> – travel deals for Tory insiders
–Meet Kevin Taft<\/a>
–The Adventures of PatMan <\/a>flash cartoon (soon to feature sidekick “Woodman<\/a>“?)
–Top 10 reasons to vote for Laura Shutiak<\/a>
–EddieTube <\/a>has a wide range of videos…including some cures of insomnia in the form of Ed Stelmach in QP<\/p>\n

Commercials:<\/strong>
The Tories release Ed talking healthcare<\/a> with the only actors in Alberta who can sound more wooden than the Premier when talking about healthcare.<\/p>\n

Favourite “News” Headline on PC Alberta Website:<\/strong>
News: Ed Stelmach Cares About Albertans<\/a><\/p>\n

NEP Watch<\/strong>
First Ed drops the NEP bomb <\/a>to try and explain The Case of the Missing Doctors.<\/p>\n

Then, later in the week, Ed gets NEP’d <\/a>himself!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A Look Ahead to Week 2<\/strong>
I’d expect this <\/a>will become an issue – the opposition needs to pounce. In my view, the ALP missed a chance to hammer Stelmach as hard as they could have on the conflict of interest switchero in week 1.<\/p>\n

Ask Ed if he’ll use the notwithstanding clause to override the Charter on this – I can guarantee the resulting press conference would lead to a lot of pain and suffering.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And now, from the home office in Vegreville, comes The Top Ten Steady Eddie Stumbles of week 1900<\/strong>. I intend this to be a weekly feature, although I may need top 12 or top 20 lists some weeks at the pace Ed is going…<\/p>\n

10. Stelmach forgets NDP leader Brian Mason’s name<\/a>, calling him “Bill Mason” and “whatever his name is”.<\/p>\n

9. Stelmach uses the government news media room for a partisan press conference<\/a>, showing a lack of understanding in the difference between the Alberta Government and the Conservative Party.<\/p>\n

8. And the election date he chooses? The anniversary of the Mayerthorpe murders.<\/p>\n

7. Stelmach gets blasted on royalties <\/a>in Drayton Valley, a riding where they beat the second place Greens by a 5 to 1 margin last time: “I think the premier and (Energy Minister) Mel Knight are totally out of touch with conventional oil and gas<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

6. A group of Grade 10 students all pan <\/a>Stelmach’s performance at their High School, including this gem: “What I just mainly took from it is we are the future. (But) what\u2019s the point of coming here if you have no plans for the future<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

And our top 5 show how Stelmach has fumbled his major announcement every single day<\/em> so far this campaign:<\/p>\n

5. Day 5: Ed announces tax breaks for seniors and, in fairness, the criticism <\/a>is less than for his other announcements. The problem? He stands up the stud scud at a fundraiser, drawing front page criticism<\/a> from his star candidate.<\/p>\n

4. Day 4: Ed’s “disastrous<\/a>” daycare announcement. The moms on hand all critiqued<\/a> his “plan”, with one calling it “insulting<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

3. Day 3: Ed’s AISH announcement. And while the Premier did better than Ralph on this topic, staff who work with the disabled <\/a>called it an “empty promise” and “frustrating”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>2. Day 2: Ed’s Health Care Plan which has been called “ridiculous<\/a>“, “the disappearing doctor act<\/a>“, “not possible<\/a>“, and “mythical<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

1. From his very first day, Stelmach stole a page from the Turner ’84 handbook and quietly brought in an order-in-council to exempt retiring Cabinet Ministers<\/a> from his conflict of interest legislation, in a move Bill Mason called “change that works for Tory insiders”.<\/p>\n

Add it all up and you can see why the Red Deer Advocate<\/a> observed: Stelmach appears to have Stockwell Day Disease<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On The Web: -Visit www.edspedia.ca – travel deals for Tory insiders–Meet Kevin Taft–The Adventures of PatMan flash cartoon (soon to feature sidekick “Woodman“?)–Top 10 reasons to vote for Laura Shutiak–EddieTube has a wide range of videos…including some cures of insomnia in the form of Ed Stelmach in QP Commercials:The Tories release Ed talking healthcare with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[71,49],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}