{"id":2884,"date":"2011-03-11T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-11T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=2884"},"modified":"2011-03-11T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-11T15:00:00","slug":"this-week-in-alberta-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=2884","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Alberta"},"content":{"rendered":"

2011 is shaping up to be a fun year<\/a> in Alberta politics, what with the PCs<\/a> and Liberals<\/a> both choosing new leaders, and a provincial election looming. That said, I suspect this blog’s focus will be shifting to the federal scene for the next six weeks. Call it a hunch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I will, however, strive to pay attention to the 28 seats up for grabs in Alberta. It’s tough to find news when only 1 or 2 seats are in play, but there’s always news to be found if you look hard enough. As always, feel free to e-mail me any tips you hear about Alberta campaigns.<\/p>\n

With that said, a glance at provincial politics before it gets pushed to the back burner:<\/p>\n

1. Raj Sherman<\/strong> is an interesting character. I worked with him back during the 2006 Liberal leadership race, and let’s just say I’m not shocked by his actions over the past few months. You’ll recall he was punted<\/a> from the PC caucus back in November after sending his entire address book a typo-laden late night e-mail<\/a> that was especially critical of Stelmach’s performance on Health Care. Since then, Sherman has become a Health Care crusader, raising red flags about problems in the system. His voice was a welcome addition to a debate Alberta sorely needs to have. He’d even mused about running for leadership<\/a> – he just hadn’t decided on which party.<\/p>\n

However, it appears the good doctor may have jumped the shark. Last week, Sherman made stunning claims<\/a> in the legislature about bribery, fraud, and coverups in Alberta’s Health Care system. The problem is, he has been unable to offer up proof, and has since backtracked<\/a> on many of his wilder accusations. With his credibility taking a hit, it will be interesting to watch what Alberta’s maverick MLA does next.<\/p>\n

2. Partly due to Sherman’s allegations, Ed Stelmach has called an inquiry <\/a>into Health Care wait times. Consider it a parting gift for his successor.<\/p>\n

3. One possible <\/em>successor is Gary Mar<\/strong>, who is getting ready to declare<\/a> his candidacy for the PC leadership race.<\/p>\n

4. And what of the Wildrose in all of this? Kyle Olsen offers up analysis on their latest householder<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

5. One of the newest Wildrosers is former PC Cabmin Lyle Oberg<\/a>. If you want to see what Lyle and some of his more colourful friends have been up to in Vietnam, then mosey on over to Daveberta<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2011 is shaping up to be a fun year in Alberta politics, what with the PCs and Liberals both choosing new leaders, and a provincial election looming. That said, I suspect this blog’s focus will be shifting to the federal scene for the next six weeks. Call it a hunch. I will, however, strive to […]<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2884"}],"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=2884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}