If Ottawa is corrupt, take a look at Edmonton.
- The Alberta legislature met for 11 days this fall - 11 days for legislation to be debated, cabinet ministers to be embarrassed in Question Period, and reports from the Ombusdman and the Auditor General to be presented. The rest of the time, government is by cabinet only. In Ottawa, the magic number was about 60 sitting days.
- In Ottawa, the government gets embarrassed regularly by reports of the Auditor General, who is empowered to investigate any government matter. In Alberta, the AG is a hack with limited investigative powers. When the AG decided to investigate the Alberta Securities Commission, for example, the ASC directors sued to keep him out - and did!
- In Ottawa, legislation and government operations are examined by standing committees made up of MP's from all parties. Committees are populated on a proportional basis, so the governing party has a majority of the seats, but any member has the opportunity to ask questions, and to complain publicly if answers are not forthcoming. Some committeee sessions are public. In Alberta, the committees are made up only of government MLA's, no-one says diddly, to maintain caucus solidarity, and no sessions are public.
- Albertans complain about the fact that their taxes go to Ottawa and never come back. In Calgary, 60% of my property tax is "school tax", collected by Edmonton, and half of it never comes back. Instead, while there are not enough schools for Calgary, new schools are popping up all over Podunk.
- The Ward 10 scandal, where a city council election was initially hijacked through mail-in ballots, was the work of Hung Pham, a Conservative MLA who Ralph has yet to fire, and candidate Margot Aftergood, a former executive of Pham's PC constituency association (and also a returning officer in Pham's next election).
And the stink of neo-cons continues.
- The Alberta legislature met for 11 days this fall - 11 days for legislation to be debated, cabinet ministers to be embarrassed in Question Period, and reports from the Ombusdman and the Auditor General to be presented. The rest of the time, government is by cabinet only. In Ottawa, the magic number was about 60 sitting days.
- In Ottawa, the government gets embarrassed regularly by reports of the Auditor General, who is empowered to investigate any government matter. In Alberta, the AG is a hack with limited investigative powers. When the AG decided to investigate the Alberta Securities Commission, for example, the ASC directors sued to keep him out - and did!
- In Ottawa, legislation and government operations are examined by standing committees made up of MP's from all parties. Committees are populated on a proportional basis, so the governing party has a majority of the seats, but any member has the opportunity to ask questions, and to complain publicly if answers are not forthcoming. Some committeee sessions are public. In Alberta, the committees are made up only of government MLA's, no-one says diddly, to maintain caucus solidarity, and no sessions are public.
- Albertans complain about the fact that their taxes go to Ottawa and never come back. In Calgary, 60% of my property tax is "school tax", collected by Edmonton, and half of it never comes back. Instead, while there are not enough schools for Calgary, new schools are popping up all over Podunk.
- The Ward 10 scandal, where a city council election was initially hijacked through mail-in ballots, was the work of Hung Pham, a Conservative MLA who Ralph has yet to fire, and candidate Margot Aftergood, a former executive of Pham's PC constituency association (and also a returning officer in Pham's next election).
And the stink of neo-cons continues.
