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David J. Climenhaga

Blame Ralph Klein for Redford government's regional planning crisis

By
David J. Climenhaga
| April 17, 2013

The foundations of the regional planning crisis that prompted a frustrated Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths to threaten Edmonton-area municipalities with forced amalgamation were laid by the destructive policies announced by premier Ralph Klein's sidekick Steve West back in 1993.

On Oct. 7 of that year, West, the Vermilion veterinarian and MLA who acted in a variety of portfolios as Klein's minister of dismantling public services, marched to the front of a meeting of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association and proclaimed that the government would be pulling the plug on the province's internationally respected system of regional planning.

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David J. Climenhaga

Alberta premier sacks two rookie ministers in wake of poll

By
David J. Climenhaga
| February 5, 2013

Right on the heels of a new poll suggesting a decline in support for the Progressive Conservative government of Alberta, Premier Alison Redford announced a mini-shuffle of her cabinet yesterday, sacking a couple of rookie ministers who for different reasons had turned out to be liabilities.

Coincidence? I think not.

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David J. Climenhaga

Is Alberta Premier Alison Redford's bitter fight with the docs about money, or control?

By
David J. Climenhaga
| February 1, 2013

Is the increasingly bitter fight between Alberta's government and the province's physicians just about money? It's said here it’s more about who gets to control the health care system.

If you need evidence for this assertion, look no further than the fact just two and a half months ago Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne said he was going to impose a pay deal on the docs that would have seen their salaries keep on rising.

Premier Alison Redford is now traipsing around the province explaining that these same doctors are being paid too much -- why, they get 20 to 29 per cent more than their counterparts anywhere else in Canada!

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David J. Climenhaga

Alberta political TV ad battle: Round 1 to the Wildrose Party

By
David J. Climenhaga
| December 15, 2011

Yesterday, Alberta's mighty Tory dynasty released its first TV ad of the 2012 election season.

Whether or not it was intended as a riposte to the two 30-second TV spots released by the Wildrose Party last week, it is bound to be seen that way.

Put under that spotlight, it's obvious the Wildrose Party got more bang for its advertising bucks than the Conservatives did.

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David J. Climenhaga

The Annals of the Klein-tastrophe: 18 years of chaos and conflict in regional planning

By
David J. Climenhaga
| October 19, 2011

"Limits to growth on horizon," proclaimed the main headline on yesterday's print edition of the Edmonton Journal. "Greater role for regional government seen as city runs out of room to develop in 35 years," added a deck head.

But the real story starts down in Paragraph 3 of the article: "An industry group warns that a strong regional government needs to be considered to balance interests when Edmonton runs out of land."

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David J. Climenhaga

Alberta could do much worse than have Alison Redford as premier -- and tomorrow it probably will

By
David J. Climenhaga
| September 30, 2011

If television debates mattered, Alison Redford would win the Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership vote tomorrow hands down.

She certainly turned in a more impressive performance than either of her two fellow candidates (in every sense of the phrase) in Thursday evening's televised leaders' debate on Global TV.

She was tough, clear about her intentions if chosen to replace Premier Ed Stelmach, and -- as she has been throughout this campaign -- prepared to challenge the Tory Old Boys Club and the way it does business.

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David J. Climenhaga

Note to readers: Why your blogger skipped the trip to Vermilion, Alberta

By
David J. Climenhaga
| July 22, 2011

I'm not all that sorry to report to readers that I skipped the dreary ride to Vermilion, once the seat of the mighty privatizer Steve West and therefore a symbolically appropriate place to officially start the Summer 2011 Alberta Conservative leadership race.

Dr. West -- who appropriately enough came by his honorific by being a veterinarian -- was the Lord Voldemort of Alberta politics and the actual brains behind Ralph Klein, whatever you may have heard about anyone else. His efforts live on in the Richest Place on Earth's crumbling and under-staffed health-care system, teacher-deprived schools, electricity distribution chaos, regional planning discord and rubble-strewn infrastructure. But, je digresse.

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