RICK BELL AND MIKE MCCOURT'S ENTRY INTO THE 'VAST WASTELAND'

I received an Email from a friend of mine the other day introducing me to a new (at least to me) political exchange shouting match show on Rogers' Citytv. The program only lasts - mercifully - for a couple of minutes.

It is in the style of CNBC's Hardball or CNN's Crossfire. Hardball of course, still contaminates the airwaves. Its host, Chris Matthews is a political junkie from way back. He worked inside the White House for President Jimmy Carter more than thirty years ago. For the past several years his histrionic, bully boy, decible shattering cross examinations of politicos continues to annoy his mostly American viewing audience. Happily, the viewing public no longer has to endure Crossfire, with the snivelling Tucker Carlson, the serpentine Robert Novak, and other equally repulsive and revolting talking heads.

Not to be outdone in tastelessness, the Rogers organization has now introduced to its Calgary area viewers a Hardball or Crossfire ripoff called Get Over it. It is produced weekly and features a two minute shouting match on a current issue between two very minor celebrities of the local media. One is Rick Bell, the sometimes trenchant but often misguided, and mean and manic columnist for the Calgary Sun. The other is Mike McCourt, whose career in broadcasting goes back at least to the days of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

The show that introduced me to this grisly twosome was entitled: Get Over It: Mammoths, Dinosaurs, and the Alberta Liberals. The sequence was shot in front of the Calgary headquarters of the Alberta Liberal Party caucus. Straining to glean some information over the nattering cacophony of these geniuses, I discerned that Bell (who through most of his ink-stained career has been a Tory apologist and spear carrier) thought that the Alberta Liberals were elitist and arrogant, a flawed and untrue view that he has harped upon ad nauseum in his minor oeuvre contained in the Sun's yellow pages. McCourt thought that the Grits should unite with the NDP to have any chance in the future. You can view the video here:
http://www.citytv.com/calgary/yourcity_57014.aspx

I don't expect anyone will be soon starting up any fan clubs for this new entry in the vast wasteland of TV land.

FIRST IT WAS DEAD DUCKS, NOW ITS LAME DUCKS: BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN SPECIAL ED

Dead Duck

Lame Duck

Edmonton Duck (Left) with Dead Duck

The honeymoon is over for Premier Stelmach's second coming.

Albertans were unimpressed with the Stelmach government's early bumbling performance prior to the last election. But on March 3rd - for want of a better alternative - they held their noses and gave the Stelmach Tories a commanding electoral victory. It could have only happened in Tory Alberta. All was forgiven - the lacklustre new Premier, his bumpkin government, and the public wreckage of years of Tory mismanagement and neglect to which the Premier himself was a major contributor.

However, the tragedy of the dead ducks in the pristine Aurora mine toxic tailings pond north of Fort McMurray has reminded Albertans of the incompetence and ineptitude of the pre-election Stelmach government. The catastrophe has shown that Eddie's team is the discredited Klein regime all over again. It is a story of government incompetence, coverup, callousness, and toadyism to their big business pals in the oil industry. And it is not likely to go away soon.

And now some lame ducks are having an impact on the government as well. Those 'lame ducks' are officials of the Calgary Health Region together with CEO and former Klein apparatchik, Jack Davis - both of which can be assumed to be on their way out.

Ever since the blowing up of the General Hospital and the sale of the Holy Cross Hospital to Klein cronys - decisions taken by the Klein government when Mr. Davis was its right hand man - Calgarians have suffered from inadequate hospital services and insufficient space for the sick. Compounding the problem is the rapid population growth in the Calgary region. The result: among many other horrors, Calgary hospitals are housing 137 patients a day in hallways and lounges with no end in sight.

Davis and his CHR are beating the drum for the government to cough up 100 million to cover the Calgary hospitals deficit plus another 25 million to open completely two new medical facilities and do away with hallway medicine. They point out - quite reasonably - that the Edmonton Capital Health Region gets 2.5 billion a year from the province to operate and the CHR gets only 2.4. In addition, in the past four years or so, the Edmonton region has received 500 million more than the Calgary region.

Stelmach and his Health Minister Ron Leipert are unmoved. They have advanced the spurious explanation that because of demographics, Edmonton has larger health care costs needs. In other words, if you don't like it, then lump it . . . . Calgary!

Could it be that Ed is once again reverting to his anti-Calgary hangups which were so evident when he decimated cabinet representation from the cowtown upon the appointment of his first cabinet? Could it be that this is a spiteful act directed against Davis and his cronys for having embarrassed his government by putting heat on Stelmach for more hospital bucks in the midst of the last election campaign? And could it be that this is Ed's retaliation against some of the Klein henchmen and hangers-on who badmouthed Stelmach at every opportunity in the wake of his win over Dinning right on through to the election? Five will get you ten that the answer to those questions are yes, yes and yes.

And so, look for more trouble from the cowtown for the Stelmach government.

DEAD DUCKS AND THE RETURN OF SPECIAL ED

Dead ducks, indeed. Five hundred of the poor defenceless birds trapped in a oily toxic tailings pond north of Fort McMurray at Syncrude's Aurora mine site. They had been innocently and peacefully following their ancient migratory route coming home for the summer. They stopped for a well-earned breather and perhaps some liquid refreshment and were swallowed up in the muck. Oh, the humanity! For all we know, Donald, Louie, Huey and Dewey may be among them.


But it gets worse. A bright light Syncrude security adviser - one Tim Gray - soon added himself to the list of those who perished. He Emailed a memo directed to Syncrude employees entitled 'Extra Vigilance,' which called for more patrols of the site, and the reporting of activity around the pond as well as low-flying flights. One wonders about the low flying flights. Is Syncrude going to blow them out of the sky, or is there a danger that because of the toxins the pilots may spiral into the pond and join the ducks?


Ah, but it doesn't end there. For those who thought that Ed Stelmach was forever past his Special Ed learning curve, well, think again. Alberta Environment - headed by the Medicine Hat genius flower shop proprietor Rob Renner - say there will be no pictures of the calamity released by the Government. They say they "don't want to prejudice any court case by releasing photographs." Furthermore Renner said, given that the incident took place on private property, there were privacy issues to consider. The opposition is screaming 'Coverup!' with good reason.



Bush's pal Steve Harper, not one to miss a chance to pile on even his friends for a few cheap votes at their expense - true to form - piled on. He saw it as a "terrible tragedy" which is unacceptable to Canadians and would hurt Alberta's environmental image as an energy superpower. Amen to that.


Even the usually deft Deputy Premier Ron Stevens jumped into the Keystone Kops paddywagon. He had been in Washington earlier in the week beating the drum for the oil sands to convince Americans that what was going on in northern Alberta was all very environmentally sustainable and safe. In what may be described as a moment of badly timed exuberance coupled with horribly bad judgement, in describing his multi million dollar flim-flam mission Stevens quoted the five year old words uttered by the moronic President of the United States about the Iraq War - "Mission Accomplished!"


As the major international media began to hover over the toxic pond and Alberta Legislature, Special Ed was back to his pre-campaign communication skills. Said Ed, the dead ducks were not a black mark on Alberta's green record, but rather a chance to show the world that Alberta "means business' in protecting the the environment. The sorry saga continues.

GENERAL HILLIER: HE'S NO MACARTHUR

MacArthur . . . . .

he ain't!

United States General of the Army Douglas MacArthur had a long and brilliant career in the service of his country. From 1898 when he entered West Point until he was fired by President Truman in 1951 during the Korean War, he served with distinction in all of the many theatres of war in which his country was involved. In the annals of military service he was truly a giant of his profession.

Among his many oft-quoted observations, the one that is most fondly remembered with approval is, "In war, there is no substitute for victory."

When he was turfed by Truman, the old soldier was seventy-one years of age and not looking for any career change. Alas, he had locked horns with "Give 'em hell Harry," over conflicts in strategy in the Korean War. Truman, being the feisty and decisive decision maker, canned him for insubordination. The dismissal has stood the test of history as the classic example of the principle that military commanders are subordinate to civilian leadership.

MacArthur, licking his wounds in the wake of being bounced, gave his most memorable line near the end of a dramatic speech to a Joint Session of Congress: "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."http://www.rightwingnews.com/speeches/macarthur.php

Well, I guess times have changed. Our Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier, at the tender age of 53, has recently announced that he is packing it in this summer. By contrast, George S. Patton was 60 years old and still an active General of the Army when he died from injuries sustained in an accident days after the end of World War 2. As to his future intentions, Hillier intoned, "I don't want to sit on the couch scratching my belly in my underwear watching the soaps."

Hillier's stentorian parting statements for the history books included: "I can only repeat what one of my commanders once said when he noted we're not trying to be one of the big boys, we are one of the big boys and we have to start acting like it. That's a good comment because that reflects our place in the world. Canada has had a significant reprofiling in the world. We're one of the big boys now."

In Hillier's world then - unlike MacArthur's - there is a substitute for 'victory.' That substitute is for Canada or the Canadian military - through the shedding of the blood of its young - to become one of 'the big boys.' In other words, young lives are sacrificed these days - not for victory. This is quite obvious given the nature of the conflict in Afghanistan, where only a few empty headed Conservatives talk of 'victory.' No, in Hillier's world our young lives are sacrificed so that Canada becomes one of the 'big boys' - meaning of course the big military powers such as the United States, the UK, Germany, France and the like. In other words, meaning the important member states of NATO.

Yes, our boys and girls are fighting so that Canada is one of the 'big boys' of NATO - an organization that increasingly shows itself to abhor any bloody conflict in which the bleeding is suffered by NATO member states. Although NATO has no trouble drawing blood from the enemy from 35,000 feet in the air, to lose its own in the grunt work on the ground . . . . well, no thanks. To muster up an extra 1000 men from NATO countries to help Canadians in southern Afghanistan, has been like pulling teeth. In fact, though Canada has pleaded with its NATO partners for many months for the extra thousand, they still haven't arrived. Big boys indeed!

Finally, is this old Canadian soldier - at 53 - likely to just 'fade away,' as MacArthur would say? Not bloody likely. Look for him to cash in on the rubber chicken circuit spinning the yarn about how he stuck it to the civilian leadership and forced them to get Canada a place among the 'big boys.' Victory, be damned.

THE GRITS: THE WAGES OF DISUNITY

There is a large swath of the Liberal Party of Canada - many of Paul Martin's suicide squad, soft Quebec nationalists, some disgruntled supporters of the Michael Ignatieff leadership bid, some of the traditional Winters/Turner/Martin right wing of the party - who have never accepted the verdict of the Leadership convention that elected Stephane Dion as party leader in December 2006.

They also have severe learning disabilities when it comes to the subject of politics.

Many of them agitated, weasled and wheedled away at undermining the leadership of three-time majority winner Jean Chretien. When their success forced him to throw in the towel, their manipulative ways set up the dullest Grit leadership convention in the history of the party in December 2003 which saw the coronation of Mr. Martin. Only the brave Sheila Copps stood up to this fiasco by remaining on the ballot. The feint-of-heart John Manley bowed out of the contest early enough not to offend the incoming regime. Revenge was swiftly meted out to Copps however. The Martinites torpedoed her nomination in her own riding of Hamilton East, thus - at least temporarily - sidelining her from public life.

Not satisfied with the forced retirement of Chretien and the purging of Copps and literally hundreds of supporters of Chretien in the party across the country, Martin continued this insane internecine mayhem by ordering the Gomery Inquiry which set up the ancien Chretien regime to be the Liberal opponent in the forthcoming Federal Election. Think about it - the Martin Liberals set up the Chretien Liberals to run against - as though the Conservatives didn't exist!! The result of all of this stupidity was inevitable: the Martin Liberals lost the election thereby gifting the Canadian people with its main legacy: a Harper Government. Martin, mercifully, seems to have disappeared into history, where he will be a small footnote.

The obvious lesson to be learned from this gross foolishness is that in order for a party to succeed to power, it has to stay unified. To win, a party needs the support of every living breathing member and supporter it can lay its hands on. Most of us in the party knew this. The guts of the Martin party - including Martin himself - obviously did not.

Well, as they say, "They're baaaaaaaaaack."

Their target is of course Stephane Dion. Unlike them, Dion was never part of Martin's suicide squad, is not a soft Quebec nationalist, is not a disgruntled supporter of Michael Ignatieff, and has never been a member of the Winters/Turner/Martin right wing of the party. He is the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, lawfully and fairly elected according to the rules in the last convention. He has yet to lead the party into a general election and according to the polls is running neck and neck in party support with Steve Harper's Conservatives. There is no doubt that he is having some problems. But all leaders - particularly opposition leaders - have problems as they approach their first general election.

First among the backstabbers to come out of the shadows this past week was Steven Pinkus, the Liberal Party of Canada's vice-president for the Quebec Anglophone community. He rants about the Liberals' recruiting, fundraising and communication efforts. Noone, he says, is "stepping up to the plate to put together an organization strategy." Pinkus said that he's complaining because Dion's "hand-picked people" hadn't learned any lessons from the Liberal by-election defeat in Outremont.

About Pinkus' warblings, firstly, it is to be noted that he worked for Michael Ignatieff in the leadership contest. Secondly, since he sits on the National Executive of the Liberal Party of Canada as a vice-president, what about the National Executive's and his responsibility in bringing about an effective party organization?

Martinite, former Martin Minister, high-profile media gadfly, supporter of Michael Ignatieff, and soft Quebec nationalist Liza Frulla was the next out of the cage. Dion, she said, "has no instinct. At a certain point, people feel it if there is something wrong, even if they don't know exactly what it is. But he, poor Stephane, doesn't feel it."

I would like to pose this question to Ms. Frulla. "What about your own instinct in having supported the departed Mr. Martin in his effort to dislodge and trash the Chretien Liberals? Why didn't you feel there was something wrong with that? After all, it cost the Liberals the election, Mr. Martin his leadership and you your seat!! You are a fine one to talk about "no instinct!"

Frulla went further in her comments. She trashes former Minister and firebrand politico Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette, Dion's Quebec lieutenant, as being "abrasive" and narcissistic." Egads, talk about the pot calling the kettle black! But quite apart from that, I have known Ms. Hervieux-Payette for almost thirty years. She is a passionate and tough task master and a doer. She is also a great Canadian. When Liza Frulla was casting her ballot for the "yes" forces in the Quebec Referendum of 1980, Celine was still out on the hustings campaigning for the "no" side of Pierre Trudeau, Jean Chretien and Claude Ryan.

For what its worth, my advice to Grits everywhere is to unite and get behind the leader. We have seen what happens when a party splits over leadership. Liberal unity was one of the important reasons why the Liberals ruled between 1963 and 1984. It was one of the reasons that we were successful during most of the Chretien years. Liberals were unified and the Tories - for much of that time - were divided. We also saw what party disunity did to us in 2004. It gave us Harper. Dion has earned the right to lead the party into the next election and so let's live with that.

As for Michael Ignatieff - who I happen to like very much - I say to him, get your people in line and watch what you say and how you say it. The press are always on the hunt for that raised eyebrow, the grimace, the frown, the out-of-context sentence or phrase or word, designed to promote conflict. Its a minefield, really. And you have to get through it. Just like the rest of us.

LICIA CORBELLA: ON BEING DEAF, DUMB AND ARROGANT AND A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLACK

Corbella: Chip off the Old . . .

Black

Licia Corbella is the new 3 month old Editorial Page Editor of the Calgary Herald.

Prior to joining the Herald, Ms. Corbella was a longtime editor/columnist with the Sun Media organization - first in Toronto and then in Calgary. No doubt, during her days at the Sun she came under the influence of some of the many loony pamphleteers that over the years have taken too much space in its pages - names like Worthington, Amiel, Jonas, Zink and Waugh come to mind - ideologues all. Indeed, all are either - borderline or worse - neocon lunatics of the far, far right whose prose has for years tried to poison reasonable political discourse between contending parties, movements and ideas throughout the country.

The Calgary Herald historically was a much different newspaper than the yellow pages of the Sun. During much of the staid old days of the Southam era, it could rightfully say that it was a newspaper of record. News was reported well and matter of factly. Editorials and columns sought not to incite. The Herald was a proud and honest newspaper during those days, honorably supporting the Social Credit or Progressive Conservative options at election time in a humane, respectful and dignified manner.

Then came the nightmarish regime of the disgraced, self-destructive narcissist, Conrad Black.

Beginning his reign of the Herald in 1996, he soon selected a management and editorial group that would have no problem proselytizing his love for laissez-faire economics, social Darwinism, the United States, the Bush family and the goodness of greed. Nor would they have a problem painting the Liberal Party as big-spending, weak-kneed, bleeding hearts of the extreme left. Among the Black team at the Herald were his foot soldiers with names like Menzies, Crockett, Gaynor and King. In doing the bidding of their now-felon boss, their shoddy treatment of the Herald's staff led to a prolonged and bitter strike, turning old friends and colleagues against each other and excellent professional journalists away from their profession.

With the purchase of the Herald in 2000 by Can-West Global, a company controlled by the family of Izzy Asper, a high profile Liberal and former Leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party, moderate readers of the Herald breathed a sigh of relief. And it is true that over time, standards of objectivity under the new owndership improved. In the last two provincial elections and between elections, oppostion parties including the Alberta Liberal Party couldn't complain about the Herald's coverage they received. And on the whole, although the editorial pages continue to be supportive of the Tories, there has been a reasonable equilibrium of opinion.

But now comes the Sun trained, Ms. Corbella.

In her election post-mortem published March 8 "Alberta Liberals are deaf when it comes to good advice" http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/letters/story.html?id=43d1099b-972a-48ad-a718-0b3b30e4bb28, she accuses the Alberta Liberals as being "deaf to what the voters said. . . " because Liberal Leader Kevin Taft said shortly after the election that "Losing the election does not mean the Alberta Liberals are wrong about the issues. We are right, and we need the courage and persistance to stay on those issues." That, she says, was 'arrogance' and 'delusional.' Why? Because the Alberta Liberal Party's campaign policies called for the construction of upgraders in Alberta at the same time as establishing an absolute cap on greenhouse gas emissions from all sources within five years.

Those policies are not necessarily mutually exclusive and nor must they be. Be that as it may, one is left to conclude that she finds it arrogant and delusional for Liberals to enunciate policies with which she does not agree. This is an ominous sign indeed coming from the new Editorial Page Editor and bodes ill for anyone hoping to challenge her beloved Tories on her pages.

Her frontal boot attack on the Grit cajones continued with her advancing that old canard of changing the Alberta Liberal Party's name by dropping the word 'Liberal.' The Liberal brand is broken, she says. The Party, she reminds us, has not won in 23 consecutive elections. She takes exception to Kevin Taft saying that "there was nothing wrong with the Liberal brand." I suppose she didn't know that it took the Progressive Conservatives 17 elections and 65 years to finally form an Alberta government in 1971. And she has probably forgotten that as recently as 1993 the Alberta Liberals won 40% of the vote and 32 seats with close to 400,000 Albertans voting for them. Not bad for the Liberal brand not that long ago.

She next trotted out the old NEP BIG LIE to continue her attack. She takes exception to Taft saying that "Albertans should just get over the National Energy Program." She says, "Some of the brightest, most philanthropic people I have ever met and who understand the difference between provincial and federal politics, tell me they will never be able to vote Liberal, so devastated were they, their parents or their grandparents as a result of the Trudeau Liberals' NEP.' She goes on, "Taft wants them to get over something that caused real Albertans to lose everything, but he won't lose a hated moniker." All of which she describes as "more arrogance" and "deafness."

I suppose Corbella would think it is deaf, dumb and arrogant for a Liberal to tell the truth.

These brightest, most philanthropic people who know the difference between provincial and federal politics, I guess, are not as bright as Corbella thinks they are. Because if they were, they would know that the Alberta Liberal Party has been a separate and independent legal entity from the Liberal Party of Canada for more than twenty years.

In fact, these brightest, most philanthropic people who can't bring themselves to vote Liberal because of the NEP are, and always have been, Tories. http://darrylraymaker.blogspot.com/2007/10/gwyn-morgan-pinnochio-failing-memory-or.html.

And these brightest, most philanthropic people as well as the Editorial Page Editor of the Calgary Herald, continue to ignore or misrepresent the facts surrounding the NEP http://darrylraymaker.blogspot.com/2007/02/neil-waugh-weasel-words-and-art-of-big.html.

Here are some facts about the NEP. The devastation of the 1980's was felt in every oil producing region of the Americas more or less at the same time and to the same effect. It was brought about primarily by high interest rates (sponsored by among others, their conservative hero Ronald Reagan and his Federal Reserve Board), collapsing world oil prices and bright and philanthropic businessmen who did not believe or remember there was such a thing as a business cycle.

These same bright, most philanthropic people and their Tory pals, who include big-time editors schooled in the fine art of Sun Media type of bullshit, have been distorting the NEP for going on 28 years and continue to do so. They are basically lying to the people that they should be informing.

As a parting shot, Corbella sticks her shivy pen into the back of Harry Chase, an earnest, hardworking and very good and gentle man who is the Liberal MLA representing the Riding of Calgary Varsity. To her question as to whether the Liberals should change their name, Chase offered the very thoughtful and articulate response, "That would be a rather sad comment on the capabilities of Albertans (that) something as basic, the veneer of a name, would be more significant than the depth of a policy."

To which Corbella harumphed, "Deaf, dumb and arrogant."

I'll say. And it's neither Harry Chase, Kevin Taft nor the Alberta Liberal Party.

THE ALBERTA ELECTION: ON SUFFERING, SWILL, AND IDEAS

If they haven't suffered enough, it's their God-given right to suffer some more. That's the first idea to come to my mind in the wake of Premier Stelmach's 72 to 9 to 2 romp to a massive majority victory in the Alberta Election.

What motivated Albertans to be so apathetic in the wake of such poor government? Two hundred and fifty thousand Calgarians cannot find a family physician. Eleven hours or more waiting time for treatment in emergency wards. Patients being cared for in the hospital hallways or room showers. Premature babies having to be flown to Saskatoon for treatment because of a lack of facilities in Alberta. An abysmal lack of schools to serve the fastest growing province in the country. Crumbling and leaking schools. A chronic lack of spaces to serve students enrolled in higher learning. Deteriorating and unsafe highways. All of this in the wealthiest province in the history of the country.

The desecration of our environment. The refusal to launch even a token attack on climate change. The looting of bitumin by big oil via pipeline thus transferring both unimaginable wealth and tens of thousands of jobs to cheap labour destinations in the United States. A fumbling and bumbling Premier - an embarrassment, really - who gets by by memorizing a few lines from his campaign cheat sheets, who has trouble putting two coherent phrases together. Yada, yada, yada. There's more.

Oh, it's true the Grits talked too much policy. Until people's eyes began to glaze over at times. And yes, there was a shortage of passion, urgency and righteous indignation in the delivery of their message - that 'it was time!' But by God, it was time!! It would have been 'time' in every other province of Canada whose government had a similar dismal record as the Alberta Tories.

In fact, the Kevin Taft Alberta Liberals ran a great campaign. They had candidates of quality who ran visible and active campaigns. The Liberals had ideas. Boy, did they have ideas! And what is wrong with ideas? There was a time when people cared about ideas. Even columnists cared about whether a party presented ideas.

Sun columnist Rick Bell, one of my favorite columnists (when he is not mean-spirited and subconsciously yearning for the return of Ralph Klein who was so full of yuk, yuks in the good old days like plagerizing his college term paper, getting into a shouting match with the homeless on Christmas Eve, or talking about dinosaur farts), thinks the Liberals are arrogant. See http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Bell_Rick/2008/03/04/4901326-sun.php
In Rick's world, any politician who presents ideas on the hustings is a latte swilling intellectual snob, who whines when he loses.

I got news for you Ricky. The Grits know how to take their lumps and they take them like real men (or women). They will be back with their ideas another day. Not every successful politician is in the tradition of lubricated blowhards who duck out of Premiers' meetings on health care to play the slots. Some think. Some have ideas. And whether they swill latte or pellegrino or cheap vino sometimes they win. And it is these men and women of ideas that make a difference. The Grits will be back Ricky, don't you worry.