HARVEY GETS IT IN THE EAR . . .AGAIN! AGAIN! AND AGAIN!

Harvey Cenaiko, the MLA for Calgary Buffalo and recently dismissed Solicitor General in the new Government of Fast Eddie Stelmach, must feel that the Almighty Himself (Herself, Itself, etc.)has brought his wrath down upon him.

Harvey, you may remember, backed Jim Dinning in his failed Tory Leadership bid. Strike one. Following the Dinning Debacle, he was dismissed from Cabinet by the victorious Stelmach. Strike two. And now, he is publicly exposed by a Government mole as having tried to promote by way of fast-track, the Premier's son Terry from Officer to the rank of Sergeant of the new Alberta Provincial Sheriff's Branch, without going through the normal promotions process. Strike three. The Sheriff's Branch is one of the few ideas to emerge from the Klein Government. It is supposed to provide an enforcement service for some traffic and other Provincial laws. Some expected that it would replace the RCMP as the law enforcer in rural Alberta.

Harvey can be forgiven for this misadventure. After all, since he attempted to make the promotion after Stelmach's win over Dinning and before the new Cabinet was announced, it was one way of possibly surviving any purge of Ministers as part of the fallout from having supported the wrong horse. Furthermore, Harvey was a former Police Officer with the Calgary Police Service for many years, prior to entering a new brand of politics as a Tory MLA. The Service is an institution alleged by some to have a system of advancement partially based on nepotism, as well as the principle that, "its not who you know, it's who you 'yes.'"

The public disclosure of the affair - by an anonymous source, who clearly was not in Cenaiko's corner - allowed Stelmach to portray himself as an honorable man of the people, who would never countenance such laying on of hands to get his son a promotion. Speaking through his spokeswoman, the Premier expressed no gratitude whatsoever to his son's volunteer patron. "As soon as Mr. Stelmach heard about it, he said, 'Absolutely not. That is not going to happen'", said the spokeswoman. She added, " . . . just because you're the Premier's son, someone should not circumvent the process. It's as simple as that."
That's gratitude for you.

So poor Harvey is now left to twist slowly in the wind, as he awaits the verdict of his constituents in the next Provincial Election in the riding of Calgary Buffalo. The Riding in recent years has been represented by Liberals Sheldon Chumir and Gary Dickson. Political observers are predicting that Calgary Buffalo, like Calgary Elbow, will soon be represented by a Grit. In Buffalo it will be the colourful Liberal Candidate Kent Hehr.