Taxpayers grade the candidates...

[coppertop]

What would you call a firewall, or is it to keep out the Conservative government in Ottawa, that Morton was a great part of ????

How much are you willing to bet that Preson Manning comes out of the hills to endorse Morton fairly soon.....and we will be well on our way to the Alberta REFORM party in PC Clothing.

I have never been excited about anyone wanting to go in by the side door.

[ivbinconned]

You havn't read the "firewall" letter have you?

Politics can be alot of fun...check this out.

http://www.jimdimming.com/

Thats right two m's.

[coppertop]

Thanks for the info. I am not a Dinning fan, and have never been, we must never lose sight of the fact that he is the one that said deregulation of power in Alberta will not fail, judging by power bills since the deregulation took place, I think it failed Albertans.

[cowman]

I find it strange that 12 federal Conservative MPs are back in Alberta supporting Morton if he is this evil "break up the country" type? Maybe they see it as the last great hope to save this country?...Or we could just smear them as "Reform" and pretend they are bigots or rednecks or something? Or maybe we could further smear them as supporting an "American"?
Ed Stelmach might very well win this thing and I suspect he would be a good manager...after Ralph just about anyone would look good! The knock on Ed always has been he's a good middle manager but not much of a bold leader? Good at tinkering with a problem but not much for new ideas?
Personally I look at what is happening in Ottawa and Quebec and I think we'd better have a united Province out here or we are going to be getting the shaft! Harper thought he pulled a cute one by declaring Quebec a nation...it may come back to bite him in a big way! He might think it was a meaningless gesture but Quebec sees it as the real deal! How many billions is it going to cost, this time, to keep them in Canada?
And that is not fear mongering...that is just the facts of life? Quebec will have an election in 2007 and if the PQ get in they have stated they will hold another referendum within one year? We either throw the money to Charest real soon or we throw it to Quebec later to win the referendum?
I wonder will Ed or Dinning stand up and say "NO MORE MONEY" to Ottawa and Quebec?
In case you haven't noticed our infrastructure, hospitals, schools could use some work? We are not so awash in money that we can fix everything tommorrow...especially if we send even more money east! How much more could Alberta do if they had even a portion of the $14 billion we sent to Ottawa this year? How much less can we do if we have to send another $3 billion?
So while your shaking your car to pieces on pothole roads, waiting 8 months to get your hip replaced, knowing that your children are getting an education by selling chocolate bars door to door...be very happy your Quebec counterpart is having a good time on your dime!

[blackjack]

...you are right on that one cowman...i always get a kick out of the left wing thinkers...here is a chance to have a guy that (morton)wants to keep more of the tax dollars in alberta ...so would that not mean more money for our own infrastructure...everybody knows the red tories have been so busy running around the last five years trying to please everyone...that there was no direction...so in my opinion if people want more of the same vote for stelmach or dinning ...but it is time for alberta to stand up for itself and show other canadians we can live without big govt looking after us from cradle to grave...maybe morton can start us in that direction...

[coppertop]

If you think that a Ted Morton government will be able to keep more of our Alberta tax dollars in this province and not send them to Ottawa, you must also believe in the tooth fairy !!!
We have fought the battle over transfer payments over and over, and never come out on top. The fact that we have former reform MP's who are now Conservative MP's working for Morton says a lot, these are the self same MP's that just granted Quebec status as a nation within a nation, and Morton is the front man for the reform party in Alberta, that has never had the guts to run as a party on their own, but want to hijack the Conservative party, likely plant their own candidates in every constituency and run Alberta like a mini US !!!

[cakadu]

On the Calgary news this morning, they announced that the Calgary Health Region is going to spend $29 million on a new building in Forest Lawn. That is $29 million that could go to hospitals to look after people. I didn't hear the justification for the new building, but you can bet that it will end up costing far more than $29 million, given the escalating construction costs these days.

Now cowman, you surprise me wanting tospend more money on crumbling infrastructure -- whatever happened to your stance on everyone should pay for themselves?

What is wrong with having someone lead you who won't go out so far that they aren't really leading but going for a walk? Leadership takes many forms and sometimes you lead from the front, the middle or the back - one doesn't necessarily have to be out in front all the time.

Morton's comment about 70% of the party not voting for Dinning also holds true for himself. In fact more than 70% of the party delegates did not vote for him either when it comes right down to it.

Bear in mind that whomever gets in has to work with the senior bureaucrats that are already in place. Even the federal conservatives have had to deal with that reality. For all of Harper's bleating about being above board and transparent are you aware that the senior bureaucrats in Ottawa were given a fairly significant raise? I do agree with you cowman, that making Quebec a nation within a nation has likely opened a can of worms.

We could be reaping a whole lot more money if we increased the royalties that the oil companies have to pay.

[cakadu]

To clarify on the new health building - it is being built to offer services that the CHR feels need to be filled after their "health of the community" survey was completed. It will replace two existing facilities.

[kpb]

blackjack, I'm with you and cowman on this one. I've heard Stelmach speak on the rutherford show twice now--the latest being this morning and the man just will not answer any questions. Guys phoned in and asked him specific questions about health care, about transfer payments, about infrastructure, about agriculture and other things and he simply did a tap dance and did not address the issue in each case.

Ed may be the most honest guy in the province but who knows where he stands on issues since he won't provide specific answers to specific questions. My vote also goes to Morton this weekend although I voted for someone else last weekend. I think he's the one who best represents Alberta's interests and is prepared to fight for them.

And this business about Morton dividing the party and being oh so scary is just so much balderdash from people with vested interests who don't like their little boats being rocked.

kpb

[cakadu]

Kpb, if you listen to any candidate running in any election, they very seldom, if ever, answer the question at hand. Even in the all candidates debate - if you happened to watch it - none of the candidates came out and said what they would do specifically - not even Morton. It is always "this is what we will do....." and rarely is there any specifics as to how they are going to go about doing it.

I for one am not saying that Morton is the boogeyman or divisive or anything like that. What I do believe is that if you go looking for trouble, you'll find it and it may be a lot tougher than what one thinks. Being nascent in his political career, I don't think that Morton has any idea as to how the game is really played and that can be very detrimental for everyone.

Even if you take a look at cowman's statements regarding Morton taking a look at entry payments - how on earth is he going to bring that about? He is just one man and one vote. Bear in mind he is going to allow "his" caucus to speak their minds.

Mr. Morton had better take a page from the textbook of one Nancy Betkowski as she thought she had it all "sewn up" as well.

[coppertop]

Morton on health care: Albertans will have the opportunity to purchase private health insurance...LIKE THE US.
Then he will do away with health premiums, but he has NOT said whether or not we will have any health care coverage unless we buy private insurance.
Ed in health care: All players will be at the table, Health Regions, Doctors, Nurses, seniors and Albertans to come up with a solution that will provide top quality health care inside the Canada Health Act. Ed has also promised that once Premier he will have the checks and balances done to see whether or not health premiums can be done away with in their entirety. He is the only candidate that is prepared to provide an annual grant per capita to municipalities both rural and urban equal to the amount of education tax, this will allow them to decide locally whether or not to reduce property tax, build streets and roads or build sports facilities and libraries, those decisions will be made locally with input from the local citizens.

Has anyone asked Morton how many billions it is going to cost to replace the RCMP and put in the necessary infrastructure to house them, let alone the staff component. Doing away with the RCMP will NOT mean that those officers will transfer over to a provincial police force.

[kpb]

well you may be right about candidates not answering questions in an election but I heard both dinning and morton speak before and felt they did address specific questions with specific answers. I didn't agree with all of them but I did hear an answer--for instance dinning clearly stated he was for a public health system--morton clearly stated on the radio that he would allow some private health providers.

Stelmach just would not answer this question but skated around the issue both today and the first time I heard him. I was prepared to take him very seriously the first time, based on what coppertop said about him, but he simply will not answer the questions that are put to him--someone phoned him up from airdrie today and asked if he would provide 24 hour emergency service in that community (where emergency patients currently have to go to calgary on the weekend) and he didn't even answer that--instead talked about a health care service that is available to everyone and one that has to be efficient, blah blah blah. I mean geez answer the question.

If you don't believe me, watch the debate and then tell me what stelmach's position, as stated in the debate, is on health care or transfer payments or increasing royalties or agriculture. I just can't decipher it from all the background noise. Sorry coppertop, it's not a slam on you but I think your candidate needs to refine his message really quickly so that us poor peasants know exactly what he stands for instead of talking in cliches. Your man's character is undoubtedly first rate but without a clear platform as stated by the candidate himself I think people don't know where hs is coming from.

I guess we'll see--dinning is on the radio tomorrow and morton on friday. Based on what I heard the first go round we'll hear some answers to phoned-in questions--we may not like them but we'll get some real answers. Even Rutherford was getting frustrated today with the big run-around.

kpb