Fast Eddie would make a good choice for Conservative leader
Fast Eddie would make a good choice for Conservative leader
Column: Gimme Some Grammar
originally published March 24, 2006
By MICHAEL HALL
We heard this week that a provincial cabinet minister stepped down, paving the way for his run at the top Tory job whenever Ralph Klein moves aside.
It may be in a month, it may be in a year or two. But the race is on.
I'm not a Progressive Conservative. I have never been a card-carrying member of any provincial or federal political party.
I vote, of course. I cast a ballot every time I'm able.
Over the years, I've marked my X beside names that represent most of the mainstream political parties. Some were in protest. Some were because I supported the party. Most of them were because I liked the candidate and his or her policies on a personal level.
All of this is a prelude to my recommendation to those of you reading this who will choose the next leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party.
Vote for Ed Stelmach.
I first met the former Alberta Intergovernmental Affairs minister 19 years ago.
The Lamont County mixed farmer was a newly elected member of county council, representing the Andrew area.
Over the years, I saw him move up to reeve, deal with many contentious issues, like a bid by a private company to dump all of Edmonton's garbage on a quarter-section of pasture land in the county, and finally run for the legislature when boundaries were shifted.
I've been to Ed's farm and his church. I've spent several days criss-crossing the county with Ed, his super-nice wife Marie, his children (and other politicians and their families) in a bus, visiting farm family award winners.
I called him Fast Eddie a few times. He laughed.
I sat through hundreds of hours of council and other meetings, watching him and his colleagues deal with the issues of the day.
Stelmach is a good guy.
I'm not sure I agree with all of his ideas, but I know he's a listener and a consensus-builder.
He's the kind of person who, when a group was entering the council chambers, would spring out from behind the fancy curved table to fetch chairs for visitors.
He's the kind of guy who, when the Edmonton media were descending on him like a swarm of locusts, would make them cool their heels while he talked to the local newspaper reporter.
He always has a twinkle in his eye, and a smile on his face. And his skin's not too thin.
Stelmach got in a bit of hot water in the early days of his time in cabinet with an idea to ensure traffic flowed better; he floated the concept that the province could OK or even encourage passing on the right on multi-lane highways.
We have this now on Highway 63, only it's idiots passing on the shoulder. But that's not Stelmach's fault.
His idea flopped.
He was also slow to recognize that teenagers should be barred from riding in the back of a pickup truck. I understood how he was reluctant to forbid the practice, considering his formative years on the farm, but he finally came around to the sensible choice on this matter.
There are numerous candidates for Ralph Klein's job. I've met Jim Dinning, too, and Mark Norris once, briefly. They're OK.
If Guy Boutilier's not running -- I'm pretty sure he isn't -- my vote would be for Stelmach.
Stelmach is a smart guy. I like smart people managing the public purse and making public policy. He's on the right wing of the provincial Tories, but he's a pragmatist, too. Like Klein, he knows most people are in the middle.
We journalists aren't supposed to get involved in partisan politics. I'm not doing that here, because I can't vote in the leadership selection.
While we will certainly run stories on the process, they won't be chosen with Stelmach in mind. The news is supposed to get all the facts to you, the reader. You can make up your mind.
But my opinion is in this space, and I'm coming out for a decent, smart guy who has some new ideas, and who won't run government in the top-down mode we see now.
We only have a couple of years to wait to see who wins.
* * *
We're trying an experiment.
We've set up a so-called "weblog" (a concatenation of "web," as in Internet, and "log," a record of things). They're hot online. Everyone from teeny-boppers on up have them, confiding their innermost thoughts to a web page that everyone can see.
That's not what you'll get with the Today weblog. You'll get editorials, reviews and columns that don't make it to the website. Maybe more. We're not sure yet. Should we put letters to the editor there? I don't know.
And no, there won't be an archive, It will be a few entries and no more.
It's an experiment. We may call an end to it.
The entries will only be added a couple of days after they hit the paper.
If you're interested, head over to fortmcmurraytoday.blogspot.com.
© Copyright 2006, Fort McMurray Today.
Column: Gimme Some Grammar
originally published March 24, 2006
By MICHAEL HALL
We heard this week that a provincial cabinet minister stepped down, paving the way for his run at the top Tory job whenever Ralph Klein moves aside.
It may be in a month, it may be in a year or two. But the race is on.
I'm not a Progressive Conservative. I have never been a card-carrying member of any provincial or federal political party.
I vote, of course. I cast a ballot every time I'm able.
Over the years, I've marked my X beside names that represent most of the mainstream political parties. Some were in protest. Some were because I supported the party. Most of them were because I liked the candidate and his or her policies on a personal level.
All of this is a prelude to my recommendation to those of you reading this who will choose the next leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party.
Vote for Ed Stelmach.
I first met the former Alberta Intergovernmental Affairs minister 19 years ago.
The Lamont County mixed farmer was a newly elected member of county council, representing the Andrew area.
Over the years, I saw him move up to reeve, deal with many contentious issues, like a bid by a private company to dump all of Edmonton's garbage on a quarter-section of pasture land in the county, and finally run for the legislature when boundaries were shifted.
I've been to Ed's farm and his church. I've spent several days criss-crossing the county with Ed, his super-nice wife Marie, his children (and other politicians and their families) in a bus, visiting farm family award winners.
I called him Fast Eddie a few times. He laughed.
I sat through hundreds of hours of council and other meetings, watching him and his colleagues deal with the issues of the day.
Stelmach is a good guy.
I'm not sure I agree with all of his ideas, but I know he's a listener and a consensus-builder.
He's the kind of person who, when a group was entering the council chambers, would spring out from behind the fancy curved table to fetch chairs for visitors.
He's the kind of guy who, when the Edmonton media were descending on him like a swarm of locusts, would make them cool their heels while he talked to the local newspaper reporter.
He always has a twinkle in his eye, and a smile on his face. And his skin's not too thin.
Stelmach got in a bit of hot water in the early days of his time in cabinet with an idea to ensure traffic flowed better; he floated the concept that the province could OK or even encourage passing on the right on multi-lane highways.
We have this now on Highway 63, only it's idiots passing on the shoulder. But that's not Stelmach's fault.
His idea flopped.
He was also slow to recognize that teenagers should be barred from riding in the back of a pickup truck. I understood how he was reluctant to forbid the practice, considering his formative years on the farm, but he finally came around to the sensible choice on this matter.
There are numerous candidates for Ralph Klein's job. I've met Jim Dinning, too, and Mark Norris once, briefly. They're OK.
If Guy Boutilier's not running -- I'm pretty sure he isn't -- my vote would be for Stelmach.
Stelmach is a smart guy. I like smart people managing the public purse and making public policy. He's on the right wing of the provincial Tories, but he's a pragmatist, too. Like Klein, he knows most people are in the middle.
We journalists aren't supposed to get involved in partisan politics. I'm not doing that here, because I can't vote in the leadership selection.
While we will certainly run stories on the process, they won't be chosen with Stelmach in mind. The news is supposed to get all the facts to you, the reader. You can make up your mind.
But my opinion is in this space, and I'm coming out for a decent, smart guy who has some new ideas, and who won't run government in the top-down mode we see now.
We only have a couple of years to wait to see who wins.
* * *
We're trying an experiment.
We've set up a so-called "weblog" (a concatenation of "web," as in Internet, and "log," a record of things). They're hot online. Everyone from teeny-boppers on up have them, confiding their innermost thoughts to a web page that everyone can see.
That's not what you'll get with the Today weblog. You'll get editorials, reviews and columns that don't make it to the website. Maybe more. We're not sure yet. Should we put letters to the editor there? I don't know.
And no, there won't be an archive, It will be a few entries and no more.
It's an experiment. We may call an end to it.
The entries will only be added a couple of days after they hit the paper.
If you're interested, head over to fortmcmurraytoday.blogspot.com.
© Copyright 2006, Fort McMurray Today.
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