Hang Up and Drive Headlines
I guess, more accurately, that headline should “Hang up, put down the sandwich, don’t do your hair and makeup, shave before you get into the car, stop tweeting on your iPad and drive.” Yes, Alberta’s new distracted driving law takes effect today. It’s a $172 ticket, so keep your eyes on the road.
Alberta is not the first province to have this kind of law.
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Edmonton councillors will talk about the community revitalization levy (CRL) in October. This is the tax zone that’s supposed to help fund the downtown arena downtown revitalization projects. I hope it goes through and we finally see something productive happen on 104 Street, at 109 Street, at the old Canada Post property, with LRT expansion, and…what? That stuff is already happening?
Are you sure? I mean, how can it happen without an arena?
Speaking of LRT…Engineering design is to begin on Edmonton’s expanding LRT system.
Edmonton’s deficit for the year is improving.
One community in each of Edmonton’s five police divisions is going to get a little more policing. This is part of a new crime reduction strategy from the Edmonton Police Service. The EPS, by the way, is stretched thin trying to solve this year’s extra homicides.
I’m a little boggled on this one. Three Edmonton newsrooms (the Sun, CTV, and CHED/iNews) have a story today on a fatality report being released. Yet, CBC had it two weeks ago. Just a strange delay.
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This school year will be the first for public education in Morinville. Which sounds really weird when I read that back. (Today is the first day of school for most students.)
A new way to move patients through the University Hospital faster will likely be applied at other hospitals after successful wait time reductions. We’re also performing more surgeries in Alberta.
Being the start of a new month all the monthly magazines are out with new issues. Alberta Venture’s got a look at the Slave Lake fire.
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The photocopiers were flying, more textbooks are likely to be required, and more online links will be provides, because the University of Alberta’s getting out of its copyright agreement with Access Copyright. (Also, check out that new Gateway website! They’ve also got a refresher on top U of A summer stories.)
U of A students are depressed, not getting exercise, and not eating enough fruits and vegetables. But they’re not doing as many drugs as you may think.
The U of A’s Faculty of Arts is cutting some language classes to save money.
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Libraries are not just “warehouses for books” anymore.
And that library story probably has a tie-in to this one about Blockbuster closing their remaining Canadian stories. (Locally, you can still find movies at Videodrome and The Movie Studio.)
Edmonton Headlines May 18
And a good day to you, Edmonton.
The Edmonton Public School Board is going to hold its meetings during the day, instead of at night. I understand that trustees might not want to debate late into the night, and school board staff might not want to work extra hours on meeting days, but parents who have jobs may now find it tougher to attend a meeting where there’s something they want to speak to. The school board will take another look at day vs. night after next school year, but unless they start letting people Skype in, I suspect they’ll see public involvement drop.
A contentious gravel pit project will not be going ahead.
Track and field athletes will compete in a new national league, which kicks things off in Edmonton.
For all of the talk about the downtown, and the core neighbourhoods, yes, some of the communities outside of old Edmonton and Strathcona need a little love too.
The Edmonton-area lands two ministers in Stephen Harper’s new cabinet. Edmonton-Spruce Grove’s Rona Ambrose remains Public Works Minister, while Edmonton-Sherwood Park’s Tim Uppal joins the part as Minister of State, Democratic Reform. Yay?
You may have noticed the spring mosquitos are here. I hope the mosquitos don’t use one of three new river valley maps to plan their blood feasts.
The Journal’s look at Edmonton bakeries continues at Hong Kong Bakery.
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The entire province is under a fire ban. You can see northern Alberta’s fires from space in these photos.
Meanwhile…residents of Slave Lake are trying to stay updated on what’s happening in their town…their local radio station is still broadcasting, even after its building burned to the ground, through the power of the Internet…and there are questions about the province’s emergency public warning system… Some highways near Slave Lake are re-opening. And insurance companies will be the first to travel those re-opened roads.
A broken pipeline, that caused the largest oil spill in Alberta this generation, is all fixed and the company that owns it is rarin’ to get pumping. They’re being asked to do more inspections first.
The Premier probably hasn’t even cleaned out his desk and Conservative leadership candidates are now challenging decisions they helped pass while in cabinet and the Tory party caucus. Ted Morton is questioning whether Alberta really needs all the new powerlines being proposed and planned. Probably doesn’t help that a Wikileaked file shows a former Alberta energy minister talking about building up the transmission lines to send electricity to the U.S.
Speaking of leadership candidates…Liberal Hugh MacDonald is expected to join that party’s growing list of leader hopefuls. A few more Liberal MLAs jump into that race and the whole caucus will be running to replace David Swann.
One of the men convicted for his role in the Mayerthorpe RCMP murders is seeking parole.
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The usage-based billing argument won’t be going anywhere with this news: Netflix accounts for the largest percentage of Internet traffic in North America.
Make your move!
This is probably the only time anyone will ever mention David Swann, Brian Mason AND Carson Daly in the same breath. And I’m going somewhere with it. (Probably.)
It’s their time to make a move.
Don't stare directly into his eyes! Or you'll fall in love.
With all the chatter about Jay and Conan (I’m with Coco, by the way), and the renewed interest in all late night talk shows, Carson Daly is getting zinged left and right. I bet he’s being talked about as much, or more, than in his TRL days. Make your move Carson. It’s time to capitalize on your current name-recoginition before NBC just dumps your show (or puts you on at 2am), and secure your retirement with a sweet deal somewhere else.
Now, for our Alberta politicians I’d also say it’s time to make a big move. Though, they don’t have near the current name-recognition of doe-eyed Carson.
With the governing Tories taking a beating from all sides, the Wildrose Alliance is striding up the right-side of the policical spectrum to one elected member and two crossover MLAs. Plus, they’re all over the news and sinking into the consciousness of Albertans.
Why isn't Rick Mercer hanging out with this guy at WEM?
So…it’s time for the centre-left guys to do something big. I know people have told you to join forces, I know people have told you to work together, or start a new party for progressives, and those who are socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I’m telling you this is your one real chance.
Hey, would you look at that. Someone has already gone out and started a party which is looking for enough signatures to become the real deal. If the NDP and Liberals could just suck up their egos for about a minute they might see that they aren’t being talked about at all these days.
At all.
Never surrender! Never win many seats!
And since they haven’t been able to do much with their current parties, and since Alberta feels like a two-party kind of parliamentary democracy, I think the only chance real centre-left, post-partisans have is something new.
Now is also the time because you’ve got a few years until the next election so you’ve got time for the Tories and Wildrose to split the partisan, socially conservative side of things even more, leaving a nice big swath of voters looking elsewhere. And maybe all this new action will get even more people out to vote.
Come on Carson, David and Brian, make a big move.
p.s. If you make a move to a new party, be sure to pay off your current party debts first.
Nuclear Power: Not green but not that scary
By Gregg Beever
It’s winter, isn’t it? Kind of tough to tell these days.
Winter brings shorter days and shorter days mean the lights stay on longer. Our winter heating bills double as we jack the thermostat in an effort to combat hypothermia. It’s the time of year our already rabid consumption of energy becomes insanely intense.
Edmonton, like many other city around the globe, is growing along with its insatiable energy needs. So how is Edmonton and the rest of Alberta going to fuel the future?
Before you answer, remember, we have to do it cleanly and greenly. You know, that whole global warming thing.
A few months back I was at the Greyhound Bus Station on a delivery errand. As my package was being processed a young woman cycled up to the door carrying several large, bound stacks of paper. Dressed in earthy tones she had natural, mid-length hair, wore no obvious make-up and was equipped with the kind of proper cycling gear that suggested her bike was her main mode of transport. In short, she was the type of girl that makes my hippy heart flutter.
It came as no surprise, then, that the stacks she placed on the conveyor belt beside me were posters for an environmental advocacy group. The poster read “A Truly Green Future…Does Not Include Nuclear Power,” a slogan belonging to the Coalition for a Nuclear Free Alberta (CNFA).
It occurred to me, as I was driving home, that I should have picked her brain about it. Why should Alberta be nuclear free? What makes nuclear power not “truly green?” Would that girl have given me her phone number?
These were all questions that demanded answers. Since I’ll never get the answer for that last one, I’ll have settle for answering the first two. (more…)
Opinion: You got Survey’d!
Survey says...
Hey, remember the nuclear workbook the province put out last month, to gauge Albertans’ feelings on the future development of nuclear power plants? No? Well don’t worry, neither do the other 99.9% of Albertans who either didn’t know about the survey or chose not to participate. That’s right – according to the Journal, out of our provincial population of roughly 3.3 million people, Alberta Energy estimates it has received just 3,500 responses to date. In case you don’t have a calculator handy, that’s one-tenth of one per cent of Albertans.
But hey, that happens right? I mean, let’s be honest: infrastructure debates are not terribly interesting or sexy. Not everybody has Internet access, or time to complete such a lengthy survey. Not everybody can be expected to weigh in or get involved. So the province’s best course of action is probably to sift through the few thousand responses they did get, mull them over, and move on. I mean, what else can you do? (more…)
