Living in Old Strathcona you’re never too far away from this rally or that protest. This weekend was no exception.

Edmontonians took the streets, and then Dr. Wilbert McIntyre (Gazebo) Park, to show the Prime Minister they’d rather have him, and all elected MPs, back in the House of Commons.

The interesting thing about this day of protest, across the country, was that things started on Facebook.

Could the Internet be turning around all of our political apathy?

Edmonton-Strathcona MP Linda Duncan speaks to a disembodied hand from 630 CHED.

The area's MLA was also around, chatting with constituents and market-goers and keeping things toasty with hot chocolate.

I think my love of Carson Daly has also been noted.

For these reasons I may bounce over to Original Joe’s-Varisty Row (109 Street, north of Whyte Avenue) for the last Coco-Tonight Show. They’ll be showing it at the restaurant/bar and they’ve got specials on Red Ale and Coco Martinis (clever). Maybe I’ll see you there.

On a more serious note, there will be a march and rally in Old Strathcona tomorrow (when isn’t there?) as Canadians against Proroguing Parliament hit the streets. Let’s see if the Facebook protest transitions to the real world.

I bet this show won't be a "big wreck." (It's Monday at Union Hall.)

Edmonton’s Winter Light festival continues this weekend, with the Baba Yaga Trail Adventure.

Ice on Whyte also continues.

There are zombie-literary discussions happening Saturday afternoon (2-4pm, in the Edmonton Room) at the Stanley Milner Library. It’s about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

There are also ways to enjoy the party-scene of the weekend and help Haiti. Check this Metro-Edmonton story for details.

Dave Attell is at The Comic Strip this weekend.

You can take your tummy out to the second round of Fork Fest.

Maybe you’d rather try not to get trampled by brides looking for deals and other items for THEIR SPECIAL DAY. There’s an event for that.

Or you can attempt to keep your head from exploding due to an abundance of cuteness at the Edmonton Pet Expo. Aww…

The Edmonton Rush have their home opener Saturday, against the Buffalo Bandits. Hey, they’ve got more of a chance of winning than the Oilers. (Thanks for the reminder, Derjs.)

Whatever it is you do to make it to Monday, have fun.

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.

Dustin McNichol is stepping up to talk politics here at the edmontonian. Politics matter. Really.

Dear Albertans,

Can we talk…about politics? Just for a little while? I promise I’ll be brief.

Before your eyes glaze over and you brush me off, let me explain. I know that politics is boring. Of course it is—who wants to pay attention to a bunch of old men in suits who drone on all day about nothing? Some of them have questionable judgment. I know that it’s often seen as childish, a waste of time, useless, irrelevant, etc…

Politics is full of strange rules and follows an even stranger logic. And, at the end of the day, it has no relevance on us or what we do with our lives anyway, right?

Wrong.

Politics affects everyone, every day, in different ways. Maybe it’s an increase in the tax on beer, or the minimum amount bars can charge for drinks. Maybe it’s a hospital closure. Maybe it’s a new bylaw against littering or smoking in certain places. The possibilities are as endless as our society is complicated.

I know that it is hard for most people to give a crap about politics. But, we ought to. For our own good.

Why? Because every day, politicians are making laws that affect our lives. Not paying attention to what they’re doing is like letting a stranger live and run your house while you’re gone, and only checking in on them once every few years or so (if you bother to vote). That stranger is eventually going to start doing whatever he or she wants to with your house; that person knows you are virtually never there and don’t pay attention to the changes made. Assuming you care about the place, this may not be the best way of going about things.

Maybe that is a bad example. Let me put things another way. The turnout in Edmonton’s civic election in 2007 was just over 27%. That means that three out of four people in this city are saying to City Hall “I don’t care what you do. I don’t care what laws you pass, how much property tax I have to pay, how corrupt you are, or how stupid you are.”

I’m not trying to guilt-trip anyone or act like people who care about politics are morally better than those who don’t. But put yourself in city council’s shoes. Only one out of four people care what you do. That means that you can pretty much do whatever you want; you only need to convince around 25% of people that you’re doing an okay job, or that the traffic by South Edmonton Common isn’t all that bad.

The same goes for the last general provincial election in Alberta. Only 41% of Albertans voted. Three out of five Albertans implicitly stated: “I don’t care about democracy; I don’t care what you do with health care, education, transportation, environment, etc… Do whatever you want.” And, the government acts accordingly.

To be fair, people are busy. We have jobs, families, and obligations. We have lives. We can’t, and don’t, want to spend our free time worrying about politics and how it affects us. For many people a change in government will have minimal effect on their lives. Also, at a certain point we put our good faith and trust in politicians to do the right thing, just as you would for the person running your house. We don’t have time to always be checking up on that person to make sure he/she isn’t trashing your house.

But voting is one of the most simple, and easy, democratic things we can do. Don’t want to vote for anyone because you think they’re all idiots? Write your own name on the ballot, draw a stick-man, a raised middle-finger (or something dirty, if that floats your boat)—anything. You’re still saying, “I care,” but also “I am not satisfied with the selection of candidates.”

Maybe you genuinely don’t care. That is the great thing about living in a free society; you are free to not care. Which is fine. High-minded ideals like democracy are tiresome sometimes and are often used in empty, self-serving ways by politicians.

Politics is a waste of time in most peoples’ opinions, and I understand. But I do think that we should at least check up on the house once every few years; or else, we will stop recognizing it, and we may forget it belongs to us.

This is Paul Hinman's new house. Or something.

We know that not everyone has time to pay attention to politics.

We know that a lot of political information is forgotten after high school.

We know.

And we want to break things down so everybody can be an engaged citizen.

Part 1 of “Muddling Through: The Strange World of Provincial Politics”

By Dustin McNichol

Yesterday, Albertans got a chance to vote. But not all of us. Only those in the constituency of Calgary-Glenmore, where Wildrose Alliance candidate Paul Hinman won the provincial byelection.

A byelection occurs when an elected member of the provincial legislature vacates his or her seat at the legislature. Remember, every electoral constituency in the province gets one seat, and one member in each seat represents one constituency. Still with me? Good.

Now, a member of the provincial legislature can leave his or her seat due to death, resignation, fatigue from too many years of Tory government (just kidding), or simply if the member found a better job. In this case, former Progressive Conservative member Ron Stevens was appointed to be a Queen’s Bench judge, so he had to resign his seat.

The idea of democracy is that the people have to be represented. Since the seat is empty, it means the good people down in Calgary-Glenmore have nobody to represent them at the provincial level. And we can’t have that, can we!?

Of course not! So, the Premier calls a byelection to fill the seat, picks a date for everyone to vote, and the candidates start throwing mud at each other. Only residents of the Calgary-Glenmore constituency may vote; just as only the members of the specific constituency may vote in any byelection. The winner of the election gets to be the new Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the constituency of Calgary-Glenmore.

And that, my friends, is a provincial byelection.

Now I’m sure your next question is: “Okay, but why should I give a shit about some tiny little election that has no effect on me?”

I’ll tell you why. In provincial politics, byelections are viewed as an indication of how people feel about the current government. So if the Progressive Conservative (the current governing party) candidate comes in third place (which is what happened yesterday), it is viewed as a message to the government that they suck. Or that they need to improve.

It shows that people are unhappy with the ways things are going under the current regime. It means change is possible. And when this is the case, it means we can possiblly change things for the better.

Of course, we can’t interpret too much from provincial byelections. Many people thought that the Alberta Liberals would do well after winning a key byelection in Calgary, only to be crushed by the Progressive Conservatives in the general election of 2008. Byelections are only a small piece of how people think about provincial politics, and you can only read into them so much.

Anyway, take what you want from it. Personally, I’m happy to see that, after 40 years of the same party in Calgary-Glenmore, people finally decided to vote for someone else. I think it is a fairly good message to the current government party, considering the PC candidate not only lost, but lost by a long shot.