Welcome to the end of May/beginning of June, Edmonton.

Make sure you let the City know what you think about urban agriculture. Especially if you want some chickens or bees around. Speaking of urban agriculture…Boyle Street’s getting its first community garden. Man, those things are popular.

Progress and freeways, vs. nature and fewer interchanges. Not a story that ever goes away.

Does Edmonton need a safe injection site? A conference about injection harm-reduction is on our city this week.

Edmonton Indy party tent: 2006-2010 – we’ll miss you, old friend. And the tent jokes that could have been.

A century-old church in Old Strathcona is in need of some serious repairs.

You ever just walk around the city?

Edmonton is losing six of its Blockbuster video stores. We’ll be getting some Targets though, if that helps at all.

An Edmonton-area salesperson has been banned by the Alberta Securities Commission.

St. Albert wants to limit the length of time RVs can stay in Wal-Mart parking lots. I had no idea this was a thing Wal-Mart encouraged.

More? Could there possibly be more to talk about?

You bet.

The Alberta Legislature was the scene of an education rally this weekend. People want more funding to stave off teacher cuts in the fall. Can’t those kids just get jobs at the (potentially) provincially-funded downtown arena? And is there a way to blame greedy teachers for this?

Hinton, Alberta is going to need a new mayor, since their three-time leader, Glenn Taylor, is now heading up the Alberta Party. The Alberta Liberals are also choosing a new leader. And you can vote for that leader. Even if you aren’t a member of the party.

Alberta police say the increasing price of gas means more people drive off without paying, so they want it to be mandatory to pre-pay when you fill up your car.

A couple of years back the Alberta government used photos of frolicking British children in a campaign. The kids were supposed to be “in Alberta.” It was a black eye for the provincial government’s media and communications department. Now, the Wildrose Alliance and Alberta Liberals are slapping cold steaks on their eyes after using out-of-province photos when talking about oil and healthcare.

I’ll spot the Liberals the fact there are privacy concerns taking photos in a crowded emergency room, but there’s nothing stopping you from noting the image used is a stock photo. As for the Wildrose using off-shore oil rigs to talk about Alberta’s oil industry…umm…I’m sure at least one of the Wildrose constituencies has a oil infrastructure in it. Just send someone out with a cellphone or something.

Political blogger Ken Chapman is heading up a new oilsands development, and impact, group.

Fubar II and Heartland were big winners at this weekend’s AMPIA (Alberta Media Production Industries Association) awards, also knows as the “Rosies.”

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One aftermath of the Slave Lake fires is a whole lot of garbage…health inspectors are making sure the town is clean…Slave Lake’s Director of Operations didn’t leave while the town burned…and what about students that haven’t been in school for weeks, and might not be going back soon?

Including the Slave Lake fire, Canadians have given more than $1-million to Western Canada disaster relief, this year.

You can take a virtual tour of Slave Lake, via the Edmonton Journal.

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There may be a postal strike this week. So, mail those letters!

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.