Provincial Tories Lose Seat

What is this telling us? Or more importantly what is it telling Stelmach?

ELECTION RESULTS
- Paul Hinman, Wildrose Alliance: 4,052, 37%
- Avalon Roberts, Liberal: 3,776, 34%
- Diane Colley-Urquhart, Progressive Conservative: 2,863, 26%
- Eric Carpendale, NDP: 148, 1%
- Len Skowronski, Social Credit: 118, 1%
- Antoni Grochowski, Independent: 71, 1%
Total votes: 11,028
Voter turnout: 40.5%

How true it really is!

Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong. ~Richard Armour

Land Use Framework and what does it mean to the little guys?

The land use framework has put out by the province, will divide the province in to six regions based on watersheds.
Regional advisory councils will be set up for each region, appointed by the provincial government, to determine regional land use objectives.
We lucky folks are in a region that runs from North of Red Deer south to the US border and encompasses everything from BC to the Saskatchewan border. Including of course Calgary, by my calculations our 5700 people will be part of a region consisting of a population of 1.5 to 2 million people we will be 0.25% of the regional population.
We know the board for the region will be picked by the provincial government, key questions who will sit on that board? how many will be elected representatives? how many bureaucrats? how many other experts?. What will be the spilt between urban and rural, if you do any kind of representation by population or political clout (Bronconnier's name jumps to mind).
I believe certainly in our region we are going to be the resource base and playground for Calgary.
How much power will small municipalities have to maintain the direction of development in their community, will density issues for example be determined by the region or the community, look at today's Calgary Sun Bronconnier is whining about country residential lots outside his city limits.
I believe these boards and their regional objectives will be totally dominated by the needs of the major centres in each region. Is this the beginning of the end of municipal government especially in small communities like ours?

Alberta the "democratic" one party state!

Will Alberta ever become a true democracy? Politics and the whole democratic process only works if you have honest debate amongst people with different views. When one party owns 72 of 83 seats what chance does dissent or differing opinions have? Kevin Taft hasn't determined his future yet! will the Liberal party ever have a chance in Alberta? The NDP could hold their caucus meeting in a phone booth. Both of these parties combined to garnish a whooping 11 seats between them. Is it a matter of leadership in these parties, will Albertans ever accept what they represent? Paul Hinman and his Wildrose Alliance are they done? are they a real alternative? I believe we need a new party that takes the place of all three of these, it needs to happen soon pulling together a new party a few months before an election makes no sense. More than anything a new party needs some dynamic leadership. The last leaders debate was like watching paint dry. At heart I am a conserative, but the democractic process always works better when the political decisions are made in the legislature, not in one parties leaders office.