Ok on the Ander’s case and the courts setting aside his acclamation nomination, I have read the judgment and it speaks for itself. Some of you will not want to read it all but your roles as responsible and engage citizens will push you to do so. It is an interesting legal analysis but a very important decision and the facts shows how political party processes can be used to create unfair and incorrect results.
We all need to be vigilant to better understand how Mr. Anders "nomination" unfolded and who was involved and how they conducted themselves. Constant vigilance is the cost of freedom.
Council for the Party also was the person who defended Stockwell Day in Alberta when he defamed a Red Deer lawyer and school trustee. Defending that case on behalf of Mr. Day, now a Minister in the Harper government apparently cost the Alberta taxpayers over a $1M in legal fees and costs. It became the subject of a review of the government of Alberta’s risk management system. A review that I did along with my consulting firm for the Minister of Justice and Attorney General and the Speaker of the Alberta Legislature at the time.
The bottom line of that review and the Court’s decision on this nomination process for Mr. Anders confirms the first and most cardinal rule for citizens in a democracy…Be careful who you elect!
I find it odd that the standard of review was correctness when there was such a strongly worded privitive clause and the decision was that a political organization. There is some other "interesting" analysis; having said that, I doubt the decision will be appealed to the ABCA as it is highly factual.
ReplyDeleteExpect Anders to go through the proper route and win the nomination.
Please post on the recent news on Ray Danyluk receiving over $160,000 in farm subsidies for a total of $384,137 salary.
ReplyDeleteI expect calls for his resignation from you - the advocater of transparency and good, accountable government.
Anonymous @ 8:45 - I have been in meetings for a couple of days...not heard anything aobut it. Send me some background.
ReplyDeleteKen,
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 8:45 AM is likely referring to a Calgary Sun article from Saturday that purports to list the highest paid MLAs. What a piece of junk. It lumps MLA salaries, committee work remittances, milage, and - for some unfathomable reason - farm subsidies. Danyluk runs a large farm operation and got what appears to be a large payment (possibly BSE-related).
Typical Sun-Media garbage. No thought to the extensive milage a Northern Alberta MLA must earn as a result of travelling the constituency. Hello: milage does not equal income (it goes to covering depreciation on your vehicle). Also, no explanation how farm subsidies - which have nothing to do with being an MLA - are included in the totals. It would be analogous to adding the profits from owning, say, a steamship company, to the salary received as an MP in totalling how much a former Prime Minister made.
But what level of journalism do you expect from a paper that only a few pages down from the political commentary has a picture of an "Sunshine Girl" and "Sunshine Boy", and further down, advertises for escort services and posts M/F, M/M, and F/F personal ads? We're not exactly talking the Wall Street Journal here.
Ray Danyluk runs a 120 head of cattle on 400 acres - HARDLY A LARGE FARM! Most farmers do not understand how he could possibly receive this farm subsidy given the size of his farm - they are all asking for his accountant's number. He is beginning to look like a joke in his community.
ReplyDeleteAs well, look at the breakdown of the mileage - he states that he works "16 hour days" but I truly doubt he could rake up that many miles on his duties - I really can't.
I have not seen the story but it sounds like canned crap of tabloid journalism. As for anon @ 6:51 do we care if you doubt if he could "rake up that many miles on this duties?" Do you cheat on your mileage claims and that is what brings you to this conclusion?
ReplyDeleteAre you a rural MLA and have you ever chaired the Northern Alberta Development Council requiring you travel over the entire northern part of our province on a regular basis? Have you been a rural MLA required to be in the Legislature for sittings, SPC and other meetings as deal with constituency needs too? Have youhad to deal with the travel demands so you can get home to family and freinds on occasion too?
BSE subsidies in Alberta were a joke and a fiscal accountability travesty. Everyone got a quick chunk of money - a $1B bunch of Ralph Bucks for farmers without any accountability - just push the money out the door.
It was needed and welcomed by some for sure but the accountability and transparancy of that effort was overridden by the rush to get the bucks out the door...taxpayer bucks I might add!
Don't blame Ray for being a farmer...be happy we still have some of them around to provide local food.
I think anon at 8:45 and 6:15 (presuming you are the same person)that you need to do some research of your own on this and then come back to us with some evidence base on real facts before you start casting aspersions.