THE POLITICAL ISSUE
Issue 1, Volume 2
April 17, 2012
A Note From The Editors
I believe that we have left the blog long enough that we can safely move on to volume 2. I was going to go a full year, but the delay in publishing to do work and being active, and our affiliate over at life without facebook (we weren't using facebook or using the computer very much for the last several months) had really sort of made this publication take a backburner position. That and not being able to make a proper list for the 'best of 2011' - which is included at the end of this issue, sans the 10 best albums of 2011 which is what was supposed to make the issue. Feel free to read the 'B' side of Volume 1 of OMPW after our political issue. It's spring again, we're facing an election, and the economy is changing. I can't see a better time to start Volume 2 of Out My Passenger Window. So without further ado, let's get to it.
On The Streets
Our on the streets section occurs somewhere behind 124th street, where a lowly 1970 Mercury Cougar has been left out in the snow (or what little of it we've had). In 1967, Mercury didn't have a car to compete in the pony car or musclecar wars. Borrowing from the Ford Mustang, the Cougar was extremely similar to the Mustang, initially sharing engine options from a 289 cubic inch V8 up to a big block FE series 390 cube mill. Later versions of the first generation car, which lasted until 1970, included the big 427 FE motor and the 428 cobra jet motor. The Cougar was supposed to be a luxury or up-branded and upscaled pony car. It would have things standard that were only optional on the Mustang. However, it's performance immediately changed its reputation. In 1967 and 1968, Mecury easily dispatched other Trans Am competitors in the SCCA trans am series with Dan Gurney. The car won Trans Am championships and as well, a NASCAR series especially designed for smaller displacement, smaller dimensioned cars. The Cougar took on the mighty Camaro and won with only a 289 cubic inch small block, before the mighty Boss 302 ever reigned supreme on the track in 1970. The XR-7 model could be seen as the 'GT' in the Mustang lineup, geared towards both luxury and performance. The car you're looking at must be extremely rare, as convertible Cougars were only available in the 1969 and 1970 model years. Effectively Ford Motor Company destroyed the great performance heritage this car had, and continued to develop it towards a luxury car. In 1971 the car grew larger, and larger still through the 70's no longer sharing a shape with the Mustang, but sharing it with the larger Torino/Montego instead. Finally it ended up on a fox bodied platform sharing architecture and body parts with the Thunderbird through the 80's and 90's, until finally becoming a small rounded coupe in the late 90's before the Cougar, and Mercury division, were killed off entirely due to cost saving measures. It's great to see this car. Unfortunately, there unquestionably should be a cover over it.
THE POLITICAL ISSUE
Alberta is facing an election on April 23rd, 2012. This time around, like the playoff hockey I've been watching, I don't remember a more exciting race, or one where there were unusual upsets and controversy. But unlike the playoffs, whoever wins the cup, wins the cup. Whoever wins this election holds the lives of millions of Albertans in their hands. Like hockey, I'm gonna break down a play by play of the debate.
THE DEBATE
An unprecedented amount of Albertans watched the debate this election season, with the changing of the PC's, to the presence of an even more right wing party in the Wild Rose Alliance, to Dr. Raj Sherman coming right out on television and calling his Liberal party a centrist party, distancing themselves from the left wing, the times, they are-a-changing. The PC party, being called, "Not your Dad's PC party, had to have Peter Lougheed himself get involved to defend Alison Redford. They've ruled the province since '71. Now people have a decision to make. But not a 'contentious one' if it is up to Danielle Smith, that is unless she has a referendum for one. I present to you, my take on the debate, impartial to any party.
Healthcare
The debate on healthcare is huge, due to the state of the system currently. While some haven't felt that Redford has done enough, and although it seems that Sherman has the answer as an E.R. doctor (yes, when he said he was, he actually was one, so that part is true, all Sherman Ego aside), Smith couldn't come up with a plan aside for having a potential third party system. Usually third party is a dirty word anywhere in Canada. Does the support of Smith show that healthcare really isn't the issue we thought it would be? In the healthcare discussion, the WR discussed the least about their platform for healthcare, where the PC's sort of reiterated what they already had done. In addition to this, they want to build something like 143 new clinics. The Liberals presented the most finite platform, with an increase in funding, especially to long term care facilities for seniors which would take them out of hospitals and free up hospital space.
Taxes
This is an important one. The Liberals want to increase taxes (and yeah, if you want to pay for essential services sometimes you need to do this) whereas any surplus we have WR would like to pay us per household in what has been dubbed 'Dani Bucks' - $300 per household. First of all, the Liberals. Now from an economist standpoint, what Sherman puts forward is what makes the most sense. He proposes a balanced budget based on taxes and not on money made from oil commodities. Anyone who has ever seen a Candex chart knows that oil as a commodity is extremely unpredictable. As well, tying your economy to anything that can be tied to economic cycles usually means we get exactly what we've had for years - cycles of prosperity and good times and cycles of emergencies, which is what Sherman argues with the fact we keep "hiring and then firing teachers" as the same goes with healtcare - we have times of expansions and upgrades - and then times of wage issues and strikes. Sherman indicates these would be modest increases to flatten out the cycles. Seems solid to me. The WRA was next to jump in indicating they were advocating balancing the budget, and this was a recurring theme throughout the debate. Although, I didn't get a sense of how the budget would have been balanced. Although Smith said she didn't want to ruin the 'Alberta advantage' - which I was also not really sure what she meant. Us having to pay more taxes to ensure essential services, I believe, is what she meant - that we're profitable, so we can balance our budget off of what we make from oil revenues. However, if we're paying this surplus to individuals how does that fit into the budget? This didn't seem to get answered. The PC's attacked this hard, and indicated they would not forego essential services or funding infrastructure expansion no matter what the cost. So we ended up with a glimpse of what the PC's wanted to do - which is present a budget that would fund things. I had the hardest time with trying to figure out the low PC support after the increase in support for schools and healthcare in their last budget that was recently passed that everyone seemed to be really happy with. So what did they do wrong? Well the NDP didn't point that out when it was their turn to go. Brian Mason indicated he would throw out the current budget, but his reiteration of what his party platform was became kind of murky. Let's just say the longer the debate went, the more I felt the NDP became out of touch with things.
WRP Platform
As a new party, I think most people were most intrigued to see what the Wild Rose had to offer, and so one of the questions was strictly about what their platform was. The first thing that came up, of course, was that Smith would not rule on 'contentious issues' as she has repeated over and over on television in the last few weeks. Her party is essentially under fire for some of the views her candidates hold, and the anti-homosexual and anti-abortion agenda that some of her candidates have shown. Smith has not outright condemned these members, and therefore it has raised questions of this party's moral extremism. So suddenly we are talking about having referendums to suddenly decide whether or not homosexuals should be allowed to be married, and that those would go in front of a judge. I felt it was a cheap shot that Smith used the right of women to vote as an example of how this is a good thing. Sherman was next to jump in and indicate that these issues have already been ruled on, why would we go back to them? The NDP had a chance to show up the Wild Rose by discussing standing up for people's rights. Ultimately this one ended with the question that what is exactly the WR platform about abortions and homosexual rights, and would they have a referendum to make gay marriage illegal here, while they could maybe be focusing on funding senior health facilities?
No - Meet Committee
Was this a game for Smith to win, or for Redford to lose? If she did, the no meet committee was the one that hit her hard. Unfortunately, some of her inaction or mis-action over the time as premier designate probably spoke louder than words in a debate ever could. In spite of what I'd call a pretty good budget that she had passed, the no meet committee hurt her before she could even get up to a podium. Ultimately, this is where the mudslinging took place, and the only question that really came out of it was one of political transparency. I don't feel there was any issue here to argue except the NDP took a giant shot when it came out that Strathcona Edmonton incumbant Rachel Notely did not pay back her no meet committee pay, unlike the PC party who were whipped into paying the money back (party whip - it's a real term people).
Liberals - Eliminating Funding For Private Schools
The next question was posed to Sherman, who in his platform wants to consolidate funding to public schools, in his words, it's public money, it should go to public education, and stop funding private schools. The NDP were first to respond, with a simple iteration that the NDP would make education a priority. I felt fairly disappointed. This response pretty much gave Mason the chance to sit on a bench and wait, because his response did nothing for the NDP. He had a chance to attack Sherman for a fairly ambitious plan for change, but instead put out a vague iteration of NDP values. It was kind of sad. Instead, Redford scored some points by indicating how well the current education system was working, and that the PC's would continue to fund education infrastructure - which is already in their budget, so there was nothing new there. The strange thing was the post-secondary tuition debate that ensued. Smith jumped in and indicated she would eliminate tuition fees. It wasn't clear how though, since she had been beating a balanced budget to death, not to mention post secondary institutions are private institutions that cost billions a year to run. Where would we get that money while paying out our entire surplus and not raising taxes? And this is my own personal question and where I felt that Smith started losing this debate by flip flopping her platform. It was, to me, like saying you could quit work and pay off all your debts without having any income whatsoever. The liberals promised free tuition and tuition decreases, but of course, Sherman had already indicated that would come from 'modest' tax increases.
Integrity
The question was then posed, first to the PC, about integrity. This is where I thought Redford beat down Smith, but the polls after indicated otherwise. First, Redford indicated that Smith had paid ex PC's hundreds of thousands of dollars to cross the floor. Smith agreed to doing this. Personally, I think that's not good. Paying people to be in a specific party seems like...well...what do those people believe in? Don't they want to be in a party that represents their beliefs? Or is it that they just believe in the almighty dollar? Later Smith would go on a pretentious rant about how she didn't have experience in x, and didn't have experience in y, etc. I thought that killed Smith, but, apparenltly according to Ipsos - Reid, she won the debate in Albertan's eyes? Sherman took the opportunity at the end to indicate that the PC's couldn't be trusted.
Wild Rose Energy Dividend
'Dani Bucks' came up in the debate. Smith answered by saying she believed that our oil surplus were 'Albertan's money and they should have it back.' Unfortunately, she then flip flopped, when she said they couldn't cut taxes, which was directly against an earlier comment about her cutting taxes. The PC, NDP and Liberals all agreed the money should be invested. Smith beat more on her balanced budget idea, but didn't really explain why the budget was currently not balanced in her eyes, or how she was going to achieve this.
NDP Balance Of Power
Mason was asked what he would do if the NDP should end up being the split and holding the balance of power. While I felt that he didn't really present the party's platform as what he would do or wants to do the Liberals and Sherman took the opportunity to drop a bombshell by calling themselves a centrist party citing the nasty divorce of two right wing parties. So apparently the Liberals are no longer a left wing party.
Editors Final Take
So as I turned off the television, I felt very afraid. I felt afraid of the fact that the Wild Rose Alliance seemed to flip flop, and didn't come out and indicate what they were going to do about this 'balanced budget' Smith kept pushing, as well as this referendum business. I had the most respect for the Liberals who presented clear ideas that made sense. Redford, I felt got in some pretty good shots, but I felt she could have indicated they passed a happy budget already. Finally, it seemed to me the NDP were just really out of touch, they didn't really put any points on the board. Quite honestly, I felt a lot of people were going to vote PC to strategically vote against the WRA after the debate, but I was surprised by the IR poll that came out immediately after where the WRA were described as winning the debate and being the popular party here. To me, there's not much solid or obvious about what is in the WRA's plan, just that people like them because they are right wing, and that's what we are in Alberta, but the PC's have lost people's confidence, so they can't vote for that right wing party anymore. It is clear to me what is totally wrong with the WRA, and you can read that in the other sections of this issue. Ultimately, the debate should have been about an hour longer, but I'm happy so many Albertans are getting involved and becoming educated.
ALBERTA HATES GAYS (and minorities)
Sentiments of Wild Rose Candidates Make Their Support Numbers Confusing
In the last couple of days you've no doubt heard the sentiments of some of the Wild Rose candidates revealed. Starting with pastor Allan Hunsperger, a pastor in a Calgary riding, who blog posted his personal views about Gays, and although the news items are easy to find in the Calgary Herald, I don't need to reiterate them here. Let's just indicate there was nothing positive there. Smith defended her candidate indicating it was free speech and opinion, and he is obviously allowed to have his views, even though they don't represent what he'd do in office. My first thought is one, I thought a person joined a political party based on their values and ideals because the party also represented those values and ideas. I happened to be wrong about that when Smith admitted to paying candidates during the debate to cross the floor to her party. In the meantime, I will join the critics in saying how can a person with this sentiment about Gays protect them against hate speech, bullying in schools, hate crimes, etc, when they believe that to protect them and love them the way they are is harm towards them? Regardless of what Hunsperger's political agenda is, his personal agenda is that gay people should be changed to straight people.
Then there's this (hat-tip to Kaleb D. for posting this which brought it to my attention) in which another Calgary Wildrose candidate Ron Leech seems to indicate a clear segregation of visable minority groups, and that his whiteness allows him to be a better overall leader. The funny thing about this is he indicates something like Muslims would be better at talking to Muslims; and while this might be true (as a 29 year old, most mid twenty to early 30 year old people could probably identify with me more than they could a 50 year old - and as a catholic most catholics could probably identify more with me than with a baptist), the idea that a white person could lead better than anyone (ie in his statements - As a Caucasian I can speak to all the community) is extremely racist. I wonder how Barack Obama would feel about that statement. I wonder how bad Dr. Raj Sherman would kick this guy's ass in a ring. Sherman looks like he could do some damage.
And then there's the affiliation with Bill Whatcott, which we'll get to in the next segment. Doing a little sleuth work (hat tip to Jeremy C. for this one) on daveberta.ca, an independent political blog, it indicates all the Wild Rose Party's Candidate's alliances. Most to do with anti-gay or anti-abortion, pro-life extremist.
Towards the election there are going to be more of these, no doubt, surfacing, and from other parties as well, as the Wild Rose tries to cover it's ass by simply naming similar things other parties might have done, while Smith inexplicably defends the actions and views of these individuals.
Ultimately the question comes up in the end not necessarily about these candidates' views, but as to why they are so far ahead of the polls. Truly, Albertans can't be blind to these are they? We can make either two assertions about the people in our home province. One, they are totally ignorant. If that is not the case than it is Two, they agree with these people's views. That means Albertans hate abortions and gays.
But you know, Wild Rose won't rule on contentious issues. They certainly wouldn't have an agenda on them.
Whatcott vs. Notley (and why you should care)
Infamous social conservative and Red State
You may have seen Kevin Smith's movie Red State, where a (spoiler) fundamentalist church terrorizes a town until the ATP finally gets into a huge firefight with them and takes them out (end spoiler). Bill Whatcott, polishing his gun collection on the John Stewart show frighteningly reminded me of Red State. It all started when Sarah and I had left one evening, and came back to our home with a flier of an aborted fetus on the front of it, calling out the local NDP candidate Notley. A quick background on Bill Whatcott would have informed me entirely, however, I didn't know how infamous he was at the time. I emailed Bob Layton from Global/CHED. Layton indicated that he didn't usually make pieces on individuals like this, because it gave them the media they were looking for, but he would look into it. My bud Jeremy C. took a look into it and came up with a lot of links, including the one above from daveberta.ca. Now, what is the deal here? One, it is creepy to have a person like this in your own back yard. To think he has stood on my steps makes me shudder. The fact he has a gun collection is even worse. The second is his political affiliation. At first, we couldn't really figure out why Notley? Was it because she was the former head of UNA and Whatcott claimed to be a male nurse (how could a person like this nurse - that requires caring for all types). But it was in Saskatchewan where his nursing license came under review. He has been in trouble with the law for his views and tactics dating back to 2001. Who has been helping him get off the hook? According to daveberta.ca, it is current Wild Rose candidate John Carpay. Just have a little knowledge who a party might be affiliated with before you vote for them.
I HAVE NO EDITOR
OMPW B-Sides
So I said I had an unfinished blog that I wrote that didn't come out. It is below, uncensored and unedited. Enjoy!
The Best of 2011
We're set to wrap up the year that was with discussion about news events, music, and all sorts of stuff that you might have forgoten happened, that I have something to say about. So, without further ado, your 2011 wrap up.
The Best News Items
Of course, this is going to vary depending on where you live, but over here in YEG, we have probably a few different things that hit us hard than some other potential news items.
Tsunami
Early in the year Japan experienced an offshore-earthquake and a subsequent Tsunami that it is still recovering and cleaning up from. While the catastrophic death and injury toll was one thing, we can usually expect a few natural disasters a year. It was the magnitude of this natural disaster that made the world pay attention. Not to ever rate the severety of a natural disaster where lives are lost; this one made the world switch on because of what it did to a highly developed and industrialized country. Not only did Japan's manufacturing market shut down, but the fallout from factories literally obliterated meant that the economic effects would be felt globally. Chrysler had to delay their production of the new 300 simply because the black paint they used came out of a Japanese factory. Speaking of fallout, it also damaged a nuclear power plant, of which the effects are still being studied, and thought to be far worse than what Japan initially told the world. The disaster raised the question again about the safety of nuclear power.
Human Rights
Starting with only the 2nd issue of this publication, we examined how Florida had decided to drug test welfare recipients. This sparked much debate regarding the right to welfare. This was impacted even more when things took a turn for the worst.
Double-Dip Recession
Things were already tough when we ran our (un)employment issue on June 13. In fact it was only about to get worse. By August, the second recession was in full swing, and with mounting unemployment and economic hardships globally, the 'occupy wall street' movement became the 'occupy everywhere' movement, and spread accross cities in the US and Canada. I don't want to brag, but our Edmontonian occupy protesters seemed to be the least violent, and most respectful of their space. Mounting tensions resulting from Greece's failing economy meant the EU had to create a bailout package. The US nearly defaulted on debt payments and had to ask for an increased debt cieling from their lenders and central bank. This caused their credit rating to drop from AAA to AA+, which seems like a funny arbitrary rating, but is actually quite serious. Unemployment was sky high right through to the end of the year.The second quarter results showed double digit inflation in food prices, gas prices, utilities and insurance prices. Therefore, although average inflation was only 3%, the stuff you actually buy on a normal basis had increased in price by 14%, and as much as 27% in some cases. Imagine that you paid $3.50 for 4L (a gallon) of milk last year. That price would be $4.45 this year. What?
Poor Students
In October, the BC Securities commission released their report indicating how badly-off our society is currently. It was revealed that the average post secondary graduate between 25-34 only makes $31,000 a year. It was also found that debt runs as high as $18,000 already by the time most people turn 20. In addition to that, student unemployment in this age range is as high as 14%. Some suggested student loan bailouts for an entire generation that is failing economically.
Shrinking Middle Class
Canada also released the wellness index towards the end of the year, indicating how 'well off' people generally are, not tied to the CPI or other economic indexes. It was found that while salaries haven't increased in relation to other markets, things like housing prices had increased a full 30%. So while we make comparitively the same, we pay 30% more to live. This added fuel to the fire regarding what the occupy protesters were talking about. The protest had all been over when this little tidbit of information came out, proving that we're working 30% harder just to keep our lifestyle the same.
The Death of Jack Layton
It was hard to say goodbye to a world-class politician. And even if you weren't a fan of the NDP, you had to recognize what a huge role in Canadian politics Jack Layton had played, especially in the last 10 years before his death, and in the last election, gaining huge momentum for the NDP and its egalitarian platforms. Even if you were a hardcore conservative, everyone benefited from Layton's presence, and he will be sorely missed. We won't soon forget the shots from the Olympics, while he watched our Canadian team from his local pub, with a beer in hand.
Kim Kardashian
While there was a royal wedding that so many followed, many more people tuned in to pay attention to Kim Kardashian's sham wedding and divorce. The ramifications of which left such a sour taste in most people's mouths to finally realize that following celebrities, especially those who are famous for nothing is a complete waste of time. In fact, Kardashian's BS was so hyped, it took our focus off of Lindsay Lohan, who apparently got arrested about 3 more times this year, and posed for playboy. I can guarantee right now that when I go to look at my site tracker, the most often search input into my google search bar from this page to the next one will be a search for 'Lindsay Lohan Playboy Pictures' - just wait. I'll give you the results as they come available.
Edmonton Infrastructure, Homicides and Sports
It was a crazy year for Edmonton in itself, actually. We followed homicide rates of 45, a record beating the old one by what 7, or 10? Something like that? Most of the murders were contributed to a homeless/drug user epidemic in the city. Attributed to homeless or drug users who are not of sound reasoning when the majority of these homicides occured. Aside from the homicides, we managed to approve a brand new Arena for the Oilers. This was much to the enjoyment and dismay of many people. We finished another wing of the Henday, we saw Scona Road get an overhaul, the completion of the 23rd ave overpass, and about 1000 other roadway projects because labour and materials were simply cheaper this year. We saw the argument over BMO 63 take place, the completion of the new EPCOR tower and a lot of other construction projects sure to change Edmonton's skyline. Finally, a replacement for the Walterdale bridge was discussed. Much to many people's chagrin, the Alberta Museum got stiffed by Rona Ambrose, so that won't be changing. And not to leave our Oilers as the only sports team talked about, our Capitals baseball team won a championship, and the Eskimos finally made the playoffs, but did not advance to the Western Final. Immediately after, Eric Tillman would destroy the team, and trade Ricky Ray to Toronto for virtually nothing. This was again, much to the dismay of many, and the enjoyment of others (namely Toronto).
New Music - The Shins - Port of Morrow
Band that debuted on the Garden State soundtrack outlived the film
This album is but a few weeks old, maybe a month, and the lead off single, Simple Song, has put itself in a lot of people's heads. The Shins officially started in 2001, making it over 10 years since their first single was done for independent label Sub Pop, after being asked to contribute a single to the 'single of the month club' - but at that time they were still relatively unknown. It wasn't really until 2002's Oh Inverted World made an appearance with the song New Slang on the Garden State soundtrack that really jumpstarted the band's international success. Port Of Morrow is officially their fourth full length album, and the first since leaving Sub Pop for their own label. That's right, The Shins are still one of the world's biggest independent bands. Port of Morrow takes a step up from where Wincing The Night Away left off, and although WTNA was a fantastic album, it doesn't seem to hold a candle to the songwriting portrayed here on their latest release, and that says a lot. Aside from Simple Song, notable tracks include For A Fool, which has a very nice lounge/blues vibe, 40 Mark Strasse, and the title track Port of Morrow, which is a fantastic song that you will hear some vocal elements that were present in Broken Bells. Really, this is one of those albums where there isn't a song you're going to skip, and that's why I'm talking about it. This is an album where I actually memorize song titles so I can go back and listen to them again. And on that front, for the tracks I have memorized and would go back and listen to, it gets a solid 8/10. There's only one or two songs on this album I haven't been interested in listening to all that much, but I still didn't skip 'em.
Next Issue
-The Car Issue - Sarah Holly Karb from LWOFB and I walk the Edmonton Auto show and give our best picks for 2012, so if you're going shopping know what to look for. Watch the hilarious video we shot as well!
-Volume 1 retrospective - check out a little ride through the first volume of OMPW, with our artwork and more!
Don't miss it!
PS - thank you to all our readers for putting us over 1000 hits, and making us the #1 source to search for a picture of an Ikea Stockholm coffee table on Google!
