Note before you Vote - Municipal Elections

Issue 6.5, Volume 2

A quick note before you vote...

Sorry, no on the streets edition or music; this is just a quick note heading into the mayoral elections today.

Before You Vote

...listen to my opinion

...but seriously

I’ll give you my opinion on the mayoral candidates, but the important thing be ultimately that you look at what every candidate stands for and vote based on that, even in your ward. Make the best educated decision you can about all the candidates you will be electing or making a decision on, the city’s future depends on it.

The Candidates

First, the Mayoral candidates. I will say I’m pro Iveson, but more specifically I’m anti-Diotte. So, while I’ll be casting my ballot for the former ward 10 councilor, I wouldn’t mind, say, if Karen Libovici won the race. I will say I feel like Iveson really champions the city; as my ward’s council member, he has been transparent and accountable, and had always responded to my requests. I feel he knows what the city needs and has the tools and earned the experience to know how to get it done. Diotte, on the other hand...I think he wants the city back to the way it was 20 years ago. I’ve heard a lot of facetious facts and interesting spins, and stuff that downright is ludicrous for an educated grown man to say or do. First of all, there’s the ‘do you smell that, it’s the arena deal, it stinks.’ tagline that he uses over and over again. I actually saw him use this in debate, it’s freaking horrible; it’s like watching epic fails. It’s a bad movie where you feel embarrassed for the main character. You might remember the dubious association of this tag line for the campaign video that Diotte shot at the Blue Plate Diner. The owners had asked that the video not specifically show details of the restaurant, but the video clearly did, and the restaurant took the brunt of anti-anti-arena protests and was shunned. The owners asked for the video to be taken down, and Diotte did what was exactly the opposite I would expect from anyone trying to garner the public’s support: he said NO! Eventually he took it down, after two weeks of bad press. Why would you argue with that? Other arguments are against bike lanes (I was initially against bike lanes but I’ve noticed they’ve been becoming more used and less confusing the more cars and bikes use them to coexist), against the airport closure (note the airport does not allow us to develop downtown buildings over a certain height, and takes up a significant portion of what could be a large residential area), pro urban sprawl (indirectly - Diotte thinks the suburbs are cheaper for people to live in and therefore to expensive to update the city’s core). Our outgoing mayor once called him an idiot on television. I agree.

What Is A Mayor For?

I’ve read a lot of rhetoric in people’s comments, and it’s clear to me that citizens don’t always know what municipal government is responsible for. Remember your three levels of government, municipal, provincial and federal? This isn’t meant to slam any of you dear readers personally, but it’s a good idea to think about specifically what we’re electing for.

Municipal

Roads and Infrastructure, Arts and Entertainment within the city, city planning, schools, trying to get funding from other levels of government, city public transportation, city recreation centers, property taxes, municipal bylaw enforcement, city crime enforcement, fire department.

Provincial

Provincial infrastructure (outside of the city), funding to schools, healthcare (including ambulance services), funding to cities for their infrastructure projects, provincial taxes if any (income tax, sales tax). Partial funding to post secondary institutions, provincial law enforcement and jurisdiction

Federal

federal income and sales taxes, partial funding to post secondary institutions, employment insurance, pension plan, military, federal law, jails, bureaucracy.

Ultimately what you can take away from this are the things the mayor is actually going to be able to take care of and what they aren’t going to take care of. Rejuvenation of the quarters, repaving roads, deciding on road projects, deciding on development permits - these are the things you can worry about. School closures, that’s definitely a city one. Crime inside the city, another city thing. What I’ve heard from arena neighsayers are that the mayor could have spent that money elsewhere like on healthcare. Well, no, unless you’re talking about any applicable provincial portion of it. Otherwise, the healthcare is dealt with by the province. I’ve heard criticisms about spending time building a highway to fort mac (63). Well, no, the municipal government feels it would be better for residents of Edmonton that commute and work there to have a better highway, so they’re lobbying the provincial government. I’ve heard lots against bike lanes. People fear change, I guess. The most ridiculous one I heard was to ‘widen all the sidewalks instead.’ Wow, okay, so how are you going to do this, spend billions of dollars buying and/or annexing a couple of feet of everyone’s property lines? And billions more on construction of sidewalks? You thought painting some lines and putting up some signs were expensive?

The Worst Thing That Could Happen Before An Election

Anything to do with the city that makes you wonder if someone isn’t doing their job. So this morning, all the left hand turning lights stop working, as well as lane indicator signals causing pretty much all my colleagues to be late or later than usual. I am lucky I live so close to work. This really can’t be attributed to any one candidate. But imagine that? Big city screw up; something you’d normally complain to your elected official about. But there’s no one to complain to today.

Issue 6, Volume 2: Do you really know your Candidate? I'm Not Responsible Generation. Plus Cold War Kids and a 1992 Dodge Stealth

Issue 6, Volume 2:

Do You Know Your Candidate? - The Ultimate Test

The 'I'm Not Responsible' Generation, Cold War Kids, and a 1992 Dodge Stealth

On The Streets

Our On The Streets feature is on this amazing Dodge Stealth found in the parking lot of Highlands Golf Club, Edmonton. Why is this so rare? Well, perhaps in some districts in the United States it might not be. However, here, an early 90’s Stealth in this kind of condition is remarkable. Remember, it’s my job to bring you not just classic cars, but rare and usually unseen cars. I think it’s rare to see any car that is about 20 years old in this condition, let alone an icon of a sports car from the early 90’s. Sure the parking lot was filled with Infinitis, BMWs, Porsches (a nice 993 version), and about 3 Cadillac CTS models in black, but this was the car that really stuck out. The Stealth is the product of an agreement between Chrysler and Mitsubishi, which saw a lot of successful vehicles in the early 90’s and thereon. Initially the partnership happened in the 70’s, when Chrysler’s Europe brands like Simca did not produce cars that were successful in the US when the OPEC embargo hit. Chrysler took vehicles like the Mitsubishi Colt and remarketed them in the US, sometimes with old names like the Dodge Charger. After the success of Chrysler’s own K-car, the Mitsubishi deal moved forward in other ways. For example, prior to the new Phoenix V6, the most reliable V6 that Chrysler had, used in minivans, extended K cars (Daytona, LeBaron, Shadow/Sundance, Acclaim/Dynasty) was the 6G72 3.0L V6 in single-overhead cam iteration. The base version of the Stealth came with this engine. There was then the Stealth ES and Stealth R/T; the R/T having the option of Mitsubishi’s 6G72 Twin Cam and the 6G72 Twin Cam/Twin Turbo engine good for 276hp (Japan had a horsepower limit). The entire car, sold along side the Viper in dazzling Viper red, was actually built in Japan. This actually led to dissention from the UAW in the potentiality of using the car for the 1991 Indy 500, and a Viper prototype was used instead. The Stealth was a rare bird indeed. The car was identical to the Mitsubishi 3000GT (GTO in Japan) except lacking the automatically adjustable aerodynamics package, and of course, the Stealth got its own aerodynamic look to fit in as a Dodge. The car had many revolutionary technologies, including an active all wheel drive system, a dual mode exhaust (touring or sports settings) and electronically controlled suspension. Less than 20,000 of all iterations were sold a year from 1991-1994. The car received a facelift at that time and continued until 1996 (only 360 cars sold in the final model year). But to know how rare this car really is in these parts, looking at the breakdown of emissions build records would show that in ‘91, only 145 R/T turbos were built for the Canadian market, 373 in 1992, 378 in 1993, and 231 in 1994. The only Stealth available in the 1995 facelifted iteration was the basic R/T, and only for one model year before being discontinued in Canada. In the United States, the Stealth would continue for one more year, the 3000GT would continue in the US until 1999, and in Japan until 2000 (the last two vehicles were ‘2001’ models). This car is a shining example of a ‘91-’94 R/T Turbo in Firestorm Red.Someone has lovingly taken care of it, preserving this low number vehicle.

The Ultimate City Council Candidate Test - Figure Out Who You Will Vote For

Aside from the mayoral race - which I have some opinions about, but will not express here, what will effect you most in your municipal election will be what council member you choose. Even if the person you don’t want to be mayor happens to win the job; or a person who you did vote decides to go rogue, it takes city council to actually back their ideas. So what you want is a person who represents you in your ward - represents your ideas for where the city should be heading, and what to do with your money, etc. This person also represents the needs of your ward. So if you feel like your ward deserves a new rec center, you have a problem with snow clearing in your area, or transit service is not enough, you take it to your specific council member.

In that case, you want to select someone engaged in the same headspace you are. In order to do that, they obviously have to know the issues of where you come from.

So, how do we ensure that both subjectively and objectively we’re choosing the right person for us? This is an important decision that will have a lot of local ramifications for the next four years, and depending on the decisions these candidates make, maybe generations to come.

I’m going to start by speaking on my former ward 10 council member - Don Iveson. Now I’m not commenting on his mayoral run - not in this section anyway - but I want to talk about how he was at a council member. This magazine operates on my ability to complain about things; and with that, my ability to complain about things hinges on there actually being something noteworthy to complain about - beyond first world problems - or at least something interesting anyway. I became frustrated with Iveson as someone who was not an ally to my complaining, instead being an ambassador for City of Edmonton customer service. In other words, he always took care of my complaints. A couple of times in previous issues I was about to break out something huge - something scandalous that the city was doing - and at the same time I always had an email into Iveson for him to correct the problem. The problem (or solution) was he always got on top of things and corrected the problem before I could rant about it. Can’t complain about something that has been solved quickly and efficiently for you can you now? I mean you can try, but it just isn’t interesting to hear nearly as much as a story about how someone is dropping the ball.

Iveson generally knew what were the concerns of the demographic in my area - we have seniors, students, and a lot of young families who were students - upstarts like Sarah and I who used to go to the University or lived in the area during school years and whom still love being central to it all. And then there’s those who have lived in the area for a very long time - since a lot of it came into existence from the 50’s to the 70’s. Again - not to make this about Iveson - but if you look at his website it echoes a lot of issues originally meaningful to our ward - including specific issues like Scona Pool - and the lack of a south-central city-run rec center. Transit is another important one - considering a lot of individuals in this area commute to downtown or the university via transit. Road quality, schools, crime, affordable housing are a few other ones. Generally, the individual you want representing you should know what issues individuals in your area face: so they should be ideally a citizen of the area they are representing - to truly know the issues there. Looking at the new candidates, thinking, “will they measure up?” To do that they don’t necessarily have to uphold the status quo just because the status quo was good, unless there was some deep impact of that status quo. I feel like the people here in ward 10 went with Iveson for a reason - he knows the issues here, he responds quickly, and is accountable. So we would like someone with the same traits. I decided to test my candidates out on the merits of what I had learned makes a good council member: eagerness to be accountable to their citizens, knowledge of the issues, and a stance regarding those issues that is in line with the majority of the ward’s population.

I drew on past experiences and emailed each candidate in my ward, so that I would have an informed choice to go by. First, I’ll tell you how I scored them, so you can do similarly if need be. Then, I’ll actually show you the results of my ward 10 candidates (it’ll be updated until Election time) so you can see how real life candidates respond to things, and so you can take away something from my experience when you head to the polls.

The Test

The test was designed to score the candidates on criteria that I feel makes a good city council member.

1. Response Time - How long did it take the candidate to respond to my email? Iveson used to respond within 48 hours, which I feel is pretty quick. So response within the first 48 hours shows a commitment to the people who elected you into council as your first priority.

2. Local Complaints - I asked the candidates what they would do in response to two ‘hypothetical’ complaints (they don’t need to know these were taken from real situations - such that I already know the answer). One was about a pothole truck that was left for dead for two days on 109th street blocking off a lane. The other was about my car being covered in dust due to poor road signage not advising of the city sweep last spring. This tests the candidates’ abilities to synthesize solutions to a problem - and also tests if they are down to earth or just grandiose to garner votes. It also looks at how much the candidate cares about every day problems and concerns of their citizens.

3. Big Issue - I asked one question about a longstanding issue in our community to see how much the candidate is aware about the issue, and if they are on the side of the citizens to do something about it.

Scoring

1. Platform/Website: For the most part, not every candidate can answer every email, and I realize that - at least while they are busy campaigning. You also might not have time to go after your own ward candidates in this way - but I recommend you do some exploration just as deep as I have. For each issue they mentioned that was an issue representing our area specifically they are awarded 10 points. These issues are: Rec Center/Scona Pool (bonus 5 if they actually mention Scona Pool in particular), Transit (not necessarily expansion but sustainable access in oru area), Schools (in particular fighting against closures), Land value/Sustainability (this is because our area has become the most increasing in value and the one taking on the most redevelopment most recently), Roads (in particular repair), Infrastructure (in particular sidewalks and walkability), Affordable Housing (in particular increasing it), The Arts/Entertainment (in particular facilitating access to it), Crime (in particular reducing it - especially in thefts, car thefts, assaults, and stolen license plates, the crimes most common in our area), and the 10th one I left open for something I may not have thought of but maybe the candidate put a bug in my ear about it and reminded me that yes, that is an issue of our community. Candidates can only score a maximum of 100, and this will make up 20% of their entire score.

2. Response to Email: I feel being accountable to your area’s citizens is important. I felt within 48 hours was reasonable to respond to a concern or question from a resident in the area, and so a full 100 points awarded to those candidates who respond within 48 hours. They’ll lose 5 points per day thereafter. It’s weighted 30%, as being accountable to your individual citizens in your ward is paramount.

3. Answers to First Two Questions: 50 points for each, and this is subjective about how close they get, even though I do know what the right full answer is. To the first one, about the pothole truck, the response I received when I complained was within 24 hours. Don Iveson found the southwest yard for City of Edmonton, the yard crew was quickly notified, and removed the vehicle immediately. Iveson and the City of Edmonton both apologized to me and indicated exactly what happened although it was an embarrassing story for them that a driver had not communicated to the mechanic that the vehicle had broken down and was in need of a tow. Full accountability and transparency on their end, including rectifying the problem immediately. The second is a little harder. I complained about dust blowing on to my car, and that notification was not apparent. There is so much that could be done in this situation. I was apologized to, and said they would review signage for next year. Then I was referred to the city office where they said I could put in a claim if I wanted to. Now this is delicate. Because I wasn’t happy that it happened, and they didn’t just outright offer to clean and detail my car for free - but I need to recognize the city has processes. I could have filed a claim, but 1600 claims in that year for potholes meant I’d be waiting a long time. I could have escalated it but I didn’t. This tests the candidates grandiose structure - see - they can claim they’ll do everything in their power, but there is an accountability to the tax base as a whole. You would be furious if I was getting my car repainted for free every year by leaving it on the front street when a cleaning crew went by. So there is a claims process to go through. But you would also want to know the same crap wouldn’t happen to you so you’d expect the city to at least promise to review their process regarding communication. You wouldn’t expect that council members just write cheques to anyone who demands it. So this has to have a practical answer. This answer is weighted 25%.

4. Big Issue - Rec Center: This requires the candidate to know something about the issues in the area, and to know how important they are to the citizens. They also would need to know somewhat of a history.of the issue and why it’s an issue. Not knowing why something is important could lead to bad decisions about it. I asked the candidates to comment on the fact that there is no rec center in our area, and the only one operating, Scona Pool, the city tried to shut down, but now the city pays money to a private contractor to keep it open, but the pool has never qualified for renovations. In the south-central area, we do not have a city backed rec center. We are, however, paying taxes on some really large new rec centers for other communities that aren’t immediately within reach for our use. Our options are to use Scona Pool, now privately run with minimal government backing, which isn’t a full service rec center, go all the way to Kinsmen, or get a membership at the U of A - which may not be cost effective (as it’s not city run, city compensation can’t apply for those who are entitled due to low income circumstances). You would need to know that the city has no plans for a rec center, that the citizens want one, that the future of Scona is uncertain, and that we’d like our money to be spent as such. This section will be scored 25% of the candidate’s score. It’s out of 100. The main points the candidate needs to state are: clear knowledge of the history of Scona Pool, the knowledge that the city pays a contractor for Scona, the knowledge that the public wants some certainty about the pool, and some remedy (ie fight to keep scona open, fight to renovate scona and retake it, fight to close scona and make the demand for a new rec center to be built). Note - a candidate does not need to respond to the email for me to know how they feel about this, if it is mentioned on their website, I’ll take the score from there.

The Candidates in Ward 10

So, now, here’s my actual scoring of candidates in ward 10. You can always copy my table for use in your own scoring in your ward.

Candidate	About	Website Score	Email Response	Q1 & Q2	Q3	Total Score
Ray Bessel	Lived in Ward 10 for 10 years	Inflation (+10),	Response within 5 days (+80)	In Q1, would try to get answers (10), in Q2, would try to get a car wash, and see why there was not adequate notice (40)	Recommends using other nearby rec centers (0)	38.5
Hafis Devji	Family Business Owner ‘Family Oriented’ - Lifelong Edmontonian	Renewing/ Improving Infrastructure for current demographic (+10), school closures (+10)	No Response Yet (0)	No Response (0)	No Response (0)	4
Richard Feehan	Lived in Ward 10 for 24 years	Improving Infrastructure (+10), funding arts (+10)	No Response (0)	No Response (0)	No Response (0)	4
“Can Man” Dan Johnstone	Against Poverty, under 30	Fixing Roads (+10), Neighbourhood Watch/EPS (+10), Affordable Homes (+10), Tranist (+10), Arts (+10)	Response within 48 hrs (100pts)	‘Could Not Respond - Did not know what he’d do (0)	Said city wouldn’t compete with private institution (no real knowledge of situation) (0)	40
Michael Walters	Owns a consulting firm, has won a bunch of awards	Infrastructure - Roads (+10), maintain sidewalks, infrastructure (+10),	Response within 5 days (+80)	Did not know what he’d do, but would ‘look into it’ (15)	Is passionate and would work with ward 8 council member to try and push for new facility (100)	60.5
Scoring		100 (10 for each to maximum of 10) X 20%	100 (100 points for 48 hours, -5 points each day following) X 30%	100 (50 points for Q1, 50 points for Q2) total of both X 25%	100 points for question X 25%	100 point maximum

It’s still a tough race, but now I objectively have an idea of who I might vote for. There are also the overall impressions of the responses. Dan Johnston didn’t seem to know we (the City of Edmonton) paying to keep Scona Pool open, but having a private company run it. He indicated the city probably wouldn’t compete with a private company. That lack of knowledge of the issue is a critical flaw, whereas Michael Walters not only knew of the issue, but indicated that he already had committed in his platform to discuss it with the ward 8 council member to try and go for something sustainable for multiple communities right in our own back yard. Great! I appreciated Bessel’s response, but his suggestion to use LRT to get to rec centers outside of the community, while practical, was not in line with the overall community stance. I liked however, that Bessel would get my car washed from a dust bath. This is, unfortunately, more than he would actually be able to do for me.

We see names on ballots and we might recognize the names from signs, or past elections, or the community in general. But who are these people and how will their influence on the city truly effect you? This is why I urge everyone to find out what your candidate is up to, find out what they are for and against, how they are in line with your values, and hey, even how long they’ve lived in your area! And of course, get out and vote!

The ‘I’m Not Responsible’ Generation

This is likely to be a very controversial piece - maybe not for my readers, but in general. Because it is likely that at some point you will have been in a situation you wanted to blame on someone else, but you had to give up the fight, because the logic just wasn’t there. And because a lot of tragedies happen in this realm (that doesn’t make them NOT tragedies - it just maybe makes them harder to deal with when you don’t have someone to blame).

Lately I’ve noticed the increase in remaining not responsible for actions that seemingly make a person a victim. It starts here with this Anti-Fat-Shaming-Feminist-Meme where, unfortunately, while I feel for the woman involved, she’s also full of shit. She, from the get-go, discusses how she has no issues posting photos in spite of privacy warnings - but then gets upset when her photo was ‘stolen’ - no sorry, used by someone for fat-shaming, and potential anti-feminism. This launched a campaign where women of all shapes and sizes wore signs and shirts saying, ‘this is what a feminist looks like.’ But that’s still off the mark. Because, you know what, I’m a man, and I don’t look like a woman at all, and I’m what a feminist looks like, because I am one too.

The ultimate issue I took with this woman was her incessant blaming of everyone else that her photo had been used and she had been victimized. She was indeed a victim of internet trolls, but knowing those exist, you sort of have to roll with the punches. Knowing full well that something might happen and clicking the terms of use is akin to signing a waiver when you’re going, say, skydiving. I’ve never been, but I know there’s a chance I could get hurt. And if I did, would it be fair to hold the pilot responsible knowing that there was a chance I could get hurt? While it sucks that I got hurt, and sure I might be a victim of a terrible accident or tragedy, whose fault it is - is a bullshit argument. It was an inherent risk from the beginning, not begetting a ‘fault’ situation.

I’m going to turn the attention now to another situation that’s happened recently that I can’t take my mind off of. Was there a victim? Yes. Was the force used likely excessive? Yes. Can you blame the Toronto Police? Probably not. If you haven’t guessed already I’m talking about the police take-down of Sammy Yatim that resulted in the death of Yatim and the second degree murder charge of a Toronto officer. Yatim was reportedly wielding a knife at streetcar passengers, and when police showed up, would reportedly not drop the knife and wielded it towards police officers. So he was shot to death. The issue here is that he was shot seven times. That is obviously excessive. However, is Yatim a victim, and are the police at fault? While I find no issue in some charge being brought upon the officer that shot seven times (one probably would have sufficed) - using lethal force is generally found to be appropriate in a situation where a person has a weapon that could injure or kill someone else and generally won’t put it down. I think the main issue here is that Toronto doesn’t have a body like ASIRT (if they do they aren’t effective) that here in Alberta respond and investigate the amount of force used anytime a weapon is used by an officer to see if it was deemed appropriate. I have to get to the point here, because I’m straying off the basic focus of this argument; which is that should I expect to point a knife at people, and the police, and not expect to get shot to death? This isn’t Grand Theft Auto, it’s real life. True, if they simply knee capped him, maybe they could have found out what was causing him to be violent and he could have gone through therapy, and I’m not saying IT ISN’T an upsetting situation. But at the same time, how much can you say a person is a victim when, again, they point a deadly weapon at someone and then get shot by the police?

There is obviously some sort of culture of mistrust between the Toronto Police and its citizens which makes this not so cut and dry to everyone else, where generally in most places in North America, again, if GTA has taught you anything, it’s that if you point a weapon at people, you might get shot to death by the police if you don’t put it down.

My main argument here, which is the subject of many an old comedy routine (what idiot did this to warrant this warning label, etc) is that people less and less likely want to accept responsibility for their actions and blame someone else. It’s escaping common sense. It’s the proverbial rusty nail you stepped on as a kid at a construction site, that, during my youth, your parents would have told you to stop playing in that construction site, that nowadays parents would sue the developers because there was a gap in the fence.

Music

I usually lightly pepper each issue with a few remarks about the latest music I’ve been listening to. So here’s a few recommendations.

Cold War Kids - Dear Miss Lonelyhearts

This is the fourth studio album by the group from Long Beach, and I have to say, it fast became one of my favourites of this summer. The album features guitarist Dan Gallucci, former original guitarist from Modest Mouse. He was a great writer then, and carries that momentum to the Cold War Kids. Dare I say, this is their best album? The driving first single Miracle Mile is a fantastic out and out rock song, you don’t even need to say ‘indie’ for this. But the album isn’t full of songs like this. It’s actually a fairly stark, bare bones album with a lot of feeling to it. Tracks like Lost That Easy are great near-ballads, slow and haunting. I’ve heard a lot of critical response, some critics writing that the Cold War Kids are a band still “trying to figure out who they are.” In that - if it is true - they have become better in each successive album to the point where I really actually like them enough to obviously go out and buy their material, which says something in this day of tight purse strings. I recommend giving it a listen.

Sound City - Reel to Real Soundtrack

I don’t really know how to quantify this album, except that it’s a really good rock album that spans generations. From Stevie Nicks, to Rick Springfield, to the remaining members of Nirvana jamming with Paul McCartney, I think my actual favourite song on this album was the one by Corey Taylor of Slipknot. Just an unbelievable work of art through and through, and a great tribute to an analog recording console.

As always thanks for reading, letters can be sent to istillhaveatapeplayer@gmail.com

THE POLITICAL ISSUE: Debate Score, Alberta Hates Gay People, Whatcott vs. Notely, The Shins and a Mercury Cougar PLUS what you didn't read in January.

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!