1000 year old skull fragment of St. Vladimir the Great recovered

Completely unrelated to politics, but being that I'm from Edmonton and Ukrainian Orthodox, I thought I'd share this news.

"A thief broke into the home of a priest with St. Herman's Orthodox Church, on 167 St., in the middle of the night last week, said Archpriest Phillip Eriksson.  The thief took the relic, a wallet and the keys to the priest's truck in which he made his escape.  After a frantic call to police, officers began a street to street search. They found the truck just over three hours later about 10 blocks away. The relic was with the truck, still inside its ornate box....

...Squadron 8 asked the church if it can claim St. Vladimir as their patron saint and the church has agreed."

Edmonton civic election 2010 decision

I have thought long and hard about this election, researched candidates, read what they've said in media, vexed others' opinions through conversation and blogs.

There are a multitude of ongoing issues that I agree and disagree from every candidate I looked at. 

But there are two issues which, whether you agree or not with them ideologically, are in the spotlight because how much they impact business and people but more so because of HOW council's decision was made.  Those issues obviously being the City Centre Airport (CCA) and the sale of EPCOR.

Those two huge issues, which impact thousands of people, weren't around in the last election, so we didn't vote for a candidate based on it.  There was no plebiscite. 

Then in the last three years, our mayor and council voted to shutdown the airport and sell off EPCOR.

So electorally, and democratically, the people of Edmonton didn't have a say.  At all.  Developers and private interests did.

Sure it was late and they didn't have quite enough valid signatures, but the petition from EnVision Edmonton is valid in the sense that this is a large number of people who wanted a say, didn't get it, and council didn't want to listen.

Keelor Road got a plebiscite.

Moving large air traffic to the International Airport got a plebiscite.

But selling EPCOR?  No plebiscite.

Shutting down the City Centre Airport?  No plebiscite.

Now one can argue that the city is 'moving forward' with these decisions having been made as strong leadership.  But is the electorate being blinded by council's group-think.  Strong leadership also means listening to the people.

Some have argued that certain councillors say they do not regret the decision and will stand in the next election on their record.  Yeah, but you see, I didn't know where you stood three years ago on it, so guess what? Now I'm not voting for you.  But now, there's already been a decision.  I didn't have a say on it back then did I?

So for me, this election comes down to a fundamental philosophical aspect of our representative democracy here. 

Do you elect representatives to government based on their policy platform and when issues arise that are outside the scope of their platform and that impact thousands of people, simply trust them to vote accordingly, and when we disagree, vote them out, although the decision was already made?

On smaller issues, I don't see this as a problem.  But on issues that have such a lasting impact, shouldn't our representatives then default to perhaps conducting a poll in their district, have a town hall, or defer to holding a plebiscite next election.

So because I see the potential of future decisions being made and the input of the people being continually thwarted by this group-think autocratic mayor and council, I am voting accordingly in protest to their actions, sending them a message, and holding them accountable with the candidate I feel has the best chance of defeating them.  It also helps that I agree with them ideologically on several other issues obviously.

David Doward for Mayor

James Johnson for Ward 6

For Public School Trustee, I think instead of having retired administrators and bureaucrats, the board needs some young fresh people on it with new ideas about education.  I strongly support public education, so this is not an ideological thing for me. I mean, former city councillor Michael Phair is endorsing this guy, and I'm on the total opposite end of the political spectrum as Phair, but that doesn't matter here.  What matters is the kids.

Michael Janz for Ward F

So there you have it folks.

Don't forget to vote this Monday October 18th!  Click here to find your voting station.

Downtown Edmonton bars open until 4am?

I think this is a great idea.  And they're right--not everyone works 9 to 5.  But it should not be exclusive to just one district.  I've been to cities at night like New York, Chicago, and Toronto (during the International Film Festival (TIFF)), and some bars elect to close at 2:00am and some have enough staff to stay open until 4am.  In fact, the bars and lounges I went to that stayed open until 4am were actually pretty low-key, and included a lot of bar industry folks.  They served drinks until 4 and closed at 4:30 in many places as well.   

The problem in many other cities in North America I've been to (and I've been to a lot of them) where the bars all close at 2:00-2:30pm is that you get a massive flood of people out into the sidewalks and streets, where taxi availability isn't as good, causing many people to walk for blocks looking for cabs, or giving up and stumbling home through neighbourhoods, urinating along the way, and in some cases, vandalism.

If people were allowed to hang out in a bar for a couple more hours, you'd find that after having some drinks, they get a chance to mellow out and get that cab they couldn't get earlier.  As it stands, there's a shortage of cabs in Edmonton anyway.

City councillors who think that more restrictions are the answer are wrong.  Having more choices is right and allowing bars to stay open until 4am if they want and are able to would actually be a smart approach and the waves of people would be easier to manage for policing, for cab availability, and ultimately would liven up this city even more.

Ed Raise

Is it me or when Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach said he's giving himself and cabinet a 30% raise that it's because they want to attract brighter and better people to public service--isn't he kind of saying that all the existing MLAs and all the candidates that ran weren't quite good enough?

Hey, don't get me wrong, I do think our elected officials should get paid more, but I would rather start with Edmonton city council. Those folks truly don't get paid well enough to attract brighter and better candidates (although some definitely are), but keep in mind they did just give themselves a big raise last year.

But that's the key, ... in both situations, our provincial and civic elected officials gave THEMSELVES the raise.

While I don't think many of them deserve it, the amount spent doesn't even compare to the other cost savings in many city departments that council brushes over.

And on another note, doesn't everyone wish city council approved the Calgary Trail and 23rd Avenue interchange as well as the southern LRT expansion, like a decade ago, and perhaps at different times? Now that both Calgary Trail AND 111 Street are filled with mass construction, getting to the airport is daunting in the day time.

As well, if city council went into some debt at the time to pay for these projects, the amount of interest paid would not have been as much as skyrocketing construction costs that have accumulated since.

Poor planning. Which is why with the amount of growth Edmonton is experiencing, the infrastructure spending can't keep up, so property taxes are raised by a lot each year, which simply hurts fixed income folks like seniors.

Alberta-wide Smoking Ban

YAY! The Alberta PC government caucus just approved Minister Dave Hancock's smoking ban proposal, which no longer allows smoking in all public and work places, which includes bars, bingos, and the like.

Party members agreed, also deciding to ban tobacco sales in pharmacies and on post-secondary campuses, as well as outlaw promotional and so-called "power wall" cigarette displays in retail stores.

For someone like me who suffers from chronic sinusitis, I loathe cigarette smoke. Since Edmonton has had such a ban, I have enjoyed going to the bar again, my clothes don't smell like an ashtray, and I can breathe without nearly vomiting.

They don't have a state-wide ban in Kansas, like they do in California, and it sure is noticeable when I head to the pub here in Topeka.

There is one thing I do not like about the bylaw in Edmonton is it does not allow smoking on bar patios or in outdoor beer gardens, which is really odd for two reasons:

1) When the popular Fringe Festival is on, for example, adults are not allowed to smoke in the outdoor beer garden, yet children walking with their parents around the Fringe grounds outside the no-smoking beer gardens are subjected to public smokers.

2) These laws often do not have requirement that smokers are not allowed to gather right outside the door of a building, which in the winter time usually entails a swoth of stinky smoke when you enter and leave a building. Not only that, especially outside of bars and niteclubs, the amount the cigarette butts (that smokers think are biodegradeable) which are left on the cement or nearby sidewalks has dramatically increased. Since Edmonton has had a smoking ban, I've taken notice of this disgustingly massive increase in making Edmonton look dirty and grose. This is littering. I guess more covered ashtrays is the solution or bylaw enforcement will have to step up and fine businesses that do not clean up their patrons' crap.

Regardless, although I'm a libertarian at heart, smokers have crossed the line with my health and enjoyment of fresh air too many times to count. It's not about us non-smokers being whimps or intolerant, and don't give me that "cigarette taxes pay for health care" bullshit, when we all end up paying for your lung cancer surgery anyway. Many friends of mine who've quit always tell me that while smoking, you don't really notice the smoke until you're a non-smoker.

And because we all share in the burden of increasing healthcare costs in Alberta, it's time we all shared in the prevention.