News Columnists / Andrew Hanon
Stelmach offers lessons in bad politics: Critics
By ANDREW HANON, Edmonton Sun
Last Updated: January 25, 2011 5:12pm
: Stelmach If you straddle the fence, you're going to fall off.
That's what Ed Stelmach's critics say is the lesson of his four years as Alberta's premier.
"He failed to take a position one way or the other," said Dave Eggen, head of Friends of Medicare and an NDP candidate in the next election. "The health-care debate personified that. Stelmach made no commitment to public health funding, but from the right wing's perspective, the government spent excessively on health care."
Stelmach managed to infuriate both sides of the debate, Eggen said.
"His last year in office has been a lesson for all politicians about the perils of being indecisive."
Scott Hennig of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation says it's a ironic that back in the early 1990s, Stelmach was one of the so-called Deep Six back benchers who pushed then-premier Ralph Klein hard to cut spending and balance the budget. But while he was the boss, Stelmach oversaw three budget deficits in a row.
Hennig said Stelmach acknowledged that, in part, Stelmach was a victim of circumstances beyond his control. Klein's final years in office during the boom were marked with huge spending increases. When Stelmach took over in 2006, he was determined to rebuild long-neglected infrastructure.
Then the recession hit and revenue trailed off.
"But when times changed, Stelmach didn't react," Hennig said.
Environmentalists had hoped Stelmach would listen to them more than Klein did, but the head of Greenpeace said he was a bitter disappointment.
"He promised to eliminate (oilsands) tailings ponds, but they're bigger than ever," said Mike Huddema. "We don't have an effective monitoring system and our approvals process is absolutely insufficient."
But Huddema doubts a change in Tory leadership will make a difference.
"It's going to take more than just changing the captain's chair to turn this ship around," he said.
andrew.hanon@sunmedia.ca
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4 comments:
My cousins did it to you....right?
Y you have the 4 engineers on health board, the uke, Cadsky as head of facs, the fawt, probably Y profiling got lost in translation is roughly translated as prevention &even don mazankowski. Also why i claim status as torture victim in Canada.
Is that your joy mcphail o mental patients' advocate moving to B.C.? i'm stil the mick (Catholic personality disorder) without credentials. see: http://sueahe.blogspot.com
populism is populism as far as neolibs are concerned so here is news from me about Manitoba.
letter to manitoba health to follow
letter was redorected to Manitoba health. PART 1
Dear Ms.Oswald:
I am desperately trying to find a way for my cousin to be able to stop exploiting me along with other members of his family annd assoc. \normally in Canada i beleive this kind of matter could be dealt with at a different level But since the cutbacks to women's services etc. we are all paralyzed by neo cons forcing so called "tough love" on everyone.
In my experience what this means is that, for example,Brian my cousin , now retired is looking around for someone to impress with his power so openly pimp me. Maybe he'd have preferred now that i was more interested in the families' businesses earlier in my life so that me realising that they were exploiting me wouldn't make defending their flagrant pimping so difficult. Maybe a movie ? You know a kind of ethnic Archie Bunker. I imagine him in a Panama hat not only a Wpg business man but a Florida business man etc. However, I don't really know them and I find it cripplilng to know them in this way. In fact, i once did ask brian for a job but he refused so i went on my way to another city is a short version.
PART 2
I am embarrassed to say that the whole of their family is involved in abusing me. Further, they seem to be trying to shame me for various wrongs that they have never really checked out with me for sure etc.but is probably a defensive strategy from fear of me being made aware of how much money they are making. But pimping me openly is a rich mans way of shaming someone I guess. I'm also ashamed to say that they do not feel remorse when hearing that I can't walk, when making as just yesterday it impossible for me to carry out normal shopping without extra help. I was awake most of the night because "someone" was torturing me and gpsing (sic?) me to attempt to make me scream out in pain so i might be evicted from my dwelling. When in Wpg. I wasn't, of course allowed to stay with the 'family' and of course they saw to it that Osbourne house wouldn't house the likes of me. I don't really know what it is they want because porn has never been my interest. I am in a state of chronic emergency however because apparently all these people die from accessing the site. Is this possible? Why wouldn't the government have injected milions of dollars into corrective measures for these desperate souls. The porn shakedown is that the nazis are preventing us all from being civilized. Hell no. From living in Edmonton, balls and chains are in every culture.
Facts are facts and I do not know what i need to know about porn. So can someone confirm with my cousins wife that he is o.k. and ask where he is, make sure he has someone to talk to like a social worker experienced in dealing with sexual offenders etc. I am at a complete loss with respect to dealing with the 'family'. I am the scapegoat and am blamed to the hilt. So |I have a rather vicious mental health history they have created for me since 1990 when i was for the first time incarcerated in your biosciences centre. The drastic measure is so that I don't ever make any money from my own effort. Only the men in Polish Canadian culture i know can make money. Mayor Katz is in total agreement since his relation the drug czar gave $9 million to the pharmacy dept at u of a to shut bags like me up.,,,,,,,,,, Mayor Katz didn't give me the courtesy of a reply to my letter more or less pleading for a stop to the torture. Any attempt to complain is blocked thoroughly and this seems to be a sore point for the Morin family in particular. The way my pension ( I am severely handicapped from maiming by a eugenics admiring pedophile ttbomk) has even been cut off makes me wonder if extermination isn't the actual intention but then knowing how the boys don't really believe woman are traumatized by their cruelty in porn makes me appeal to you for info. Sadism is diagnosed in the DSMIV.
PART 3
I believe this group of businesses were instrumental in trashing the court challenges program becasue i was attempting tu use in in 1990 to defend myself. I am indeed desperate now ; my money spent doesn't show a return for effort, i am blocked from services, from education, from social activities of any kind and i am physically barbarized. This has again been unrelenting in my life since Mulroney was elected for the 2nd term; my one cousin lives in the same neighbourhood as Mr. Mulroney...etc.
I believe that the government should have injected money into communications skills for everyone gratus, including assertiveness training and mediation. I think the cost of the alternative is obviouis to most these days. Perhaps there could've been a charter sertificate program for people to take in case they were confronted with discrimination or had to deal with a lot of employees etc.
As it stands though, I personally am unprepared for the demands of this group of people. I don't know what they want. .....from me ....from the people screaming in the streets and from those tortured into total silence physically by maiming of vocal cords or those killed. I believe that we could benefit from a commission on policing, law enforcement and the failure by the police to serve ordinary citizens. Trying to deal with LERA has not been fruitful for me as yet. They seem to be ignoring me; my cousins must have convinced everyone with reason or with the reason of their business partners etc. The thing they don't want to say is that the security system & logistics is used to sabatogue complaint mechanisms, mediation, and communication in general eg. with, for example, physical abuse to the genitals eg. I was sterilized likely at my cousins request in Edmonton. Am I right that I am considered crazy by them because i didn't call them up?
I have asked the public trustee to assist me by suing my cousin, but legal aid was cut back instead of expanded. There is also no way to get advocacy to complain about desperately bad treatment at the biosciences centre. I lost a human rights complaint, a small claims hearing, and the eviction hearing also. With the new fervour of neo con revolution, they are trying to make me appear to be a chronic eviction problem and threatening to say my university degree was also a mental problem, or non existent. You may recall that there were female electricians, engineers, a while back and still are I suppose but i am wondering are they all porny? Are they all into snuff? Is this why I was told i wouldn't make it as an engineer\? I think there are a few things to work on before we swallow the neo con revolution whole hog.
Much of the abuse that is ongoing is based in theme on what occurrd to me in Wpg. 1990-1992. This to me suggests that my cousins are lumberjacks aye?The problem for me is that slavery is supposed to be considered illegal. I did not volunteer as a medical subject. How can this be enforced? This group of businesses, I gather, consider anti slavey laws outmoded because some people (mostly females, etc.) are just not good at math. I am |quick" to point out I was maimed during later years of grade school and highschool sciences. But these are unpleasant topics.....
I am writing to ask you to send a supportive letter to the public trustee.Perhaps encourage LERA to investigate.... Can you tell me how to report a hate crime n Manitoba? I do not know how to explain to the business interests and my family just how abusive they are; most of the poeple have never been poor. My cousins do not even speak respectfully of my hard working widowed mother.
Sincerely,
Janine A.F.Sakowicz
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