There's a truism I've heard quite often lately about bicycles.  No matter how many you own, you always need one more.

I laughed when I first heard it.  Quite loudly.  Then the frame on my 20 year old Norco mountain bike broke while riding in the snow.  I bought myself a new Trek 3 series regretting that it wasn't the bike I really wanted to own.  What I really wanted to purchase was a great road bike for city commuting on the roads, but it was cheaper and much more practical and reasonable to get a new mountain bike for my newfound year-long riding.  And suddenly I grokked n+1 bikes.

It got worse than just one more bike for me.  Much worse, in fact.  Every time I go to Bike Bike I longingly yearn for a decent cargo bike.  Imagine not balancing and strapping whatever I'm hauling to the rack over my rear tire.  I could carry things much more safely without worry about the bungee cord that's got to be nearly as old as that Norco breaking.  Yeah, that's all I'd really need.  My Trek mountain bike, a whiz bang commuter and one of those awesome cargo bikes for hauling stuff.

Well, except that now I'm well accustomed to riding year round, I'm kinda getting tired of doing spring maintenance on the Trek to the degree I require in order to make it acceptably ridable after every winter.  There's no question, it gets rather grungy and the work involved with simply cleaning the drive train is no laughing matter.  In fact, wouldn't it be awesome to get one of those internal gear hub babies?  It would be so much nicer to maintain.  So that would be fantastic.  My mountain bike for crappy weather, my internal hub for really crappy, winter weather, my whiz bang commuter bike and one of those awesome cargo bikes for hauling stuff.

But you know, just today I went back to Bike Bike to replace my pannier that I was too brain damaged last week to notice when it fell off.  While I pulled up outside and locked up my bike (force of habit -- one I really don't want to break while I only have the one bike I rely upon) I noticed some really sexy folding bikes in the display window.  Now I can't say I've ever had any desire to have a folding bike, but I've heard the advancements have been really astounding and now they're clearly allowed on Calgary Transit it seems like a damned appealing thing to have for when I'm shuffling around town and need to worry about storing my bike.  So it's just my mountain bike for crappy weather, my internal hub for really crappy winter weather, my whiz bang commuter bike for getting around town, one of those awesome cargo bikes for hauling stuff, and a super sexy folding bike for when I have to worry about parking the damned thing at the office.

Although, truth be told, I have to admit that "brain damaged" isn't quite the term I need to use to express what happened with losing my pannier last week.

In actuality I'm so stressed out that...  Well, I'm very stressed out.  I've got all the signs showing in spades again right now.  I'm not sleeping well again.  My blood pressure is climbing back up the scale even though I'm taking my medication regularly.  I'm locking myself further into a self-induced segregation and feeling more and more distant from my friends.  The end result of all this is I end up riding my bike in a surly mood and don't even notice when my pannier falls off.

There's a little bit different from the last time I fought one of these big ones off.  Last time I wasn't sleeping like this, I ran into the Space Tweep Society and at least made something productive out of not sleeping.  Sure, I waste a whole lot of time on twitter talking to people I've never met in real life, but they ARE my friends and they have been amazingly powerful to building my reserves.  That's so much better than tossing and turning, waking up two or three times a night - always too late to run into my normal crutches people I regularly bitch at - and waking up as if I never fell asleep in the first place.  It's a lot different than falling headlong into a game until I'm bored with it and then flit to another equally pointless and subtly different game.

What is the same is the feeling of hopelessness.  The feeling that no matter what I do, I'm just not going to get a better result.  I'm headlong into a whole pile of those right now.

The sense that I'm bashing my head against a wall financially.  Not that anyone ever seems to care.  Why do I give a rat's ass about being decent when no one around me seems to be?  Hey, over the past three weeks I've even run into the mindless, brainless bureaucracy that doesn't even bother to monitor punishments it metes out!  No one will ever convince me that they actually care about anything more than the paycheque they collect every two weeks.

Just today, TODAY, I got a letter asking me to resign up for another five year term of volunteering with an organization that has only once ever asked me to actually volunteer -- and THAT single time only came in response to me jumping up and down and lodging complaints about never being asked to participate!  Honestly, is there a single organization in world that requests volunteers to sign up and then can afford to shun them once they have jumped through the hoops in order to participate?

Really?

REALLY?

I got thinking about the things that have been bugging the hell out of me lately and I'm concerned.  I've got five Very Angry Letters (tm) I want to write.  There's the three non-stop standard letters of complaint that seem to rule my life on a constant basis.  But right now there are two major issues I can't seem to get anyone to listen and act on right now in addition to the normal griefs and annoyances of my life.

Is there any reason I'm riding my bike angry right now?  That's supposed to be an enjoyment factor, especially for me.  Even I've been wondering what's been happening with me when I'm screaming at the moronically stupid drivers who endanger my life by driving in the bus / bike lanes along 9th Avenue SE through Inglewood while indignantly insisting that I'm blocking their progress and demanding the right to honk and gesture rudely at me for riding in the lane that has been designated for me.

So tonight while I was doing my bike maintenance I suddenly realized what I've been fighting and why I've been feeling so hopeless and uptight lately.  Sure, I need another bike, but until money becomes a little less tight I've discovered that my immediate desire isn't to have one more bike.  I'm thinking along a much simpler line to relieve stress.  I simply want to be able to go buy a new inner tube every bloody time I get a flat.

Infinite spare tires.  I want to stop looking for leaks.  I've had a slow leak that's been bedevilling me all winter long.  While finally swapping studded tires for mere knobbies I took that tube, submerged it into the water and knelt on it until I found the leak.

Some times the only thing you can do is rip off the old patch, sand off the crusty cement, and put a new patch on properly.  One of those patches is to stare at the skies and reconnect with some of my #SpaceTweeps.  I need to get some sleep.  I need to listen to more music.  I need to remember what I like about myself.

Meanwhile I'd be damned afraid if you're one of those people who can expect one of my Very Angry Letters (tm) soon.  Honestly, some things have to change and it's long overdue that someone actually listens and acts.

Alberta Party, I support you.  I stand amongst your numbers.  I believe in your principles and work towards your aims.

We have created something this province has been lacking.  We formed in response to a need.  The need for a government who is in touch with Albertans.  A need for a political process that's more respectful towards Albertans.  A need for citizens to feel that their voice matters to government.

Others have responded as well.  Some have formed the Wildrose Party.  Others have chosen to work towards changing the PC Party.  Some have stayed steadfast to the Alberta Liberal Party or Alberta's NDP.  I welcome them all.

Tonight amongst the parties it is all about win or lose.  Tomorrow it needs to be about good governance.  Good representation of the needs of all Albertans.  Good decisions about our collective future.  I am proud in our party for it's campaign of doing things differently, of working towards collaboration and problem solving.  We have staked out a unique area this election by trying to find creative ways to express our message, even during times we were excluded from televised debates or left off polls.  We have created something astounding, something meant to last beyond an election or two.

The foundation of the Alberta Party is rock solid, built upon people who are earnest, trustworthy and forward thinking.  We are also based upon the notion that the other parties have been built by people who are earnest, trustworthy and forward thinking.  Our fundamental principle is that good ideas can come from anywhere, and we'll support a good idea regardless of where it originated.  We debate the merit of ideas rather than tear down the image of others.  Stay true to that goal.

We will encounter growth as our message resonates.  We want to attract Albertans interested in a positive change in government.  Remember as we build to honour our principles of local engagement, of respect towards differing opinions, of accepting positive ideas.  Our growth in the past two years has been astounding, our growth in the next two years should continue along the same trend.

Get involved.  Stay involved.  Donate time and money.  Form constituency associations.  Talk with neighbours.  Stimulate ideas.  Nominate candidates.  Talk with your MLA.  Learn the processes.  As the newest party we have a lot of work ahead of us, but the rewards are great and the people alongside you are fantastic.  Let's keep building our own legacy.  This election is only our first step. 

Lots and lots to do this weekend.  There's no way I'll be able to fit it all in, but I'm going to do my best.  I have computers to repair, a house to de-disaster, a car and bike way past due for fall maintenance.

Oh, and I have to figure out who I'm voting for.

I made the conscientious decision to not form an Alberta Party CA until I had a stronger group of local citizens involved.  There are many times I've regretted that decision and many times I've celebrated it.

My biggest regret is that I don't have anyone outstanding to vote for.  As so many of my friends have said, I need to be voting FOR someone, I'm long tired of voting against someone.

In Calgary East I have Moe Amery (PC), Bonnie Devine (Com), Jasbir "Jesse" Minhas (WR), Ali Abdulbaki (ALP), and Robyn Luff (NDP).  Unfortunately the only two I know are Moe Amery and Bonnie Devine.  Even worse, either the campaigns are the only people respecting my 'No Fliers' sign or no one's come by at all.  I need to figure out a way to find a better balance.  (A mailbox for campaign literature only during the election?)

My head's been spinning all month - both intentionally and unintentionally.  I haven't been home most nights so even if someone came a door-knocking, I would have missed them and I didn't spot a single all candidates forum out here.  Thankfully, I've got calgarypolitics.com!  (Joey, you're a saint.)

I very much like Mr. Amery on a personal level.  We've worked side by side on more than one occasion (and by "worked" I mean "work involving heavy-lifting") and his ability to keep up with me is impressive.  I'm not sure that I'm willing to let that trump my estrangement from his party.

I remember Ms. Devine well from the mayoral race.  I like that she's running, I certainly respect her and her husband for taking a stand against racism, but her views definitely do not represent my own.

Mr. Minhas has been interesting.  I wish I ran into him and got a chance to chat a while.  Not necessarily so much for his views, but to see his reaction to mine.  I want to know that someone is going to listen to what I have to say and at least consider my words before shutting me down.

Mr. Abdulbaki has been entirely invisible to me, so quite literally Joey's paragraph is all that I know.  That's more than enough for me right there.

There has been a smattering of NDP signs I've noticed.  Normally I'd leave it at that, but I feel a responsibility to be more thorough now so I spent some time going through Robyn Luff's site.  No real surprises there to me.

So, all in all, nothing I find particularly compelling and I really don't like what my best fit appears to be.  Refuse my ballot, perhaps?  Ugh, what a waste.

And the senator race.  Well, objectively I would prefer to see party lines kept out of the senate.  For that reason anyone running as an independent immediately goes up one notch on my radar.  It's got to be ridiculously difficult to campaign province-wide for a job that may or may not ever open up, but hey, you gotta respect anyone willing to try.

Pretty much everything I get has to come from their webpages and social media, so that ought to be a pretty good hint where I'm leaning for the House of Grumpy Guses.  Err..  Sober Second Thought.

Funny.  The hardest decision to make is my own.

I noticed several people yesterday lamenting that there isn't an Alberta Party candidate running in their riding.

If you are one of those people that really likes the message of the Alberta Party and would like a positive and forward thinking option in your riding, I have two suggestions that you can do right now.

The very first is to go to the Alberta Party webpage and get involved.  There are a number of choices you have there.  The most important choice is to get in touch with the local organizers in your constituency and get involved right where you live.  The Alberta Party has a very solid core of fantastic people working towards a vision of an Alberta better for us all.  We are looking for more terrific people, just like you, who believe our government can do a better job representing us as Albertans.  Let's get in touch, right now.

The second option is to work with the candidates who may not be in your riding but are in your area.  I've been volunteering my time to work with a couple of candidates in Calgary.  I'm doing so for many reasons, but mostly because I believe in the Alberta Party message and I very much believe in the integrity, the openness and the ability of the candidates themselves.

I'm investing much of my time for Brandon Beasley for Calgary-Shaw.  I met Brandon early with my involvement in the Alberta Party and was incredibly impressed with his honesty, his earnestness and his good ideas.  Every time I spend time with Brandon I feel good about why I'm involved with the Alberta Party and how positive offering a better alternative can be.

Greg Clark in Calgary-Elbow is another Alberta Party candidate that I met at one of the very first Alberta Party events I personally attended.  Greg is a fantastic guy who represents the kind of character I want most in the Legislature.  He's competent, capable and always willing to listen to citizens and act to solve problems.

We have Pam Crosby in Calgary-West, Norm Kelly in Calgary-Currie, Cory Mack in Calgary-Buffalo, Alex McBrien in Calgary-Varsity and Kevin Woron in Calgary-Hawkwood who I know and feel excited to share their party colours.  There are several candidates who have put their name forward to run that I have met recently who thrill and excite me with the talents they offer for the Alberta Party.  Meeting Inshan Mohammed was a watershed moment when I realized how young and forward looking our people are.  Not at all to leave off Troy Millington in Calgary-North West, Ellen Phillips in Calgary-Bow and Jason Webster in Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill.

Not even to mention the amazing people around the province who I certainly support such as the Alberta Party leader Glenn Taylor, the amazing Michael Walters - a personal inspiration to organize and present a positive and alternative view, the fabulous Sue Huff who deserves every compliment I can offer, Danielle Klooster who I strongly admire for her character and openness.  The entire list of our candidates shines with talented people who truly represent the best of the Alberta Party philosophy.

We are a growing party and although we didn't get a full slate of candidates this time around we will have a full slate of candidates for the next election.  Our candidates in 2012 are incredible, I have every confidence we will leap over the high bar we have set this time out and exceed it in 2016.  Now is the time to get involved.  Let's keep building a positive future for Albertans.

Ms. Redford,

I heard you being interviewed on the radio yesterday morning.  This was even before the leader's debate.  During the interview, you said one thing that suddenly made every single interaction I have ever personally had with you make sense.

You were talking about an old adage.  "You've probably struck the right balance when you have people on both sides of you that aren't happy."  The question was about the PC party fighting the election from different perspectives, on the right in the south and on the left in the north.  The full question begins at 11:00, your answer comes at 11:30.

I've heard that line before.  I've heard it in response to how the courts have viewed my divorce proceedings.  I've heard it in regards to how the Maintenance Enforcement Program has dealt with my complaints as I have raised them.

When I have complained about horribly terrible treatment at the hands of the Maintenance Enforcement Program, I wrote a letter of complaint in desperation to my MLA and to you as the Minister of Justice.  I got a very unsatisfying response in return. 

I complained about the Collections Officer I spoke with being rude and abusive towards me.  To this day, I start each and every call I have to make ensuring I get the name of the Collections Officer I speak with.  Should I ever receive "Vicky" again I will politely hang up and call back later.  The department has a "zero tolerance" policy on abusive callers, but does not share the same standard when complaints are levelled against employees - public servants - who are abusive towards clients.  I was told by supervisors and by senior staff that nothing was wrong with how the collections officer treated me.  You were silent over the matter.

I complained about the restriction of payment options, the unreasonable demands and restrictions upon how I can pay Child Support.  I feel coerced into allowing the Maintenance Enforcement Program access to my bank account.  It is something that I utterly will not permit.  I do not allow direct withdrawal from my bank account for any reason unless I am forced to do so.  Mistakes are long, costly, and expensive to repair.  The Maintenance Enforcement Program specifically has a public record of making such mistakes which were extremely harmful to the men affected.

Even the Canadian Revenue Agency is more flexible and understanding regarding payment options than the Maintenance Enforcement Program.  I would literally rather deal with the CRA a hundred times before I have to deal with the MEP once.

In response, I was told that I had the option to let MEP have access to my bank account, set up a separate bank account that MEP could access, or pay my child support one month in advance.  Those are not solutions!  But it was what was demanded of me.  As it is, when I am paid from my employer I have to physically go to a bank and make a payment in person through a teller.  It's very time consuming and inconvenient, and payment is not made any sooner than it would be by post-dated cheque or scheduled online payment.

I complained about the poor reporting and complete lack of accountability the MEP has towards me.  I am one of the people the MEP is supposed to be serving.  I should not have to go through illegible reports to understand my status.  I should not have to suffer months of hidden fines levied against me without any transparency whatsoever, only to find myself threatened with immediate revocation of my driver's licence because the fines have topped $100. I was told that it was my responsibility to keep my accounts current.  I was told that reporting was acceptable, even though the collections officer I spoke to had a difficult time understanding what it meant.

From that complaint, I received what I consider to be the least sincere apology I have ever received in my life.  "We're sorry that you feel that way."  From you I received nothing but silence.  The single worst thing said to me in response to my complaint was that "The system is working as intended."  I'll come back to that point.

I have wondered why you, as minister, never replied to me.  Did you never truly look into my complaint?  Did you brush it off?  Did my MLA never actually discuss my situation with you?  It was strange.  It certainly counters my image of one who is a human right's lawyer.  I had an expectation that my complaint would be taken seriously.

I have subsequently went on the record to commentate on the Maintenance Enforcement Program.  Currently approximately one third of all visitors to this site come to read that article.  That commentary is not about how I got screwed over by the MEP, it's about how the MEP is broken for everyone who encounters it.  It does not work for Debtors, it does not work for Creditors.  It does not serve any of us well.  Our complaints fall on deaf ears when we get responses such as "The system is working as intended."

Ms. Redford, while you were the Minister of Justice it was your responsibility to review my complaint, particularly when I addressed it to you directly.  When we, the public, make complaints it is in order to raise specific concerns and problems and to get them addressed.  Yes, I understand that not all responses will be positive, but complaints should be taken seriously.

On that note, I wish to go back to your statement, "You've probably struck the right balance when you have people on both sides of you that aren't happy."  Leadership sets the tone of an entire organization.  Is that truly the basic premise that has permeated the MEP?  If there's any truth to that statement whatsoever, I think we have found the source of the problem.

If my unhappiness is part of the metric for success, then each complaint I make regarding mistreatment or unfair dealings means that the department is doing well so long as there is an equal and opposite complaint from my former spouse.  That doesn't solve problems, that generates conflict and anxiety.


When your campaign for leadership headquartered itself in the building where I work, it was a drawn out thorn in my side.  Every single thing that was negative was magnified ten fold for me.  It was terribly disruptive, it was very annoying opening the door for people who wanted into the building.  You personally parked in our reserved parking - I laugh when I hear of Rob Anderson using your stall.  Stephen expected me to pick up a membership book and help campaign.  I couldn't.  I hate to be negative, but I just didn't feel that you were capable of having an open and fruitful conversation with me.

I gave you as many opportunities as I could.  I gave an open invitation to come up to the third floor and ask for me.  Sure, you are polite in person when you ran across me anonymously, but I wonder if you would be equally polite when you knew that I am the person complaining about the MEP.

If you are satisfied with people around you being unhappy and using that as a measurement of getting things right, I am uncomfortable with you in a leadership role.  The problem with that kind of leadership is that you cater to just enough in the middle to keep you in power and everyone else gets written off as unimportant.  In fact, it becomes a good thing that people are upset because that becomes self-reinforcement of your own views.

It's not okay.  Eventually more and more people get upset, more and more people get ignored, until their numbers swell so much you get pushed out of power.

"The system is working as intended."  No, no it is not.  The system was not intended to cause anguish to both parents.  The system was not intended to unfairly punish debtors year after year.  The system was not intended to leave parents struggling to support their children while some parents refuse to pay.  The system was not intended to enforce the debtor with an iron fist and turn around to the debtee and say, "There is nothing we can do."

You sometimes talk about the fear of living under an ideological government.  I do not share the fear you have.  I am afraid each and every day.  I am terrified that the MEP will swoop into my world, take away my driver's licence, take away my passport and eventually take away my freedom.  I live in daily terror of a government department that is supposed to serve me.  The Maintenance Enforcement Program is the single biggest source of stress in my life.  That's not normal.  It's not the way we should treat our own citizens.

There is a better way.  When I talk about listening to Albertans, this is precisely where we can do so much better than we have.  By not ignoring complaints, but by listening and acting where we can make differences that are positive.  The metric should not be how many people surrounding us are upset, it needs to become how many problems get fixed.

I'll eventually be okay.  I'll probably never have a retirement, I likely will never own my own home, I may struggle for years to get by, but I will get by.  What I have learned about myself during this election campaign is that I'm not thinking of myself, I'm thinking of others.  I'm amazed how much freedom I feel in that knowledge.  I don't care about my problems, I'll fix them eventually.  I want to help my friends and neighbours fix their problems.  I want to do things better than they've been done in the past.  I want to listen to views that do not simply reinforce that I'm right all the time.

I want to listen to all Albertans.  The left, the right, the middle.  I want to solve as many problems as we can.  Every Albertan matters and no one needs to be pushed aside.

I remain available to talk.

My perspective has changed since I moved to my neighbourhood.  There are good things that happen you you break out of your isolation and see a world outside your own.

I'm extremely proud of my neighbourhood.  I'm extremely proud of my neighbours.  I have the best neighbours in the world.  I swear.

One of the people in my building is forced to rely upon AISH.  We're not extremely close friends, I don't know all the details of their life.  There's actually quite a lot of privacy between us.  But I'm extremely pleased to shovel their (and everyone's) walk when it snows.  I'll redeliver mail whenever it comes to me.  I happily share my jam and jelly when I make it in the fall.  I do the same for all my neighbours, it's no big deal.

But I'm sickened when I think about scraping through month to month on *my* salary.  I couldn't imagine doing the same on AISH.  I was absolutely sickened when the rates of AISH were hiked to great fanfare.  There were stuck at the same levels for years during some of the highest hikes in rents I can remember in Alberta.  The squeeze was immense.

It's not okay to leave AISH recipients languish for years on end, then come with tears of gratitude when we hike the rates.  That's the worst thing I can imagine.

These aren't lazy people, some of the people on AISH work harder than anyone I know to make it through month to month.  These are the most vulnerable people amongst us.  These are my neighbours.  These are my friends.  These are people who need better, who deserve better.

I can say with great confidence there is not a single member of the Legislature that does not have their salaries tied to - or exceeding - inflation in the province.  It is insensitive, it is ridiculous to not tie AISH to a basic rate of inflation. 

I don't live high on the hog, I have no idea how my neighbour makes it month to month.  We need to treat them better.  This isn't a gold plated plan, it's tying AISH to inflation and creating dignity and safety for our citizens.

I didn't tell anyone I was going to ask the question, it came up somewhere along the way during the leader's debate.  Glenn Taylor had no advance warning.  Glenn's response:

      "Yes, it should be indexed to inflation. Why should it be different from any other form of compensation, especially since we are talking about the most vulnerable amongst us."

Glenn, you are fabulous and deserve to be heard by all Albertans at the debate.  Thank you for your answer, you represent me and my values.

Have I pretty much bored everyone to death yet?

So far in my blogs I've discussed about government's inability to conceive, coalesce and carry through on a grand plan.  The insistent principle that civil servants absolutely have to be civil towards all Albertans they are expected to serve.  The unacceptable bribing of the most voters with our own money.  The transition from reliance upon resourced-based budgeting to moving to a more stable tax-based budgeting and building up a fund from resource income that grows and supports us into the future.

Do I expect people to read this?  Amazingly, people are reading these.  These are heavy, far reaching topics and a completely different vision of how government needs to be serving us.  These are some critical discussions about how to better serve Albertans now and into the future.  They are complex and integrated discussions, not capable of being ground down into a single soundbyte.

I don't expect my MLA to be able to read ever word and follow along with every thought in order to represent me.  I don't expect my MLA to go looking up historical natural gas pricing and royalty revenues for fun on a Monday evening.  I absolutely expect my MLA to be prepared to discuss them with me when I raise a concern or an idea.  I'll do the research so they don't have to, but they have to talk to me in order to benefit from my work.

We expect our leadership to be visionary, to be able to create a plan and follow through with it.  Instead we've suffered through lacklustre governments living off revenues from a single booming sector of our economy hoping the good times keep rolling in.  We really can do better than we have done in the past.  We need a better, more comprehensive, more transparent approach to our government.  We need to end the cynicism over our government and make individuals feel connected to the process.  We need to treat ALL Albertans fairly and equitably and stop making overt and offensive assumptions about our neighbours.

We elect representatives to the Legislature.  We do not elect political parties to the Legislature.  We need our representatives to actually represent us.  I know that's going to be utterly shocking to some current members of government.  Parties are a way of consolidating policy so that we can have these discussions, they are not meant to be dynasties and the the very root means of accomplishing policy.  Discussions are the key - we absolutely need to be having these kinds of discussions in the open, in public, in regular forums in each and every riding of the province.

How can my MLA represent me when my MLA will not talk with me?

That is a massive disconnect in our province.  When I'm bringing up complaints on how I've been treated by a public servant, I need to be listened to fairly and openly.  I'm raising up a major problem I'm experiencing and I absolutely require someone to give me a fair hearing and help me resolve it through a change in my approach or a change ranging to a change in a horrible law.

You know what I see as the biggest problem in Alberta politics right now?  To be heard you have to be an insider, otherwise you get written off as a wing nut not worth pursuing.

We are all Albertans.  We all deserve to be heard.  We all deserve to be listened to with fairness and an open mind without bias.  When we, as citizens, bring up a point of contention, that is the exact moment where we are trying to bring our concerns forward.  My experience has been that my concerns are brushed aside unless it's a concern that targets the votes of a targeted demographic.

Again, that's why I'm part of the Alberta Party.  Our target demographic is Albertans.  All of them.  We want to reach the people who feel so disconnected from government they no longer feel they have a reason to vote.  We want to reach the people who raise issues time after time and are told they don't matter.  We want to reach the people who feel they have a solution to a problem that exists for Albertans.

The Big Listen was more than a stunt, it was a commitment to have a genuine conversation with all Albertans and to carry forward and act upon the concerns of Albertans to make this province a better place.  The Big Listen was a commitment to have a different approach to citizens across the board.  The Big Listen was a commitment to have those conversations publicly, openly and to be accountable for how we represent ourselves - all of us as Albertans.

We are neither left nor right, we are not eggheads or hicks, we are Albertans.  We are regular people who want something better from our government.  We are people who go on BT Edmonton to make bacon and eggs.  We are a fresh wind in this province, responsive to you as a citizen.

I have complete faith the Glenn Taylor can represent me because he has spoken with me and listened to my concerns.  Making a delicious breakfast?  That's just the gravy you're going to get when you attract incredible neighbours who care.

There were several "Bests" of Costa Rica.

Best joke flying down:  "I don't think we're in Kansas any more."
Best befuddled moment: Meeting Juan Jose for the first time and getting our orientation.
Best bus driver ever: Juan Carlos
Best place to stay: Tortuguera
Best ocean: Both of them.  Honestly.
Best boat pilot:  Primo.
Best guy to make sure I get a good photo: Primo.
Best kindred spirit: Primo.
Best surprise of the trip:  This tweet.
Best volcano: Arenal.  Poas was fabulous, but Arenal was so impressive.
Best rainy day: Arenal Hanging Bridges.  Rain in the rain forest?  YES!
Best day of the trip:  Surfing at Tamarindo Beach.
Best shared moment:  Surfing at Tamarindo Beach.
Best person to travel with: My daughter.


There is one thing I've spoken about a little to close friends and confidants, but I feel the need to express myself in explicit terms here.

I fell in love in Costa Rica.  Honest to ghod, live long, true blue love forever more and never ending.  It was not the sort of thing I was expecting to have happen, but love, like so many of the best things in life, sneak up on you from behind and bash you over the head when you least expect it.

Perhaps it was the weather.  Perhaps it was the sunsets.  Perhaps it was the endless numbers of beautiful women.  Perhaps it was the moment of being away from my troubles and cares for just long enough that I could release my inhibitions.  Romance blooms in unexpected places and unimaginable ways.

Sure, I heard some of the snickers, a few of the jokes, but all that matters to me is I have found happiness.

Gallo pinto, where have you been all my life?

The first meal we had gallo pinto and I was hooked.  Upon breakfast we had gallo pinto and I thought to myself, "This is so different from what we had last night."  For lunch, we had gallo pinto and I thought it was extraordinary.  I think we had gallo pinto in some form for every meal.  If we didn't, I would have been most upset.

Soothing.  Filling.  Complimentary.  Delicious ever time.  I've been longing for gallo pinto ever since we came back.  The real thing.  Oh, sure, I've had rice and beans and sometimes I've made beans and rice, but it's just not the same.

This weekend, when the kids are here, I'm going to try some of the recipes I downloaded and try to make it properly.  I'm drooling already.  That's true love, the way it ought to be.

Fool me once, shame on me.  Fool me twice, shame on you.  Fool me twelve times, who's getting the blame this time?

When Alberta last went through a sea change in government, Alberta was a much different place.  We were primarily an agricultural economy, with energy revenues becoming more and more important to our well being.  I honestly don't know what life was under Social Credit.  I do know that in the mid 80's one of the most influential people of my childhood ran for Social Credit and got trounced soundly.

Make no mistake, we're experiencing great change right now.  Our attempts to diversify from a single resourced-based economy has shifted to a different single resourced-based economy.  For good or for worse, over the past forty years we have collectively failed to diversify our economy beyond one or two main pillars.

As our government demonstrated so clearly over the past few years, we have not been shown great foresight into the management of our resources. Government has failed to demonstrate even an understanding of the fundamental driver of our economy.

Natural gas was the engine behind Alberta's growth after the turn of the century.  Ask yourself the question honestly:  Do you understand pricing in the natural gas market?  How well do you remember historical natural gas pricing?  We lived on that boom for some ten years.  Today the price of natural gas is in the crapper (pun fully intended) and it's the oil sands that are the leading generator of economic growth.

Well, that's my understanding of the story.  To make sure I wasn't spouting complete and utter nonsense I decided that I'd first do a little of that "fact checking" that bloggers like me are so loathe to do.

I started off with Government of Alberta's Historical Royalty Data page.  Granted, I was looking specifically for a summary chart of historical natural gas royalty revenues.  I have no polite way to say this, I've just spent two hours going through the spreadsheet presenting revenues collected, and the very fascinating (also detailed, technical and extremely complicated) Natural Gas Royalty Report 2010, and I have more questions than answers.

Make no mistake whatsoever.  I am not a natural gas analyst and in absolutely no way do I consider myself expert enough to be able to give you a clear, cogent review after less than an evening of poking through the data.  I am, however, a scientist at heart and I feel very comfortable being able to sift through the data to gain an understanding of what the numbers mean.  It will take a lot of time, there's an awful lot there to digest.  This is not the sort of job you tackle on whimsey.  There is much there to understand, there is much there that is significant.  The longer I sifted through data the more trends I felt I was beginning to spot.

I am going to reiterate two extremely important points:
1) I am not an expert, I was simply trying to illustrate a point I was hoping to make
2) The more I looked into the detail the further I narrowed down my field of view.  There is so very much here to understand that I kept cutting back further and further.

In doing so I'm demonstrating a very different point than I originally was trying to make.  The royalty framework is complex.  Oil and gas revenues are dependent upon many factors, not simply how much of a given quantity of substance pulled from the ground.

Only the most foolhardy of governments would consider rushing headlong into massive changes in the structure without significant consultations with the people most affected by the changes.  Yet they did precisely that.  Do we have massive problems with minimally constrained growth?  Yes.  Do we need to significantly change how the province deals with municipalities?  Absolutely, yes.  (Everything I've heard about Fort McMurray is that they've severely suffered from unconstrained growth and lack of services, and yet it's consistently mentioned as a great place to live and work.  I find myself tempted, if my kids weren't here in Calgary.)  Are we getting fair value for our resources?  I honestly don't know.

This is a complex framework.  It developed over many, many years in response to fixing specific problems.  It's okay to tackle problems that arise from growth in our oil and gas sector.  But solutions need to be found that don't upset the entire balance of what we've been trying to accomplish.  Nobody is smarter than forty years of collective problem solving, nor is the royalty framework the be-all-and-end-all of Alberta's economy.  Some things need to be addressed slowly, carefully and with clarity and visibility of as many consequences as we can forecast.  Businesses need reliable, predictable data to work with planning five and ten year projects.  Government needs a stable, reliable source of revenue to provide services we demand.  The public - us, the people - need to have an honest understanding of the issues at play.

How confident do you feel about predicting natural gas prices?  If only for demonstrative purposes, this graphic shows vast variation in the historic price of natural gas.

Actual and forecast prices of natural gas in Alberta.  Source: www.gasalberta.com/pricing-market.htm  I strongly recommend taking a broader look at the data provided, it is very interesting and well presented.


Would you bet your home on getting your prediction correct?  That's precisely the volatility we face each and every year when we estimate our royalty revenues.  Low ball our prediction and have a good year for commodity prices and we get record surpluses.  Over-estimate prices and we can be in for a painful period where the government cries poor.

There's a fundamental idea I try to live by - or at least it's a goal of mine, if only I could catch up.  Live off the interest, don't live off the principal.  It's a fundamental shift in our thinking, but we need to stop relying on the volatile commodity market as the main source of our revenue.  Yes, we need to give up this silly notion that our taxes are the lowest in Canada.  Do we want bragging rights or do we want sound budgeting?  Ultimately, we're going to spend the same amount of money.  We need to ensure that the money comes from stable, predictable sources so that we can start making better predictions in our budgets.  We need to be clear and open about what our costs are and what our spending shall be.

This brings about a whole bunch of side benefits.

I.  Oil and natural gas are non-renewable resources.  We've been blessed with abundant supplies, but when they're gone, they're gone.  We may not even be able to extract and use or sell all we have available as environmental concerns drive the search for new sources of energy.  We have to take serious consideration of whether or not we are getting fair value in exchange for our resources.  We really need to take into consideration the costs of monitoring our environment, the inevitable future rise in commodity prices (the longer it sits, the more we're going to make from it - unless we can no longer sell it at all down the road for whatever reason), the heightened costs of extraction of non-conventional energy sources may make acquiring our resources more costly, failure to research better means of extraction now will make things much more costly down the road.  Not being dependent upon oil and gas as a primary driver frees us from the ups and downs of the market.

II.  Diversification of our economy has been something we've been warned to do for - well, for as long as I've ever been alive.  We need healthier choices in our economy.  At one point, Alberta was entirely reliant upon how our agriculture did, now it's become oil and gas revenues.  Breaking free from a single source of income and spreading it across several sectors of the economy means that when one aspect of our economy is tanking, we have another industry that can pick up the slack.  Albertans are bright and industrious people with fabulous ideas going forward.  Simply by becoming less reliant on petroleum revenues we do less squelching of other industries that get created, bloom and eventually move from Alberta.  Keep all the benefits of oil and gas revenue, reinvest them in ourselves for our own future.

III.  Inter-generational equity and fairness is going to increase significantly.  Do you know what my mother paid for tuition in the early 1980's at the same university I attended?  She paid just a little over $300 a semester, let's call it $700 annually as a full time undergraduate student.  In 2010-2011, we're looking at $5,238 according to the University of Calgary.  I can only imagine what my children are going to face.  A highly educated population is one of the strengths of Alberta.  Why would we endanger that when our education benefits us all?

Pollution left behind after resource extraction needs to be dealt with.  It is better to deal with cleanup immediately subsequent to extraction and not years or generations afterwards.  Lynnwood Ridge is a cost that my generation has to bear, I want to be as sure as possible I'm not leaving similar messes for my children.  Putting aside a pool of money that was generated from oil and gas revenues is a more ethical, more proactive, more reasonable means to pay for those future costs when they arise.  If we caught them all when they happened, there's more in the pool for Albertans in the future.  If we miss one or two, we're not dumping the burden of the cost onto our children.

I honestly believe this was the goal of the Heritage Savings Trust Fund.  Norway started their Government Pension Fund in 1990 - fourteen years after we created the HSTF and, ironically, three years after we stopped adding revenues to it.  They have done spectacularly well and I would so much rather have problems of deciding ethical investments and spending the interest than the problems of catching up with overheated growth and community need that we have in Alberta.  We could have been significantly ahead of Norway instead of where we are today.  Our government has not leveraged our resources well.

So today, in the midst of an election, we are being wooed by big promises about how to spend our own wealth.  These are the very same people who have ignored what saving for the future can generate and sound principals of budgeting.  I am categorically not willing to trust anyone throwing around big election promises to be fiscally responsible into the future.

Want to be small-c conservative?  Act the part and do it right now during the election.  It's pretty shameful to have big spending thrown around without metrics and standards laid out ahead of time.  That is not accountability, that's just electioneering in the old vein.  Being fiscally accountable is a very large reason of why I'm a member of the Alberta Party and why the left / right tar brushing does not wash for me.

Alberta's non-renewable resources are burned once and then they're gone.  Remember how this post started?

My trust in the government's ability to budget has been burned up and expended.  My trust in the government's ability to present open and transparent data from which we can get an honest and sound financial picture is gone as well.

There's only so many times we can be fooled until the political capital has been used up.  It's time for something better, more forward thinking, more open, more transparent, and much more accountable to Albertans.

Next up:  Represent me, really me.

Mom loved travel.  She loved meeting people in her travels.  I'm much more shy than her, she'd be openly stepping forward, saying hello, talking about shared interests and being her gregarious self.

I really liked Costa Rica and the people I travelled with were all incredible.  I feel a little strange since my daughter and I tended to sit by ourselves more than I would have chosen in retrospect.

One of my best social moments of the trip was when we were riding up the escalator in Houston about to go through screening and some of the kids from our tour spotted us and waved goodbye furiously.  I'm sure I was waving back with an equally huge grin on my face.  What a great way to end the trip, eh?

I find that one of the best things about meeting new people is they teach me so much about old friends.

I view my relationships in the light of new details.  I discover more interesting aspects about people I may have glossed over.  In the process I learn things about myself and who I am as a person.  Meeting new friends, being open to new experiences makes one capable of personal growth.  For a shy guy, that's a remarkable discovery.

So one of the things Mom picked up on after one of her trips - upon reflection it's quite likely to have been her trip to Costa Rica - was a newly discovered love of bird watching.  We were driving to the mountains for a picnic with my kids when she was excitedly pointing out a couple of birds on fence posts beside the road.

"Yeah, it's a couple of hawks."

"That one's a Red Tailed Hawk, and the other is a Swainsons Hawk.  Look, they're side by side!"

To this day I have no idea if that's a big deal or not.

For the life of me, I don't know if she actually knew which of the birds soaring way above us were Golden Eagles and which were Bald Eagles, but she was sure excited to point out the Bald Eagles to me.

Maybe it's too much taxonomy in school and never really being good at identifying species.  Maybe it's just a general hatred of being pigeon holed.  But I'm happy enough to see the bird, I don't feel like I have to know it's name, rank and serial number.

Those people that go chasing around the world to find a rare species of bird and add it to their catalog of birds spotted -- well, I suppose there are worse hobbies to have.  But I don't get it, it's not really for me.  I remember hearing a story where they were called "twitchers," just being close to a bird they've never seen before sends them into apoplectic fits to log the find.  I giggle every time I picture it in my mind's eye.

Until we were taking the boat to Tortuguero.  By luck, one of the birding enthusiasts sat behind my daughter and I.  "See over there?  That's an egret.  But just to the right, that's an immature blue heron."

Damn her.  She just activated the scientific part of my mind.  Immature blue herons appear white, they get their characteristic blue colour from eating shellfish, don't they?  Or am I mixing that up with something else?  Well, that's part of the reason I have the binoculars and the camera, so let's start figuring this out and learning something while I'm down here.

The next day we were taking boat tours up and down the river looking for wildlife.  I saw Phyllis in the middle boat and whispered to my daughter to get into that one.  A few minutes later Sarah came up and asked if she could get in too.  Awesome, you two are one of the reasons I chose that boat.  It was great to be out looking for wildlife, it was doubly good to be with the guys that brought us up the river in the first place, it was glorious to be with the 'serious birders'.  I knew we were going to spot a lot along the way and I just knew that I'd be actually learning while we went, not just a "hey look at that one over there."

The next two days were my favourite of the trip.  Spotting the wildlife was fantastic.  If you look through my pictures you'll realize that I tried really hard to capture what I could.  I was so excited to see what was there.  There are a few things I'll need to point out for you to spot.

First, if you look carefully at what I took photos of, you'll be able to notice that I got more and more selective in my shots.  Early in the trip I shot a bunch of birds side by side.  Wide shots with multiple birds became unacceptable very quickly.  I needed close ups of one bird early on.  That was for two reasons - usually so I could look it up and identify it later and so I could remember the story of when I took that photo.  Just about all of the photos have a story behind them - if they didn't I tend not to open the shutter!

The next thing about my photos you'll notice is that I took less replicative photos as the trip went on.  For instance, I took an awful lot of photos of anhingas early on, and then less so as the tour went on.  Part of that is getting better with recognizing species of birds and remembering that I'd already seen one of those, I didn't need another photo.

Third, when I did take another photo of an Anhinga later, it was to show something amazing.  I took that photo because I saw a a female atop a branch or a male drying his feathers.  This was from learning about the birds, from feeling more comfortable with taking shots, and from feeling more trust that I was going to be able to learn from Sarah and Phyllis about what I was seeing and they'd point out great moments I could shoot.

While we were staying in Fortuna near the Arenal Volcano, I woke up early just before sunrise.  I went out on the balcony - partially to not wake my daughter and partially to enjoy the lovely weather - and heard bird calls.  I snuck back into the room, grabbed my binoculars, and slipped through the sliding door again, peering through the dim light to spot what I could see.  Minutes later I snuck back into the room, pulled my camera out of my bag, and snuck back to the balcony to start taking photos of the dozens of birds that I was seeing.

An all-green parrot-like bird, yellow rings around its eyes, a red protrusion on it's beak.  Yellow and black birds, almost a skull cap over it's head.  My second and third hummingbirds spotted!  Soon it was mayhem, trying to see new birds, new things, hopefully get them on camera.

Oh.  My.  Ghod.

I have fallen.  I have become...  A birder.

I think Sarah and Phyllis were sitting together, talking with each other at breakfast.  I felt too embarrassed to interrupt with my horrible realization.

Right then I suddenly understood something significant.  Quite possibly one of the most important lessons of the trip.  I finally understood just why Mom had seemingly become a birder overnight after she had been on a trip.  It's addictive, it's interesting.  The birds are so showy, it's so exciting to see something that's new.  Even when you see a species you've seen before, you begin looking for behaviours and actions that help you understand why it lives the way it does.  I understood a little more about the world around me.

I understood a little more about my Mom.

For the remainder of the trip, I imagined my Mom wedging herself in with the "serious birders" and having endless conversations.  I imagined her talking about when she saw a Quetzal, giving tips on how to see them, learning from Sarah how to be a better spotter.  I can say without hesitation that Sarah and Phyllis would have been great friends with Mom.  They were great friends to me.  Through them I learned a little bit more about who my mother was.

Mom would have been ecstatic to have taken the picture of the butterfly on Clara's arm.  So was I.  Mom would have loved to chat with the guys looking over the ox carts.  She would have adored spending time talking with the families, feeling energized from the kids, interested in the parents, share tales with the grandparents.  She would have loved telling stories of Winnipeg with Giselle and JP.

The trip was about loving Costa Rica.  But also about loving the people we shared it with.  This is my thanks to all of you.  You taught me much about Mom and me, about my daughter and me, about Mom and my daughter.

Oh, and yesterday I spotted a couple of magpies playing in the snow, and a swarm of chickadees, and a V of Canada geese...