30 Second Summary of the Alberta Election Thus Far

As we find ourselves passing the half-way point of the provincial election you have no doubt noticed I have pretty much been entirely silent during thus far. While I could blame my seemingly abandoned blog on the fact I was in Asia for the first third of the writ period, or the fact I’m still mad Premier Stelmach hasn’t apologised for calling an election while I was out of the country, or that I’m in the middle of packing for our upcoming move, I won’t. No, I won’t. Instead I blame it almost entirely on the fact there has been little if anything worth talking about. (That and I’m lazy.)

In that spirit I offer you here, my thirty second summary of what’s happened up to this point in the election:

• Ed Stelmach sounds like Woody Allen trying to make a quick decision each and every time he speaks. This is frustrating the majority of PC voters, members and candidates.
• Kevin Taft can make all the policy announcements he likes but people still aren’t saying they will vote for him or his party.
• Brian Mason and the NDP are struggling to be remembered.
• People have no idea who George Read is but a small number of Albertans will vote for the Green Party anyway.
• The Wildrose Alliance have yet to earn any of my allotted 30 seconds.

There you go. What else do you need to know? Did I really need to be blogging daily to give you more details? If you want more details however, I am back and will begin weighing in again. In my absence I give kudos to the following blogs for doing a great job keeping everyone informed.

From the right: Alberta Tory, Ken Chapman

Somewhere in the middle with me: The Enlightened Savage

From the left: Calgary Grit, Daveberta

Some newbies: Alberta: Get Rich or Die Trying, Four Strong Winds

General coverage: Alberta Election 2008

If you know of other blogs that are doing a great job covering the election please feel free to post them below for everyone to visit.

Have a good cry. It'll be alright.

Thanks for trying everyone! But we didn't quite have enough to push us into the top five of any category at the 2007 Canadian Blog Awards. Even a last minute push of readers from The Enlightened Savage urging them to vote for my candidate for best blog post couldn't put us high enough.

I've taken this devastating news as best as I can and "cried it out" for a couple hours. I hope you too, dear reader, will be okay and are capable of moving onward with me.

Maybe next year, as they say.

Whatever, as I say.

Some of my daily reads are still in the running however. Voting on round 2 begins on Wednesday so please, please, go and give them your support.

Best Blog
Daveberta.ca
Mike’s Bloggity Blog Blob

Best Blogosphere Citizen
Dave Cournoyer of Daveberta

Best Blog Post
Mike’s Bloggity Blog Blob: What’s the male of Feminism?

Best Political Blog
Calgary Grit
Daveberta.ca

Best progressive Blog
Calgary Grit
Daveberta.ca

Best Humour Blog
Mike’s Bloggity Blog Blob

Best Entertainment/Cultural Blog
Mike’s Bloggity Blog Blob

Best Media/Celebrity Blog
Michael Morrison

A full list of nominees can be found here. Good luck to you all.

Even though I hate you all for being better than me. You suck... sniff...

A lawyer mountain out of a domain name mole hill

This is just so darn silly I can't believe it is actually happening.

Let's say for a second you made a mistake. A mistake that you know was a mistake. A mistake someone picked up on; a mistake that they could exploit to hurt your reputation. They're not doing that yet but you don't really trust them not to. They don't really like you - you're not BFF - but they are not a hater or anything like that. As a matter of fact you don't really know them. You've just heard of them.

Now what would you say if there were an opportunity for you fix things by admitting to your mistake and asking politely if this other person would help you correct it.

Would you do it?

Or would you do what Ed Stelmach did and skip asking politely and instead ask your lawyers to go ahead and sue the debt ridden 24-year old student who noticed your mistake first?

Whether you think that "Daveberta" registering edstelmach.ca on a whim and pointing it to his personal blog (and later the Wikipedia article on Harry Strom) was right or wrong (the latter I think is frickin' hi-lar-i-ous) I hope we can all agree that Stelmach's lawyers jumped the gun more than a little fast here.

If you haven't already heard all about the mountain out of a mole hill you can read the full story on Dave's blog, on the front page of the Herald, or on CBC. You can read a full PDF version of the letter from Stelmach's lawyers here. BTW, I understand the lawyer who sent the letter - Tyler S. Shando - is on the executive of the Alberta PC party. (I'm not sure if that means anything though.)

Something tells me this is going to hurt Stelmach as much, if not more, than Dave Cournoyer.

As I always said when I stage managed theatre: people rarely notice your first mistake; they almost always notice your second - trying to fix it and save face. You're almost always better to just let things go and not make any more mistakes.