:eek: Oh, yes it is!
Actually… I think that’s pretty much exactly right. A number of people I know would also have been happy with a minority govt, which would presumably preclude some of the wild suppositions floating around right now with the NDP majority.
I don’t know why you’re so hung up about Mason having driven a bus. As far as I can tell, he stopped driving a bus back in 1989, and has been elected to both municipal and provincial seats since then.
Fortunately, by the time the next election rolls around, the NDP will be the most experienced at the task, so we’ll have to vote for them forever. 
Considering that only two sitting Vice-Presidents have been elected since the passage of the 12th Amendment, if that’s the strategy of two-term presidents, it hasn’t been very effective.
you’re assuming that Obama’s goal was to choose his successor and failed. That’s never been my impression of why he chose Biden: it was because Biden had experience that Obama, a one-term Senator, did not have.
That impression is supported by the wiki article on Biden, citing a New York Times article:
Isn’t that largely true, though? The party’s agenda is set by the leadership, and the members support it or get driven out, as I understand the system.
If you’re referring to constituent services, at least in the States, those are handled by the more-or-less permanent staff usually, not the Congress member.
No, I think you’re confused about what you said.
Well then, a majority of your fellow citizens thought otherwise. That’s democracy for you.
Depends on the responsibilities. If it’s basically to always vote at their party’s call, then that doesn’t take much competence. If it’s passing on the party’s agenda to the permanent staff, that takes primarily people skills - of the type needed to get elected in the first place. And, if the alternative is someone with many years of experience in corruption, as you have acknowledged is generally the case with your guys, then it isn’t a hard decision at all.
Nor was he an elected official. Nor, for that matter, was he atypical of the appointments made by a President whose election you wholeheartedly acclaimed, despite his own dangerous inexperience, qualified only by his party affiliation. So, no crocodile tears on that point, please.
One point to consider in this discussion is that Cabinet ministers in a parliamentary system are not meant to bring expertise, unlike Cabinet ministers in a Presidential/Congressional system. They’re meant to bring good judgment and political smarts.
I once heard former premier Alan Blakeney being interviewed on this point, and he said he would never make a doctor the Minister of Health. The interviewer asked why not, since a doctor has expertise in health care?
Blakeney’s response was that while a doctor has expertise in health care, it’s an expertise from the perspective of the doctors, not from the patients’ perspective, nor from the perspective of other participants in the health care system, such as the nurses, or the hospital administrators. He wanted a Minister of Health who would try to balance competing interests within the health care system, not approach it always from a particular perspective.
You keep pushing driving a bus as Brian Mason’s crowning achievement. Let’s list a few other things he’s done during his life which may affect his ability to be Transportation Minister.
- Studied Political Science in university, where he served as a director for the Federation of Alberta Students.
- Edmonton city council from 1989-2000.
- MP from 2000 onward.
- Leader of the provincial NDP from 2004 to 2014.
- Although it’s not his own achievement, he comes from a highly political background. His mom, dad and grandfather were all involved in politics.
So maybe having a class 1 license isn’t what scored him this sweet political gig after all.
Wow. The guy has been in politics for the last 25 damn years and you’re harping him on being a bus driver. Pretty disingenuous Sam Stone. Pretty low.
Here’s Sam’s description of the Cabinet members:
I have a slightly different take on their qualifications.
Minister of Transport: already dealt with by Stately Greek Automaton.
Minister of Finance: Joe Ceci - has earned a Bachelor of Social Work from University of Western Ontario, and a Masters in Social Work from University of Calgary. Worked as a social worker for 15 years in Calgary. Served on Calgary City Council for 15 years, from 1995 to 2010.While on Council, was a founding member of community safety councils in Inglewood-Ramsay and Forest Lawn.
My comments: someone who holds two university degrees has something on the ball academically, and someone who has spent 15 years working as a social worker has seen an awful lot of “real life” experiences. Fifteen years on the Council for Alberta’s biggest city is a pretty good training ground for provincial government.
Minister of Energy: Marg McCuaig Boyd - Bachelor Education from University of Alberta, and a Master’s Degree in administration and leadership from San Diego State University. Teacher and administrator in the Peace River School Division for 20 years, then vice president at the Fairview Campus of Grande Prairie Regional College. In 2013, opened her own consulting business.
My comments: again, someone with two academic degrees, one at the Master’s level, suggests she’s no slouch, either intellectually or in terms of able to work. Real life experience from the school system, plus some administrative background.
Minister of Justice: Kathleen Ganley - Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy and a Juris Doctor from the University of Calgary. Silver medallion in Philosophy, graduated top of her class in law school. Clerked for the Provincial Court of Alberta. Lawyer with the firm McGown Johnson, specializing in labour and employment law.
My comments: Three university degrees, one at the post-grad level; impressive academic credentials; practising lawyer; not simply a “union legal rep”, which is usually used to mean someone within the union who does not have legal training.
Minister of Health: Sarah Hoffman - Masters Degree in Educational policy (which presupposes a Bachelor’s degree, I assume in Education); Trustee and Chair of the Edmonton Public School Board, 2012-2015; while on the Board, worked to develop policies to make schools more welcoming for GLBTQ.
My comments: two university degrees, one at post-grad level; Chair of one of the largest school divisions in the province (not a mere “official” as Sam describes her; experience on local government boards, such as education boards, is a well-recognized pathway to provincial politics.
Minister of Innovation and Advanced Education, and Minister of Jobs: Lori Sigurdson - Bachelor of Arts Degree in political science from the University of
Alberta, Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work from the University of Calgary. Has taught at the University of Calgary, MacEwan University and Norquest College. Worked as a social worker for 20 years; served as vice president of Public Interest Alberta and manager of professional affairs for the Alberta College
of Social Work.
My comments: three university degrees, one at the post-grad level; 20 years of experience with people in crisis, which is about as real as it gets; academic and some administrative background.
This post is getting long and I don’t want it to get eaten by hamsters, so I’ll post it now and continue with the next half of the Cabinet.
Minister of Agriculture: Oneil Carlier - worked for twenty years with Agriculture Canada as a geotechnical technician, apparently in the quality control area; active in PSAC, the federal union; represented federal employees in grievances under the collective agreement.
My comments: doesn’t appear to have the academic credentials of some of his colleagues; 20 years work experience.
Minister of Environment: Shannon Phillips - Master’s Degree in political science from University of Alberta, which presupposes a Bachelor’s degree; worked as a journalist and a consultant prior to position as policy analyst with Alberta Federation of Labour.
My comments: two degrees, not one, as Sam suggests, and some work other than the policy analyst position, contrary to Sam’s comment.
Minister of Municipal Affairs: Deron Bilous - teacher; three years experience in the Legislature, having been elected in 2012.
My comments: young, only five years in the workforce; some experience in the Assembly, but from the Opposition side.
Minister of Education: David Eggen - Bachelor of Education degree from University of Alberta; taught in Zimbabwe for three years, and also served as an educational consultant to the Wat Dhammamongkol Temple in Bangkok, Thailand. Fourteen years’ experience teaching in the Edmonton public schools. Served in the Alberta Legislature from 2004 to 2008; defeated in the 2008 election; re-elected in the 2012 and 2015 elections.
My comments: interesting work experience; steady experience as a teacher; brings seven years’ experience in the Assembly.
Overall, I would say that they’re a well-educated bunch; only one appears not to have a university degree, and several have two or three.
One comment is that some of them are pretty young and don’t have a lot of work experience; I agree with Sam that more experience would be beneficial in a Cabinet position.
However, Sam for whatever reason seems pretty dismissive of teachers and social workers as a profession. I disagree. In my opinion, the type of work that many of them have done in the fields of social work and teaching gives them real life experience about the problems and crises that ordinary people face in their lives, which I think brings something to the table.
Certainly the Cabinet is young and tilted to that type of occupation, but what would you expect from an NDP Cabinet, that just knocked off a 44 year dynasty?
There was one other point I wanted to make: the reason I emphasised university degrees in this summary is that ministers have to read and understand the briefings from their ministries on complex issues. Strong academic credentials and experience should be of value in that exercise. The newbie ministers have to master their briefing books and be prepared for what are essentially daily oral exams in Question Period.
They also have the civil service to help them out, the silent partners who do the heavy lifting behind the scenes. They stay intact when the government changes. Rachel’s kids will be a lot less helpless than one might think, and they’ll finally have access to the books—the ones that haven’t been shredded yet anyway.
I’d just like to say, Thanks to Northern Piper for the research, and a big raspberry to Sam Stone for his disingenuous (at best) bit of partisan hackery.
I hope you’re proud of yourself Sam Stone.
To add…
Sam sounds like he’d be right at home in some of the online newspaper comment sites. Generally people are fine, but there is a significant minority whose heads are exploding.
I’ve already seen:
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Someone complaining that the Alberta NDP are adding thousands of dollars of debt PER DAY, and they have done NOTHING about it. This was one day after they were sworn in. He was dead serious.
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The usual "SOCIALISTS! THEY ARE CLIMBING OUT FROM UNDER MY BED!
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A guy who just said it was clear and obvious that the NDP were evil socialist commie scum, and if you didn’t agree you were a moron, idiot, fool etc. Over and over and over.
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People claiming that simply be re-examining the resource royalties, the province would be doomed forevermore, and every single oil company would be leaving, (and presumably they would salt the oil fields or something on the way out)
-My favourite, which was a guy who claimed that the day after the election, he started to move his company out of Alberta. His 22,000 person company. Which paid on average $70,000 per employee. Riiiiight.
Even the oil execs admit the sky may not be falling after all, and that the new premier is actually more “collaborative.”
http://www.financialpost.com/m/wp/blog.html?b=business.financialpost.com//news/energy/oil-execs-say-notley-more-collaborative-than-previous-conservative-government-in-tackling-royalties
I"m sure I’ll hear the following on the Newspaper comment section soon:
But but but… that’s impossible, because socialism!
Kudos, indeed, to Northern Piper for doing the legwork on the new Cabinet. Many thanks.
I would encourage the Albertans who just can’t abide the NDP to come south of the border. They have nothing to lose but the Crown, their state-supported health insurance, their relative level of representation and influence, their self-respect, and … cheap sugar & maple syrup?
And don’t forget all that snow in winter.