Calgary Glenmore Liberals stick with Avalon (Also-Ran) Roberts...

The Calgary Glenmore Liberals have once again decided to go with constant loser Dr. Avalon Roberts as their candidate in the pending By-Election. Losing this race was Cory Hogan, a young liberal activist. I see that Cory's website already re-directs to info on Calgary Glenmore. It looks live even Avalon is surprised by the win, as she does not have her website set up. Oh those 60-something liberal candidates....its hard to stay up with all this interweb stuff!

For a "live" blog update on the nomination meeting, check out this link by Matthew Naylor.

Now, although I do not support the liberal party, I commend Cory Hogan for stepping up to the plate and putting his name forward. I grew up in Calgary Glenmore and I am just a few years older than Mr. Hogan, so I am pleased to see people my age engaged in the political process. This is probably a good thing for Cory's young political career, as this riding is not ready for a liberal switch.

I am not sure why the Liberals want to go back to a constant "also-ran" in Dr. Avalon Roberts? She has lost this riding once in a Federal Election and Twice to the PC's in the 2004 and 2008 elections. Seriously, why go back with the same old tired candidate? Perhaps the party has bigger plans for Cory and wanted to avoid his destruction at the polls this time?

Now, we just need to get the WRAP nomination complete. I love the new Radio Ad's targeting Calgary Glenmore...the tag line of "Send Ed a Message" is pretty powerful stuff.


Anyways, it will be an interesting summer.

Iris Evans, Contests and Latchkey Kids...

I was disappointed to read the comments made by Alberta Finance Minister Iris Evans this week. As a PC supporter, I tend to just grit my teeth and occasionally roll my eyes at these gaffes, but these comments really got to me. My wife (who would rather stick pencils in her eyes than talk politics) was so furious about these comments that I knew I had to post something about it. As a child of a two working parents, she found the comments by Iris Evans highly offensive.

The debate is out there and people are talking about it already. To me, the bottom line is this...

• What do these PRIVATE, PERSONAL Family decisions have to with the FINANCE PORTFOLIO?
• Perhaps if Alberta had a better tax structure and incentive program, many parents would choose to stay home with their kids. Again, if they chose to. Each family is different.

Now, I know that Mrs. Evans is 67 years old and comes from a different time and set of ECONOMIC realities, but her comments are flawed. It is a reality that most parents have to both go to work to support their family. Mrs. Evans had the luxury of gaining extra income from being a "PROFESSIONAL CONTEST ENTERER" (hmmm..is that a real word?) as a young mother. Not all Albertans will have such a wonderful second income stream.

What really worries me here is that episodes like this just lead most of the public to believe that the PC party is out of touch with regular Albertans. And that my friends is a dangerous thing.

I would hope that going forward, the Party will spend more time trying to BALANCE its own budget before interfering in Albertans personal lives.

Concrete Equities? Not so great after all...( and how I dodged that bullet!)

Is that not a nasty, nasty picture and sign? It is pretty powerful stuff...

In the spring of 2008, flush with some extra cash from a better than average work year, I started looking at some alternatives for my RRSP. Now, I had been investing in mutual funds since I was 20, but thought it was time to branch out a little bit more. Knowing that I needed to put the money away (for tax reasons mostly, as I have 25+ years until retirement) it was just a matter of WHERE/WHAT I was going to do with it.

After a bit of research, I started looking at these private real estate investment plays. I looked at Platinum Equities, Genesis Land Development, FRPL ( Fairmount) and a Concrete Equities. Most of them were not really my thing, but I was intrigued by Concrete Equities. After all, I had heard their daily radio and TV ads. Also, they are the main sponsor on CBC's Dragons Den ( A favorite of mine) so I thought I would meet with one of their reps to see what they had to say.

The meeting was average at best and the rep ( who was a VP) did not seem to like all of my questions. I think he was insulted that I actually knew what I was talking about, which was my 1st clue to get the heck out of there.

The whole Concrete Equities plan is ridiculous in my opinion... In a nutshell it works like this:

• Concrete buys a building for say $10MM ( Market value is $10MM)
• Concrete buys TV/Radio Ads and becomes a big corporate sponsor, in an effort to LEGITIMIZE their company.
• Concrete sells partnership units, in $10,000 increments to hundreds/thousands of "investors"/marks.
• Concrete Promises 75-94% returns in 5 years (varies per property), by re-mortgaging the $10MM property (say at $13MM) and handing out the refinanced funds.
• Bottom Line...they use your money to pay the mortgage in the meantime.

Some further research showed me that one of the senior partners had some problems with an Alberta Real Estate licensing board. The biggest turn off for me was when I found out that the CEO of this company was Dave Jones. Now I have been hearing Dave Jones WealthStreet Wealth Watch reports for a few years on QR77 ( which is an advertisement, pretending to be the news.) and everytime I hear him, I puke a little in my throat.

Dave Jones's wealth must rival that of Warren Buffet's, because he always seems to have picked the winning stocks for the day. ( After the market closes of course...) Perhaps he borrowed Doc's DeLorean and brought back some stock reports? Its all smoke and mirrors. This Jones chap is not a stockbroker, he is an "alternative" investment dealer. ( Ie. Not Stocks, Not Bonds, Not Mutual Funds...perhaps a ATM syndicate or in pop bottle empties?) Lately, it appears Dave's biggest job as CEO was to push the Concrete Equity property syndications.

Well, it looks like the house of cards has fallen. Concrete Equities has been in the news as of late as some of their partners are feeling duped!

If you want a really interesting take on all of this, from an Inside shareholder, check out the link here. Pretty excellent blogging on this matter!

Now, although I appear bitter at Concrete/Jones, I am NOT an INVESTOR...thankfully. I had reviewed all of their info/contracts and talked to my Father-in-law, who is the Buffet in my family about what I should do? He told me to stay away from these things and set up a Self Directed Stock account, which I did. Maybe the stock market had fallen and some investments are down 25%, but I tell you... its better than losing $10-20k with Concrete (crumbling) Equities!

Thanks Pops! I owe you a beer....

Update- 8/13/09- Follow up post located here.

Alberta Political Parties love using blogs for information!

As per my previous post, I was pleased to see that the Windsor Star quoted from my rant about George Dadamo. This was an interesting example of how the MSM uses the blogosphere for information and research.

I was also surprised when I received a email pointing me to a link on the net, highlighting an Alberta Liberal Party document from May 20/2009. This pdf document highlights the days news stories and key events etc. (Its called "Clippings"...but at 108 pages, its quite comprehensive.) I tried to do a search on the Alberta Liberal Party website to see if they list all of their archives for this type of document, but I cannot seem to find the pathway? (Maybe I am just not that computer literate?)

Anyways, I noted that throughout the 108 Page summary, the Liberal Party has included many different blog postings from local blogger's. The blogger's listed include Ken Chapman, WRAP Blogger Travis Chase and myself. I would assume that this likely occurs on a daily basis and that the communications team trolls the local blogs for daily inputs into the quickscan document.

While a quick look at the sitemeter stats often show references to the different Alberta Political Parties visiting my site, I now know for sure that they actually read and share the information that we post on our blogs! ( I had always assumed this anyways...)

As an aside, I have also noticed that all party's and many MLA's have Twitter and Facebook accounts, which I think they use to get a general sense of whats really going on in Alberta. ( Or, to push their message out...lol.) I find it interesting that there is such a shift in the flow of information between the elected officials and the people. ( Look at the "live tweeting" during the Bill 44 Marathon) This was unimaginable 5 years ago!

Now, if only they would all follow through with some of our ideas and comments!

Calgary City Council Report Card receives a passing grade.

Yesterday a coalition of business lobbyists released their mid-term report card on Calgary City Council. The report was based specifically on business related issued and rated the City Councillors and the Mayor on their performance. Seeing that half of council received a FAILING GRADE, those with losing marks cried foul with the report. ( Naturally...)

I was pleased (and not surprised at all) to see that my Alderman, Ric McIver received the highest grade! A++. Ric has always been a voice for lower taxes and creating a friendlier business environment in Calgary. I am sure that this A+ ranking is driving Bronco crazy! Also, it appears that "D" student Gord Lowe took a shot at Ric yesterday by stating "If you never propose, you only oppose, you get a higher mark." Perhaps this is in reference to Ric's
Dr. No nickname?

At the bottom of the scale, Sugarplum & Fairies Alderman Druh Farrell received a justifiable F grade. If this report card was based on $25 Million pedestrian bridges or closing down Memorial Drive on Sunday's , I am sure she would receive an A+. ( I have heard rumours that she is considering a run for mayor...can you imagine that?)

I know the detractors ( ie. supporters of those who failed this report) will say that this report is biased or unfair, but each and every Alderman was tested the same way. I am sure Bronco, Pincott and Hawksworth will ask the Liberal/NDP establishment to commission their own fairy tale report soon. Trust me gentlemen, it looks like you will need any good press you can create heading into the next election!

Ric McIver for Mayor in 2010? Lets hope so...

Just for Fun...WAP Leadership Race via Social Network Stats!

Just for fun on a lazy Sunday morning...

While two candidates have come forward in the Wildrose Alliance Party leadership race, I am going to save commentary on each until all of the candidates have come forward. That said, I have been following both Danielle Smith's and Mark Dyrholm's web presence with interest. Here are my thoughts...

Websites:

• Danielle's website is clean, bright, crisp and visually appealing. It is easy to navigate and simple but highly effective.
• Mark's website is good, but it has the PGIB/Chandler NASCAR advertising style, which may turn some people off. It is not as easy to read and forces you to read long winded letters of endorsement, with a few website links from those endorsing him. Hmmm...
  

Now, just for fun...( don't read too much into it) lets look at the Social Media following of each leadership hopeful....

Danielle Smith

• Facebook: 140 Followers.
• Twitter: 696 Followers

Mark Dyrholm

• Facebook: 58 followers
• Twitter: 90 Followers

Edge: Danielle Smith by a mile.

Now, It looks like Craig Chandler and his PGIB crew were a little slow getting the Dyrholm website up and twitter account up and running, so this may be the reason for the "gap" here. Perhaps it may also be a demographic issue, as older people generally do not use Facebook or Twitter?

Anyways...I just figured this would add some mindless banter! Time to grab another coffee...

Thanks Premier Stelmach!

I had the chance to attend a breakfast last week hosted by Calgary NW PC Association, with Premier Ed Stelmach as the guest speaker. While I have only attended a few events like this, I was surprised that the room was booked solid and sold out. ( Calgary Chamber of Commerce)

I was also surprised when the Premier came over to say hello to me, even though there were 100+ people mingling and trying to get some face time with him. Now, I am a nobody and he did not know me, but I was impressed that he took the time to spend a few minutes listening to what I had to say. Some will say that this is typical "political schmooze" common at these events, but I must say that our Premier definitely has a different vibe about him.

In my opinion, the man is as genuine as they come. I know that he is not as flashy as Mr.Klein and I think his low key approach is often a source of attack from his opponents, but I find his honesty kind of refreshing.

Most people realize that I am a PC volunteer and supporter. Do I agree with everything the government is doing? The answer is no. Do I think that they made a lot of mistakes over the past year? Yes. Do I still believe that they are going in the right direction and are the best party to lead the province? Absolutely.

I know for a fact that many PC supporters are frustrated with this government and are starting to look at some other conservative alternatives. I hope that these people will use their energy to enhance the PC party and bring about a change within their own party. Given my brief encounter last week, I believe that Premier Stelmach would encourage this kind of discussion.


Happy Weekend!

Shane