Re: "Hiring more nurses is a cause for celebration," by Dr. Stephen Duckett, Opinion, Edmonton Journal, July 31.

Stephen Duckett should leave the partisanship to the politicians. Rather than singling out the Alberta Liberals and trying to dismiss them for exposing his, and the Department of Health and Wellness's, poor decision-making and their "on again, off again" management style, Duckett should instead focus on his job -- to deliver better patient outcomes and enhance the efficiency of the system, not jump to the defence of a government that is notorious for its poor planning.

With the release of Alberta's 2009/10 Electoral Boundaries Commission Interim Report, it looks like the commission adopted some of the recommendations I made in my written submission to them but not all:

1. I advocated the creation of a new constituency to encompass all of Edmonton's south west and for it to be called Edmonton South West.  The Commission sort of agreed and followed, pretty much, my suggested map but kept the name Edmonton-McClung for this electoral district.

The 2010 provincial budget, announced on Tuesday, put Alberta more in the red (a record $4.7 billion deficit and the erasure of almost all money saved in the sustainability fund over the next 2-3 years).  The Tory government and some pundits and media people call it a balancing act to try to appease or silence critics on both sides of the spectrum, those who want government to spend less and those who want it to spend more.

Despite my respect for Preston Manning and his past contributions to Canadian politics, I think he erred when he decided to limit participation in his "Conference on Alberta's Future" to the PC and WA parties solely.  May be he wanted to promote the Wildrose Alliance or to allow some of his disciples to network and gain exposure before some of them run for either party - no one knows!

Much has been said about the "rise" of the Wildrose Alliance and especially with the defection of two sitting PC MLAs. My reaction is simply this - using a retial example: if you're unhappy with Zellers, you don't go to the Bay, you take your business to a different store.  Zellers and the Bay are one and the same company.  Progressive Conservatives and Wildrosers are more alike than different.

December 21st, 2009

Dear Mr. Xiao,

With respect to your Fall/Winter 09 newsletter and specifically on page 4 (On Topic), I read with keen interest the Hansard transcripts you provided for your oral question, reported to have been asked on November 17th, 2009, and your private member statement, which you read on November 23rd. On November 17th, Hansard actually shows Dr. Raj Sherman, MLA for Edmonton-Meadowlark, asking about burying the proposed Heartland transmission lines. Your questions which, admittedly, very closely mimicked Sherman's, came on November 19, not 17.

Anyhow, you are absolutely right of course that this issue is causing many McClung residents and families a lot of anxiety and stress, so thank you for repeating its mention in the Assembly.

Of particular interest, however, is your second supplementary question and the answer given by Energy Minister Mel Knight.

The swine flu pandemic, while posing serious health risks to Albertans and placing significant strain on already-stretched resources, also served as a gauge of our province's emergency preparedness.

In my opinion, the following ought to have happened: