They come, they go at 96.3 on the FM dial.

Big Earl is now Capital FM, going from country music to classic hits of the '60s, '70s and '80s.

All the hard work of bringing Big Earl to air, nurturing it and letting it grow, was for naught.

Greg Shannon and Tera Lee are without jobs at the moment. Most of the other staff have been placed in Newcap stations elsewhere, but they'll likely have to move.

CFCW/Big Earl veteran Jackie Rae worked her tail off to get Big Earl moving. Now she goes back to being program director at CFCW, with no word on if she'll go back on air.

The consensus among other veteran radio watchers, seeing Newcap's 96.3 CKRA-FM go through its 10 or 11th format change since coming on air in 1983 or so, is it's too quick to change.

"It left the easy-listening market, letting EZ Rock grow," says one veteran. "It left the youth market, letting The Bounce take it all. It left the Mix format, so Joe-FM scooped it up."

Why not, says another veteran insider, just hang in with the country music format, making Big Earl better and better, growing to eventually a decent 5 or 6 share. Why start all over, once again?

And if Capital FM is going to take over the format Cool 880 has just abandoned, why not bring Chuck Chandler over to host the morning show. "After all," chuckles one veteran. "Chuck IS the '60s and '70s!"

Poor 96.3 on the FM dial is the Charlie Brown of Edmonton radio stations.

It's been kicked around since it debuted as Rock Radio 96 in 1983.

As Rock Radio 96, then quickly K-Lite, it was whipped for the next 10 years by K-97.

As Mix 96, its bell was rung by Power 92, then EZ Rock.

As 96X, it couldn't compete against new-comers The Bounce and Sonic.

As Big Earl, it challenged CISN-FM for contemporary country listeners. Lasted about three rounds.

Big Earl was a good country station, I thought.

Not good enough, I guess.

As if Edmonton doesn't have enough AM and FM band radio stations.

Twenty seven at last count, yet the federal regulators are inviting yet more new station proposals at as yet unfilled FM frequencies, 98.5, 102.3 and 107.3/107.1 .

In the running are 14 proposals; one aboriginal (didn't one just come on air?) three ethnic (don't we already have one?), blues music, classic hits (how many stations now play music from the past?), one all-news (but Cool 880 is going all-news already?), two new/alternative/youth (didn't Bounce and Sonic grab that one?), and, despite the existence of The Bear, K-Rock, Joe-FM and Sonic, five applications for "adult album alternative."

Only a couple of truly local wanna-be owners: John Yerxa, son of CFCW/K-Lite founder Hal Yerxa, has applied for a younger variety music station. And local radio sales/management legend Don Kay has an application in for an adult alternative station.

Three current station owners are seeking second stations, Rawlco (Magic 99) , CTV (which now owns The Bounce) and Rogers (which just bought Sonic and World FMs).

Gee, it was a nice Art of Conversation XXIV, last Thursday at Yianni Psalios' Koutouki Taverna South.

Maybe it was because I didn't have to rush off to a hockey game or another event, but the evening felt more relaxed, staying from 4:20 or so to 9 p.m.

Yianni did a wonderful job as venue host. The snacks just kept coming, as if a full buffet had been laid out for everybody. No doubt many AoC devotees will return to dine.

Yianni, by the way, is a new grandpa! His daughter gave birth to a little boy two weeks ago. The name - of course ... Yianni!

People we chatted with: Both Bruce and Steve Hogle came, and there, a blast from the past, Irv Shore once of CHQT. Margo Stewart from Boost Communications was wide-eyed, listening to Del Dilkie's stories of body-building. Howard Worrell was entertaining with tales from hanging out with Sam Toroncyzk in New York City. Eileen Bell from CHED dropped by. She's off soon for two months in Salt Lake City to finish her long-incomplete communications degree. New MLA and emergency physician Raj Sherman was enjoying himself, and we all appreciated just finished Chamber of Commerce Chair Greg Christenson's explaination of all the implications of the changing face of rail/sea traffic in North American with the opening of the Prince Rupert sea port, and its ramifications on "Port Alberta."

And of course, my co-host Rob Christie was as tall and as gracious as ever.

It was so enjoyable, at the end, just sitting around, drinking coffee and letting the conversations flow. So many AoC folks have become good friends.

The next one ... oh heck, we don't think about it until a week or so from now, but likely it'll be on or around the last Thursday of April.

Moving on after several years as executive director of the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation is Darryl Lindenbach.

The former CEO of Fringe Theatre Adventures (he oversaw the building of the Arts Barns) and theatre director is returning to his arts roots, taking over as general manager of the flourishing Alberta Ballet ... albeit in Winnipeg.

Heart-warming stories emerging from The Terra Centra for Pregnant and Parenting Teens awards night Wednesday at the Royal Glenora.

Intertwined were two awards, for outstanding individual and corporate support.

For Christmas, The Mike Priestner Auto Group (Kentwood Ford and other dealerships) offers its emmployee $500 each, towards the charity of their choice. Years ago, Kentwood Ford executive Valerie Boivert was a Terra kid.

In the giving back department, Valerie raised $10,000 for Terra from auto group employees in 2006, $31,000 last Christmas. The corporate award went to the auto group for its great support of Valerie's initiative.

Or how about the Kids Furniture Gallery, that every Christmas rolls up to Terra's Braemar School with a truckful of baby blankets, cribs, furniture etc. for all the young moms.

Or the Bon Ton Bakery in the west end. For Bon Ton's 50th birthday, owners Michelle and Hilton Dinner set up to raise $50,000 Terra from its customers and suppliers. The goal was reached in just over a month, and the centre was able to add 12 more teen moms to its roster.

City Councillor Ron Hayter was on hand to accept a special award on behalf of his late wife, Jac'y, who passed away in 2005. Jac'y was a big supporter of Terra, and Ron started a Terra scholarhip fund in her memory, with $40,000 now in the endowment.

Terra's a remarkable organization, helping out 700 teen moms or dads, with 150 of them finishing high school at Braemar.

Next step in the centre's evolution, says dynamic executive director Karen Mottershead, a leadership role in pushing for changes to government social policy.

Should we worry about the latest statistical indicators, pointing out that some 3,000 more Canadians moved out of Alberta in the third quarter of 2007 (the latest statistics available) than moved in?

Is it just getting too expensive to live here?

Some are calling for the construction of thousands of thousands of "affordable housing" units.

But who will cover the difference between the market price for that house and the "affordable" price?

And if builders are going to see the houses they have for sale under-cut by affordable housing, why the heck should they build?.

Why shouldn't the city, the province and federal governments put some cash toward the land purchase and construction of a new downtown arena for Edmonton?

It's a defacto public building, as are all sports, arts and recreational facilities in this city.

When Telus Field, The Citadel, The Winspear Concert Hall, Commonwealth Stadium were built, public funds were involved.

So it was with the AgriCom and the Shaw Conference Centre.

When Rexall Place, the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Jubilee Auditorium and Enterprise Square were renovated, public money was involved.

I could support each level of government kicking in $30 to $40 million - i.e. up to a quarter or a third of construction/land acquisition costs.

But I'd want two things in return:

From the prime tenant, the Oilers, a commitment to keep a large (negotiable) number of "cheap seats" made available for every Oiler home game, so families and working stiffs can still go.

The great danger of a privately-financed arena is that prices go through the roof. Oiler hockey could become like the Toronto Maple Leafs, restricted to rich businessmen entertaining their clients and entitled families. And that's not Edmonton.

Secondly, a terrific-looking building, a "signature" piece of architecture for Edmonton, along with the surrounding precinct built to top-notch design standards.

Don't go cheap like G.M. Place in Vancouver, an ugly building built in 1995 for $160 million - all private - that's already showing its age.

Your thoughts and ideas? Comment away!

Interesting e-mail from Maurice Fritze about the Christian season of Lent that just ended with Easter Sunday.

Lent is a strange period in that it has rules we don’t think about.

For one, it is more than 40 days.

If you count the days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, it is 47 days. Christians don’t count Sundays, because they are days of celebration.

So most Christian traditions end Lent on Holy Saturday which is 46 days.

Catholics end lent on Holy Thursday at sundown. Which is 44 days.

But if you subtract the Sundays, which are six in total, Catholics have lent for 38 days, and other Christians have lent for 40 days.

Why 40 days? Not the song by Ronnie Hawkins. Because 40 is a special number in the Bible. It signifies preparation for something special - as in the 40 day flood of Noah. Although numbers weren’t invented yet and we don’t know who was alive to count.

* Jonah gives the people of Ninevah forty days to repent (Jon 3:4)

* Moses stayed on the Mount Sinai forty days (Ex 24:18). Did Moses take Sundays off?

* Jesus spent forty days in the desert in prayer and fasting (Matt 4:2). Who was counting – no disciples yet…


Traditions don’t make sense, they just are.

Some Christians give up something for Lent, but many do not know the rule of not including Sundays in the daily count means Sundays are exempt from fasting or doing whatever sacrifice was made for the Lenten period.

Maurice Fritze

Mayor Mandel's 30-year vision of the downtown, delivered tuesday, March 25 to the Downtown Business Association annual luncheon, wasn't so much new information, as a good summary of the many initiatives that'll be coming into play.

He touched on ...

•A doubling of the population by 2041.

•A more dense downtown, going up instead of out (the Glenora and Strathearn redevelopment apartment tower projects).

•The Quarters, the plan to redevelop the run-down downtown area east of 97th Street.

•The Boyle Renaissance within The Quarters - a bold plan to provide student, affordable, transitional, and continuing care housing in one of The Quarters' neighbourhoods on currently derelict land.

•The new improved Arts District around city hall ... with a face-lift of the dated downtown library.

•A winter festival centred around Churchill Square.

•Closing 104 Street from Jasper Avenue to 104 Avenue year-round.

•Cafes and recreational areas in the river valley park.

•A face lift of Jasper Avenue.

•And that new sports and entertainment district to be built downtown around a new arena.

My notes from Roman Catholic Archbishop Richard Smith's words of great wisdom at Monday's Caritas Hospital Group's Easter Brunch.

P.S. If you don't believe Jesus Christ is the son of God, or that God come to us in the form of man as Jesus Christ, you're likely not going to get too much out of what the archbishop had to say.

The archbishop was using examples from the Easter story to illustrate the deep importance of the family structure to fully open Christian values in its members.

He had three main points.

1. It's within the family where the instinctive quest for love and meaning in life is given direction or focus.

When Jesus spoke to Mary Magdalen after his resurrection, her search was fulfilled.

Through our encounter with Christ, the human heart needs not search any longer.

Within the family, we learn to love one another, speak truth, pray together.

2. Through the family, we learn to affirm and celebrate our personal identity and worth.

The great pretense of our time is the illusionary standards of what is good and what is beautiful.

But the family is the bulwark of what's real. There's no place for pretense in the family.

Likewise, God through Easter's story rescues us, and will never abandon us. Every person is willed to be by God, is the result of God's thought.

That is the basis of our dignity.

3. Through the family, selflessness is nurtured.

It is human nature to be there for others, and never so much as within the family.

On the night before he was crucified, Jesus knelt and illustrated the gift of loving others by washing the feet of the disciples. And then he gave the gift of himself to us on the cross.

We serve by giving ourselves away.

Edmontonians became admirers of Champ Car racer Sebastien Bourdais in the three years he dominated Champ Car racing here, winning The Edmonton Grand Prix in 2005, second in 2006 and winning in 2007.

Bourdais has graduated from the second-rung IRL/Champ Car series to the top open-wheel racing circuit in the world, with the Scurderia Toro Rosso team in Formula One.

He made a lot of fans in his first race, qualifying 17th and ending up in 7th place, steering through all kinds of wreckage at the Melbourne, Australia event on March 16.

Not so lucky in his second outing, spinning off the course and into the gravel and retiring from the Malaysian Grand Prix on turn six of the first lap. Ouch!

Sebastien has competed many times in the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans
race in his native town in France, sharing the wheel with two other drivers. this year was his best finish, as his team came in second.

Meanwhile, the days are ticking down to the tentative Edmonton Grand Prix in the IRL circuit, on Saturday July 26. But there's still no official comfirmation from either IRL or the local organizers.

How long can we wait before putting on the race becomes an impossibility?

Rob Schremp must have read the stories about Benoit Pouliot scoring two goals for the Minnesota Wild when called up a few days ago from the Wild's farm team.

And he must be wondering ... will it ever be my turn?

Four years after being the Oil's second draft pick in 2004, and wunder-kid Schremp is still toiling in the minors.

He's certainly proving himself in the farm league - in eighth place in over-all scoring in the American Hockey League with 66 points in 69 games, sixth in the league in assists, with 47.

But despite his point total, the centre has played only three Oiler games, while watching a parade of his Springfield teammates go back and forth ahead of him to the Oilers.

The rap against Schremp is that he's weak defensively and an average skater.

But 66 points in 69 games ...

If it makes Schremp boosters feel better, only half of 24 players picked before him in the 2004 draft have established themselves in the NHL.

This is only Schremp's second year in the minors. And Ranger GM Glen Sather is muttering about trading for him.

How's this for a scenario? The Oilers once again squeeze into the playoffs.

In the first round, another centre is injured.

Schremp gets the call-up. His rookie hands go hot, hot, hot and the Oil repeats its 2006 Cinderella run.

In sport, as in politics, all things are possible.

Improbable, but possible.

Handled the Herculian task of persuading 25 regional municipalities to find common ground on Ed Stelmach's Capital Region Integrated Growth Management Board is fixer Chris Sheard.

The former ATCO executive has been chair of the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, chair of the Citadel Theatre board, and held all kinds of other positions.

Tough job. But Sheard knows that within Stelmach's velvet glove is an iron fist if the region doesn't come up with a workable plan. The province has the right to impose its will on the municipalities is agreement cannot be reached.

First and foremost, Stelmach wants really sound regional planning to ensure the "sustainable growth" of building all those bitumen upgraders in the capital region.

Much amusement at the Caritas Easter Brunch on Monday, March 24 at the Westin, Caritas being the faith-oriented (Catholic heritage) board that, for historical reasons runs the Caritas Hospital Group (the Misericordia, Grey Nuns and extended-care Edmonton General hospitals) within the auspices of Capital Health.

Premier Ed Stelmach started off with his "confessional," telling the audience how much he appreciated how the Sisters of Immaculate Conception, who ran the Mundare Hospital, took care of him when he was laid up for two or three months having broken both legs in Gr. 1 ("Either it was a very tall slide, or I didn't drink enough milk," joked the premier).

"I did speak English in Gr. 1 as we spoke Ukrainian at home," said the premier. "Some of the media think I still can't speak English."

"The sisters not only took care of my health, they taught me how to read and speak English and I am in their debt to this day."

And once the premier finished off with a "God Bless" and a reference to the "good Lord", all the faith came spilling out of all the speakers.

Mayor Steve Mandel was very funny on the confession business that everybody was referring to. "I wish I had a confession," he said. "But being Jewish, I'm OK!"

The bishop had a little fun with the topic do, but mainly concentrated on a wonderful theme of Easter's teachings and its relationship to the family - in love, personal identity and nurturing selflessness. An excellent talk, and as soon as I have some time, I'll put my notes from the Archbishop's speech up on this blog!

Doesn't all the switching back and forth in measure in Canuck-land drive you bananas?

Do you have a clue how X litres of gas per 100 kilometres stacks up against the number of miles per gallon the Yankees use?

Why is it we've finally become used to thinking of speed in kilometres per hour, but weight, after 30 years of officially being a metric country, is still thought of in pounds and ounces.

Do you not pity the poor produce clerk, who spends most of his hours making two labels for every veggie on display, one being the cost per kilo, the other the cost per pound?

The Trudeau government in the '60s was just so gung-ho to wean us off our regionality with the biggest economy in the world just south of the border, and make us more cosmopolitan and European, more world-wise, by moving our measurement system to metric.

How much smarter we would have been just to have left our measurements alone, and let the experts in any given field - the scientists, the customs brokers etc.- have made what conversions they had to make.

We've discovered that 90% of the time, our measurements are more closely aligned with our North American neighbour, that all metric has done is confuse us.

Personally, I'm all for a return to miles, and gallons, and ounces and Farenheit. My brain is tired of this constant conversion. I'd go a step further. Let's get with the program south of the border, and use American gallons, so when it comes to miles per gallon and the cost of gasoline, we're all on the same page!

What do we lobby government to do? Scrap the metric system or stay as we are, all mixed up when it comes to measurement?

Another regional governance variation that Premier Stelmach might be tempted to use if Edmonton's 23 little and big turf-protectors can't agree on anything.

Take our 23 overlapping, confusing, needless municipalities and with one stroke of the premier's pen, create five major municipalities, in a model resembling Greater Vancouver.

The geographic boundaries are obvious.

To the northeast, the city of Fort Saskatchewan, the towns of Redwater, Lamont, Bruderheim and parts of Strathcona and Sturgeon Counties.

To the east, the "hamlet" of Sherwood Park and the rest of Strathcona County.

To the south, the city of Leduc, city of Nisku, the towns of Beaumont, Devon, Calmar, Thorsby and Warberg, plus the county of Leduc County.

To the west, the city of Spruce Grove, the towns of Stony Plain and Wabamun, plus Parkland County.

And to the northeast, the city of St. Albert, the town of Morinville and the rest of Sturgeon County.

It'd be a heck of a lot easier to deliver municipal and regional services than is currently the case.

With Cool 880 giving up on the Righteous Brothers, Kenny Rogers and Roger Miller to become iNews880 AM as of May 20, might NewCap Radio pick up the classic pop torch?

Some speculate NewCap (CFCW, K-Rock, Big Earl) might relinquish Big Earl's struggling country format (good station! lousy ratings!) and bring goldie/oldie music to the FM dial. I don't think so.

Cool's demise might help Magic 99, the theory being Magic might be the next choice for goldie/oldie listeners left without a home.

At this point, Magic has nowhere to go but up.

Meanwhile Cool 880 afternoon drive's Gord Robson is already gonzo-alonso, and morning show host Chuck Chandler is unemployed come May 20.

Edmonton has hosted the Brier in 1973, 1987, 1999 and 2005.

We hosted the World Curling Championships in 2005.

And now finally we'll get what many say is the best curling of all, the show-down of the very best of Canadian curling teams for the right to go to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010.

It all happens Dec. 6 to 13, 2009, both men's and women's teams.

Rexall Place will be full. We'll do the Canadian Curling Association proud, once again.

This collapsible geodesic dome proposed for Churchill Square in the winter months.

Let's have a good look before we leap.

Why not lease the dome for a couple of years, to see how it works out, to see how much the operating costs will be, before committing to the capital expense?

With all things government, it's not the purchase price that's the killer.

It's the operating costs.

The city owned-and-run Muttart Conservatory will close on Friday for 10 months of renovations.

Schools don't shut down when being renovated. The Victoria School for the Performing Arts is about to get a $56 million re-build. And it'll stay open through all the renovations.

Hospitals don't shut down when being renovated.

The Telus World of Science didn't shut down during its renos.

They ALL work around renovations, so facilities can remain open to the public.

There are four Muttart garden pyramids with a central lobby.

It all has to be shut down at the same time? The lobby can't be done in sections, so the general public can squeeze through?

And the conservatory has to shut down for 10 months?

If it wasn't government, it'd stay open.

The U of A is no longer accepting credit card payment for tuition fees.

Do the high foreheads at the Uni not realize today's student uses credit (or debit) cards for everything, the object being to build up travel points?

Do emerging adults have a clue what cheques look like?

And most of them, after being dinged with one or two late payments, treat credit cards like cash.

Here's betting the cost to the Uni (credit card companies take a 1- to- 2% commission) is outweighed by the hassle of not offering credit card payment.

This one will be overturned in short order.

Terry Paranych, the loud, fast-talking and supremely confident super salesman of Edmonton realtors was listed in ninth place of 116,000 Re/Max realtors for homes sold at the Re/Max annual international convention in Las Vegas.

In fact, 2007 was a down year for Paranych Realty.

Terry's company sold 691 homes, compared to the sizzling 855 in 2006.

Wei Yew is an Edmonton graphic artist far better known around the world than on his home turf, thanks to extensive design work he has done for the Olympics and other international clientele.

Wei's always had a sense of humour, and his own way of doing things.

His latest business card is a business-card size "brochure" showing examples of his work on 13 mini-pages. "For the Year of the Pig," writes Wei on the outside, "I've turned a boaring business card into a porkfolio of my work."

Our U of A Canadian Athletic Coaching Centre, rapidly evolving into Canada's top track and field elite training ground, trains Canada's world-class athletes with the benefit of a dedicated indoor track.

Centre head Kevin Tyler isn't complaining. He appreciates how the U of A has scheduled the Butterdome to give the elite athletes the dedicated times they need to train. And the weight room at Foote Field is now equipped to high-performance athlete standards.

Tyler's strategy is to wait until enough of our locally trained athletes are on international podiums to warrant new facilities, based on results.

"Curves aren't that important," says Tyler of his envisioned indoor facility. "England has produced some champions out of its 150-metre long straight (enclosed) track. We could build that kind of facility (suitable for Edmonton's winter climate) for as little as $3 million."

The other piece of mega-equipment that Tyler says would be helpful not only to elite track athletes but for every kid interested in track, would be a portable, banked 200-metre oval, similar to the bike velodrome, but not so steeply banked.

Such a portable track could be broken down for storage, and installed in any suitable building with the square footage. Price for the track, about $750,000.

You buy a yoghurt with an expiry date.

01/09/08

Does this mean January 9, 2008, or September 1, 2008?

Is this yoghurt beyond its expiry date and to be thrown out?

Or is it just fine until September?

Why or Why have we never standardized the writing of the date in its numerical fashion.

Pick one or the other! Either dd/mm/yy OR mm/dd/yy.

But not both.

Seems to me local MP Ken Epp tried to introduce a bill in the House of Commons, many years ago, to get this one down.

He was in opposition at the time, and the Liberals just laughed.

We're standardized just about everything else. Why can't we nail this one?

Everybody is scared of old, old age.

Being stuck in a nursing home - your brain still working, but your body falling apart, to wait three hours for somebody to change your Depends.

Or slowly going senile. Not so bad if you're completely gone, but must be really crummy being aware of your failing ability to comprehend reality.

And the lousy burden you put on your kids - so busy in their own mid-lives without having to worry constantly about you.

So praise the Lord that somebody (John Mighton) has written a play, Half-Life now playing on the Citadel's Shoctor Stage, that makes it all seem less grim.

Two old geezers fall in love, and it does a world of wonder for both. He quits being so crotchety and grumpy and looking for booze to forget the present. She, always with a positive attitude, accepts his love as a late-in-life blessing.

If only they could remember if they truly met each other back in the war, or ...

Her silly professorial son, with power of attorny, forbids the marriage. So he has to sneak down from the second floor to hop in her bed on the first.

Only minor dislike. At times, the conversation became causes masquarading as characters, and in those scenes Mighton's script became wooden.

Otherwise ... Half Life makes the last part of the human voyage look far less grim.

Congrats to all at Corus Entertainment - CHED, CISN, JOE and COOL 880 - for raising $1.65 million for the Stollery Childrey's Hospital in last week's two day radio-thon.

All the more impressive considering $1.6 million came in last year over three days.

Our campaign to raise $5,000 to sponsor the trip of a third-world women's emergency shelter worker to Edmonton to attend the first ever World Congress of Emergency Shelter Workers in September is moving along.

Our donated dinners for four, up for auction last week on CampusAuctionMarket.com raised $722.

Dinner for four at The Keg Steakhouse, $205 from Jim Nixon of Wilmax Construction.

Dinner for four at the Jubilations Dinner Theatre's Buddy Holly's
Birthday Bash, $190 from Lui Kin Yu.

A feast for four with wine at Maria Nobre's famous Spago Portuguese Restaurant,
$327 from Shelly Gurba of Island Lake South.


Individual donations have been received from Terry Simpson ($20), Cathy and Michaell Meidinger ($60) and Marjorie James ($50).


Total to date: $852.

And when we get to $5,000, Bruce Saville has promised to sponsor a second shelter worker, so two can travel from the workplace, as it's highly unlikely they've ever had a chance to leave their country in the past.

A bit of fun Friday afternoon in Churchill Square, a "Broomball Classic" featuring Mayor Steve Mandel and city councillors (Tony Caterina, Amarjeet Sohi, Dave Thiele, Linda Sloan, Don Iverson, Ron Hayter, Karen Leibovici and Ben Henderson) facing off against a motley media crew assembled by Journal columnist Scott McKeen, all in the name of The BRICK Sport Central.

Actually got a little competitive, with the media (plus some Emergency Medical Service ringers) beating city council (plus some police service back-up) 5-4.

Has anybody in the Edmonton news media not worked at the Edmonton Sun?

Among past staffers playing broomball were Rob McLauchlin ( Metro), Glenn Kubish (CTV News), Dan Barnes (Journal) and Jennifer Parks (Journal On-Line).

Definition of an Irish husband:
He hasn't kissed his wife for 20 years, but he will kill any man who does.

The late Bishop Sheen stated that the reason the Irish fight so often among themselves is that they're always assured of having a worthy opponent.

An Irish lass customer: "Could I be trying on that dress in the window?"
Shopkeeper: "I'd prefer you'd be using the dressing room."

Mrs. Feeney shouted from the kitchen, "Is that you I hear spitting in the vase on the mantle piece?"
"No," yelled back Mr. Feeney. "But I'm getting closer all the time."

™Ryan," asked the druggist. "Did that mudpack I gave you improve your wife's appearance?"
"It did surely," replied Ryan. "But it keeps falling off!"

The little things that count.

A.J. Webber called, asking for info about the city's Good Neighbour award program. "I'm almost a senior," says the Calder resident, "and my wife passed away in November.

"My neighbours have been incredible. They were a huge help when my wife was sick, coming over to help hoist her wheelchair up the stairs.

"They cut my grass, shovel my snow, keep an eye on my house when I've been away.
Which wouldn't be that much of a story - given all the great neighbours in the city - but A.J.'s neighbours are four young adults, sharing a house.

"They're such good kids," he says. "If they have a party, I don't hear a thing. If they have a campfire ... I don't even smell it!"

Take a bow, Heather Anderson, 26, Aaron Sommerfield, 21, Alan Marsh, 28 and Riley Main, 21.

You's is great youth!

DAY-LIGHT SAVINGS

Saskatchewan is absolutely right.

What's the point of moving our clocks one hour back in the fall, and one hour forward in the spring.

Nobody cares anymore if it's dark in the morning or dark in the late afternoon.

We live way up north. Our days are short in winter. Get used to it!

Twice a year, we have to run all over the house, changing dozens of digital clocks that more and more take care of our daily needs.

And then the American government, in a fit of misguided conservation passion, decided to move around the dates of the switch back and forth to Daylight Savings, on the theory we'd save energy.

Didn't work. Energy consumption was a wash. Meanwhile, all our digital time-keepers programmed to take into account the fall back, spring ahead, time change were dreadfully confused, and had to be manually adjusted.

Dumb.

Coming up on the blog: Our mixed up measuring systems, and DAY/MONTH/YEAR or MONTH/DAY/YEAR

Recent engineering grad and former U of A student union president Graham Lettner has started his career with an international volunteer commitment to Engineers Without Borders.

He's been writing about his assignment in Lusaka, Zambia, on his blog, http://graham-lettner-ewb.blogspot.com.

Setting off on a three-week "Global Scavenger Hunt" April 11 to raise funds for Doctors Without Borders are Dr. Lloyd and Treacy Reddington.

The altruistic couple, also major volunteers and donors to the Art Gallery of Alberta, hope to raise $50,000 and are collecting doantions through the Doctors Without Borders website.

The Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, run so ably by former MLA Jim Gurnett, is due for new digs.

It's moving from from two buildings in the inner city a little further north, to two new buildings at 82 Street and 117 Avenue, and 89 Street and 118 Avenue.

More space, better digs, closer to the neighbourhoods its clients tend to first settle in.

If the Full House Lottery goes as it has every other year, all 190,000 tickets @ $100 each will be sold out.

The Royal Alex Hospital Foundation will put its $3 million take into prostate cancer support services to go with its amazing DaVinci prostate surgery robot.

The University Hospital Foundation plans on the first eICU unit in Canada, 24-hour electronic monitoring of all critically ill patients in the ICE to assist the front-line nurses and doctors.

The latest real estate reports show house prices in Edmonton have slowed down, or in some cases (condos and row houses) have actually slipped.

The average February price of condos in this town was still around $264,000, townhouses $294,000 and single family houses $382,000.

House owners, consider how lucky you are if you bought your house before the great run-up. And imagine living in the USA, where the housing bubble has broken, and values are dropping daily ... along with greatly declining stock market investments.


But how a young family today, that missed the comparatively bargain house market of three or four years, can save up the scratch for a down payment, then pay $2,000 a month plus for the mortgage ... is beyond me.

And what about our kids has they graduate from university and start to think about home purchases. Does this mean parents are forever on the hook to finance their offspring.

When it's my turn, my contribution will be an equity position in their first condos or rowhouses! I'll put up some capital to help with the down payment ... but I'll take my share of the profits (or losses) when they sell.

Sure it's great to go visit the $1 million Full House Lottery homes in "The Hamptons" way out in the west end, past Henday Drive.

But I wouldn't want to live there.

All new urban mansions these days are built on postage-stamp lots!

There's barely room for the grass, let alone a yard for the kids to play in.

With no back alleys, all the garages face the front. Visually, it's so darn ugly it makes me cry. These massive and expensive houses, all cheek by jowl, with the same big ugly garage door greeting visitors. Ugh. And there's nowhere, with all the crescents and cul-de-sacs and front driveways, for visitors to park.

And these new neighbourhoods come with a minimum amount of green space. The best most developes can come up with are fake "lakes" you can walk around in two minutes. Or tiny parks.

I need green! I need to be close to the river valley, to go for long, quiet walks or runs, to "commune with nature." I need big trees in my neighbourhood, gardens, back alleys where the garages and garbage can be out of sight.

Neighbourhoods where the houses aren't architecturally mind-numbingly the same!

Best of all, neighbourhoods that are 20 minutes from downtown, not 40.

You pay the price of not having a spanking new house. Of having to think about on-going renovation - new windows, replacing the cement skirtings, eventually the plumbing and the wiring ...

But you have a yard, access to open green spaces, beautiful rather than sterile neighbourhoods, and accessibility.

Forget the burbs! Give me a real house and neighbourhood, not a big box in sterility land!

Volkswagen will unveil a new diesel-electric hybrid Golf at next month’s Geneva Motor Show.

Set to be the most efficient and cost-effective model in the line-up, the Golf will clock in at 83 miles to the gallon and emit a paltry 89grams of CO2 per kilometre driven.

Unlike any other hybrid sedan currently in production, the Golf hybrid will use diesel instead of gas. The engine is expected to be the 2.0-litre recently launched in the VW Tiguan SUV, which meets strict Euro V emission rules.

The Hotel Mac's new executive chef Andrew Ihasz (rhymes with Haagen Daaz) has worked in Zurich, Grand Cayman Island, Bermuda and most recently at The Fairmont San Francisco.

He's originally from the Maritimes, of Hungarian ancestry, Canadian by birth and has decided to become an Edmontonian, his wife's hometown. This is good. The Mac's last chef David Wong was terrific, but his wife wanted to return to her hometown of Vancouver. What a woman wants, God wants.

Andrew has a passion for organic foods. Chef is a huge Leafs fan, but is starting to see the light and will be adorning the copper and blue.

Observations on Ed Stelmach's new cabinet:

Who got what locally:

David Hancock (Education), Gene Zwozdesky (Aboriginal Affairs), Heather Klimchuk (Service Alberta), Iris Evans (Finance), Doug Horner (Avanced Education), Fred Lindsay (Solicitor General). And let's not forget the big guy himself.

No cabinet post for Thomas Lukaszuk but he gets the consolation price of "parliamentary assistant" for municipal affairs.

Other area MLAS so rewarded include Janice Sarich for education, David Xiao for employment and Immigration and Diana McQueen (Drayton Valley) for environment.
Out of luck - George Rogers from Leduc.

The city's senior minister Hancock has switched portfolios with Calgary's Ron Liepert (Calgary). Hancock goes from Health to his old stomping ground of Education, Liepert to Health.

Betcha Liepert has been tagged to clean up the Calgary Health Authority mess.

Gene Zwozdesky is back in from the cold, from an associate minister to the climbing-in-importance Aboriginal Affairs cabinet post.

Edmonton will have its voice loudly and proudly heard at all levels of the provincial political process. Finally!

(A reader's e-mail to me, disagreeing with my idea in Hicks on Six that community leagues should be involved in civic political advocacy on issues affecting their particular neighbourhoods, and that it would be illogical for them not to do so ...If not the community leagues, who?)

Graham,

Interesting piece in your column yesterday on Community Leagues. I hope you don't get too upset that I disagree with just about everything you say though.


First, do Community Leagues really reflect the mood of the entire community, or just those select few who use it and their positions therein to advance their own agendas?

No doubt someone needs to focus the community's concerns, but I believe it is very debatable that Community Leagues, as they are currently constituted, are capable or equipped to do this.

Who else speaks for the neighbourhood you ask? Individuals of course. Right now 'Community' Leagues purport to represent communities when in fact
they really are (in my opinion) a very to relatively small collection of activist individuals.

Second, I don't see the startling lack of logic you refer to. The City (i.e. all taxpayers in the City) assist in paying for the Community Leagues, so is it unreasonable to expect that City funded organizations should concentrate on strategies that are good for the whole City and not just a small slice of community activism?


Third, why do Community Leagues by nature need to be NIMBY or BANANA organizations? Yes you are right it is currently their intrinsic nature to do so, but it is totally ridiculous to presume this OUGHT to be their nature.

Neither NIMBY nor BANANA has ever gotten anybody (let alone a whole City), anywhere.


Fourth, to use your words, "in the grand scheme of things", nobody should 'win' while others 'lose'. Good city planning in some ways is like good democracy, and that is about compromise. You might not win, but you hopefully will not lose, however if you do lose, I believe it is because you refuse to recognize the need for others to grow and develop.


If not community leagues then who? Indeed that is a good question, although I don't believe you intend this so much as a question as an answer. Why don't you instead frame this as truly 'the' question, and then propose some way of determining an answer?

Jeff Price

It's taken a long time, but I have become a believer.

The revolutionary reduce/recycle/reuse strategy Edmonton's waste management team and city council set out on in 1994 ... can now be declared a great ecological AND financial success.

We now have 60% of our residential garbage diverted from landfill, with further reductions on the horizon (read on). And our garbage collection fees remain, at $15 per month per household, much the same as most cities that continue with 100% landfill.

Let's go back to the early '80s.

Edmonton had a land-fill crisis happening. The Cloverbar dump was filling up fast (in dump planning terms) and the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) crowd was blocking all attempts to find a new dump.

We'd always been greener than most cities. Our blue box recycling (now blue bag) program starting up in the early '80s.

But knowing our dump was filling up fast, city council (under the leadership of Mayor Jan Reimer, the "Queen of Green") bit the bullet and OK'd the city's first fully integrated "waste management strategy."

The strategy components:

1. The giant composter concept was quite revolutionary - the notion that a city could "compost" more than half its residential waste in a giant (several football field sized) indoor structure - starting with all the garbage at one end, ending up with serviceable compost at the other end.

The utility company TransAlta originally built and fired up the giant operation out at the Cloverbar dump in 1999, but within a few years, the utility went back to its "core" operations and sold the composter for around $100 million to the city.

What the city pays out for the composter, it semi-saves in having extended the life of the existing landfill, and in the transportation costs it will not have to pay to truck future garbage to the new regional landfill hours away in Ryley.

(The city sells the low-grade compost - we actually ran out of inventory last summer - but it doesn't come anywhere close to covering costs.)

2. The blue-bag program is one of Canada's best. Edmontonians are among the world's most diligent citizens when it comes to sorting newspaper, plastic, glass etc. into our special blue bags for roadside pick-up.

As in all recycle operations, sales of the final recycled product help offset some costs, but the same "holistic" cost factoring as the composter have to be weighed in.

3. The GEEP e-waste recycling facility now operational at the Goldbar site, breaks down computers, TVs etc. into component parts. You know that recycling fee you now pay in Alberta when you buy a computer or TV - part of it goes to GEEP, as, once again, it still costs more (in the short-term) to be environmentally responsible and recycle rather than merely dump.

4. On the near horizon is a very exciting project to "cook" the remaining garbage to make the synthetic fuels methanol and ultimately ethanol.

The city is close to signing a contract with an as-yet unidentified company to build a prototype "gassification" facility at the Goldbar Waste Management Centre in a partnership with the Alberta Energy Research Institute.

If it works as it should, gassification would take that last 40% of residential waste going into the landfill ... and take it down to 5%.

Amazing!


5. A new company, Greys Paper Recycling Industries Ltd., has a proposal in to Waste Management to build a "factory" at the Waste Management Centre that would take waste paper and discarded cotton clothing in one end, and produce finished, recycled paper at the other end - a "closed-loop system."

6. The next great challenge. This all sounds jim-dandy and as environmentally responsible as can be ... but of Edmonton's total garbage, 66% is commercial and 33% is residential.

And most of the commercial garbage goes straight into either the city or private landfills. Cardboard is beginning to be commercially recycled. Research is underway on recycling gypsum products.

Next on the agenda - in partnership with major private waste contractors like WM Waste Management - to make inroads on reduce/re-use/recycle on the commercial front.

It's easy enough to figure out the environmental savings - hug a tree, etc. - of what the city of Edmonton is doing here.

It's tougher trying to understand all the factors in the financial equation - the added costs of recycling etc. versus the savings in dramatically slowing down landfill, not having to truck garbage way out of town.

But the fact of the matter is Edmonton's total waste management costs are reflecting in a monthly residential fee that basically the same as most Canadian cities ... like Calgary, where they can't even seem to get a blue-bag recycling program underway. Or Toronto, which is way behind the eight-ball in waste management compared to Edmonton, and is starting to truck its garage hundreds of miles away ... for more mere burial.

Even if there are hidden costs (i.e. city costs not covered by our garbage collection fees) it still seems a very reasonable surcharge to be one of the most environmentally responsible cities on the planet.

City councils past and present, long-time city waste management manager Roy Neehall, senior management types past and present like Al Maurer, Francis Hugo and Bill Burn, y'all take a big bow!

Councillor and former MLA Ed Gibbons is a self-admitted political junkie.
“I’ve spent hours with a pencil and map of Alberta, trying to figure out who Ed Stelmach will put in his 21 to 23 person cabinet. I’ve taken into account regional, male/female, urban/rural and young/old balance ... who Ed wants to reward, who he demotes.”
Here’s Gibbons’ forecast.
From Edmonton: Dave Hancock, Gene Zwozdesky, newcomer Heather Klimchuk (female, urban)
From Greater Edmonton: Doug Horner (Spruce Grove), Fred Lindsay (Stony Plain).
From Calgary: Ron Stevens, Ron Liepert, Cindy Ady, Yvonne Fritz.
From Northern Alberta: Diane McQueen (Drayton Valley), Mel Knight (Grande Prairie), Hector Goudreau (Peace Country), Guy Boutilier (Fort McMurray), Lloyd Snelgrove (Vermillion).
From Central Alberta: Mary Anne Jablonski (Red Deer), Doug Griffiths (Wainwright), Janis Tarchuk (Banff), Jack Hayden (Drumheller).
From Southern Alberta: Greg Weadick (Lethbridge), Ted Morton (Foothills-Rocky View) Rob Renner (Medicine Hat), George Groeneveld (Highwood).
On the bubble: Three former cabinet ministers. Iris Evans (Sherwood Park, spoke out during the election against Stelmach’s regional plan), Ray Danyluk (Lac La Biche) and Luke Ouellette (Innisfail). Do they keep cabinet jobs, be demoted to “associate” cabinet minister or banished from the inner circle?

Joining the 2007 National Post's prestigious list of Canada's 50 best managed companies are the proudly local John and Jason Stanton's Running Room, David Aplin Recruiting and Don Oborowsky's Waiward Steel.

Re-qualifying as of the best-managed are previous winners Driving Force and Servus Credit Union.

PCL Constructors (Ross Grieve CEO) seems to win some award or other every week.

It earned Platinum status on the same list for multiple wins.

Congratulations all!

Old bands don't die, they just come back to play the casinos.

Look at the upcoming line-up for the Century Casino's Showroom on Fort Road.

March 15, Harlequin and Prism; March 20, April Wine; March 21, Bay City Rollers; April 5, Alannah Myles and April 19, Headpins.

How many original players (i.e. band members when the band had hits) still have to be in the band to be worthy of the original moniker?

How the province has grown.

In 2004 there were 2 million eligible voters (Canadian citizens, lived in Alberta for six months, 18 or older).

For the provincial 2008 election, there were 2.25 million eligible voters - an increase of 15% in four years.

Picture: Jaxon Littlefair, inspired by his dad and all the hockey players in the World's Longest Hockey Game, asked his friends to bring presents, not for him but to pass on to children in the Stollery Children's Hospital.


Expect the unexpected as outcomes from the World's Longest Hockey Game, played outside Edmonton at Dr. Brent Saik's acreage in February.

It wasn't so much the players who were inspired as their families.

Scott Littlefair's little guy Jaxon had been at the rink a lot, watching and cheering on his dad.

Jaxon's 6th birthday happened during the week-long game.

Something clicked in Jaxon's mind.

Inspired by example, he asked his friends and team-mates on his hockey team to bring presents, not for him but to give to children with cancer at the Stollery Children's Hospital.

Boy, did the presents pour in. (See the picture above.)

"Larry Steele was the oldest guy on the ice," says Brent. "His son was wide-eyed. His dad was cool! He was so proud of him."

And maybe, just maybe, the wives' image of their husband players took a turn for the better.

"For so many of the new guys, it was originally 'I dunno - I'm not sure my wife will be about about this,' " says Brent.

"By the end all the wives and all the kids were pretty darned proud of what their dads had done."

Brent has no intention of retiring the project after breaking the longest hockey game record for a third consecutive time.

"I'd like to do something bigger, raise more money for cancer research," says Brent, who's learned if you dream it, it can happen. "A 50-team tournament ... in Commonwealth Stadium?"

(This note comes from a 50-something fella who works in the oil patch and likes to think. I suspect most of his observations will be proven correct by the time the next provincial election rolls around.)


*An American decision that oil sands products are not green enough.

If the fix is a blend with bio fuels, food prices will skyrocket. The grain markets are already going in that direction.

*The Supreme Court ruling that the environmental panel regarding Imperial Oils Kearl Lake Project must provide a better explanation of its emissions control program.

The courts will become more influential on environmental issues. How will that affect government decisions?

*There is a very good chance the US will elect Democratic President, does not matter which one. The Democrats are far more protectionist than the Republicans. Could be trouble for Canada.

*The US financial health is extremely vulnerable.

*We will get a carbon trading “stock” market. Not for environmental reasons but rather as a means for wealth redistribution.

The USA wants to get back some of the money that flows to China etc and that will be the mechanism.

* Over history we have always had a dominating super power. At one time the sun never set on the British Empire. The current US superpower is near the end of its course. The next one will be some form of cooperative model between Russia and China.

*This 2008 provincial election still saw our generation (50+) calling the shots as to the outcome. The next generation, those now aged 15 to 35, will have a different outlook.

Our group has seen life expectancy grow to what seemed unlikely when we were kids.

When we went to work our only concern was making sure we'd not be killed or maimed on the job.

The upcoming group sees life expectancy growing and wants to make sure they can be healthy enough to enjoy it. They will demand a healthy quality to their long life.

*If a spokesperson for Alberta environmentalists becomes a media darling, they will lead a Green Party to a number of seats and maybe even become the official opposition.


Take care Mr. Hicks. We are heading into a very interesting next 4 years.

So I had my diatribe in Tuesday's Hicks on Six column about political pundits who basically aren't very good at what they do ... i.e. their complete misreading of the outcome of this Alberta provincial election where Ed Stelmach stunned the so-called experts by winning 72 of 83 seats, whereas most of them wouldn't have predicted more than 50 or 55.


I'm all for columnists being full of strong opinions and defending their points of view. That's what columns are for!

When Ed Stelmach first won the leadership, I was simply relieved we didn't have Ralph Klein II (Jim Dinning) back in power. I was sick of an arrogant Calgary coterie running the entire province.

Since then, I've become a big Ed Stelmach fan ... based on his track record.

So my bias is open. And, I hope, informed and entertaining.

But I seriously object when other writers or commentators keep their agendas hidden, have a deep bias that they'll never own up to.

That's what really sticks in my craw. When a commentator never says outright where they're coming from, i.e. "I'm a dyed in the wool left-leaning Liberal" but pretends to be "neutral" while spouting all kinds of ideological rhetoric.

What are your thoughts on our local stable of full-time or occasional opinionated political commentators in this town - me, Neal Waugh, Kerry Diotte and Mindy Jacobs at The Sun, The Journal's Graham Thomson, Scott McKeen and Paul Simons, CHED's Leslie Primeau and her political panel, Bob Layton's editorials ...

And when you add us all up, do we represent most Edmontonian points-of-view?

Click on "leave a comment" below. And if you've not done so before, be patient and please fill out all the nonsense that these webmasters seem to insist on before you gain "access" as a "member." After you can click on any Sun blog and comment away to your heart's desire.

Ed's big challenges now that the Man from Lamont has a huge majority in the Alberta Legislature.

Cabinet: He has to put together a far more balanced cabinet than he did the first time out, with a fair balance between urban/rurban/rural; male/female; young/old; ethnic/white.

With a 19-person cabinet, at least five should be from Edmonton, five from Calgary. At the very least.

If he comes back with the same old tired fat white rural guy cabinet, he'll lose much support in this neck of the Alberta woods.

An embarrassment of riches: How does Ed keep 72 ambitious MLAs busy and happy? Idle hands are the Devil's tools.


The Environment: Internationally, stopping the "tarsands" is a hill rabid environmentalists plan to die on. Already in Europe, a campaign is being launched along the same lines as the campaign against those cute little Newfoundland seals - the "World's Worst Climate Crime" the're calling the oil sands.

Ed has to convince us within Alberta that the Tories have environment impact minimized around Fort McMurray. Then we have to pursuade the world that we're not the Great Satans of the Environment.

A claim I've never heard before.

It's not oil sands discharge that's polluting the Athabasca River. All industrial discharge has to be purified to very high standards before it's dumped back in the river.

The river runs right through the middle of the oil sands deposits. Bitumen by the hundreds of barrels leaks naturally from surrounding river banks into the river, as it has done for thousands of years. There's an argument that higher than average cancer incidents down river at Fort Chip have been that way for centuries, due to natural and unavoidable nature-caused pollution.

Fan Mail!

LETTER !

Mr. Hicks,

You mention that the Journal was very pro-Liberal that it was almost “embarrassing”.

Well, what do you think your columns have looked like the past couple of weeks?

If one didn’t know better or at least believed that you had more integrity than that, one could infer that you were being paid right out of the Conservatives’ pockets.

Your biased opinion is not one shared by all.

There are some of us out here who cannot stand the way Alberta and the Sun constantly and confidently put their support behind a mediocre leadership who will eventually run this province into the ground.

I think that the way you put your support behind Stelmach just shows how biased you are, and as a long time reader, this almost makes me think of canceling my subscription to the Sun.

To tell you the truth, if it wasn’t for the sports page, I wouldn’t read your newspaper.

You treated Klein like a god, and Stelmach is being treated the same way.

If you cannot show the same respect for each of the different leaders and their respective parties, please leave your opinion to yourself.

I didn’t know that the Sun was paying you for your political editorial; I thought your job was to talk about parties.

So please leave the analyzing of politics to someone who knows better and keep to what you are actually knowledgeable about.

Your Conservative preaching is not appreciated.
Regards,
Courtney

My response: Hey Courtney - The Journal was wrong.
Albertans agreed with me. My analysis was dead on.
Stelmach won!
I get paid for my opinion. As for Ralph Klein, Hicks on Six was pretty critical when he overstayed his welcome.


LETTER II

"Then there's the Edmonton Journal. The Journal was so biased to the Liberals, it was almost embarrassing to our profession."

Yes, because the Sun is the model of unbiased and objective journalism with likes of right wing zealots such as Neil Waugh, Kerry "potholes=quality of life" Diotte, and yourself with your love-fest for a marginal Premier at best, Ed Stelmach. Give me a break!!!!!!

Nothing like calling the kettle black!!!! I really wish conservatives would eventually get over their over-inflated self worth and realize that this province succeeds in spite of this government, not because of it.......it is called OIL!!!!!!!

But what do you expect from a group of people that equates a person with being honest, steady, nice, and being a farmer from the Edmonton area as the keys to becoming an excellent Premier. With those standards and expectations, maybe my Grandma should run to become the next King err Premier of Alberta. But I digress.......

Jeff McLaren


My response: My, my the anti-Conservatives are in a snarly mood this morning!

ABOUT THOSE ATTACK ADS

You do wonder about labour leadership being out of touch with the rank and file.
When 73 of Alberta's 83 seats go Tory, an awful lot of unionized tradesmen and their adult family members were voting for that bad, bad Ed Stelmach!

Former AUPE leader Buff MacLennan got it right.

Buff was utterly pragmatic. He was out to get his membership the best deal possible and he was happy to deal with any political party to achieve his union's ends.

He told the New Democrats in no uncertain terms that no, his union was not going to endorse any particular party.

"Half my membership probably votes Conservative!" he said - or something like that. "Why should we endorse any particular party?"


STORIES FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

*Liberal MLA Rick Miller (now ex- he too was defeated) was shaking a voter's hand.

"Did you hear that," the voter said.

"What?" said Rick.

"That sound," said the voter. "It's the sound of my father rolling in his grave as I shake hands with a Liberal!"

*How one older constituent described Ed Stelmach to Tory MLA Gene Zwozdesky.

"I know he's not an entertainer like Elvis Presley. Nor does he present himself like Dale Carnegie. But he does come across as an Honest Ed Sullivan."

*Thomas Lukaszuk, nick-named Landslide after he won Edmonton Castledowns in 2004 by a five vote margin in a re-count, says it was a smooth campaign.

"At least nobody wanted to kill me. It happened in 2004. A guy was really angry about his father's hospital stay. 'I'm going to go get my rifle,' he said. When I realized he was serious, you've never seen anybody run faster."

*Iris Evans son Trent Evans, the ice-maker at buried the Canadian loonie at centre ice during the Salt Lake City Olympics, was here for his mom's victory party in Sherwood Park.

He slipped a special loonie under the rug at the campaign headquarters. And "unburied it" to great cheers later in the evening.


WHY THE TORIES WON
"I have been a Liberal all my life," wrote Margaret Stone in response to my Sunday column's endorsement of Ed Stelmach. "I'm 75 years old, but not this time, I'm voting for Ed Stelmach.

"This gentleman, and I emphasize gentleman, has been blamed for things that Ralph Klein set in motion in 13 years and was expected to fix within 2 months of his being elected as premier.

"Ed has not been given a chance. The opposition are squawking about the royalty review but they forget that Klein didn't want anyone to change it when he was in power.
The numbers of voters is down, not only in Alberta, but across Canada and it's because of the attack ads put on by the opposition and certain interest groups.

"People are fed up and find it hard to believe what any party says. Premier Ed has acted as the gentleman he is all through this campaign.

"Go, Ed, go."

Expect the official announcement from the Edmonton Grand Prix next week.

The combined IRL/Champ Car race circuit will come to Edmonton, to the City Centre Airport racetrack, with its featured race happening on Saturday, July 26.


The original Champ Car weekend of July 21 to 23 is impossible, as one of the major IRL races is that same Sunday July 23 in Ohio, with major TV commitments already in place.


And the Edmonton Grand Prix will run on the Saturday, rather than going up (on TV) against one of NASCAR's biggest races of its season, the NASCAR Brickyard in Indianapolis.

For the race's new owner Northlands, it's at least half a loaf. The synergies of holding the Grand Prix at the same time as Capital Ex shift over from the start of Capital Ex to the end of the exhibition.

It'll be quite the haul for the combined IRL/Champ Car race teams, getting their trucks packed up and one the road from Ohio to get here by mid-week.

But it'll get done.

David Foster probably hasn't got anybody firmed up yet to be his vocalist at his Edmonton benefit for his David Foundation Foundation (see other postings) in September.

He's promising to have a cast of stars with at least one "A-list performer."

If the past is any guide ... at past Canadian benefits, Foster has had Madonna, Lionel Ritchie and Bryan Adams as his special guests.

One of the neater side-benefits of Foster's show.

There's going to be a youth "star-search" leading up to his Winspear show.

The night before, at Lux Steakhouse, 10 finalists between the ages of 14 to 28 will vie for the honour of being the opening act the day after.

If that doesn't draw out every budding talent in Northern Alberta ...

Hey, maybe we are the local yokels.

But by golly, it sure felt good to have super-music producer David Foster, in town Friday to publicize his September David Foster Foundation concert, (See other postings on today's blog), praise good ol'Edmonchuk to the sky.

At the age of 20, living in Victoria in 1969, fledgling musician David Foster decided he had to get his musical career going.

He set his sights on joining one of Western Canada's most successful and must musically sophisticated bands. Tommy Banks and friends played on a regular basis at the Embers club in Edmonton.

"I got a tape recording of one of their performances," says Foster. "I learned all the piano parts note for note. Then I went and auditioned."

"Tommy Banks was and is my mentor," said Foster, with Banks by his side at the press conference at the Royal Mayfair on Friday. "I cut my musical teeth in this town."

About 18 months later, Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins came to Edmonton, looking for musicians. Foster joined the Hawkins band, then went on to have a hit with a band called Skylark, and the rest is history...

But the association with Edmonton continued. Foster was always a pal of Tommy Banks, and came to town regularly as a friend of Wayne Gretzky and to see the Oilers play. Plus he has a daughter, Alison Jones, who lives with her family in town.

How admirable of super music producer David Foster - to key his charitable efforts into one major direction - to support of the families of children facing life-threatening organ transplants. And to have done so, steadfast, for 21 years.

Foster funds his (Canada only) David Foster Foundation through a series of benefit concerts that take up an enormous amount of his very-much-in-demand time.

As first revealed in Hicks on Six this past week, Foster is coming to Edmonton for a David Foster Foundation benefit at the Winspear Centre on Sept. 13 and promises to bring a star-studded cast, "including an A-lister," he says.

Time?

This guy, born and raised in Victoria, B.C. is still the world's most sought after music producer after 30 years in the business.

His credits include Céline Dion, Barbra Streisand, Kenny Rogers, Faith Hill, Brandy, Mariah Carey, Destiny's Child, Anne Murray, Olivia Newton-John, Dolly Parton, Julio Iglesias, Gordon Lightfoot, Madonna, Kenny Loggins, Natalie Cole, Yolanda Adams, The Tubes, Chicago, Peter Cetera and many others.

His recent 'discoveries' include Michael Buble and Josh Groban.

But time is what he gives to his foundation. He's in Halifax later this month for a foundation concert. He flies to Miami to fulfil a foundation fund-raising auction promise, to join the highest bidder and Donald Trump for a lunch. "Another lunch with Bill Clinton sold for $100,000. I have to be there too."


The foundation's mandate is a superb one. It started when Foster's mom, in 1986, took him to see an acquaintance's daughter waiting for an organ transplant. "I asked what she wished for," says Foster. She said 'to see my sister.' For the price of one airplane ticket ..."

Foster found a group of unfortunate families who fell through the cracks. Kids waiting for transplants have to stay in Edmonton or Toronto, the two major transplant centres in Canada, for months on end. The medical system may be funded, but the moms and dads give up their jobs and put their lives back at home on hold until the kid's medical situation is resolved.

That's where the David Foster Foundation comes in. In 22 years, it has never turned a family (in Canada) needing help down, and has assisted 383 families in total.

It's Foster's passion, and a good one. "I hope my legacy is to leave a (sufficiently funded) foundation that can carry on after I'm gone," he says. "It's even more important to me than having my music live on."