Jason

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January 12, 2012 - By

I don’t call a lot of people, “friend.”  The list of people who I consider to be friends is minimal, at best, and even then, the people who I would entrust most information to is an even smaller list.  Jason Letourneau was one of those friends.  His sudden passing on Tuesday hit me hard, as it has anyone who has had the privilege of calling him a friend.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Jason Scott Letourneau. Jason was born with a major heart defect and through the generous donation of an anonymous family, Jason received the priceless gift of a new heart 18 years ago. Although 40 years of age, Jason thought of himself as just turning “18″ – old enough to vote. Jason worked hard to support those going through any type of hardship. He had been a spokesperson for the Organ Donation and Transplant Association of Canada and helped others whenever possible. He worked for various charitable institutions and had a passion for fund raising. Jason really believed you can make a difference and recently discovered a new passion working at Calgary City Hall which fed his love for communication and public relations. He was overjoyed when the song he wrote for Kim for their wedding day was professionally recorded. Jason will be lovingly remembered by his wife Kimberly who shares his passion for life and music; his parents, Dave and Iris Letourneau; his sister and brother-in-law, Shelley Letourneau and Matt Aird; Baba, Anne Kitchen; in-laws Ron and Pin Baker, Wendy and Andrew Smith and favourite nephew Desmond; numerous aunts and uncles, many friends and coworkers and his always faithful dog Britany. At Jason’s request there will be no services held. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made directly to the [...]Read More

Joey and Shane… in Stereo

September 20, 2011 - By

If you didn't get a chance to hear the Joey versus Shane debate on CBC on Monday, here's a link so you can listen to the audio. http://www.cbc.ca/homestretch/episode/2011/09/19/pc-bloggers/

Alberta PC Leadership Vlog Post

September 16, 2011 - By

With only one days left in the Alberta PC Leadership Race, I have finally decided to do a post!  Here is a quick ramble about my thoughts on the race..... This weekend should finally bring some excitement to this race!  I am interested to see who will move on to the top three.   Shane   [...]Read More

PC Leadership Candidate Profile – Doug Griffiths

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September 16, 2011 - By

Dark horse.  Maverick.  Agent of Change.  Doug Griffiths has been called a lot of things in this race. My favourite, though, has to be "Weapon of Mass Discussion". Griffiths, the 9-year MLA from Battle River-Wainwright, will talk to anyone, about any issue, without any fear at all. He was one of the first MLAs in Alberta to [...]Read More

PC Leadership Candidate Profile – Alison Redford

September 16, 2011 - By

Alison Redford is a successful, independent woman - mother to a nine year-old girl, a lawyer who advised Brian Mulroney and Joe Clark on policy before travelling the world promoting the structural edification of human rights into the governance of developing democracies and who counts Nelson Mandela among her mentors... BANG! That sound you just [...]Read More

PC Leadership Candidate Profile – Ted Morton

September 16, 2011 - By

Candyman. Candyman. Candyman.   If you look into a mirror and say it 3 times, so the legend goes, you're in for a VERY bad night.   So it goes, too, with "Wildrose Party" - at least, if you subscribe to Ted Morton's view of provincial politics.   Long a darling of the "deep blue" [...]Read More

PC Leadership Candidate Profile – Gary Mar

September 16, 2011 - By

Newton's Second Law of Motion defines "momentum" as "mass multiplied by velocity". That said, Gary Mar had better find the accelerator on his huge campaign bus, because momentum can be a fickle mistress for such a massive campaign. Mar has been the front-runner for this race since the day after the LAST PC Leadership race. An [...]Read More

PC Leadership Candidate Profile – Doug Horner

September 16, 2011 - By

Legacy.   Any story about Doug Horner's rise in politics has to start with the Horner legacy.   Doug's grandfather, Ralph, was a Senator for Saskatchewan.  At the time of Doug's birth, his father was the sitting Member of Parliament for Jasper-Edson. Three of his uncles also served as MPs. After 9 years in Ottawa, Horner's [...]Read More

PC Leadership Candidate Profile – Rick Orman

September 16, 2011 - By

Rick Orman is mad as hell, and he's not going to take it any more. The PC Party, according to Orman, has strayed from its founding principles. It doesn't handle itself the way it should. It needs saving. And Rick, after 18 years away from politics, is just the man for the job - or, [...]Read More

PC Leadership Candidate Profiles – Primer

September 16, 2011 - By

(Excerpted from the original post at The Enlightened Savage)   Nation, almost 5 years ago, the Enlightened Savage blog was born.  The first post was a welcome. The 2nd was a review of the recent PC Leadership Forum. And the third was the first in a series of profiles of the candidates to replace outgoing [...]Read More

Tweet the Results: How it became a trending topic

May 3, 2011 - By

People in favour of tweeting the results called a victory last night.  A civil disobedience movement that really sticks it to the country's election broadcast laws. Of course, don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed.  Last night's trending was aided, in large part, by the disobedience to the civil disobedience.  That is, [...]Read More

#elxn41 Primer: The Results

May 1, 2011 - By

Nation, I thought I'd save you all the time and trouble of staying up to watch the results on Monday's election - especially since Tweeting the results is against the law (but blogging them seems not to be...  odd...). Everyone else seems already to have weighed in on how the results are going to work [...]Read More

#elxn41: You Don’t Know Jack

May 1, 2011 - By

Nation, it was only a matter of time. As soon as I saw the polling numbers rising for the NDP, I knew it was only a matter of time before some deep, dark secret in Jack Layton's ancient past creeped into the light - coincidentally, I'm sure. Of course, every party is going to [...]Read More

#elxn41 Primer: Conservative Party

April 30, 2011 - By

Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes... Give or take, depending on orbital wobble, that's how many minutes are in one calendar year.  Criticisms about the amount of time Parliament sits (or doesn't) in a given year notwithstanding, it is worth mentioning that the Stephen Harper Government (TM) has been the longest-lived minority government in [...]Read More

#elxn41 Primer: New Democratic Party

April 29, 2011 - By

Banners and signs are waved as rock music plays in the packed hall. The beaming leader, flush with polling numbers that put him in a statistical tie for first place in La Belle Province, shakes hands and speaks of upcoming campaign stops in Atlantic Canada, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories - all places he expects [...]Read More

#elxn41 Primer: Liberal Party

April 28, 2011 - By

The Federal Liberal campaign has become about one man, and one man only: Michael Ignatieff. Or, as this pundit refers to him, "Canada's John Kerry". Why Ignatieff has had so much trouble connecting with the Canadian public is going to be a subject that in coming years makes a lot of authors a lot of [...]Read More

#elxn41 Primer: Green Party

April 27, 2011 - By

Nation, this is the first is a series of posts that will go up daily leading to Election Day on May 2nd. I'll be profiling the 4 federalist parties and their campaigns thus far, in reverse order of their popular support according to the latest polls. If it seems as though I'm a little down on [...]Read More

The ghost of Sir Sandford Fleming

April 26, 2011 - By

Worldwide timezones were introduced by a number of individuals, (see wikipedia), including Canadian Sir Sandford Fleming.  As you are well aware, this enables Albertans to watch House, M.D. at an earlier time as it plays in an Eastern time zone, and enabled us in university to watch CSI at midnight (when I lived in [...]Read More

The Youth

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April 22, 2011 - By

Today I read an article by Michael Taube, former speechwriter for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, entitled, "Vote Mob Mentality" It reminded me a lot of comments made by a particular political scientist in Calgary during the civic election.  So much, so, that it has made me want to comment on this. I'll be honest [...]Read More

The Revolution – Appendix A

April 14, 2011 - By

I recently got the chance to chat with the talented Trevor Scott Howell over at FFWD Weekly about social media in the election.  You can see the article at: The Revolution will not be Twittered at FFWDWeekly I first met Trevor during the Conservative Party of Canada Calgary West AGM when hundreds of [...]Read More

Twibate #elxn41: The People’s Twibate

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April 5, 2011 - By

For those who watched CalgaryPolitics.com closely during the civic election, you may have seen a debate series we ran over Twitter, which we lovingly called, "Twibates."  We ran a twibate for mayoralty candidates, two twibates for aldermanic (even- and odd-numbered wards), and then a final for trustees. Similar debates were either held, or considered, in [...]Read More