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 [...]Read More

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/

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

This post is a cross reference post from www.calgaryrants.com

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 make direct use of social media – no staffers filtering his account or writing for him – and he remains one of the best at it. But through the entire campaign, one question has dogged the Griffiths campaign: Who IS Doug Griffiths?

 He’s a family man, first and foremost. This blogger has been in attendance at speeches where Griffiths has, when speaking about children and family, had to pause to collect himself. He has missed his 2 young sons and his wife terribly during this leadership campaign. He’s also a renaissance man, and a study in remarkable contrasts: A University of Alberta grad in Philosophy and Education, Griffiths was an award-winning teacher – a job he took to, in his words, “support my ranching habit”. He still maintains that ranch. He’s one of the few people you’ll meet who drives a pick-up because he needs to, has [...]Read More

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 heard might have been Rob Anders’ head exploding. Don’t be alarmed.

A first-term MLA representing Calgary-Elbow, Alison Redford has her eyes set on being the 2nd Premier to hail from the southwest Calgary riding (the first was a fella named “Ralph” a few years ago). Appointed to cabinet in the high profile position of Minister of Justice immediately after being elected, the unapologetic carnivore (the “Redford Diet”, I’m told, includes nothing that never had parents) had some big expectations to meet – and by most accounts, she did just fine, thank-you very much. In fact, Redford’s term as Minister of Justice was so successful, earlier in this campaign she gained the endorsement of the Calgary Police Association, representing the members of the Calgary Police Service. If you’re a lawyer and the cops actually LIKE you, you’re doing something right. The strategy for Team Redford has seemed to be, from the [...]Read More