Democracy

EDMONTON—Representatives of Public Interest Alberta (PIA) called on the ruling Progressive Conservative (PC) party to fix fundamental flaws in the campaign finance rules for the party’s upcoming leadership contest.

"Progressive Conservative candidates must adopt a 'gold standard' in election finance disclosure rules because the winner of the leadership race will be the next premier of Alberta, critics say. Advocacy groups and experts urged the governing party to publish donor names and contribution amounts online immediately, so Tories can see who backs each candidate before they cast their first ballot Sept. 6."

"'There’s a real direct correlation between who’s paying the piper and what the policies are,' said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, executive director of Public Interest Alberta. The three opposition parties in Alberta have previously called for rule changes that would ban union and corporation donations, matching a federal prohibition. Federally, individuals can give $1,200 annually to a party and another $1,200 to riding associations in non-election years."

Public Interest Alberta and The Council of Canadians delivered petitions to the office of Conservative MP Laurie Hawn with signatures of over 5,500 Albertans calling for the federal government's so-called "Fair Elections Act" to be fixed or scrapped. The petition opposes the unnecessarily strict voter ID requirements that could stop hundreds of thousands of people, including youth, Aboriginal, and low-income citizens from voting in the next election. [VIDEO]

EDMONTON—Concerned citizens delivered a petition with over 80,000 signatures to the office of the Hon. Laurie Hawn, MP for Edmonton Centre, to challenge some of the major changes in the Conservative government’s proposed Elections Act.

The delivery was part of a national day of action called “Let People Vote!” at 30 MP offices across the country. The petition opposes the unnecessarily strict voter ID requirements that could stop hundreds of thousands of people, including youth, Aboriginal, and low-income citizens from voting in the next election.

"While federal Conservatives hammer out new ideas in Calgary’s BMO Centre, their opponents are holding a series of protests and counter summits this week. Things kick off October 31, with Wake Up Canada—The Canada We Want summit at The Area in Inglewood. Wake Up Canada is offering workshops on labour, environmental, human rights and aboriginal issues at The Area and Central Library until November 2, as well as two protest rallies outside the BMO Centre where the Conservative Convention is taking place. The non-profit social advocacy group Public Interest Alberta is holding its own counter-summit on November 1 at the Central Library."

The Alberta Way is an approach to life Albertans aspire to: hard working, straight talking, mindful of others and true to one’s word. It is also a movement of people just like you who believe the Redford government isn’t doing things the Alberta way.Find out more at: http://thealbertaway.com/

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On October 1st, the provincial government announced a public consultation on the Budget 2014 with open house sessions

EDMONTON—It was revealed in an article in the Calgary Herald today that Service Alberta Minister, Manmeet Bhullar, has admitted that he paid back $10,000 in election campaign contributions that he received from Solo Liquor Stores.

"Last September, advocacy group Public Interest Alberta alleged that Bhullar had at the least broken the spirit of Alberta’s election finance law by accepting $12,000 in donations from Solo Liquor Stores and its subsidiaries, with six separate stores contributing $2,000 apiece to his Calgary-Greenway campaign.Under provincial rules, there is a $2,000 limit on how much a single person or company can donate to a candidate."