Other business

Here is a few small(ish) items that I've been accumulating over the week because I think they're worth sharing:

Sense of entitlement, much?

Is anyone else mildly disturbed by this excerpt from Tuesday's story from the Edmonton Journal, 'Millions in war chest give Tories ad-vantage':

Despite the Tories' financial health, they're being pinched on one side by unrest in the oilpatch after Stelmach's decision last fall to hike energy royalties. Companies have said the increases would kill investment at a time when conventional oil and gas developers are already hurting, and hundreds of millions of dollars in investments have been cancelled.

Rick Grafton, former chairman of Canaccord Adams and a pioneer in Alberta's energy financing sector, angrily quit the PCs' Calgary finance committee last month.

In a letter to campaign co-chair Doug Black, Grafton said "raising money for a premier and minister who are not open to private in-depth conversations with the energy sector to reach a consensus collaboratively will only be an exercise in frustration and futility."

Somehow, I doubt Stelmach isn't open to these deals, but can you believe this guy's lack of subtlety? He might as well made the subject line of his letter, re: quid pro quo.

I heart Todd Babiak, Pt. 2

On a lighter note, best blog post title of the week, goes to Todd Babiak  for this number. Hmm...I'm sensing someone wishes they had been invited to join the Journal's Election Notebook blog.

The Red Dot Campaign

Hallelujah. Someone's found an effective and permanent way to stop (most) junk mail from cluttering your mailbox. Say hello to the Red Dot Campaign. Contrary to the rumors that 'No Junk Mail' stickers are ignored by mail carriers, Canada post actually has their own program to allow citizens to opt-out of receiving unaddressed mail. The Red Dot Campaign was established to publicize the program's existence (as for understandable bottom-line reasons, Canada Post does not).

The group is motivated by their perception that,

We are fortunate to live in abundance where many of us have TOO MUCH STUFF! And to keep us buying more stuff, we are inundated with $19 Billion worth of advertising each year.

Much of this advertising is wasteful and irrelevant. Print advertising has a huge environmental footprint and often produces only a 1-2% uptake on the offer.

In addition to these stats, the campaign also notes that 67% of Canadians are not interested in these ads, and 25% throw them out without even looking at them (I definitely fall in this bracket, but not for much longer!).

Sign up today! And don't worry, AGRDT readers, your political and public service information pamphlets will still get through, as they are excluded from the ban.

And last but not least - My Favorite (Non Alberta Election Related) Video of the Week,