Ed Stelmach is not Glen Clark, not even close!

I get a lot of traffic from Alberta, and I understand that some of you are frustrated with the current state of affairs. But let's not get carried away here. I have not been closely following Stelmach because I live in BC and am very focused on federal politics, but there is absolutely no way that he can be anywhere close to the abysmal failures that were Bob Rae and Glen Clark! Eddy replaced a very popular Premier, and you knew there was going to be a hangover. Maybe his worst offense is that he is boring. Everyone across the country loved watching Ralph speak on their televisions. When Harris and Klein were in power simultaneously, Canada had a fantastic economic boom, if not a miniature "Golden Age".

Perhaps Eddy did not properly brace for the fall in the world price of crude oil from $150 per barrel to $50 per barrel. Alberta exports a lot of barrels, including a lot of the lower end stuff that costs much more to refine. Many of those projects are only profitable when oil is selling at a certain price. Alberta has had to have experienced at least a 50% decline in revenues. I have never run a government, but that cannot be easy. Again I don't know how much of this is Stelmach's fault, but if his name shows up in a web poll of worst premier in the last 30 years, it is absolutely ridiculous that he could be within 2% of Glen Clark. Does nobody outside of British Columbia understand just how terrible Clark was? Clark nearly destroyed BC economically when the rest of Canada was prospering! I voted for Rae in this poll because for as terrible as Clark was and McGuinty is, Bob was that much worse. He prepared government policy like the Swedish Chef preparing a meal on the Muppet Show.

Bob Rae is running away with this one. He was that brutal. But you people voting for Stelmach need to give your head a shake. Google "BC Fast Ferries." Maybe the Stelmach votes are coming from my Wildrose readers, of which I'm sure there are a few. I am excited for Danielle Smith to make some policy announcement, but just remember Alberta, when the "Siren" starts singing, you may need to chain down your Argonauts...

Mike Harris in all his glory endorsed Belinda for that Tory leadership race. How do you logically explain endorsing a candidate with no political experience? Read the story of Jason and the Argonauts. This rule may also apply to Sarah Palin south of the border.

According to Wikipedia: "BC Fast Ferries"

The Fast Ferry Scandal, also referred to as the Fast Ferries Scandal, "FastCat Fiasco", Fast Ferries Fiasco, was the name given to a political affair in the Canadian province of British Columbia in the 1990s relating to the construction of a fleet of high speed ferry vessels.

The provincial government at the time, led by New Democratic Party (NDP) premier Glen Clark, decided to use provincial Crown corporation BC Ferries to advance its economic goal of supporting British Columbia's shipbuilding industry by creating a fleet of custom-designed high-speed catamaran passenger/vehicle ferries for BC Ferries, with the eventual goal of exporting additional vessels on the international market. The vessels were to be built by local shipyards under the overview of a new provincial Crown corporation to be called Catamaran Ferries International Inc. (CFI).

Faced with the potential collapse of an institutional industry the New Democratic Party, a political party with a very strong pro-labour disposition, attempted a resuscitation by creating the Fast Ferry Program. BC Ferries had initially recommended that a comparable ferry be leased for trials in coastal waters, but the Government decided to forego testing and committed to the construction project regardless. The Government was attempting to emulate the success of Australian shipbuilders such as Incat in Tasmania and Austal Shipbuilding in the global fast ferry market.

Due to various oversights by the government, BC Ferries, design bureaus, and the shipyards, the cost of the program more than doubled from $210 million ($70 million/vessel) to almost $460 million ($150 million/vessel) and final delivery was almost 3 years behind schedule. As with all prototype construction this cost and build time was gradually being reduced with each successive completion. A large part of the delay was because the shipyards commissioned to construct the vessels had very little experience working with aluminum. Also design changes during construction caused delays and more costs. Previously, construction of aluminum vessels in British Columbia had been limited to fishing boats and special-purpose vessels. The construction of three dual-hulled 122.5 m catamarans represented a very large leap of faith by the Government in British Columbia shipyards.

The ferries also had the following problems during their brief tenure:

High fuel consumption. The four 8,375 brake horsepower (6.2 MW) engines driving their waterjets required an inordinate amount of diesel fuel and had to be used at 90% power for cruise speed, making them prone to breakdown. This was largely due to BC Ferries' insistence on using diesel engines rather than the more efficient gas turbines that were originally planned.

Due to an unusually wet and windy winter, there was a higher than normal amount of flotsam in the waters along the route, some of which was sucked into impellers for the ferries' engines, causing breakdowns and sailing cancellations.

When operated at full speed, the Pacificat fleet created a wake which was reported to have damaged waterfront wharves and property in coastal areas near the two terminals. This required that the ferries reduce speed in certain areas and alter course in others, reducing their speed advantage.

The air on vehicle decks became uncomfortably warm, either from the heat of the vessel engines or lack of air circulation. This made some people wary of bringing pets aboard the FastCats; however, the ferries had kennels with improved air circulation at the bow and stern of the vehicle decks.

There was little outside deck space for passengers. The existing ferries had large decks, and it was common for passengers to spend the entire sailing circling the decks of the ship or sunbathing on the lifejacket containers.

After a change in leadership, the new Premier of BC, Ujjal Dosanjh, placed the ferries up for sale.[1] A subsequent election virtually eliminated the New Democratic Party from the legislature, and Gordon Campbell of the BC Liberals auctioned off the PacifiCat fleet on March 24, 2003 for $19.4 million ($6.5 million/vessel) to the Washington Marine Group. Further controversy erupted when it was revealed that the same company had offered $60 million for the vessels prior to the auction.