Copyright 2010.  All rights reserved. June 14, 2010.... I recently met with the Honourable Brent Rathgeber, St. Albert Member of Parliament and local Blogger Don Sinclair. Don had wanted to discuss the issue of copyright laws pertaining to bloggers being charged copyright fees by CBC which is supposed to be publically owned as well as how the new copyright law will affect media transfer of movies. June 18, 2010.... Today, I took advantage of an opportunity to go bike ridding for the first time in years with a local family along Red Willow Trail. Along the way we stopped at the grand natural area by Big Lake. I had forgotten how nice it really was out there.  St. Albert is truly a beautiful place to live. June 25th... Braeside certainly has some interesting characters living within it’s borders. (Myself included) Ran into Paul Chalifoux, he only lives a few doors down from me and has some very interesting insights into things. Neat story, Knock on Pauls door have a nice chat and move on same neighbourhood and not too far away I run into a fellow who would like to get rid of the whole lot at city hall and all politicians for that matter. Seemed to have a bit of a soft spot for me though as we talked for a while. His solution was to take a machine gun to city hall. I wonder if he ever expressed his thoughts to his neighbour the former mayor. That would have been a hoot. June 30th.... Interesting week, just finishing up Braeside and it kind of like strolling down memory lane for me as many of my old friends from High school used to live here. I knocked on a good friend’s house from High school (He doesn’t live there anymore but still resides here in St. Albert).  It amazing how things change over 20 years. A nice couple with a few children reside there now and expressed concern about taxes and spending. Right up my alley. Got a sign to go up on his lawn. July 5th.... My birthday is July 5th although I’m not much of a Birthday guy. I’m more than halfway to becoming a senior at 35 but still old enough for my daughter to call me the “old man”. Been door knocking some more and the issue at the seniors club has come up a few times. For those of you not aware there is a lawsuit going on between disgruntled former members and the current executive. Bob Russell Is helping the dissident group file statements of claim. The allegations include missing funds and not being able to change the board. This will get interesting down the road as I have never heard of a situation whereby a local clubs issues spill out into an election campaign. In this case with the seniors club poised to get millions for a new building, in my mind I would want the issue resolved to some satisfaction. July 6th.... I went to council today to present an alternative position on the downtown redevelopment plan. DARP may be a bold vision catapulting St. Albert into the future or it may just be another financial blunder. Due to the sheer size and cost of the plan, right now it may be wiser to seek more affordable methods to revitalize downtown. I proposed that we provide angle parking to add more parking spots for merchants, allow more advertising on the sidewalk and even the ability to sell wares.  Allocating some of the space behind city hall exclusively for customer parking would be a good idea as well. There is some discontent amongst some of the merchants as they are sceptical about narrowing the roads and removing on street parking. They fear it could cost them business, I met a few afterwards who liked my presentation. July 7th..... Is my brothers birthday. He resides in Saskatoon and works for the military. Soon he will be posted to Afghanistan and will be training the Afghanis to fight for themselves. I certainly wish him the best and hope that he remains safe. I somewhat recruited him into my reserve unit 745 communications squadron when I was going to university, he made a career out of it and I paid my way through school. Hopefully I’ll talk to him again soon. Aug 5th... I was taken out to see a movie at the space science centre by friends of mine. The Movie was about climbing Mount Everest. How poetic as sometimes that’s what it feels like in running for city council. One neat occurrence is that Bill Smith the former mayor of Edmonton was there, so I got a 5 minute audience with him. He gave me some advice, work hard and always be positive because people are counting on you. Aug 13th....  I went out door knocking in Forest Lawn with a friend of mine. There sure are great people in that neighbourhood  One of the neat things about going out door knocking with me is that sometimes the family dog remembers me more than the owners! I ran into a couple of dogs that used to come to open spaces and then the owner figured out who I was. Man’s best Friend and a political candidates best ally!