The Ted Henley Blog - 660News Calgary

I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall in the executive offices of Calgary Transit.

Someone, in their infinite wisdom, thought it was smart to keep City Council in the dark when it comes to crime stats.

THAT is up there on the list of things NOT to do.

Attaching a bullseye on your back and lighting a fire under an Alderman who will one day run for Mayor is not wise.

Alderman Diane Colley-Urquhart says she wants heads to roll… and chances are pretty good someone will lose their job.

Calgary Transit says it will give City Council reports every year… but it may be too late for the person who defended holding the information back.

Cormac MacSweeney is one of the nicest guys I know… and tonight he receives an award for being… well… himself.

Cormac is one of our reporters on the 660News Morning Show (and a fellow 660News blogger). He’s a hard working journalist, a solid anchor, and can even run our Business Centre (which is no easy task).

Cormac’s best achivements though… are at home.

He’ll never tell you about it - so I will.

Cormac receives an Unsung Hero Award tonight from The Summit Foundation.

The Summit Foundation is an organization raising money for research into finding a cure for Cystic Fibrosis. The Unsung Hero Award is for the care and support Cormac gives to his spouse who has CF.

Congratulations to Cormac… you deserve the accolades.

On behalf of all of us at 660News… I apologize reporting in the morning is giving you grey hair at such a young age.

It was close… but the majority of Alderman decided to bring the City of Calgary into modern times.

Barely.

Alderman have voted 8-to-7 to NOT change how Calgary’s curbside recycling program will be run.

If that 8th vote had gone the other way… we wouldn’t have a blue-box program next year. We would have had to wait until atleast 2011.

It amazes me… that we as a society stress the importance of teaching kids in school the need to recycle YET Calgary is the only city of our size in Canada without a curbside pick-up program.

If you would like to know which Alderman voted AGAINST bringing our city into modern times. Here are their phone numbers:

Mayor - Dave Bronconnier - 268-5622 - themayor@calgary.ca
Ward 1 - Dale Hodges - 268-2445
Ward 2 - Gord Lowe - 268-2430
Ward 3 - Jim Stevenson - 268-2430
Ward 4 - Bob Hawkesworth - 268-2430
Ward 5 - Ray Jones - 268-2430
Ward 6 - Joe Connely - 268-2430
Ward 7 - Druh Farrell - 268-2475
Ward 8 - John Mar - 268-2430
Ward 9 - Joe Ceci - 268-2430
Ward 10 - Andre Chabot - 268-2430
Ward 11 - Brian Pincott - 268-2430
Ward 12 - Ric McIver - 268-2430
Ward 13 - Diane Colley-Urquhart - 268-2430
Ward 14 - Linda Fox-Mellway - 268-2430

The City of Calgary might delay curbside recycling… AGAIN.

That is ridiculous… irresponsible… and downright archaic.

The problem is Alderman can’t agree. If the final details about the program can’t be hammered out, it might not be up and running until 2011!!

Edmonton has had curbside recycling for 20-years… since 1988 (yes… the year of the Winter Olympics in Calgary).

Mississauga has had curbside pick-ups since 1986.

Ottawa has had blue box recycling since the late 1980s.

It’s time to tell your Alderman to stop talking… and to get curbside recycling in place.

Here’s the contact info:
Mayor - Dave Bronconnier - 268-5622 - themayor@calgary.ca
Ward 1 - Dale Hodges - 268-2445
Ward 2 - Gord Lowe - 268-2430
Ward 3 - Jim Stevenson - 268-2430
Ward 4 - Bob Hawkesworth - 268-2430
Ward 5 - Ray Jones - 268-2430
Ward 6 - Joe Connely - 268-2430
Ward 7 - Druh Farrell - 268-2475
Ward 8 - John Mar - 268-2430
Ward 9 - Joe Ceci - 268-2430
Ward 10 - Andre Chabot - 268-2430
Ward 11 - Brian Pincott - 268-2430
Ward 12 - Ric McIver - 268-2430
Ward 13 - Diane Colley-Urquhart - 268-2430
Ward 14 - Linda Fox-Mellway - 268-2430

You can also call 311 if you can’t get a politician on the line.

Ed Stelmach must have LOVED his double-double this morning after shutting-up his critics by posting near-record election results.

Stelmach led his party to winning 72 seats out of a possible 83 in the Legislature. That’s two shy of King Ralph Klein’s results in 2001.

Good for Stelmach… and good for us at 660News.

I went to bed last night smiling because the election gave us something to chat about. Very, very few people (including us in the 660News newsroom) predicted such a landslide.

The perfect end to today would be Jarome Iginla popping a goal tonight setting the all-time scoring record in Calgary Flames history.

Until then… I’m toasting the election… with my own Tim Horton’s Iced Cap.

It’s election day in Alberta. A busy day for us at 660 News… but I’m getting no sympathy from friends in other parts of the country.

Colleagues at tv and radio stations in Ontario say running an election in Alberta is a waste of time. Apparently traders on Bay Street are watching the election - but the office pools are betting on how FEW seats the Liberals and NDP will win.

This is the fourth provincial election I’ve covered in Alberta. Four elections - with four similar results. (I swear big sections of the first three victory speeches from Ralph Klein were recycled save his famous “welcome to Ralph’s World” line)

There is hope. Ed Stelmach is a rookie leader. There are a bunch of decent candidates running for the Liberals (especially in Calgary). And there are lots of new Albertan’s voting for the first time.

So… for the record… I’m rooting for drama tonight when the polls close. I don’t know if I’ll get it - but I’m atleast I’m cheering for some close races to give us something to talk about tomorrow morning.

Imagine trying to design a closet to hold space junk.

That’s what scientists in Japan have done to help astronauts living in the International Space Station (no word if they asked IKEA designers for help).

Apparently the Space Station has a lot of “clutter” and is in desperate need of storage space.

I googled the design and it sounds very cool.

The space-closet is officially called a “logistics module”. It’s about 12-feet by 14-feet in size. It weighs more than 4-tons (on Earth). And it can hold a whack of stuff (yes… whack is a technical term).

NASA will send the giant space-closet up on the next Shuttle - scheduled to launch in mid-March.

It should give astronauts a place to hang their space suits.

Kudos to the organizers of the Oscar’s.

The Academy Awards - Hollywood’s biggest night - was actually an interesting show to watch despite the lack of prep-time for writers.

Jon Stewart: good.
Hollywood starlets in fancy gowns: always good.
Lots of video vignettes during the broadcast: double-good.

It could have been a disaster after a last-minute strike-ending deal meant writers only had a fraction of the usual time to craft the show - but it was solid.

I’ll admit… I went to bed right after Ellen Page didn’t win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress… but from what I saw the show was entertaining.

Maybe writers should always have just a few days to put together the world’s most watched gala event.

I feel bad for anyone who watched the Leader’s debate last night.

Why? Ed Stelmach, Kevin Taft, Brian Mason, and Paul Hinman weren’t given enough time to talk.

The leaders of Alberta’s four major political parties shared the same stage in Edmonton with journalists lobbing questions at them on many issues.

The problem was that the leader’s only had 30 seconds to give their point of view. 30 seconds!?! It was frustrating to watch because every time each person got into what they were explaining - the moderators cut them off. Brutal. So much for meaty answers.

In case anyone wants more information on what each leader was talking about last night… check out the websites below:

www.albertapc.ab.ca
www.albertaliberal.com
www.albertandp.ca
www.wildrosealliance.ca

Don’t expect any epic battles during tonight’s televised leader’s debate. I HOPE we see some attention-holding verbal jousts - but if history holds true then my wish won’t come true.

The leaders from Alberta’s four major political parties square off from 6:30-8:30 PM. This is the one time we’ll see Ed Stelmach, Kevin Taft, Brian Mason and Paul Hinman all on the same stage.

What’s good: the leaders won’t be editted into sound-bytes. We’ll actually get to see who can think on their feet and string more than two sentences together.

What’s bad: not a lot of people will be watching. Debates are usually dull and in the hundred-plus TV channel universe… ratings are rarely good.

There is a lot to gain from tonight’s debate because thousands of voters are undecided in this election. I will be one of the people paying attention. Truth be told… I’d rather watch hockey highlights on Rogers Sportsnet.