Bad Press for Stelmach on the Eve of Provincial Election

Another election is looming on the horizon, and we're seeing a lot of activity out of parties in Alberta.

Quite honestly, I think that "honest Ed" is going to be in trouble here, as we see a shift in Alberta from Conservative Sheep, to having a decent opposition - or maybe even a minority government situation.

This will be an interesting election to watch. And it's starting out as a bit of a gong show.

Everyone remembers the fun and exciting times a few years ago when Jason Kenney stood up in Parliment during a discussion centering around registration of domain names. Don Boudria was a bit upset that his name had been registered as a domain and used by the family values crowd.

Kenney stood up and opened his mouth mading a very poorly thought out comment to the tune of "if you're stupid enough not to register your name as a domain, you get what is coming to you.". Quoting Hansard:

Mr. Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the only additional
element that the hon. member has brought to the Chair's attention relates to
a matter which is in no way, shape or form within the purview of this House
or your honour and it never has been, and hopefully never will be, that is
to say, the registration of domain names on the World Wide Web.I understand
my hon. friend opposite is learned with respect to parliamentary procedure
but I must infer from his remarks that he is stupefiedly ignorant about the
commercial practices on the Internet.¹ (1510)

Rick Mercer, of This Hour fame was listening, and he immediately checked out domains, and decided that Kenney was speaking wisely... and imemdiately registered jasonkenney.org. Initially it was pointed to a Marxist site, then to Egale Canada, and today points to Micheal Chong MLA (for some inexplicable reason). The full story can be found on Mercer's Blog.

Well, it seems that the saga of the internet gets better. Our esteemed premier discovered that someone had registered HIS name, edstelmach.ca and was using it. So, instead of approaching the individual in question with an offer to purchase it, he immediately paid his lawyer to send a threatening letter to a 24 year old university student. (Somehow I don't think that he's going to get it back now!). Very ill advised, and well covered in the media, who took a lot of sympathy with the student. It's in the news media (who are predicting that Stelmach is going to lose this fight), on the radio, and it even made BoingBoing - which is rare for something originating from Canadian Politics.

The student, a well known Alberta Blogger named Dave Cournoyer who I frequently read, has since pointed the blog at Harry Strom's entry in Wikipedia (former premier of Alberta, Social Credit Party prior to the election of the Conservatives. It is my understanding that previously the student had it going to his own blog (http://www.daveberta.ca/), and had earned $70 worth of ad revenue since registering it in the fall - something that Stelmach wanted paid to him as well (As if the tax system wasn't bad enough, now let's take money from enterprising university students and candy from babies!)

Of course the recent contreversy over the story would have really punched up visits to the stelmech website that Dave registered, leaving me to wonder if Dave ought to be talking to Stelmach's lawyers about lost ad revenues over this time period where he graciously redirected the name away from his blog and towards Wikipedia instead.

It really makes you wonder at just how clueless a person has to be to follow such an ill advised course of action.

The election is a gong show - and it's started early! People are laughing at Stelmach and wondering why he is acting the part of a buffoon - a role previously enjoyed by his predecessor King Ralph for many years.