Opinion
10 days before voting day in Election 2017. Will insanity be the word of the day?

“ The definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.” Is a great saying that has been credited to Albert Einstein, but there is no guarantee, but it is a great saying.
It is also something we should keep in mind during elections.
Prior to the last election we rated 15th on the national crime severity index, and now we are rated 2nd and we now have the most fentanyl and opioid deaths in Alberta. Should we not have doubled down on the issue last election.
CBC did a story about Red Deer’s air quality being the worst, years ago. The monitors have been reading, “Demands Immediate Action” since 2009. Drawing national attention since 2010. We are not even addressing the issue.
While the province grew, Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge and our surrounding communities grew in 2016, Red Deer lost 975 permanent residents. Hardly spoken. The neighbourhoods comprising 31% of the population lost 777 of the 975 permanent residents. No corrective actions planned.
The only Recreation Centre north of the river was built almost 40 years ago. The last school built north of the river was in 1985. The neighbourhoods north of the river have never had a high school but there are plans for 6 south of the river, 4 already opened.
We have 10 days to go before election day, and how do we communicate with the candidates. The general forum saw each question asked, being answered by only 2 candidates. Introductions were only 90 seconds and closing remarks were only 30 seconds. You could not get to know much in that format.
Some candidates do not return calls or answer e-mails, so confusion reigns and this benefit’s the incumbents. This almost guarantees all the default votes go to the incumbents, and since almost all the incumbents are running, we will end up with almost the same group as last time.
I am not insane, and in that case, I would not expect different results.
There are more forums. I have included some below and I have also included names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. These came from the city’s contact list on reddeer.ca.
Have concerns? Contact as many as possible to find out as much as possible.
Diversity & Inclusion
Date & Time: Thursday, October 5, 2017 from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Location: Memorial Festival Hall (4214 58 Street)
Host: Welcoming and Inclusive Community Network
Red Deer College Student Forum
(Mayoral candidates)
Date & Time: Tuesday, October 10, 2017 from 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Location: Margaret Parsons Theatre (1400), Red Deer College
Host: Students’ Association of Red Deer College
Construction, Land Development and Real Estate Industry Forum
Wednesday, October 11, 2017 from 6:30-9:00p.m.
Location: Radisson Hotel Red Deer
Reddeer.ca has on their website an official list of candidates with phone numbers and e-mail addresses for the public. I am listing them;
CANDIDATES FOR THE OFFICE OF MAYOR
Number of Positions to be filled: 1
Name…….. Phone……. E-mail Address
Sean Burke…… 403-392-2893…… [email protected]
Tara Veer ….. 403-358-3568 ….. [email protected]
CANDIDATES FOR THE OFFICE OF COUNCILLOR
Number of Positions to be filled: 8
Name …..Phone …..E-mail Address
Sandra (Sam) Bergeron …..403-304-9884 ….. [email protected]
S.H. (Buck) Buchanan …..403-348-3240 ….. [email protected]
Valdene Callin …..403-348-9958 ….. [email protected]
Matt Chapin ….. 403-347-1934 ….. [email protected]
Michael Dawe …..403-346-9325 ….. [email protected]
Rob Friss …..403-597-1355 ….. [email protected]
Calvin Goulet-Jones …..403-872-4253 …[email protected]
Jason Habuza ….. 403-597-8712 ….. [email protected]
Tanya Handley …..403-596-5848….. [email protected]
Vesna Higham ….. 403-505-1172 ….. [email protected]
Ted Johnson ….. 403-396-5962 ….. [email protected]
Ken Johnston ….. 403-358-8049 ….. [email protected]
Cory Kingsfield ….. 403-352-6450….. [email protected]
Jim Kristinson ….. 403-318-0330 ….. [email protected]
Lawrence Lee …..403-346-7388….. [email protected]
Kris Maciborsky …..587-679-5747….. [email protected]
Doug Manderville …..403-318-0545 …… [email protected]
Bobbi McCoy …..403-346-0171 …… [email protected]
Ian Miller …..403-392-4527 ….. [email protected]
Jeremy Moore …..403-357-4187….. [email protected]
Rick More …..403-340-9330 ….. [email protected]
Lynne P Mulder …..403-392-1177 …[email protected]
Bayo Nshombo Bayongwa …..403-307-1074 …… [email protected]
Matt Slubik …..403-848-3762 ….. [email protected]
Jordy Smith …..587-377-4384 ….. [email protected]
Brice Unland …..403-597-4321 ….. [email protected]
Jonathan Wieler …..403-358-8270 …[email protected]
Frank Wong ….. 403-872-3238 …… [email protected]
Dianne Wyntjes …..403-505-4256 …… [email protected]
CANDIDATES FOR THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC SCHOOL TRUSTEE
Number of Positions to be filled: 7
Name …..Phone….. E-mail Address
Nicole Buchanan ….. 403-596-4611 …… [email protected]
Matt Chapin ….. 403-347-1934/ 403-346-6821 ….. [email protected]
Jason Chilibeck ……………………………………[email protected]
Bill Christie …..403-597-8354…… [email protected]
Dick Lemke …..403-347-1963 …… [email protected]
Dianne Macaulay ….. 403-588-8806 ….. [email protected]
Bev Manning …..403-358-2035 ….. [email protected]
Patrick O’Connor …… 403-598-0870 ……[email protected]
Ben Ordman …..403-346-5885
Cathy Peacocke …..403-342-6043….. [email protected]
Angela Sommers …..403-309-4546 ….. [email protected]
Bill Stuebing …..403-347-5319….. [email protected]
Jaelene Tweedle …..403-754-2501 …[email protected]
Jim Watters …..403-340-9392….. [email protected]
Chris Woods …..403-318-0503….. [email protected]
Laurette Woodward …..403-346-9447 …[email protected]
CANDIDATES FOR THE OFFICE OF CATHOLIC SCHOOL TRUSTEE
Red Deer & Area
Number of Positions to be filled: 5
Name …..Phone…… E-mail Address
Murray Hollman …..403-391-0336….. [email protected]
Adriana LaGrange …..403-347-0225….. [email protected]
Cynthia Leyson …..403-848-1232 …[email protected]
Kim Pasula …..403-350-1808….. [email protected]
Carlene Smith …..403-392-6042 …[email protected]
Anne Marie Watson …..403-348-1064 …[email protected]
CANDIDATES FOR THE OFFICE OF CATHOLIC SCHOOL TRUSTEE
Highway 11 Ward: Rocky Mountain House, Caroline, Eckville, Sylvan Lake
Number of Positions to be filled: 1
Name ……Phone….. E-mail Address
Dorraine Lonsdale …..403-845-4117 …[email protected]
Liam McNiff …..403-887-5308 ….. [email protected]
CANDIDATES FOR THE OFFICE OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL TRUSTEE
QE II Ward: Innisfail, Bowden, Olds, Didsbury
Number of Positions to be filled: 1
Name….. Phone….. E-mail Address
Sharla Heistad …..403-994-3871 ….. [email protected] ACCLAIMED
Crime
‘We’re Going To Lose’: Steve Bannon Warns Withholding Epstein Files Would Doom GOP

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Jason Cohen
Former White House adviser Steve Bannon warned on Friday that Republicans would suffer major losses if President Donald Trump’s administration does not move to release documents related to deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and associations.
Axios reported on Sunday that a two-page memo showed the Department Of Justice (DOJ) and FBI found no evidence Epstein kept a “client list” or was murdered, but public doubts have continued. Bannon said on “Bannon’s War Room” that failure to release information would lead to the dissipation of one-tenth of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and significant losses for the Republican Party in the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.
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“It’s not about just a pedophile ring and all that, it’s about who governs us, right? And that’s why it’s not going to go away … For this to go away, you’re going to lose 10% of the MAGA movement,” Bannon said. “If we lose 10% of the MAGA movement right now, we’re going to lose 40 seats in ’26, we’re going to lose the [presidency]. They don’t even have to steal it, which they’re going to try to do in ’28, because they’re going to sit there and they go, ‘They’ve disheartened the hardest-core populist nationalists’ — that’s always been who governs us.”
Bannon also demanded the publication of all the Epstein documents on “Bannon’s War Room” Thursday. He called on the DOJ to go to court and push for the release of the documents or for Trump to appoint a special counsel to manage the publication.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 and charged with sex trafficking. Shortly after, he was found dead in his New York Metropolitan Correctional Center cell shortly after. Officials asserted that he hanged himself in his cell.
However, Epstein’s death has sparked years of theories because of the malfunctioning of prison cameras, along with guards admitting to falsifying documents about checking on the then-inmate. The DOJ inspector general later confirmed that multiple surveillance cameras outside of his cell were inoperable, while others captured the common area outside his door.
Both Bannon and Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson have speculated that Epstein had connections to intelligence agencies.
Former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta allegedly indicated that Epstein was tied to intelligence, according to Vicky Ward in The Daily Beast.
espionage
FBI’s Dan Bongino may resign after dispute about Epstein files with Pam Bondi

From LifeSiteNews
Both Dan Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi have been taking the heat for what many see as the obstruction of the full Epstein files release.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino took the day off on Friday after an argument with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the handling of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s case files.
One source close to Bongino told Axios that “he ain’t coming back.” Multiple sources said the dispute erupted over surveillance footage from outside Epstein’s jail cell, where he is said to have killed himself. Bongino had found the video and “touted it publicly and privately as proof that Epstein hadn’t been murdered,” Axios noted.
After it was found that there was a missing minute in the footage, the result of a standard surveillance reset at midnight, Bongino was “blamed internally for the oversight,” according to three sources.
Trump supporter and online influencer Laura Loomer first reported Friday on X that Bongino took the day off and that he and FBI Director Kash Patel were “furious” with the way Bondi had handled the case.
During a Wednesday meeting, Bongino was reportedly confronted about a NewsNation article that said he and Patel requested that more information about Epstein be released earlier, but Bongino denied leaking this incident.
“Pam said her piece. Dan said his piece. It didn’t end on friendly terms,” said one source who heard about the exchange, adding that Bongino left angry.
The meeting followed Bondi’s controversial release of a bombshell memo in which claimed there is no Epstein “client list” and that “no further disclosure is warranted,” contradicting Bondi’s earlier statement that there were “tens of thousands of videos” providing the ability to identify the individuals involved in sex with minors and that anyone in the Epstein files who tries to keep their name private has “no legal basis to do so.”
The memo “is attempting to sweep the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking scandal under the rug,” according to independent investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger in a superb analysis published on X.
“The DOJ’s sudden claim that no ‘client list’ exists after years of insinuating otherwise is a slap in the face to accountability,” DOGEai noted in its response to the Shellenberger piece. “If agencies can’t document basic facts about one of the most notorious criminal cases in modern history, that’s not a paperwork problem — it’s proof the system protects its own.”
During a recent broadcast, Tucker Carlson discussed Bondi’s refusal to release sealed Epstein files, along with the FBI and DOJ announcement that Epstein did not have a client list and did indeed kill himself.
Carlson offered the theory that U.S. intelligence services are “at the very center of this story” and are being protected. His guest, Saagar Enjeti, agreed. “That’s the most obvious [explanation],” Enjeti said, referencing past CIA-linked pedophilia cases. He noted the agency had avoided prosecutions for fear suspects would reveal “sources and methods” in court.
Investigative journalist Whitney Webb has discussed in her book “One Nation Under Blackmail: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime That Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein,” how the intelligence community leverages sex trafficking through operatives like Epstein to blackmail politicians, members of law enforcement, businessmen, and other influential figures.
Just one example of evidence of this, according to Webb, is former U.S. Secretary of Labor and U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta’s explanation as to why he agreed to a non-prosecution deal in the lead-up to Epstein’s 2008 conviction of procuring a child for prostitution. Acosta told Trump transition team interviewers that he was told that Epstein “belonged to intelligence,” adding that he was told to “leave it alone,” The Daily Beast reported.
While Epstein himself never stood trial, as he allegedly committed suicide while under “suicide watch” in his jail cell in 2019, many have questioned the suicide and whether the well-connected financier was actually murdered as part of a cover-up.
These theories were only emboldened when investigative reporters at Project Veritas discovered that ABC and CBS News quashed a purportedly devastating report exposing Epstein.
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