Earlier this week, the Edmonton Journal's Graham Thomson reported Ron Stevens, Alberta's deputy premier, would be keeping a blog as part of his campaign in American's capital to "rebrand Alberta's oilsands as something clean." But, for some reason, that blog has been shutdown. Of course, that would have nothing to do with the fact Deputy Premier Stevens used the headline "Mission accomplished" for his final entry. As one of his readers commented, "those words were last heard in the US political context" on May 1, 2003 - almost exactly five years ago. "Since then, they have become synonymous with a mission that actually was not accomplished and whose very premise is based on lies and distortions. An apt analogy indeed!" Fancy that! The following is a complete copy of that entry.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Mission accomplished

I woke up this morning to a New York Times article that roared off the page, saying Americans were angry with the escalating gasoline prices.
There is clearly an energy demand that is not being met, the article said.

So while I was primed up to defend Alberta's environmental record to the D.C. media, that wasn't the case at all. In fact, most of the dozen or so media outlets I spoke to at an availability at the Canadian embassy were more curious about how Alberta would meet that demand.

So still no polar-bear suited protestors despite pre-trip media predictions that we'd be dogged by them. All we saw were two young, polite people who handed Alberta's Washington representative Gary Mar and I some environmental literature as we entered the embassy.
I'm pretty sure they didn't know who we were.

In any case I found the trip to be extremely successful.
Among several meetings today, one with Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson resonated the most. It emphasized the need to go beyond D.C to speak to legislators in individual U.S states to advance Alberta's interest. And that's something Gary and I and members of our government plan to do.

Finally I'm happy to report that Gary's office is quite utilitarian... in a Triple A location, mind you. I'm proud of Gary for not ordering any marble fountains or statues of himself for the office.

Mission accomplished!
Posted by Deputy Premier Ron Stevens at 8:33 PM
Labels: gasoline, media, washington
5 comments:

Paul R. Baer said...

Dear Mr. Stevens,

I am truly sorry to disappoint you in not showing up in Washington, however it is increasingly difficult and dangerous to leave my ice floe due to the decreasing ice pack.

But may I say, what a wonderful title for your blog! "Mission Accomplished" - those words were last heard in the US political context exactly five years ago tomorrow. Since then, they have become synonymous with a mission that actually was not accomplished and whose very premise is based on lies and distortions. An apt analogy indeed!

See you and Ed soon, I'm sure,

Mr. Paul R. Bear
April 30, 2008 4:57 PM