Yeggie winning blogger David Climenhaga with a familiar-looking Albertan. What was her name again? Below: The same guy with some other political types who look faintly familiar.
When the podcast site for the Edmonton Journal’s entire 11-member political affairs team was nominated for one of this year’s Yeggies, the annual awards created last year “to recognize and celebrate outstanding social media content creators in the Capital Region,” the local newspaper made a fairly big deal of it.
After all, this is YEGville, and the Yeggies highlight “some of the amazing talent we have here in Edmonton.” So fair enough that the Journal should shout its team’s nomination in the Best Political or Current Affairs category from the rooftops, eh?
“Yeggies recipients inspire, evoke, inform, educate and entertain us, and they do it because they have a passion for it,” says Yeggies.com, the award’s official website, and this is true.
So, congratulations for their nomination to the highly professional team of political editors, reporters and columnists at the Journal’s “Press Gallery” site, great writers every one of ’em.
But, since the Yeggies were handed out last night, I just wanted to mention that the actual winner in this category was, uh, Alberta Diary, authored by Yours Truly, David J. Climenhaga, 62. All alone. Just saying.
And it is about passion, as the organizers pointed out, leastways for those of us who don’t work for the Edmonton Journal or Maclean’s Magazine and therefore must just ignore Dr. Johnson’s famous admonition that “no man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”
I confess I have no idea how I came to be nominated for this honour, but you’d better believe I’m sincerely grateful for it. So thanks to the Yeggies organizers and sponsors and all that stuff.
The other nominees in the category were Edmonton City Councillor and former journalist Scott McKeen’s onomatopoetic blog; journalist Colby Cosh’s Maclean’s Magazine blog; Radical Citizen Media; and GigCity.ca. Visit the Yeggies page to see the winners and nominees in the other 15 categories.
In other Alberta political news yesterday, Albertans awoke to the word Finance Minister Doug Horner announced had decided to give the Progressive Conservative Party’s post-Redford leadership race a pass.
This was probably prudent because, even if Mr. Horner didn’t bear the burden of being seen as too loyal a sidekick to premiers Ed Stelmach and Alison Redford, Alberta’s PCs seem to have made up their hive-mind to choose Jim Prentice, the Calgary banker and former federal cabinet minister, for the province’s top political job.
On the other hand, it’s probably too bad from the PCs’ perspective, even if they don’t recognize it just yet, because Mr. Horner seems the best qualified to actually do the job of premier of the lot who were likely to emerge as candidates – and, in the opinion of this award-winning political blogger, at any rate, that includes Mr. Prentice.
Well, perhaps Mr. Horner didn’t fancy the role of Leader of the Opposition, or, worse, leader of the third or fourth party in the Legislature.
Reading between the lines of his short letter Thursday evening thanking supporters but saying no to their ambitions for him, Mr. Horner sounded very much like a man contemplating an end to the provincial phase of his political career.
Congrats Dave,
You deserve the award, even if you don’t work for the mainstream. I sent you an email earlier this evening. I suppose that was yesterday – working late as always, but now I’m having an issue with my hotmail account. Could you please reply using the one just provided. Microsoft is requesting more private information from me and because I won’t provide it to them, they blocked my account. Go figure when Mr. Frederick (aka Harper) is spying on us!
Congratulations! You do a great job with your blog? Well deserved.
Good guy finishes first! Well deserved!
Congratulations on your witty, wise and wonderful, way with words that won this award.
Congratulations, David! Your writing is worthy of this award. I look forward to learning something every time I read your blog, and your humorous take on things gives your themes just the right light touch. Your use of photos, old and current is brilliant!
Congrats! Way to give those old-school MSM folks a run for their money, old chap!
Congratulations David! A well deserved honour, even if it was just the 11 member team at the journal that you beat out.
Your posts are a bright light in a dark and thorny wilderness; your passion for fairness and justice throws a cleansing light over the deeds of the many trolls and cretins stinking of the place. Plus your zeal for word smithery makes for tremendously entertaining reading.
Well said. My sentiments exactly.
Ditto, Me too!
Congratulations David! Well deserved. Your blog is both insightful and entertaining.
Congratulations David!
Now isn’t this better than just being another pretty face on a feckless city council?
But Dave, it would have been so much prettier, and so much less feckless (more feckful?) if I were there.
I think it may have curbed your awesome style…
awesome Dave..
Congratulations on the Yeggie, Dave, but this post was very small of you. It’s not nice to make fun of people who work for a dying industry, especially when they get all dressed up and go out to the award ceremony, which I was disappointed to notice you didn’t bother to do.
Well deserved award. Your blog is the first thing I open on the web. Congratulations.
Not being an Edmonton resident, I’m not really all that sure what the “Yeggies” are, who organizes them or who votes for them; nevertheless, I still sense that congratulations are in order. I never fail to enjoy your blog posts, even on those rare occasions when I disagree with them. Thank you, and may you continue to both illuminate and entertain for a long time to come.
Congratulations on some very well deserved recognition. Your writing has the rare combination of insight, depth, and personality… not necessarily in that order.
The internet is now officially dead. When some union hack scribe (and one working for public service unions) who writes a blog which regularly trashes sacred political institutions can win an award like a Yeggie then the medium must be well and truly broken and on the way to an inevitable demise.
Have you seen how DC shamelessly self promotes with those obviously fake photoshopped pictures of him with ‘actors’ dressed up to look like politicians? You can bet that he has rooms full of framed pictures of himself – no self respecting adult would surround themselves with pictures of themselves.
Mein gott, if this keeps up the plebs might actually vote for some left wing party rather than the rightfully, right PC’s or the even more deserving WRP.
What a farce!
By the way, congratulations to Dave for this award.
Northern Loon you are jealous, because judging by the smile on that face who knows where Dave’s other hand is…Lol. JOKES aside Dave runs a great blog he’s a smart thoughtful insightful person and would one day make a great NDP Provincial leader. Dave single handedly is participating in making our democracy stronger when he challenges such issues as these bills 9 and 10. Good work Dave!
Sunshine: Thank you for your kind words. Let me state here categorically, however, that I am NOT seeking the leadership of the Alberta New Democratic Party, or even a less meaningful prize like the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives.
a hearty congratulations to you Dave, well done and well deserved.
I am however comma, concerned about the company you keep, as depicted in your photographs.
best regards,
T. in politically sleepy Spruce Grove.