Saturday, March 1, 2008

a green lacombe-ponoka?

I had a great time this morning being part of a media panel with Sheila Pratt, Graham Thomson, and Ken Chapman at the Alberta Teachers' Association Political Engagement conference. We had a great conversation with the conference delegates about this provincial election and the role of education in the media.

It was very interesting to talk with a number of teachers from across Alberta about the political situation in their constituencies and regions. I was really interested to talk with a teacher from Ponoka who was excited at the thought of Alberta Green candidate Joe Anglin's chances at defeating Tory Ray Prins in Lacombe-Ponoka. Anglin was one of the leaders of the landowner group that opposed AltaLink's north-south transmission line (which included a dubious incident where the Tories used public money to hire a private investigator to spy on landowners and their lawyers) and Bill 46 last year. Lacombe-Ponoka is one of those special constituencies that I'm going to be watching on the night of March 3...

(I also met another blogger while I was there...)

7 comments:

  1. So what are the concerns of the teachers there in Alberta?

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  2. Joe Anglin won't even come close to winning that seat. Do you really think that the Greens, who can't even win a seat in BC, will have a breakthrough in rural Alberta?

    Did you even take poli-sci? ;)

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  3. I could see Lacombe-Ponoka going green. It's a unique riding.

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  4. I could see Lacombe-Ponoka going green. It's a different sort of riding.

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  5. Me too Dave - I think the Greens are going to do well - at least in popular vote and perhaps this seat.

    The ATA event was great fun

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  6. I'll be pulling for Joe Anglin as well!

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  7. I wouldn't be surprised if the Greens managed to pick up a seat. In the last federal election, their federal cousins fared best in Alberta, garnering 6.5% of the vote. While that's definitely not majority territory, Alberta seems to be more comfortable with the Greens than the other provinces.

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