While Stelmach attempts to deal with his predecessor's solid track-record of short-sighted fiscal planning, Wilson was spotted in the company of American billionaire Donald Trump while participating in the Eastern Ontario Economic Showcase.
2) Duncan Wojtaszek and I were the two lucky guests on the 9th episode of the Unknown Studio, set to be released around the second week of October. The topic? Politics, post-partisanship, and changing the game! If you aren't familiar with Adam and Scott's podcast, take a listen to my two personal favorites (episode two and episode four) that include interviews with Don Iveson and Scott Lilwall.
3) Friend of Daveberta, the Enlightened Savage has launched a series of blog posts titled Perfecting Alberta. Take a read and contribute in his posts on Health Care, Primary & Secondary Education, and Economics & Industry.
4) Both Enmax and Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier have waded into the debate over Bill 50. I believe that this is a more complex issue than some proponents may have the public believe and I am working on an expanded blog post with some thoughts.
5) The Alberta NDP have begun hosting a series of meetings on the always hot topic of Health Care. Last week, nursing students from the University of Alberta rallied at the Legislature, expressing their frustrations about future job prospects in Alberta.
6) Premier Stelmach has recently denied rumours that 10 PC MLAs would cross to the Wildrose Alliance if Danielle Smith wins that party's leadership on October 17. Calgary Rants has some thoughts on the speculation.
Dear Ed,
ReplyDeleteIt's not personal. It's business.
Love,
Alberta
If the WAP does come up the middle to become the official opposition, I want David Swann and his Liberals to accept some responsibility. They were trashed in the last election. They said they recognized the machine wasn't working. They said they would reinvigorate, reinvent and renew. They did NONE of it. It will serve them right if they lose Official Opposition status.
ReplyDeleteAny thoughts Dave...Mr. Swann...Mr. Elsalhy??
This could be a pre-emptive move by the PC's. They may fear that Danielle is a juggernaut with the potential to wipe them out. Perhaps these defectors will act as PC operatives to essentially infiltrate the WRAP. The PC's are politically astute if anything. Would you put it past them?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 10:59: This exact point is discussed in the upcoming Episode 9 of the Unknown Studio. The PCs aren't the only party to blame for the current situation. As much as the PCs have become the default option as a natural governing party, the same argument can be made of the opposition Liberals and NDP.
ReplyDeleteWhat I wouldn't put past them is for a huge chunk of PC supporters to snap up WRAP memberships and ensure that Mark Dryholm is elected leader. Then the PC juggernaut can go back to doing what it does best, which is ignoring public input and mismanaging Alberta.
ReplyDeleteHi Dave,
ReplyDeleteWe heard the rumour about 10 PC MLAs jumping ship all the time when I was still with Official Opposition Caucus. It was always "up to 10," and they were going to sit either as Independents, Indendent Conservatives or form a party of their own. Of course we wanted to offer them refuge in our Liberal ranks but could never find out who they were. I strongly suspected at the time they were phantom MLAs, just an invention of some disgruntled Tory backbenchers to try to gain sway with Stelmach's inner circle. One blogger likened it to a fairy tale parents use to scare their children. My opinion hasn't changed, although it would make politics in Alberta a lot more interesting if a band of disaffected Tories did join the Wildrose Alliance to become the Official Opposition.
Larry
The PC members are not snapping up WAP memberships for 2 reasons - one is that a lot of the members feel that if it takes the WAP scaring the crap out of them to get them "to correct" they're okay with that. The other is that a lot of them are taking cues from the leadership so they are trying to ignore the whole situation and hope it just goes away.
ReplyDeleteI also know that there was mention of a lot of MLA's that were also going to cross the floor to the AAP in 2004 - but same as Larry said, ultimately, no names ever came out publicly. Masyk defected and lost in the 2004 general election.
I believe the "10 MLA's crossing the floor" rumour originally included Mr. Boutilier, Ms. Pastoor, and Mr. Dave Taylor leaving their respective parties to join Mr. Hinman. So if you're counting PC MLA's, the # is closer to 5...still unlikely though.
ReplyDeleteThe Liberal party is in very sad shape, nothing shows it more than the Edmonton Sun article today that is TITLED "NDP set to fight over power lines" and then proceeds to be an article with Liberal MLA's. priceless.
"The Liberal party is in very sad shape, nothing shows it more than the Edmonton Sun article today that is TITLED "NDP set to fight over power lines" and then proceeds to be an article with Liberal MLA's. priceless."
ReplyDeleteUm...doesn't that show that the Edmonton Sun is in sad shape? It has nothing to do with the Alberta Liberals.
I'm guessing that the person in charge of writing headlines saw the picture of Hugh MacDonald, noticed that he has a moustache, and mistakenly thought he was in the NDP.
(p.s. Anon, wouldn't it make more sense/be fairer to comment on the content of the story instead of one newspaper's obvious mistake?)