A total of 6,258 ballots were mailed to eligible members, with 4,599 returned to the office before Friday's deadline.Wildrose Alliance leadership contest (set for October 17, 2009)
Wildrose Alliance Party Executive Director Jane Morgan says the party now has 11,670 paid memberships, a huge increase over the approximately 1,800 members at the time of the party’s annual general meeting in June of this year.
Not a big fan of releasing membership numbers but color me impressed.
ReplyDelete**vomits**
ReplyDeleteThe number (of voters at least) would become public in a couple of weeks anyway when the outcome of the race is determined. It would give a general idea of the size of the membership.
ReplyDeleteThe way the Wildrose talks you'd think they're close to the PC numbers. Frankly I thought they'd me much higher.
ReplyDeleteI know of a dozen people whose memberships were paid for them, they were sent in the mail and these individuals had no idea they were signed up....so I wonder how many of the 11,000 have similair stories, personally, a dozen is too many,
ReplyDeleteConsidering the WRA has access to the Federal Conservative membership base(Good work Ezra Levant), 11,000 memberships is pretty weak.
ReplyDeleteFrom 1800 to 11670 in the time between June 2009 and Oct 2009. That is by no means "weak". That shows a clear momentum that should continue, assuming they choose the right leader and that person keeps working as hard as both candidates have up until now.
ReplyDeleteIt will certainly be very interesting to see what this momentum translates into at the leadership vote.
ReplyDeleteJeff J. The WRA doesn't have access to the federal conservative membership lists and it would be inappropriate for them to use them.
ReplyDeleteAlso the hundreds of memberships purchased for people were entirely done by the Chandler / Dyrholm team.
Although The Wildrose Alliance Party apparatus doesn't have access to the federal CPC lists, I can guarantee you that both leadership candidates do so in one form or another!
ReplyDeleteOh, get off your high horse! The purchase of memberships for other people happens by all camps in leadership races!
Bonnyville Mayor and former Klein Minister Ernie Isley has joined the WR Alliance.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2009/10/05/calgary-alberta-wildrose-alliance-memberships-race.html?ref=rss
So has former Cardston MLA Ron Hierath and MP Myron Thompson and David Chatters.
Dave Chatters? The same Dave Chatters that offered these words of wisdom in 1996: "And when you go into the issue of homosexuals and lesbians I think it's in the interest of society to have the right to discriminate against that group in areas of...schools is the one that comes to mind."
ReplyDeleteThat Dave Chatters? What luminaries are to follow him to warm bosom of Danielle Smith? Jim Keegstra?
I suppose I should be impressed if the Whackjob Alliance Party elects a leader who believes that the Holocaust actually happened.
Given how many Craig Chandler was able to sell in just one constituency for a PC nomination, I think this means two things:
ReplyDeleteA) There's not a lot of traction for the WA.
B) Danielle Smith is going to lose, and bad.
I would like to know how many of the memberships have been sold to multiple persons who are all in the same family. I am no WAP member but hey I could could as six if I purcahse for every member of my family. Wait I mean seven if you include my dog.
ReplyDeleteLOL I don't doubt you could do so with family Anon (as usual). The same can be said with every party that has a one member one vote system (such as the Liberals).
ReplyDeleteWhats the next excuse?
Oh, get off your high horse! The purchase of memberships for other people happens by all camps in leadership races!
ReplyDeleteTwo wrongs don't make a right, and even if it did, nominees who benefit from these practices are not the type of nominees the public is best served by. I've seen reports in the media about people who had their Wildrose Alliance membership bought for them and as far as I am concerned it is a black mark on the party.
My point was that I know for a fact that BOTH WAP leadership candidates have campaign team members that purchased memberships for others.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Brian's assertion that nominees who benefit from these practices are not the type of nominees the public is best served by, neither Mark nor Danielle should be running for the party leadership.
The Smith team hasn't purchased a single membership for anyone.
ReplyDeleteDyrholm and Chandler's abuse of memberships purchasing is well known. It also happened in Calgary-Egmont and the 2005 Alberta Alliance leadership race.
Ernie Isley, who the Tories disenfranchised (kicked out, kids)? Myron Thomson, daveberta's definition of a redneck? And Dave Chatters, whom the earlier responder already quoted?
ReplyDeleteYup, that's a WRAP.
Danielle Smith should be praying she loses.
You Tory haters who think Bill 44 sucks ain't seen nothing yet. You'll be popping arteries like old Myron himself. Run away, run away.
11,000 is not a huge number. Sure, it's big to the Liberals, but it's tiny compared to the hundreds of thousands who voted in the PC leadership. To me, it means the Smith team never really caught on. To me, it means Danielle is going down, down, down.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, Craig Chandler sold a thousand memberships in Calgary-Egmont alone during his nomination contest.
Imagine how many of those 11,000 members probably came from the right wing networks of Dyrholm's campaign manager.
Over 144,000 ballots cast in the second round of the PC leadership. Over 200,000 memberships sold.
ReplyDeleteThe WAP ain't a "prairie wildfire" yet.
Isley and Heirath aren't alone!
ReplyDeleteCracks Emerge in Alberta Tories' rural fortress
But now the mayor of Bonnyville, Ernie Isley, has joined the Wildrose Alliance, along with an outspoken town councillor named Gene Sobolewski. For good measure, so has a former Tory MLA named Doug Cherry, who used to represent Lloydminster and now lives in Calgary.
"Too many things have happened with the leader," says Cherry, MLA from 1986 to 1993. "I just can't support him any longer.
"They're not serving the purposes I stood for over many years. The Wildrose seems to be more my style."
There are dozens more like them all over Alberta -- former and current conservative politicians who are moving to Wildrose.
Some are staying silent for now, but Sobolewski, Isley and Cherry are glad to speak out.
"I've been Tory blue since I was 18, but I can't believe this government," says Sobolewski. "Are they out of their bleeping minds?"
Yo, Al and all you other little WAPbots. One of the knocks against your little party is that no one under the age of 60 cares. You're not helping with that perception. ;-)
ReplyDeleteChandler couldn't see water to a gut dying of thirst in the desert.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly didn't sell 11,000 memberships
I know for a fact that the Smith team has purchased memberships for others. I can think of at least 12 just off the top of my head.
ReplyDeleteIf 1/2 of the above comments are true, the Wildrose Alliance is a joke.
ReplyDeleteOkay Anonymous 7:44 if you have such damning proof I am sure the Leadership Executive committee of the WRA would love to see it.
ReplyDelete