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Sunday, November 08, 2009
Alberta Tories back Stelmach; Wildrose Alliance responds
Christmas has come early for Danielle Smith and the Wildrose Alliance. In Red Deer on Saturday night, Alberta Progressive Conservative party members voted 77.4% in favour Premier Ed Stelmach’s continued leadership of the party.
According to a report in The Edmonton Journal, Alberta PC members are increasingly out-of-touch with grassroots sentiment in the province. In a poll conducted last month by Bruce Cameron, 57% of Albertans expressed their disapproval of Stelmach’s leadership and the party has plunged in the polls to only 34%.
Keeping Stelmach around is exactly the outcome Wildrose Alliance operatives were hoping for.
In response the desperate, partisan vote Saturday, Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith said:
The outcome of tonight's vote was exactly what we expected, but it goes against what I am hearing across the province. Albertans are upset with this government for destroying investor confidence in our energy industry, for mishandling our health care system and for taking us back into deficits. Tonight's decision by the Alberta PC's doesn't change a single thing that the Wildrose Party will do in the coming months. We will work hard to show Albertans that we are the alternative to the PC's and that we will give Albertans the kind of government they expect and deserve.
Smith is on message and riding a tremendous wave of support and excitement for her leadership and the fledgling Wildrose Alliance. She has bravely blazed a trail to government, making it safer passage for high-profile candidates who should now begin to come forward.
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by westernstandard on November 8, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
How out of touch can he be if Mr. Stelmach told Suzuki and the Pembina Institute to go stuff themselves with their wealth-transfer climate change scam? He got one right. I hope the WA would have done the same - the Liebrals and NDP would have obeyed like the Ontario transplants that they are. Fools.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-11-08 7:13:23 AM
I do trust him . He always does the opposite what he says
Posted by: ray | 2009-11-08 10:33:16 AM
I think the biggest boost Eddie got was from losing dissenters to the Wild Rose BEFORE the vote. Of course, since keeping Eddie around as premier is going to do nothing but hurt the PC to WRA's benefit, this becomes circular.
The question is, would Eddie have passed the review if there was no WRA threat?
Posted by: WRA Member #xxxx | 2009-11-08 10:39:51 AM
Before the age of mass internet and public forum we had still another downturn in economy. Interest rates went to above 25% and the price of oil dropped to what would have been 23.00 per bbl in today's dollars.
The Conservatives used this massive down turn to blame everything onto the NEP. Most of the bad press put out was by the US owned oil companies who were threatened by the Canadian Content aspect of the NEP.
The Conservatives jumped on the wagon blaming the Liberals and the NEP for all the bad news which was in hindsight nothing short of outright lies.
There are more choices in this province for political leadership than the extreme right! If Albertans follow a right wing party again they will give an even bigger dose of bad news than what we are getting now!
Posted by: cyberclark | 2009-11-08 11:36:56 AM
The Wild Rose Alliance is the creation of American Republicans, Libertarians and other social misfits from Calgary who are funded by American Big Oil in Houston and Calgary.
The WRA is going to die faster than an 900 year old man when the money dries up, as it will.
What is really needed are not more false "opposition" parties like the WRA, but a renewal of the Official Opposition, The Liberal Party of Alberta.
We really need to send the now thoroughly discredited ideologies of the "neocons" fostered by the American Enterprise Institute and Imperial Republican Pretenders into the wastebin of history. These fascist movements have no home in Alberta.
Posted by: Joe Green | 2009-11-08 2:23:05 PM
Speaking of the WRP it is reported most of the Conservative MLAs have memberships in this party now. Playing both ends against the middle I would think.
The people in the WRP along with Ted Morten wrote the documents about the Alberta Firewall and support doing away with the CPP in favor of a Western, primarily Alberta Pension plan.
They support 100% the privatization of medicine in this province. They are more right wing and isolationist than the present batch of guys.
The resources in this province are being taken from us totally undervalued. With Bitumen taken as payment in kind we are way below 12 dollars a barrel Canadian.
BC and Saskatchewan are holding strong at 30 dollars per bbl US.
How can you possibly believe that someone from the east is going to steal more??
I agree the Liberals are a good bet for a responsible Government that will run programs for the betterment of this Province rather than because a not so obscure policy demands they do so.
Posted by: cyberclark | 2009-11-08 10:23:16 PM
@ Joe Green:
Nice theory, about renewing an AB Lib Official Opposition and all, but kind of tough to pull off when countless AB Libs are moving toward the WRA.
You read that right: a good chunk of the AB Libs are "blue" and many have traditionally parked their votes with the Libs cuz they were decidedly ANTI-Tory. Now that a small government, Big Economy, Big Society option is available, and one with an urban, pro-choice leader, they can finally turn the light out on the AB Libs.
The Tories won't be the only ones limping after the next provincial election.
Posted by: John Collison | 2009-11-08 10:47:03 PM
Well Joe, what you say makes a lot of sense in as much as the political parties of today are all firmly in the right of center camp. And, that is necessary in this day and age.
To what degree they run right is where my eye is and I see the WRA as extreme as they make 'um.
The Liberals now are about where Laugheed's Conservatives were 20 years ago.
Posted by: cyberclark | 2009-11-09 9:53:08 AM
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