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Friday, January 22, 2010
Wildrose Alliance turns ‘this many’ [imagine two fingers]
This week the Wildrose Alliance celebrated its second birthday as a political party in Alberta.
In a statement to party members on January 19th, party leader Danielle Smith wrote:
Congratulations to all members!
It’s remarkable that only two short years ago today, several hundred people met in a hotel ballroom to form the Wildrose Alliance Party.
Look how far we’ve come! Look how big we’ve grown! And we’re still just getting started.
I know I speak for all in extending sincere gratitude to those first few who had the foresight to see what Alberta needed, and to everyone who has worked hard to make our party the contender it is today.
Let’s keep working together to give Albertans the new political option so many now want.
Happy birthday, everyone!
The battle for political power in Alberta is now as it should be: A contest between wayward conservatives in the Tory party and libertarians in the Wildrose Alliance, with progressives and other statists on the left effectively marginalized.
What I hope will emerge from this contest is a culturally conservative, politically libertarian movement that captures the essence of what it means to be an Albertan.
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by westernstandard on January 22, 2010 | Permalink
Comments
We don't need another party. We need Ralph Klein back. He was Alberta.
Posted by: peterj | 2010-01-22 11:41:06 PM
For his first term he was, then big money got to him. i liked Ralph, but he changed. He left the mess Stelmach is in now. Tho Stelmach didn't help matters for himself. I don't see the WRP being any different. Once the trucks show up, it will be business as usual. I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it.
Posted by: Steve Bottrell | 2010-01-23 1:39:52 AM
Steve, Ralph may have left a mess for Ed but Ed is making it much worse all by himself. The WRP might be different and time will tell. I am skeptical they will be different over the long term as well considering it doesn't pay to be different in our political system.
Posted by: TM | 2010-01-24 2:18:27 PM
Danielle Smith is already de facto premier of Alberta. She is running Stelmach like a little British private school fag.
Now that the Global Warming hoax has been proven a complete fraud (Canada seems to be the last to know about this) her timing could not be more perfect to bust up the bureaucracy, cut spending, cut taxes, get government out of our lives, and let us get on with becoming as prosperous as possible with no claim from eastern enviro-commie wackos on our resources.
Stelmach can do this now under direction from Danielle or he can wait for her to do it in two years or less - his choice.
Snowgirl
Posted by: snowgirl | 2010-01-24 9:15:30 PM
Snowgirl, I think you are right in the near term. In the long term, "reality" will creep in and ruin the party. When I say reality I mean only that a politician can be idealistic or get elected, but rarely both for very long.
Posted by: TM | 2010-01-24 10:13:27 PM
TM,
Albertans agree with you. That's why Albertans not only toss out governments when they reach their expiry date, they also have the good sense to destroy their party apparatus as well and form complete new parties to thoroughly punish and eliminate the disease if you will. Albertans know that oppositions are as useless as governments over time and prefer complete political renewal by ignoring them as well preferring to craft and take control of governments "in the field" and installing them on a "plug and play" basis.
Albertans find this method of governence more meaningful, closer and personal than messing about with impotent oppositions in a legislature.
In Alberta, the soul of government is truly born, made and operated from the grassroots, not in the legislature. That is why legislature oppositions have always been weak since that is not where Albertans politics reside.
Posted by: snowgirl | 2010-01-24 11:33:44 PM
Well said snowgirl. WAP is the culmination of a string of movements since Ralph lost the way. Idealism is always defeated by the quest to retain power and the PC's have come to this point. Hopefully the WAP and Danielle will prove to be different but I despair that they will follow the path of the politico. The stated policies of the party resound with accountability, can it survive an election win? Time will tell.
Posted by: Alberta born | 2010-02-03 1:45:13 PM
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