SDA regular Gord Tulk has written a comprehensive piece about the 2012 Alberta election, including much insight about the Wildrose Party. It’s lengthy but well worth a read.
SDA regular Gord Tulk has written a comprehensive piece about the 2012 Alberta election, including much insight about the Wildrose Party. It’s lengthy but well worth a read.
To the many who we hear saying, I like the Wildrose Policies or I like Danielle Smith, but they have no experience. I say look to our neighbour to the east. Saskabush. What happened there? Brad Wall young and inexperienced in politics and the inexperienced Saskatchewan Party have turned Saskabush into a vibrant place with a gushing economy that is rivalling Alberta. And Wall and his inexperienced at government MLA’s did this during the worst economy since the 1930’s. Young and Inexperienced in Saskabush turned out to be better than the same old Socialist NDP, kinda like here in Alberta. I want some of that so called Political Inexperience here in Alberta. Vote Wildrose. Go Danielle Smith.
Excellent analysis, we need a Danielle in Ontario!
Excellent list of WR policies. We need that same perspective in Ontario.
And what exactly has the “experienced” PCs delivered? BUDGET DEFICITS? IN ALBERTA? Give me a break. It’s like all those bonuses passed out to bankers and auto execs because “we have to retain the best and brightest” that got us into all this trouble in the first place. How about some fresh faces and ideas. First thing Smith has to do when she is elected is fire all the entrenched bureaucrats and start fresh there as well. They are always the point of greatest resistance to change as you threaten their little fiefdoms. Get tough or get lost.
Like many of the policies. Local WR Candidate is an old Federal Progressive Cer. When under pressure he wrote a long diatribe against the Reform sweep of Alberta in 1993. He, with his Progressive Cer buddies, got himself into a position of power on the Federal Conservative board and the first thing he demanded when the Conservatives won the election in 2006 was largess not for the constituency as a whole but for the local board members. Can’t see how I will vote for him. I also wonder how many other Progressives have moved over to WR as the smell of perfume turns rancid.
The PCs have a good shot in my rural riding. The newly nominated candidate carries a lot of personal popularity in the largest community in the constituency. The ex Cabinet Minister declined to run and even took shots against the Redford on the way out. The new guy doesn’t carry the Redford smell on him, although, the connection must be strong. Can’t see myself voting for him either.
It will be interesting to see if Danielle’s popularity can carry this riding.
Well done Gord Tulk.
The world is full of socialist loser states, cities, and countries. Alberta is full of freedom loving winners, and we plan to keep it that way.
If the lost desire for freedom and prosperity catch on from Alberta’s example, a “Canadian Spring “, it’s all the better for everyone, and we won’t need that big Israeli style fence down the road.
Good Morning All – there is only one “Big Momma” in my life, and that is ME! Alison Redford wants to be “Big Momma” for the whole of Alberta. I truly am hoping she loses big time on April 23. I will be voting Wild Rose again in my riding of Calgary-Glenmore.
Well done Gord and thanks to Robert for giving him the platform.
I’m interested in seeing if WR follows through on their platform.
Their platform could be very successful in other provinces such as Nova Scotia and Ontario.
Gordon is one of Albertas political Thomas Sowell type thinkers, the only thing that scare me is the supporting cast Danielle has following her, she is a smart lady with great insight, but, this is not America, we don’t vote for the leader only, and knowing some of the constituency players behind some of the WR candidates, I’ll take any local dog-catcher or village idiot over the ones I’ve met. Alberta needs to return to Conservatism, and what will happen will happen, but if your candidate is a fool, think twice.
Bartinsky while you are right about the supporting cast you also have to look at the leaders. Right now I could never vote PC because of the leader and the power she would/has wield(ed) as premier. On the other hand a local yahoo in what ever party won’t have that same level of influence. A case in point would be Ted Morton. Way back when Ralf was shown the door I supported Ted for leader of the PCs. He lost and then turtled on every issue when his ideology came in conflict with premiers Special Ed and Red Ali.
Not sure if this is the place to share my thoughts, but I’ve been out doing a bunch of door-knocking with my local Wildrose candidate. We’re all new to politics, and it has been quite an eye-opening experience—several things I’ve learned:
1. Have met several old people who say “I know the PCs are incompetent, but I’ve voted PC for years, and I’m too old to change.” How do you respond to that?
2. Signs on lawns mean nothing. Two cases yesterday where it’s a rental and the landlord put up the sign, tenants voting differently. I’ve also met people in our constituency with gigantic signs for the other guy but say they are voting Wildrose. Apparently he’s an elder in their church so they say they are obligated to put up his signs anyway. Huh?
3. Impossible to guess political allegiance in advance by looking at a house or neighbourhood. Fancy or spartan, big or small, doesn’t matter. The only thing that seems to predict a Wildrose supporter is if they have “Community league member” sticker on their door or mailbox. But that’s it.
4. Disappointingly large number of people who say “Oh, I don’t know nothin’ about politics, I’m not into that stuff, I don’t vote.” Again, can be in a low-rent place or a palace with a BMW out front. Sad.
5. I can’t believe how many people answer the door drunk/stoned/naked at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. And these are not people you would ever want to see naked, let me tell you. The latest was one “lady” yesterday who was topless, but trying to cover her breasts with her yippy dog. Then she starts asking me some obtuse question about midwifery or something. Yeesh.
FWIW my seat prediction is 41WRA, 37PC, 6NDP, 4LIB. Note that WRA + LIB = 45, the magic number…
I totally agree Joe, Ted seemed to throw in the towel, I want a person who will stand up to a leader who is doing something foolish like being herded by the media into “Our Fair Share”, all RedEd had to say to the media at the time was, we have a goose laying a golden egg every day,(that being the oil industry), with all due respect you 1400 dollar a month reporters, we can’t choke the goose for 2 eggs a day. Then when H1N1 came along Ed was once again stampeded by the media parrots, and when the Hollywood clown Cameron came to “inspect” our “tarrrsands'” all Ed had to say was’ Mr Cameron, I have a province to run, I’m so busy I don’t or nor do I want to see any of your pathetic movies, so tour away and tell me if us cleaning up Gods oil spill is a bad thing. Ed screwed the PC party big time, and got a lot of money for being 3rd place
@ turtle
“yeesh” 🙂
When I was much (much) younger I worked in retail and we used to make a game out of one in every 10 customers being a complete as*hole. Seldom disappointed and brought some leviity to a tedious job. It’s all in attitude.
Personally, the last thing I want is a politician with experience. Just some common sense. Go Wildrose.
Signs on lawns mean nothing. Two cases yesterday where it’s a rental and the landlord put up the sign, tenants voting differently
~turtle
Unless specified in the rental/lease document, landlords have zero right to do that in Alberta.
Once a landlord has rented property to you, he gives up the right to be on the property
Voting Wild-rose is the first step on taking us off the path of dictatorial socialism.
Is Allison going to win in her riding? That’s my question of the day. I live in her riding and I have a gut feeling it ain’t going to happen…what are the thoughts out there – comments?
BTW great blog Gord Tulk.
The sticky fingered grip on Albertans by the ABPC party is loosening because of nervous perspiration.
Slight tangent: Ted didn’t “throw in the towel”, his true persona just emerged. As a professor he was a bore, a chauvinist, and if you didn’t regurgitate his pap vertatim or worse challenged him, he made it personal and made you pay for it.
A$$hole should move back to his birthplace.
Bartinsky: being compared to thomas Sowell is the highest form of flattery. Thank you.
…
As some will have seen warren Kinsella banned me from his site today. Naturally he won’t reveal why. He is accusing me I writing something libelous which is:
1. Not true. I pointed out that Chretien tried to remove the conscience clause from the constitution draft (I quoted wiki)
2. Pretty rich considering the post I posted on had the libelous title: “In N TODAY’S SUN: DANIELLE SMITH IS LYING”
In one of the deleted posts I personally attest that Danielle smith is not lying when she says she favours choice and ss marriage.
I suspect he didn’t want to have his false accusations blown out of the water.
Good reading, that article. I can’t tell you how much I’m hoping to see Wildrose win, so those of us in Ontario can watch the “Wildrose Apocalypse” (as the leftist rags are threatening) unfold. Or not. 🙂
Bartinsky: being compared to thomas Sowell is the highest form of flattery. Thank you.
I’ve been trying to post something relating to what’s happening over at Kinsellas site but it keeps getting caught in the filter. No idea what is causing it….
In Alison’s defense, she’s gone two whole days without promising anyone 500 million dollars. By my reckoning she saved a billion dollars this weekend. How’s that for fiscally conservative?
Gord
excellent piece, thanx
“like a stone dropped in a pond “…hope take stone causes a tsunami, we need change here in Morontario
turtle
tell the old folks to do it “for the children”:-)))
just be gentle
Gord,the fool says “I don’t republish libel. There are many other places he can go.”
http://warrenkinsella.com/2012/04/bye-bye-gord/#comments
Gord, would love to see what you wrote to get banned!
Excellent article Gord Turk.
I watched the debate on the internet and I was very impressed with the composure and the comprehension of Mrs. Danille Smith. Danielle’s clear, cool intelligence and beautiful smile made Ms. Redturn look foolish and shrewish. Ms. Redturn added fuel to the fire by (re)acting like a jealous mom when her favorite son brings home his bride to be…sulky, nasty, opinionated, negative, mean spirited, desperate.
I believe that Alberta is ready to start a new episode in it’s history and a narrow minded, backward thinking, controlling, socialist “moma” is like an uncleaned Chicken Coup in the spring – everyone wants to get as far away from it as possible, wait for it to dry out and then shovel out the $h…
Gord Turk, I do hope that WR reads your article. You should send it to the campaign office just in case the people there do not stubble across it. Hardly likely since it is the top header here at SDA but still possible.
Your article made me cheer! Alberta was my home for many years and I love your lovely province more than any other in the Dominion. I left Alberta during the NEP purge of 1979/80; some married people at the place that I worked needed those last three paychecks more than I. On the spur of a moment, I went to visit a friend of mine who was working in the Klondike Gold Fields. I found a job in the Yukon the day after I arrived and a last frontier for Libertarian leaners like myself. Fortunately for us, the Feds did not know anything much about the 2nd Gold Rush and we had three years of Gold and glorious Liberty in the Klondike.
The incredible feeling of expectation and optimism for financial independence is now all gone and all but forgotten. The ‘new Yukoner'(the majority now, mostly implants from failed socialist provinces, but some ‘re – educated’) is not a Gold Seeker, he/she is a desk miner/greenie dreaming up regulations and ways of getting more $$$ out of the Feds/non gument workers so they can hire their pals to build soviet type condos in the quaint downtown of Whitehorse and Dawson City and rid the territory of all traces of North American development especially miners.
The Klondike Capital is an artsy fartsy ‘toy’ town – some old buildings decked out with new exhibits showing the evils of Gold Mining.
There are a few Chinese outfits in the hills searching for Gold (regular Canadians cannot afford the Sierra Club Nazi type green regulations). Royalities from China are still at the 1935 level (4%); Chinese supply their own labour, flown in from China, and the greenies leave them alone – they do not pay WCB or other payroll taxes. The greenies can’t blackmail the Chinese.
The Yukon itself is a luxury welfare territory (state), totally dependent on government transfers from the Feds( Alta. and Sask).
I have great hope for Albertans in this election. If I could vote I would vote, with enthusiam, for Danille and I would not worry about the WR MLA. If he/she is a dolt, Danielle will put that dim wit in the back and the people of the district can elect a contender in the next election or recall the dud after the election.
It would be a very good idea,IMO, to do as Gord Turk has said, to get rid of all the deadwood in the gument bureaucracy, right away. The public servants are dogging PMSH and sabotaging every step, in the right direction, the Feds in Ottawa attempt to take.
Cheering for Danielle, WR and people like you, Gord Turk.
I am predicting a WR sweep of 74, leaving the Pinkos to split up the rest.
Wallyj:
I didnt write anything libelous and Kinsella knows it. My explanation was in the post(s) that got caught in SDAs filter.
‘Rick’ at 12:42 is scratching at something important.
‘Turtle’ at 1:26, item 1. Albertans seeking “security” by voting yet again for the PC’s are just like federal Liberal supporters who continued to vote for them repeatedly yet again even when they were shown to be completely corrupt ie: the sponsorship scandal. Fellow Albertans, think: do you really want to be like Ontario and Quebec Federal Liberal supporters?
Katsmeat has been taking a thrashing on #abvote for the libelous piece of tripe he filed this morning. And no I won’t dignify it with a link.
Good piece Gord and you must have the patience of Job to have hung around at Katsmeat’s as long as you have.
Good luck to the WRA in Alberta. We’ve managed to overthrow decades of socialist rule here in Saskatchewan so surely the people of Alberta can be counted on to make the sensible decision next week.
Like the US this fall this may be your last chance to change direction before the imposition of the nanny state makes change all but impossible.
Gord, nice job!
Someone should inform Allison “.05” Redford that Beer makes men smarter
Good essay. It looks like the Wildrose are headed for a majority, but I don’t think this election is going to be a total rout. That’s not what the polls are showing anyway.
Here’s electionalmanac’s seat projection right now:
WR: 52
PC: 29
ND: 5
And here’s threehundredeight’s:
WR: 56
PC: 27
ND: 4
For whatever reason electionalmanac’s numbers add up to only 86 rather than 87. I guess somebody didn’t do their homework.
The good news, besides Wildrose’s impending victory, is that the Liberals are likely to be completely shut out. Even Raj Sherman is projected to lose his seat in both scenarios. This may be the end of the Alberta Liberal party, knock on wood.
The two new parties, Alberta and Evergreen, are extremely unlikely to win a seat between them either. So without any representation in the legislature or facetime in the media, all three of these parties will ideally just fade away, and their erstwhile supporters will flock to the PCs or NDP instead.
The NDP are more resilient though, and are forecast in both scenarios to win enough seats for official party status. This is unfortunate as it would have been nice to see a leftist-free legislature after April 23. Maybe they will end up winning 3 seats or fewer, losing official party status and fading into quasi-irrelevance as well.
That leaves the centre wide open for the PCs, which is good luck for them since they’ve permanently lost the right to the Wildrose. The PCs are projected to win only a single seat in Calgary, and I doubt that it will be Redford’s. So next up for them will be to choose a new leader who will represent them as a centrist opposition party, rather than the centre-right government party that they’ve been for the past 4 decades. Any guesses?
The best news of all is that we’re only a few days away from seeing Premier Danielle Smith and a Wildrose majority government. And it looks like Alberta will finally become a competitive two-party province, with the Blue Tories (WR) facing off against the Red Tories (PC). This really is the best possible outcome imaginable for the long term. Just don’t forget to vote a week from Monday.
Albertans…you should be really, really proud of yourselves.
I first learned of Gord at the Conservative policy convention in Winnipeg. He spoke to nearly every motion on the floor. I liked everything he said. Eventually I quipped to a friend, “I don’t know what I think until I hear Gord.”
I’ve had a few people ask why I plugged away posting at WKs site for so long – taking all kinds of abuse – being called fascist/racist etc almost daily. The reason is pretty simple – the kinsella crowd are the great unwashed, or rather brain-washed. Very very few had cogent arguments or facts to rebut my rebuttals of WKs posts. By shining the facts and not just letting them remain comfortable in their smug ignorance I hope(d) to at least give them an opportunity to have an informed rather than bigoted opinion.
Alas warren got scared and banned me rather than rebut me.
Having all kinds of trouble with Kate’s filter today…
Gord,my comment in ‘reader’s tips’ — ” wallyj at April 15, 2012 1:19 PM “,was also caught in the filter for a bit. I don’t know what triggered that,but if you look at it,you may be able to figure out why yours are being caught.
Cheers.
FWIW As Robert W. explained it to me, often times it’s a link that is the culprit.
That sound you hear is Kinsella’s brain cells, both of them, crashing around inside his thick, fat head as he desperately tries to find any relief from the mental anguish that will be inflicted on such a political loser when WRA sweeps the province.
He should stick to stuff he’s good at, like inventing imaginary accomplishments for his first love, Jean Chretien.
Folks, I don’t have all the explanation for what comments get caught in the Junk filter. One surefire reason is to use the word “banned”. Note: This comment will get caught too but I’ll immediately free it.
If you have a long link and/or one with lots of words in it then I’d highly recommend you use a free service like TinyURL to get a link that will work.
I moved to Alberta because of the Alberta Advantage. It wasn’t taxation or presence of resources, it was an attitude that said “go ahead and do it, government can hold your coat while you’re busy”. I lived in Yellowhead at the time – Jasper/Grande-Cache/Hinton/Edson. When Ivan Strang retired, the winner of the PC runoff election for who would be the candidate selected… Robin Campbell. The local coal miners union president (United Mine Workers). He’s a good guy, but a former union president in a conservative party? Not a chance. But it would be a natural fit in a Progressive party.
The Progressives stood for some of the most abominable ideas of the 20th century. No Progressive party will ever get my vote.
‘Trillium Party’ for Ontario? I wish!
Gord @4:03 I refer to folks like Warren as Uneducated Liberal Nitwits, a product of our Puppymill system of higher education. And by the way you did good.
For a party that’s “Not your father’s PC Party” it’s odd they’ve attracted the endorsement of Messrs. Lougheed and Getty. Must be some of the old PC party somewhere, but damned if I know where. I live in Redford’s riding upon which her lease is about to run out. I’m so looking forward to seeing her evicted.
C_Miner “the winner of the PC runoff election for who would be the candidate selected… Robin Campbell. The local coal miners union president (United Mine Workers).”
I love the way the reds take over the PCs. We need an autoworkers and woodworkers president too. That way everyone at war with the capitalist system could be represented. Less that 100 years ago the mine workers voted Communist. I guess they would be at home with the PCs.
Gord Tulk, well stated, and agreed.
… It’ll be interesting to see the P.C. party in its new role as Official Opposition & advocating for all things Liberal.
🙂
And Wall and his inexperienced at government MLA’s did this during the worst economy since the 1930’s.
Bullsh*t. Wall inherited the very best economy and the NDP legacy that salvaged Saskatchewan from the rightwing ideological excesses of the dark decade of Devine that bankrupted the province, as he spouted the same teabaggin’ horsesh*t the Wildrose is spouting as Presto and the CRAPP Alliance spouted before them, in their egregious, hypocritical mendacity. All with SDA support, I might add.