If you’d like to better understand the bizarre series of events that propelled Alison Redford into the top job in Alberta, listen to this discussion between Charles Adler and Kevin Libin.
No fair minded person can make any sort of salient argument that Redford’s election represented any semblance of “the will of the people”. Besides the peculiar mathematical formula that was used to elect her, it’s now clear that she recruited all sorts of public sector union members to become temporary PC members; folks by the way, who would normally never vote anything other than NDP or Liberal. THIS is the system that the province’s governing party has in place within its own house?!?
In a new column, Libin points out that Redford appears set to invoke a wide swath of undemocratic policy changes, essentially ruling by decree:
“Ms. Redford claims she is all about change, but within 12 hours of being crowned Premier, she announces she is shutting down the legislature for nine months so she can avoid facing the opposition in the people’s democratically elected House,” said Rob Anderson, an MLA for the Wildrose party.
Brian Mason, the New Democratic Party leader, says Ms. Redford is “overreaching her authority.” Since she has yet to face voters herself, he calls the decision to axe the legislative session “high handed and anti-democratic.”
Is it too far a stretch to conclude that a peaceful coup d’état has just occurred in Alberta? The question is, will the voters of Alberta put a stop to this come the next election?
I stopped supporting the PC’s when a local union leader got the nomination, and the seat, in my local riding. His views were what I would think as normal for a union leader, and more closely aligned with the NDP old-guard than with the conservative tradition. He knew that the NDP would never get elected, so he ran for the PC nomination instead. Most folks are too busy working and taking care of their own, as long as the government left them alone they were happy. The PC party has become the party of power, and “those who would never vote PC in their life” recognize this, and have successfully taken it over. They’re now going to shackle the goose that lays golden eggs. I’m glad I switched to Wildrose last year, I just hope it wasn’t too late to keep the “lets run the economy!” crowd out.
Gotcha politics at its best. Alberta now has its own hopey changey meddler just like the US.
Are there enough PO’d peeps in AB to swing the Wild Rose into power? Or have the unions just put a lock on the gate to power in the province?
The issue immediately is not so much what the voters might get to do next year sometime but what the sitting PC MLAs will do now. Are they prepared to take on their own new leader (who will depend on their votes, if the Legislature is ever called into session)? Are they prepared to seek an accommodation with WA?
It’s time for Ted Morton and others to get over themselves and de-camp to Alberta’s conservative party.
SKWEEKER
No it doesn’t at least not for long , the next election i bet redford is out and the pc’s will be out for a long long time until someone is man enough to stand up as a true conservative and not as a true progressive. I personally wouldl iek to see a new conservative party formed like the alberta conservative party of something straight forward like that.
Redford pulled a fast one with the full support of the party and it’s executive. The question now is whether the 70 odd MLA’s will allow her to implement her socialist agenda. My guess is they will, they let Ed move to the area left of center. It’s a short trip from there to left of left although it;s a little tougher when you have no spine.
As long as the sitting MLAs can hold off the worst of the socialist agenda then hopefully Wild Rose will be able to take over the reins of power. I switched to them two years ago. Ted Morton was the last real hope of a conservative running the PCs. With his loss went even the remotest prospect of my voting for them again. Why political parties allow these memberships of convenience at leadership votes is completely beyond me. They’re a formula for subversion, and lefties, who haven’t an ounce of honesty or democratic principle in them, take advantage of them constantly.
“It’s time for Ted Morton and others to get over themselves and de-camp to Alberta’s conservative party.”
Sorry but Ted Morton isn’t welcome by most Wildrose members, including myself. Although his ideologies might be conservative, him and the rest of the actual conservatives didn’t have the balls to stand up the Red Ed, and thus helped paint the PC ship to a closer shade of red.
I listened to the discussion between Charles and Libin yesterday afternoon, and it shocked me to find out exactly what was going on with buying votes and memberships. What doesn’t surprise me and makes the most sense, is that there is no way a province can have such sweeping numbers for a single party without having some infiltration of opposing ideologies. The shift to left has been going on for years.
How are the chances right now for the WRA becoming the next provincial government? Are they polling well? Do they have the grassroots support to pull it off? I’d like to know since I’m moving back to Alberta next year. I’ve had enough of Ontario. It’s time to come home.
@ Robert L
The Wildrose has a big comfortable base, but the members and support are scattered. Danielle Smith is very respected by Dave Rutherford and Charles Adler, so she gets regular airplay in Alberta. What will be interesting to see is a poll done after Redford’s election.
I tried to talk to Ted, tell him how to win this one, he wasn’t really impressed with my advice, which included “denounce this global warming crap for the SCAM it is, tell the people that the waste of taxpayers money on this SCAM will immediately stop, tell Albertans that the energy sector and agriculture are our economic engines and you will stop throwing onerous regulations in front of business”. That seemed like a decent list to me, by the speed that Ted ran over to Mar, I think we saw the true Ted. With all the other losers that surrounded RedEd like Renner, HandCock etc, you know the ones who were lamenting the eventual outcome on Sat. nite, well they could elect Mar their leader and start a “Friends of the Girth chapter” because if there was ever a picture, or a need of more Fat Cats, these people have the resumes.
Let’s not be too harsh on Alison. The fact is that 6 socialists sought the leadership of the Progressive party and the people had to pick one. Of the six, Alison was the least repulsive candidate. Her biggest advantage is that she is not owned by anyone in government. She doesn’t owe any favours to other MLAs. Did she recruit from the unions? Likely but no more than any of the others. I would suspect that Gary Mar had more civil servants backing him because he was the party’s favourite. As for Redford not calling the Leg back: You think that’s a bad thing? Also restoring the education cuts: The cuts were part of Special Ed’s screw up. He gave the teachers a huge raise then cut the funding to pay for them. Did the teachers deserve the raise? Not a chance! Is the way to solve the problem to punish the School Boards? Not a chance. Either you live by your commitment or you negotiate your way out of it. You don’t punish third party innocents. If you want to cut the education budget start in the department of education and cut at will. You could save 200 million there and no one would be the wiser. All that being said unless Alison is like Ralf when he was at his cuttingest peak I will be voting Wild Rose.
instant tories my eye. The ATA overwhelmingly supported Stelmach in 2008 and Klein in his early days (though they changed their tune quickly).
Redford gets accused of being a lefty all the time, until people actually listen to her. Lots of tories in cal west were told she was a lefty, believed it, and then expressed embarrassment when she became solicitor general and was clearly tough on crime and right of many of them. History will again repeat itself.
That said, I think she needs the fall sitting, just to gain more legitimacy. But we as right wingers need to realize that its 2011 and the old divisions of right vs. left dont apply anymore. Rather, it is all issue based. For proof look no further than who turned on Smith with her recent HRC announcement.
But politics will be interesting in Alberta with these two educated, intelligent, right wing women battling it out. (yes I know Redford announced some spending increases but Stelmach really did screw the pooch on his attempts to cut for cuttings sake. That needs to be fixed, and the proper cuts made).
Anyhow, WR has been dropping like a stone since March in every poll and wont be able to rebound through Redfords honeymoon period. If they can rebound, it will be because they focus on issues and ideas rather than right vs. left. Otherwise, according to every poll in 2011, they will be the third party at best.
I made a donation to Wild Rose first thing yesterday morning. Not opening the legislature for several months sounds more like cowardice than leadership – maybe Redford will find that was not the smartest thing she could have done.
The idea of allowing last-minute Party memberships to be purchased by anyone is absurd and lends itself to corruption.
All political Parties who are sincere about cleaning up the system should adopt rules that members have to have joined at least six months before being allowed to vote.
Here in B.C., we have questionable,no laughable, membership drives within the ethnic communities that are rampant with corruption.
Any BC’ers recall the Dix campaign’s last minute membership applications with a ten dollar bill stapled to each one? Ridiculous.
Now,the same practices have bitten Albertans. It’s time this corrupt practice was ended by law.
“they will be the third party at best.”
They will be the opposition at worst. Not the NDP. Not the Liberals.
What can one say.
The “Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta” is officially socialist. The name did not make sense in the first place, now it fits better.
For the purpose of choosing the new leader, it has become so with socialists buying membership as a mob tactic. There really is no surprise, it is the way they operate.
The slogan is “all for one, one for all”. There is no room for anything else. The new leader was just as happy to take it. It makes the new leader a demagogue and socialist without reservation.
You may have heard her, right after the announcement of the winner, the leader is going for a “change”.
For some reason it sounds familiar, heard of hope change some 3 years ago. The way it worked out is that the change was destruction of free enterprise and now there is only hope. Of course Hope was the only thing that got shut in the Pandora’s box.
As Paul in calgary at October 4, 2011 8:24 AM noted, there is an urgent need for a conservative party of Alberta.
The Wildrose is conservative, though it leans everywhich way the wind blows.
How is it that once a new party set its goals it starts moving away from them bit by little bit until there is nothing that resembles its original purpose. Wildrose is not there yet, though it started the little bits.
When I was working for Klein’s campaign, there was a lady that seemed to be in charge and a young man, perhaps 23 years old, he was the strategist. Therein lies the problem. Strategists are speculators, they speculate how to hoodwink the poor saps to vote the way they want them. The platform and straight talk is pretty much irrelevant. What you believe to be right or wrong is irrelevant. To have another view is pretty much irrelevant if the back room is against you. You are pretty much shut out.
The only thing, as noted by someone yesterday, is that Ralph pretty much ignored the strategising and went out to talk to people. He was so good at it that he won many times over. He talked straight, he did what he said he would do and when he did, even those who voted for him turned not to be so happy.
It really looks as though people want and expect the politicians running for elections to lie to them.
This is what I know from personal experience.
Nine month recess? (clearly influenced by the teachers) there’s no way she will be able to hold to that – the pressure will be far too much from all sides including caucus.
Redford is the Manchurian candidate for the left.
Knacker has it right @ 9:15. The Alberta PCs were taken over by a coup in slow motion.
Should be a good cat fight between Redford and Smith in the next election.
Redford does herself and her party no favours by shutting down the legislature for 9 months.
This is nothing but good news for the Wild Rose party.
I think all that needs to be said about Redford is she was sitting at the feet of her mentor Joe Clark. Truly CINO.
Liblin is tuned into what’s really happening as he usually is.
Most reporters are clued-out missing entirely what happened – or willfully ignoring it.
Here’s a case in point:
http://powerplayblog.ctv.ca/post/Gone-are-the-last-remnants-of-the-Klein-era.aspx
Don’t bother commenting at the site – he’s not letting them on.
If you are a ‘talking head'(politican or hanger-on flunky), and you want to practise your ‘craft’ in Alberta, where do you go? The so called conservative party of AB has lacked philosophical direction and committment for decades. Parties such as this open their membership to weekend members so that their TV ads can resonate with the illinformed or maleable.
In my opinion a real political party takes the time and effort to meet with voters and convince them to their point of view or ‘heaven forbid’ be convinced by the voters to adjust their policy. Parties like the WRP and Reform were a threat to the status quo. Not so much from their philosophy but from the gass roots nature of their decision making.
The progressives have taken over!
The progressives have taken over!
Run for the hills!
There is no question whatsoever that Redford got in due to vote buying by the public sector unions….primarily the teacher’s union. And for that they will get rewarded handsomely to the tune of $100 million of taxpayers money….not bad for a few thousand $5 memberships. The PC’s are toast.
Sweet Jesus she’s taken control of the province sans the electorate support and now she wants to shut the door on democracy. What the hell is going on in Alberta?
Knacker, I hope you’re correct. But thats not the way its going. If you are a Wildrose supporter, then you can either delude yourself into thinking “everything is fine, we are neck and neck with the PCs, everyone loves us”, or realize that calling the PCs “progressives” or “lefties” isnt working anymore, if it ever did, and that ever since Stelmach started to hint about stepping down (even before he actually did step down), Wildrose hasnt been offering anything to voters, and as a result have mostly fallen off the map with voters. Combine that with a terrible spring of workers leaving the party, and you have the Wildrose in 3rd spot, and a large mass of their votes concentrated in areas where they will not win the seats (ie. they will come second place in a lot of ridings). At least thats how it breaks down right now.
But there is at least 6 months until the next election, and Smith could possibly turn things around. As a taxpayer and a believer in “smart” government, I hope for the PCs and WR to be 1 and 2 with a sizeable opposition. But if you think the Libs wont do well in the next election, then you need to take more time to understand the breakdown of ridings in Alberta.
I’m disgusted at the Tories – truly disgusted. None of the choices were conservative, to be honest. I hope this causes the Tories to slide into oblivion with WR taking up their slack, because the idea of the Liberals or NDP becoming anything in this province frightens the hell out of me (Oh, wait, the Tories ARE the liberals now…crap).
Redford is going to learn that holding off the legislature for 9 months is not a good idea, as it’s going to give WR the chance to work on their platform some more (although you’d think it’d be solidified by now..) and attack Redford on her policy decisions she makes for the new direction the Tories will go.
During that 9 months, the battle between the Tories and WR will be fought in the media. Edmonton Journal vs. Edmonton Sun, Calgary Herald vs. Calgary Sun, with other newspapers taking their sides as their publications warrant.
The problem as I see it is that the next generation of youngsters who are starting to vote are so brainwashed that they can no longer think logically.
I am regularly shocked by how brainwashed kids are today coming out of school, and how much they have soaked up the left-wing ideology that has been fed to them year in and year out by their NDP teachers and university professors. It is not surprising that they eventually succumb to the “progressive” view of the world, and their natural curiosity to ask questions is destroyed.
So when these youngsters get a bit older to the point in their lives when they start voting, which is happening now, it’s hard to see how we will avoid ending up with one endless stream of useless nanny-state leaders (witness Ontario). It really is the Trojan horse in Canadian politics.
The leaders that are elected are only as competent as the people that elect them. That’s why I make a point of spending a few minutes each day making sure my kids have open minds and are not fooled by the brainwashing that goes on in school.
Over the past decades tens of thousands have moved to Alberta from Eastern Canada for jobs. Now Alberta is a stupid as Eastern Canada. What did you expect?
The taking over of our democratic system through stealth and deceit will only be stopped by a civil war. That is how is has always been done and nothing has changed in human nature or in politics.
The Wild Rose Party is not fully conservative either. Ask Ezra Levant.
What I’d also be worried about is enough greentards getting their hooks on the party and disrupting the province’s economy by attacking the oilsands from the inside.
It would seem that Alberta’s Conservative Party apparatus is infested with political whores just like Ontario’s is.
These fartcatchers have no real conservative principes. They would change their coats in an instant.
Redford won the leadership to replace Stelmach that’s all. she still faces an election soon so for her to act as though she won completely she is in for a surprise.
So for her to prorogue legislature will not sit well with the public not after David R. and others like him get on her case.
WRA are watching her closely and so are Albertans.
Redford won the leadership to replace Stelmach that’s all. she still faces an election soon so for her to act as though she won completely she is in for a surprise.
So for her to prorogue legislature will not sit well with the public not after David R. and others like him get on her case.
WRA are watching her closely and so are Albertans.
Robert L. ask one of those green leftards complainers ‘why are they wearing, eating, living, driving, flying, walking in oil.’
Ask them to do away with heating oil during winter to walk barefoot wear no clothes wear no make up etc and then they can say they are ‘green’
Apparently, Robert L, most of the green environmentalists use more oil to fly drive across country and world to protest, than you and I put together.
This is awesome! 9 months without idiots screwing things up!
The situation is the result of an influx of easterners and their Trudeauist ideals, plus a few from Lotus Land. They came for the Albertan money but couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t leave their politics behind.
Yes, it’s vastly too far a stretch to say there’s been a “coup d’etat” when the government changes peacefully, lawfully, and entirely within the rules. It stretches far into nutcase territory. Are you really comfortable there?
Let it be said that Alberta is not a right wing province in the traditional sense but rather a pragmatic province that eschews ideology. To the average Albertan the colour of your tie or which side of the plate you bat from isn’t anywhere near as important as, ‘Does it work in the real world’. Special Ed and Don Getty got punted because their ideas didn’t work in the real world. Earnest Manning and Ralf Klein were reelected because their ideas worked in the real world.
You can’t blame all the people who came from Eastern Canada for being lefties. I came here from NB to look for a better life in 1980 and soon became as conservative as the best Alberta born redneck. Once people see the difference between the can-do attitude of the West compared to the nanny staters of the East they soon switch sides. Most of us never had it so good and we know it. The socialists are being churned out of schools and universities by the thousands but they don’t all vote, thankfully. I believe strongly in the old saying that a person under 30 who is not a socialist does not have a heart while a person over 30 who is a socialist does not have a brain. Give Wild Rose a chance.
This is merely the Alberta political tradition playing itself out. Look at the Provincial political history, and you see political parties in power for long stretches, virtually unopposed, and then wham that party is gone, never to return to power, and usually straight to oblivion.
1905–1921 Alberta Liberal Party
1921–1935 United Farmers of Alberta
1935–1971 Social Credit Party of Alberta
1971–present Alberta Progressive Conservatives
The PCs nearly lost it in the early 90’s, and ran as “Ralph’s Team” instead, reinventing the party image. The inertia from Ralph Klein has largely gone now, and many people who in the past would have participated in the PC leadership vote sat it out this time. If they hadn’t then only a huge amount (on the order of 50 thousand) of new memberships would have made a difference.
The PC party will be gone in the next election. The party that most closely approximates the TEA party platform will be the next government. So far, that’s looking like Wild Rose.
Just where the hell do you think the upscale liberals have been putting their money the last decade? Into APC nomination candidats and infiltrating the party ranks. The APCs are the defacto Alberta Liberal party, have been for at least 10 years, now it’s offiial.
@ Richard Evans at October 4, 2011 12:48 PM:
You took the words right out of my mouth!! 🙂
I left the PCs when they got Stelmach in as premier.I voted for Ted Morton at the time but of course the “accidental” premier got in. I joined the WR when Danielle was made leader as she is the best to take this province where we need to go.We have another “accidental” premier who is going to take this province into more dire straights than Stelmach.Cindy Ady can go suck lemons for all I care, she is my rep.I am going WR all the way.
I, m not worried. Wild rose will win for sure next election. look at the small turnout for the PC party leadership. Its because people couldn’t be bothered. We know road kill when we see it. This has been obvious since Red Eddy.
I think you would see a lot of MLAs swimming across the river to the Wild Rose Party but they waited too long. Most Wild Rose candidates have already been nominated. I know and like my MLA, a businessman, but I’m not sure about his chances for re-election in oil country. I had to hold my nose to vote for Mar and got Redford instead. I know nothing about her other than her outrageous spending promises.
Whomever can help keep the autodigger squeekin’ is who i’ll vote for & the PC party hasn’t understood that since Klein exited stage left. Danielle will get my vote…..about as close to pseudo-rightwing option us life long ALbertans have left? I wish her all the best.
Stampy, do you are to provide these polls showing reduced WRA numbers please? Keep in mind, parties poll higher during leadership bids because people imagine them with ideal leaders. It will be interesting to see what comes next.
I am concerned about WRA. Their policies seem weak, and not just on free speech. Their 33rd policy is ‘streamlining’ of farm subsidies. Lame. I think sufficient pressure can still work. Contact Smith; contact your local candidate for the WRA. Make your concerns known. Tell them you won’t give money until a commitment to free speech is made that is clear. Follow through.