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Alberta Politics

stephen harper campaign speech in edmonton (well… in beaumont).

Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper made a brief visit to the Edmonton area on Monday, March 28, to deliver a campaign speech to a friendly crowd in the Town of Beaumont.

Calling on his supporters to “paint Alberta blue” on May 2nd, Mr. Harper singled out Edmonton-Strathcona candidate Ryan Hastman, who is running in the election against NDP MP Linda Duncan. Mr. Harper’s campaign speech weighed heavily in predictable partisan rhetoric about low-taxes and how the “coalition” of opposition parties in the House of Commons forced this election.

13 replies on “stephen harper campaign speech in edmonton (well… in beaumont).”

I’m still not sure why Harper visited Beaumont. It’s a beautiful little town but the Conservative candidate in that riding wins by huge margins. If Harper was here to prop up Ryan Hastman, why not visit Hastman’s riding? Was it really just too far from the airport, and didn’t fit in with the 10 minutes Harper allocates for Edmonton? Are Strathcona voters worth so little to Steven Harper that he won’t visit them directly?

I wouldn’t expect the Conservatives to spend a whole lot of time campaigning in Alberta; they know the electorate would elect a rubber boot if you painted it Tory Blue.

It won’t make all that much difference to them if they win 27 of 28, or 28 of 28 in Alberta. Albertans would probably get a lot more attention from governing parties if they actually voted in competition from time to time; then the competing parties would actually have to WORK for our votes!

I went to listen to the prime minister. I had not pre-registered so was sent to the line of people wishing to hear the PM but who had not registered. When I got to the head of the line, I was asked if I was a Conservative Party member. I answered that I was not. I was told I could not enter the hall… was turned away because I was not a Conservative member.

Funny thing is, the three people in front of me who said they were, had not brought their cards. They were believed by the people at the door to be Conservative members because they said they were. I could have lied and said I was and gotten in.

I am not a Conservative supporter but I went out of genuine curiosity and because Mr. Harper is the prime minister of my nation. I could not have fathomed I would be turned away from listening to him because I am not a supporter.

I don’t blame Mr. Harper personally, but it is troubling to think those at the door were instructed to turn away anyone not supportive of the PM. Not exactly indicative of the sort open campaign I might hope for.

Oh, well… Mr. Harper’s party didn’t lose a vote by turning me away at the door, but it’s still troubling.

@William, looks like the provincial apple doesn’t fall far from the fedderal tree. This is the same crap that the provincial PC’s have been pulling for a long time. The stack the audiance to give false appearances. How much more of this is acceptable?

I can’t believe that people don’t turn and walk away when that happens. Even if I was a supporter and they asked me that I would be offended that they would shut people out, posibble future members at that. The whole thing has gotten stupid and the people that buy into it obviously need to rethink what their idea of democracy is.

“Are Strathcona voters worth so little to Steven Harper that he won’t visit them directly?”

Contrast with the leader of the “people’s party” who made a point of ensuring his visit took place at the Art Gallery of Alberta, which, IIRC, is right square in the middle of Edmonton Strathcona.

“I am not a Conservative supporter but I went out of genuine curiosity and because Mr. Harper is the prime minister of my nation. I could not have fathomed I would be turned away from listening to him because I am not a supporter.”

Well, not to quibble, but right now he’s more correctly described as “running to be the Prime Minister of (your) nation” in a campaign that’s, not surprisingly, already descending into the typical muck and mire. Harper’s visit produced about 5 seconds of national sound bite – I’m quite certain as to what that 5 seconds would have been, had a “non-supporter” showed up to heckle him.

@Kevin S. “I can’t believe that people don’t turn and walk away when that happens. Even if I was a supporter and they asked me that I would be offended that they would shut people out, posibble future members at that. The whole thing has gotten stupid and the people that buy into it obviously need to rethink what their idea of democracy is.”

Democracy means majority rule. And it appears that in this instance you are not in the majority. However you can take solace in the fact that you live in a country where you can make ignorant comments and not be punished for it.

If being refused entry to a campaign rally event is the worst thing opponents of the Conservative party have to complain about then I think the party is doing quite well on this campaign so far. I hope it continues.

“Which one of the peanut gallery is the the loser who scuttled Hastman’s campaign? LOL”

Dunno about “scuttled” – “Tognieri” as a tag/”trending now” term is dispersing almost as rapidly as local dreams of an early spring – I think it’s safe for Hastman to come back in the pool.

As to the peanut gallery member who introduced Tognieri to the voting public – my wager is on the CP reporter who filed the complaint against him with the Information Commissioner in the first place (i.e. – his “accuser”, not that there’s any journalistic conflict of interest or anything).

GReat Wall — if the CP reporter did that, where’s the conflct? What’s wrong with outing a nasty little twerp who overstepped his authority and tried to hide public information from Canadians that they had every right to see. And what is a nasty little twerp from Quebec doing out here anyway? Since when did low-level volunteers travel halfway across the country to hand out signs? It’s far more likely he was in Edmonton working on a party-sanctioned dirty tricks campaign against the one non-Conservative MP in the province. Again, another example of Dear Leader’s anti-democratic tendencies. Please, explain the conflict?

The conflict Mr. Robert Gerard is that a reporter who creates a news story and then reports on that news story and does not reference how they created it is at best unethical, and at worst in a conflict. Unfortunately this seems to be happening more and more in media outlets as they try to gain more viewers/readers by taking an angle on a story instead of maintaining journalistic integrity by reporting only the facts.

Also for your benefit I don’t think you would appreciate someone referring to you as a “twerp” so perhaps you might want to think twice before hurling insults. Especially if you intend to take a high road in your arguments.

Neal,I don’t believe anyone said that the PM came here to prop up Ryan Hastman other than you.

The PM was here, on the first weekday of the campaign, to ‘rally the local troops’, and test drive the campaign speech/material, he was not here just to prop up Ryan Hastman. BTW the PM had an event in Edmonton Strathcona in Oct 2010.

The event, as I noted above, was to rally the local troops and pre-registration required because there was limited room, and even with that in place they still had more people show up than could fit. What is so hard to understand about the concept of a private event for some people?

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