Categories
Alberta Politics

pc party shoots the [shiraz] shariff. premier redford to appoint a new candidate in calgary-west.

As I first wrote about in yesterday’s post, former Calgary-McCall MLA Shiraz Shariff has been disqualified as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Calgary-West after complaints of voting irregularities at the recent nomination meeting.

Shiraz Shariff Calgary-West PC nominee
Shiraz Shariff

Mr. Shariff narrowly defeated former Alberta Health Services chairman Ken Hughes, who sits in Premier Alison Redford‘s inner circle and was widely seen as the front-runner in the contest. Both Mr. Shariff and Mr. Hughes entered the contest only weeks before the nomination meeting. Mr. Shariff had been seeking the nomination in Calgary-Hawkwood until late 2011, when he switched constituencies.

Posting a statement on his Facebook profile, Mr. Shariff maintained that his campaign was run fairly and was aware “a potential bias from the onset of my candidacy and during my campaign for nomination… ran even as deep as within the PC Board of Calgary West.” He called on the PC Party to begin an arbitration process to address the complaints.

“I have not been made aware of specific issues, have not been consulted in this decision, and have not been offered an arbitration process, as stated in the PC Party constitution. If there were irregularities, I request that the PC Party will make them known and address how the security of the day, guided by the leadership of the Board, could not have protected the process against these irregularities.”

In a media release yesterday quoting President Bill Smith and Executive Director Kelley Charlebois , the PC Party announced that they would ask the local board of directors in Calgary-West to submit the names of three replacement candidates for Premier Redford to select.

Farouk Adatia Calgary-Hawkwood PC candidate
Farouk Adatia

Mr. Hughes may seem like the obvious choice for the appointed candidacy, but Tory sources say that lawyer Farouk Adatia may end up being Premier Redford’s choice. Mr. Adita served as Chief Financial Officer for Premier Redford’s leadership campaign and he was recently defeated in the crowded PC nomination contest in Calgary-Hawkwood.

It may be another month before the PCs actually drop the Writ and time to hold another open nomination meeting is cut short by that party’s public deadline to nominate candidates before February 10. This weekend, the PCs are holding a pre-election campaign training school in Edmonton, which will be a pep rally to energize their activist base. At these schools, the PCs will also select three candidates to stand in the upcoming Senator-in-Waiting election, which will be held along with the general election.

The PCs also appointed candidates in two other constituencies. Emerson Mayers, who was defeated in the Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood nomination contest will run against NDP MLA Rachel Notley in Edmonton-Strathcona. Jamie Lall, who was defeated in the Calgary-McCall nomination contest will challenge Liberal MLA Kent Hehr in Calgary-Buffalo.

5 replies on “pc party shoots the [shiraz] shariff. premier redford to appoint a new candidate in calgary-west.”

In the interest of open and transparency with the pubic the Party needs to make all details of the irregularities known.

I do agree! I again read the Herald this AM. No candidate found fault (one admits he was not even contacted by the Party) to get his input. Ron Liepert reported being at the polls and finding that the process was smooth and he found no fault. So who objected! The Party did not want this candidate – so they found a reason. Well there goes democracy. Appointment – my understanding is the Campaign Financial Guy of Redford’s leadership run. Is this rumor true? If it is, democracy has definitely packed her bags and left!

Basic, obvious speculation re apparent ouster of Shariff:

The Corporation’s B of D thought Shariff’s election did not pass the, “responsible” or “prosperity” tests for Alberta Conservatives Inc.. In the way of the ‘program’.

Correcting the voters mistake… just best practices, you know.

excerpt: “The surface argument of corporatism has always been that democracy is inefficient, ineffective, corrupting, subject to whims and emotions.

Corporatism, on the other hand, presents itself as professional and responsible. It promises to deliver prosperity by helping those who know how to do their jobs properly and in concert.” from John Ralston Saul, def’n corporatism, in The Doubter’s Companion, (1994) pg. 75

And yeah, re corporatism, I *am* arguing that from the evidence I see, the Party functions primarily like a corporation, it does not function much as a democracy. When was the last time party delegates saw a policy taken up from the floor? As opposed to the now typical ‘ratification’ of what the Leipert’s/Redford’s design?

And re the machinations of what is essentially a joint-venture corporation with a program: Why did Stelmach take the walk? Or more to the point: Why was he taken out?

Clues found here: Which division of the joint-venture benefited from pushing Stelmach’s ratings as AB’s CEO into the tank?

And yeah, I’m arguing that the Corporation ensures that Alberta doesn’t much function as a democracy based on and responsive to citizens. It’s a society where what the groups want (corporations) , is what gets done. I’m far from the first argue this of course.

See Mark Lisac’s, Klein Revolution, for most significant political analysis regarding the arrival in AB of corporatism via rigged consultations mostly, when he reported on corporatism being installed as the dominant mode of AB collective decision-making early in the Klein era, in a 1993 EJ column. See Lisac’s take on AB corporatism in chapter 9, The Corporate Province, of his book The Klein Revolution.

And read Vivonne’s book Klein-coulda’-Superstar for how AB corporatism is enforced.

Shariff’s just the latest not grasp that he was obstructing the ‘program’ of the joint-venture.
It seems to the me the evidence continues to accumulate.

Shariff’s experience reminds me that corporatism has been synonymous with syndicalism (again, see Lisac).
You know where I’m going. Syndicate. The Family. Remember, re VLT’s, Kowalski once said there is only ‘one godfather’ in this province. Anyone still think that only applies to allocating gambling revenues?

By the way, joint-venture is an apt term to flesh out how corporatism is distinct from merely old-fashioned lobbying/simple ‘business influence’ on government policy, in that corporatism is in fact an actual alternate model of society and societal governance, the ‘rival school’ of representative government in democracy(Saul).

I’ve taken joint-venture directly from Lisac’s writing in Chap. 9/Klein Rev. where he mulls on the most accurate terminology for describing the Alberta species of corporatism.

And: like Lisac and Saul, I’m not saying Alberta is a fascist polity. It’s been transformed into a Corporatist polity. Mussolini’s insight was to build his fascism on the intellectual framework corporatism provides. But corporatism lacks significant features of fascism.

AB’s corporatism merely manifests as just the typical ‘efficiency’, father-knows-best type of stuff imposed on behalf of *the* dominant corporate partners, e.g. $Billions in powerlines imposed via Bill 50.

AB’s powerlines/Bill 50 are however unusual in that some normally powerful corporate divisions are seeing how, now and then, even certain elite groups have to sometimes take one for the joint-venture. It’s just business.

Sam Gunsch

another loser turns into a winner. Is there any one else that needs a plce at the public trough? We have Stephen Carter (has he paid back the Uof A), Kelly Charlebois (400,000 no reporting consultant), Bronco (what the LRT runs through land I own – I never knew), the head of the ATA, school principals. Anyone out there just plain folks? I am wondering if we breathe the same air.
I would like to see fair and honest nominations, would like clean credentials, I would like to see the folks be blessed with democracy. But the voters may be willing to just stay at home again – we dropped below 50% turnout – aiming for 25% this time.

Leave a Reply to ruralgal Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *