The NDP spent more then 5 times what the ALP spent and now have a debt. Both seat gains made by the NDP were last held by….the NDP. Although a case can be made at one time every seat held in Edmonton was once NDP, ALP or PC for that matter.

Now the NDP is at it again in Calgary Centre. Split the vote so the Liberal has no chance of winning. Even if the same seat is now held buy the Liberals at the provincal level. Insuring a more stable grip on the Harper Majority.

Lou you just do not have a clue. In Alberta it is the same old story, a vote for the NDP is equal to one for the Tory.

Lend your vote to the progressive party that has a slight chance of winning the seat in Calgary.

The 2012 Provincal election is over. The next one will be here soon enough.

Wade Izzard

Look – anyone can cherry pick through the election results to make it look good. For example – the NDP won two new seats while holding on to incumbents. The Liberals were unable to win anything new. In addition to the seats the NDP won, they managed to leap ahead of the Liberals in several ridings (Gold Bar, Lethbridge West and Ed Glenora come to mind) and are now in contention to win a number of ridings across the province.

See how easy that is? The fact is, the Liberals and NDP were near tied, with the Liberals edging ahead in seats and votes. This means nothing for the future. Neither of us know what the next election will bring.

Finally, I’m not sure what the bribery comment is about. I doubt I could bribe Raj Sherman. If I had his money, I’d burn mine.

It’s time the NDP realized they need to fold in Alberta, they run their whole campaign off of money and people sent from everywhere but Alberta. There is no NDP in Quebec for federalist reasons… if the NDP cared about progressive agendas like it says it does it would fold into the AB Libs.

When Liberals have their WORST election in 25 years in nearly every aspect, while at the same time the NDP have their best… and they STILL lose… its time to rethink your purpose. Is your purpose to win four seats and screw over progressives in other ridings? Because Mason has proved he is superb at that.

In terms of “who cares” about Olivia being in a Lib held riding… I would say that comment right there from a militant NDP’er is why the co-operation needs to end ASAP between the two parties.

OR should the NDP just try and bribe the libs to sell out and cross the floor Lou lol?

But dollar for dollar & in time and money if you choose to invest in Alberta politics there is no better value than the ALP on your return for your investment.

As George Burns once said; if you are around long enough in the business you are bound to rewarded someday. (on his first and only Oscar).

Not that it matters – if she had appeared in Riverview – so what? Were you expecting the NDP to campaign for Liberal candidates? I managed the NDP campaign in Edmonton Gold Bar, and I don’t recall seeing Bob Rae drop into our campaign office. Nor did anyone expect him to.

My email is Michaelbutlermillwoods@live.com
thanks
Mike Butler
Liberal

1) The co-operation measure was a total joke. The co-operation was meant for electoral purposes and as Keegan pointed out above legislative co-operation still exists. In terms of the electoral success of the co-operation movement? Ask Arif Khan how he co-operative he thought the NDP were when they trotted out Olivia Chow with a bunch of parachute volunteers to door knock in his riding knowing full well there was no hope of an NDP win. The NDP knew there were other ridings they would have an actual miniscule chance of winning in & around the GEA but they sent in the big gun, Olivia Chow, to door knock against one of the ALP’s star candidates. I think this action alone speaks to how much “co-operating” was done.

2) Progressives SHOULD unite, around the Liberals. For all of the faults of the Liberal party, they still ran a campaign that elected 20% more MLA’s than the NDP/AP/”Evergreens” combined, even though they spent mere pennies on the dollar to do so. The urbanist NDP couldn’t even muster a single close race loss in the biggest metropolis in the Province!

3) In terms of “legislative co-operation” between the NDP and Liberals, this is basically meaningless. What are they going to do together thats so important? Are they going to pass a budget? If there is a reason to raise a hoist motion or something to cause drawn out legislative debate, they dont need some silly party bylaw to do so.

4) If you dislike the leader of the Liberal party, it is a poor reason to not be a member of the party that recognizes your core values. To the contrary you should be a vocal member and bring up your concerns directly with the leaders office. It’s Raj Sherman, not Barack Obama, I’m sure he will call you back. If you still don’t like what you hear/think your concerns could never be reconciled with the leader than vote for a leadership review at convention! It happens all the time, thats quite often how leaders change in Canadian politics! But to slag on a blog is lame.

5) Finally I want to address the attacks against Sherman and the board for somehow being undemocratic lol. The BCLP recently changed their logo and now everything says “Christy Clark” which is even worse, because after she’s done as leader (which could be as early as May) all of that debt incurred by the party is useless because stationary/signs/pens/buttons/etc can not be recycled for future elections. Was the membership consulted about the new logo? Not one iota. Look at the increased usage of Orange in the PC logo this past spring, nobody asked their membership to vote on it either.

Midgely is wrong and perhaps Kent should explain political convention in Canada regarding this issue to his riding president. No political party in western Canada asks membership about color/logo changes as I have factually demonstrated above. People against the new logo are pebbles in a can in an echochamber (twitter).

The Wildrose party did not step over anyone or work with another party to become Offical OP they did it with hard work. Being un-ethical would be to put a knife in a party that holds views that are close to your own, while pretending to hate the government in power working in together to go after the same foe the Libearls.

I am not even going to get started on how the Alberta Party was a sock puppet for the P.C. party to help carve up an even bigger vote split on the left. (the Ken Chapman’s and Chris LaBossiere’s of the world of Alberta politics former lefty P.C.’s now Alberta Party hacks)who sit around in rooms working out the square root of F@#K ALL.

They were as I am sure you are useful fools of the P.C’s to used as useful tools to splinter the left vote up as much as they could. Kind of how the Evergreen Party pops up two months before an election after the Alberta Green Party was not allowed by Elections Alberta to run.

Guess what it worked. Once.

ChangeAB–was also right about the inner workings of the P.C.’s. That is another topic than I am very well aware of, but am not an expert on so I will leave others to comment and for time to tell how all of that will end.

I am not against a PR system. I will work within any system of voting as long as democracy is respected.

Also finding good people (sometimes anyone to run) is a hard process. Bloggers like Dave make it even harder when they make comments and snide jabs at people many of whom are running for the first time and after the election may never run again. Plus, who gets to decide who is a quailfied candidate YOU, your leader, the board of your riding or the members in the riding.

Again I say to you don’t run. If my barbs and disrespect bother you….try the media or voters who do not share your view. I think someday you will know what I mean.

Wade