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Alberta Politics

Conservatives race to the bottom in Calgary-Signal Hill

Rob Anders
Rob Anders

With the race for the Conservative Party nomination in Calgary-Signal Hill in less than 10 days, the Rob Anders campaign has broadcast a new robocall praising the incumbent MP for decreasing the federal Goods and Services Tax.

Alberta Finance Minister Ron Liepert
Ron Liepert

The message also includes an attack on his opponent Ron Liepert for musing about introducing a Provincial Sales Tax while he was Alberta’s Finance minister.

Mr. Liepert, who was known for his abrasive and partisan approach in the Legislature, appears to have found his match in this nomination contest.

The robocall coincides with the launch of a new attack website – ronlieperttruth.com – which accuses Mr. Liepert of being “a tax-and-spend liberal.”

Personal attacks and threats of lawsuits have turned the race to become the Conservative candidate in the next election into a race into a race to the bottom. It appears that no matter who wins the nomination on April 12, the voters of Calgary-Signal Hill will still lose.

Here is the message included in the robocall:

7 replies on “Conservatives race to the bottom in Calgary-Signal Hill”

A colleague was door knocked by Anders himself this evening. If he loses this nomination, my colleague said Anders’ demeanor showed he expects him to run as an independent. This website and twitter drama is just the beginning of a long, ugly, precipitous descent.

I’m not a great fan of Rob Anders, but I have to say that in my view, given his point of view and the perspective of many of his supporters, this radio attack on Mr. Liepert’s sales tax musings seems entirely legitimate. Mr. Liepert did make the statement – I recall being surprised by it at the time. Mr. Anders has set himself up as an opponent of all tax increases – which is a stupid policy, but a consistent one in line with the Harper government’s position. Moreover, in the context of a Conservative riding, the tactic has some potential to be effective. So, while there’s plenty to dislike about Mr. Anders, this particular ad to me doesn’t suggest a dirty or illegitimate tactic.

It’s interesting to look at Mr Leipert’s website. I have no idea if he’s a member of the CPC, NDP, Wildrose or Liberal party. No banner at the front page, no banner on any of the riding diagrams. Nada. I guess he doesn’t want anyone to know what party he is in? Is he afraid of disclosing what party he belongs to? What’s the deal with this curious ‘front page’ of such a non descript nature?

Looking at Anders site there’s similarly no statement of his party affiliation. What gives? Everyone ashamed of being a member of the CPC? I’m baffled.

Question for you. If a guy, can run for his riding as say, a liberal, and then jump seats to say, the conservative side, would an independent be able to run and then join the conservatives later? Essentially meaning the conservatives ran two candidates?

The way #yyc signal hill voters will lose is if they blindly still vote for the CPC candidate – there will be other candidates, right?

Jannxx:

Until a CPC candidate wins the nomination, they are not permitted to use any of the party branding or logos.

Most candidates end up using party colours for their sites, but they can’t use the party logo until they actually win a nomination. At that point, they become a representative for the party.

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