Gearing up for the seemingly inevitable federal election, political parties have been holding a flurry of nomination meetings to complete their slates of candidates in Alberta.
Conservatives
Dominating the political scene in Alberta, the Conservatives have a fully nominated slate of 28 candidates including 25 incumbent Members of Parliament. New candidates include Ryan Hastman in the NDP held riding of Edmonton-Strathcona, Michelle Rempel in the vacant Calgary-Centre North riding, and Jim Hillyer in the Lethbridge riding being vacated by the retiring Rick Casson.
Best Alberta showings in 2008 election:
Crowfoot: 39,342 (82%)
Macleod: 35,328 (77%)
Calgary-Southeast 41,425 (74%)
Wetaskiwin 32,528 (77%)
Vegreville-Wainwright 34,493 (77%)
Liberals
The Liberals have only around half of their slate of candidates nominated in Alberta. Longstanding nominated candidates include Mary MacDonald in Edmonton-Centre and Kevin Taron in Edmonton-St. Albert. Recently nominated candidates are Stephen Randall in Calgary-Centre North, Cam Stewart in Calgary-Northeast and Karen Young in Fort McMurray-Athabasca.
Best Alberta showings in 2008 election:
Edmonton-Centre 12,661 (27%)
Calgary-West 13,204 (22%)
Calgary-Northeast 7,433 (20%)
Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont 7,709 (19%)
Calgary-Centre 8,402 (18%)
New Democrats
The NDP have or are about to nominate the full-slate of candidates in Alberta. The party appears to be focusing their resources behind three candidates: Alberta MP Linda Duncan in Edmonton-Strathcona, former MLA Ray Martin in Edmonton-East, and Lewis Cardinal in Edmonton-Centre.
In a flurry of nomination meetings held over the past few weeks, the NDP have nominated Berend Wilting in Fort McMurray-Athabasca, Lyndsey Henderson in Westlock-St. Paul, Al Brown in Calgary-East, Colin Anderson in Calgary-Nose Hill, Kirk Oates in Calgary-Southeast, Collette Singh in Calgary-Northeast), Shawna Knowles in Calgary-West, Nadine Bailey in Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont and Mike Scott in Edmonton-Sherwood Park. The NDP have also scheduled nomination meetings for March 24 in Calgary-Centre (candidate Garry Lehmann) and Calgary-Centre North (candidate Paul Vargis), March 25 in Edmonton-Spruce Grove (candidate Catherine Chaulk-Stokes), and March 29 in Vegreville-Wainwright (candidate Ray Stone) and Yellowhead (candidate Mark Wells).
Best Alberta showings in 2008 election:
Edmonton-Strathcona 20,103 (43%)
Edmonton-East 13,318 (32%)
Edmonton-St. Albert 8,045 (16%)
Calgary-Centre North 7,413 (15%)
Edmonton-Centre 6,912 (15%)
Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont 6,297 (15%)
Greens
The Green Party has nominated 21 of 28 candidates in Alberta.
Best Alberta showings in 2008 election:
Calgary-Centre 7,778 (17%)
Calgary-Centre North 7,392 (15%)
Wild Rose 6,390 (13%)
Calgary-West 6,722 (11%)
Calgary-East 3,403 (11%)
(Thanks to Pundits’ Guide for keeping track of the constant federal nomination updates)
10 replies on “tories dominate, opposition parties scramble to nominate in alberta.”
It seems to me (as a centrist voter sick of the Harper Tories) that the NDP have replaced the Liberals as the second strongest federal party in Alberta. They are able to attract better-known candidates and have been trending up in many Alberta ridings for the last few elections. The Liberals meanwhile are finishing an embarrassing 3th or even 4th in most rural and suburban Alberta ridings, often with less than 10% of the vote, and cannot even pose a threat to the Tories in Anne Mclellan’s old riding of Edmonton Centre. Therefore I will be voting (and campaigning) for the NDP this election.
I for one, am sick of the minority government and the coalition of idiots that make up the federal opposition and will move my vote from the Liberals to Conservatives this time.
Calgary Centre North’s candidate for the Liberals will likely beat out the NDP for second. Chan, the previous NDP candidate, has moved and so has the three elections of support he has.
Looking forward to the Liberals taking some serious headwinds in Calgary this election.
Oh please. Do I have to use the sandbox analogy? There’s only so long that you can hog the toys and refuse to play nice before the other kids bail. Apparently ‘Where It Stands,’ you would just sit there and take the abuse. I’d hate to see your psychological profile.
Ray Martin – Peter Goldring is going to be more interesting to watch than Linda Duncan – Ryan Hastman. Esp since Ray is the former MLA.
On a side note – do you think the oppositions talk of coalition will drive people to give the Tories a majority?
If the Conservatives go heavy with “threat of a coaltion” ads, they may find that strategy will backfire. Those kind of fear tactics play well to the Conservative base and may help them sweep seats in Alberta, but in places that are more politically moderate, like BC and Ontario, the message will come off as hollow and irrelevant to the average voter’s concerns. A coalition government represents a problem for Stephen Harper, not a threat for the working men and women who want federal policies that help them take care of their families.
Hastman’s campaign is riddled with Wildrose members. He needs both PC and Wildrose members to win. Can he do it?
I find it interesting that the Liberals are so far behind both the governing Tories & the NDP in candidate nominations in Alberta. I think when the writ drops tomorrow we’re going to see a mad scramble to put Grit names on the ballot, even though most of them (outside of a few urban ridings) don’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell.
In the Peace River riding, currently held by Chris Warkentin, the NDP last year nominated Valleyview lawyer Jennifer Villebrun, a non-rookie campaigner who ran as a Green in 2008. I think Warkentin will win in a walk, but I expect the NDP to put in a reasonably strong second place showing ahead of the Liberals up here.
Just for future reference, Collin Anderson packs two l’s (ells?) in his name.
FYI Dave, Kevin Taron’s website is http://kevintaron.liberal.ca/