Hoping to capitalize on the recent gains made by their federal counterparts in the May 2011 election, word on the street is that the Alberta New Democrats have brought in a seasoned election organizer to be the key architect of their next provincial election campaign.
Jo-Anne McNevin is a a seasoned NDP organizer who has managed campaigns in British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario. She was the director of organization for the federal NDP in the late 1980s and she organized campaigns for Ed Broadbent, Bob Rae, and Frances Lankin.
Globe & Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson wrote of Ms. McNevin on February 11, 1997:
“When the NDP wants a federal or provincial seat badly enough, it sends in Jo-Anne McNevin to organize the campaign. Ms. McNevin — tough, smart and seasoned — ran campaigns for such NDP luminaries as Ed Broadbent and Bob Rae, and she’ll upstake from her British Columbia home to organize Ms. [Alexa] McDonough’s effort in Halifax”
The NDP is expected to focus their resources on five constituencies, including the two already held by Edmonton-Strathcona MLA Rachel Notley and Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood MLA Brian Mason, as well as Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview, Edmonton-Calder, and Edmonton-Manning.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the political spectrum, the Wildrose have hired University of Alberta Law student Steven Dollansky as the new Special Assistant to leader Danielle Smith responsible for election readiness. Mr. Dollansky is the President of the Edmonton-Centre Conservative Association and was my successor as Vice-President External of the U of A Students’ Union years ago. Also of interest, Lac La Biche-St. Paul Wildrose candidate Shayne Saskiw recently replaced long-time Conservative organizer Vitor Marciano as that party’s executive director.
7 replies on “alberta ndp and wildrose preparing for next provincial election.”
The unraveling of the Wildrose party continues.
Good luck to Dollansky. In law school, too. I found doing politics and law school at the same time to be a bad for my transcript. 🙂
I was told on twitter by a Wildrose Executive member that Saskiw is also only an interim. Wonder who’s next in that revolving door?
The best the Wildrose can find is a law student?
The growing pains of a new party. I wouldn’t write the Wildrose or the Alberta Party off. People want something different to chose from, there’s at least two choices.
The Alberta Party might be something new, but the Wildrose party is simply a recycling of the extremism repeatedly rejected by voters.
Isn`t the Wildrose just an offshoot of the Fraser Institute, that know-it-all RW thinktank. Danielle Smith used to work for them, as did Stephen Harper.
Yes that Fraser Institute. Those geniuses were clamoring for deregulation in Canada`s banking system a few years ago with Harper leading the charge while he was in opposition.
Thankfully, David Dodge, the then head of the bank of Canada, shot the thing down and…well, let`s put it this way.
While the rest of the world is in shambles Canada`s banking system stands alone as a beacon of stability.