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Alberta Politics

blue man group plans to unite the right in alberta.

 

    The original blue man group united the right in Ottawa: Ted Morton, Stephen Harper, and Ken Boessenkool.
The original blue man group united the right in Ottawa: Ted Morton, Stephen Harper, and Ken Boessenkool.

Aiming to ‘unite the right’ in Alberta by mending fences in Alberta’s conservative political camps, a new “Alberta Blue Committee” has been formed by long-time conservative strategist Ken Boessenkool.

From the Edmonton Journal:

He has promised its members will reveal themselves next week and that Albertans will see them as “politically active, smart, young people,” mostly between the ages of 35 and 45, whom either the Tories or Wildrose Party would see as attractive candidates for cabinet posts depending on which party wins the next provincial election.

Despite claims by Journal columnist Lorne Gunter that the forty-year governing Progressive Conservatives sit in the “centre-left” or by Danielle Smith‘s Wildrose Party that leadership candidates Doug Horner, Gary Mar, and Alison Redford are too “progressive” for the average Alberta, anyone with basic understanding of these concepts will see that the labels do not fit. (See Robert Remington’s recent column in the Calgary Herald for more on this topic).

Mr. Boessenkool’s new initiative appears to be based on a perceived threat of a vote split between the two main conservative parties in the next provincial general election.

The province’s only traditional “left” political party, the New Democrats, are vocal, but their support has been electorally limited to a handful of urban pockets across the province (mostly in Edmonton). The Alberta Party, a new centrist alternative led by Hinton Mayor Glenn Taylor, are slowly organizing and still need to prove that they can elect an MLA.

Even the official opposition Alberta Liberals, now led by former Conservative MLA Raj Sherman, need to figure out what they stand for before they can be seen as challenging the two dominant conservative parties (and decide if they want to be the third).

12 replies on “blue man group plans to unite the right in alberta.”

Dave,

Thanks for your post.

A lot of us have a lot of respect for Ken Boessenkool and the principles of what he is trying to achieve. Ken has made a large contribution to not only our political parties in Canada but to better government and helping deliver results for Canadians.

However I believe that there already is a mainstream, viable conservative choice in Alberta: Danielle Smith and the Wildrose.

There are many of us activists who came from other circles have signed up with Wildrose to help bring Albertans a better choice. We are building a mainstream conservative party that doesn’t take Albertans’ votes (and the privilege of governing) for granted, while also respecting the best principles of pragmatic, Alberta style conservatism that the PCs have long forgotten.

It’s going to be a very interesting season in provincial politics from here on out. I really do feel that the ground is shifting toward change, and I bet many of my friends in other movements feel the same way.

Danielle Smith is neither mainstreem nor viable. She is far too extreme and her only record in elected office resulted in her entire board being fired. Hardly someone we need as an MLA, let alone as a Premier.

The Wildrose is a party of the past best left in the past.

What makes the Alberta Party a new “Centrist” party? The fact you support them? Dave lets face the facts, EVERY party claims they are centrist. This is just another party in the political spectrum, nothing new here at all. Not seeing the progressive side of the PC party running the show makes me wonder more about the AB party being a very left of centre alternative. I agree will be a very interesting season.

What I find comical is that Ryan Hastman tried to hide his Wildrose roots during his recently failed federal campaign in Edmonton-Strathcona, realizing he needed the PC’s to win. Now that he’s lost, his true colours of opportunism are shown.

This new “Blue Man Group” (good moniker by the way) will have little effect other than having these MLAs keep their close friends and campaign workers within the PC fold. PC riding associations are feeble at best. Outside of that, the damage has already been done and many of us are looking for a home. That said, the Wildrose really needs to have a more streamlined and focused organization rather than the behemoth of a group that surrounds Danielle Smith. This shows a lack of political maturity as their fundraising is lacklustre. With the funds, they could run a media ad blitz over the next week to draw attention away from Gary Mar. But they can’t and will rely on the Interweeb.

I would wish Ken good luck, but I’d be lying. The PCAA doesn’t need the far right to win. The Wild Rose is just another version of umpteen failed experiments on the far right (Social Credit, WCC, Alberta Alliance, etc.). With all due respect to Ken, who is a pretty smart guy, we’ve been winning since 1971, when he may or may not have been in diapers. We actually do know what it takes to win in Alberta, and we can do it without the folks who think the sun shines out Tom Flanagan’s ass. Maybe Ken missed it, but those folks were roundly rejected on September 17.

“…whom either the Tories or Wildrose Party would see as attractive candidates for cabinet posts depending on which party wins the next provincial election.” I’m not quite sure of the point? Are all of these “attractive candidates” going to sit out the next election and then offer their immense talents to the lucky winners? Be still my beating heart.

I read Gunter’s column. Only a fascist like him would call the current Alberta PC Party “centre-left”. His idea of centre-left is anyone to the left of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher or Mike Harris.

I would think Lethbridge West could be a strong seat for the NDP in the next provincial election and there may be several other surprises.
No “left”party in Alberta is very far off centre. The dangerous ones exist within the sect of the Blue Men and the right wing, which like the sign says on our newly paved Range Road 240, south of Bon Accord , No Centre Line !!

Creepy how much of a love-in there is for Ken Boessenkool. Obviously those with Ken blinders on fail to do that little thing called research. If they did, they’d discover his ties to Hill and Knowlton; one of the shadiest PR firms who were responsible for the incubator baby lies that led to the invasion of Kuwait, the cover story for the Three Mile Island incident, the tobacco industry spin that smoking didn’t cause lung cancer, the list goes on.. and on…. And he still works for them by way of GCI which has no ‘real’ address in Ontario, although GCI’s website claims it does (the address is in fact a suite shared with almost a dozen tennants – must be cramped quarters). Nevermind that he lobbied (as an H & K employee) the Harper government on behalf of Merck for 300 million in funding for a national Gardasil vaccination program at a time when the vaccine was losing out to it’s competitor Cervarix ( GSK is also represented by the PR firm H & K). Ignore the fact that he was Christy Clarks (Liberal) campaign manager until he was told by the Harper government to step down. Yep, he’s a real Conservative all right!

And he still works for them by way of GCI which has no ‘real’ address in Ontario, although GCI’s website claims it does (the address is in fact a suite shared with almost a dozen tennants – must be cramped quarters). Nevermind that he lobbied (as an H & K employee) the Harper government on behalf of Merck for 300 million in funding for a national Gardasil vaccination program at a time when the vaccine was

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