Category: Alberta Politics

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Alberta Politics

alberta liberals special general meeting.

The Alberta Liberal Party will be holding a Special General Meeting on Sunday,  May 29 to discuss a series of structural changes around how that Party selects its candidates and leader. The Liberals are facing many challenges that have been around for decades and while these proposals may not be a silver bullet to solve their problem, they may be a move in the right direction.  

Opening Nomination Contests to All Albertans
Allowing any Albertan who registers as a supporter of the Alberta Liberal Party to vote in the Party’s contest for nominations, commencing in 2013 for all unheld constituencies and upon the retiring of the incumbent MLA for all held constituencies. 

With a potential election call expected as early as November 2011, this proposal as it is currently written would not take effect until after the next election. There is another proposal that would have this and the next policy change implemented immediately (see below). 

A close look at the wording of this proposal reveals that incumbent MLAs are excluded from this open change. Even with only 8 incumbent Liberal MLAs (including former Edmonton-Meadowlark PC MLA  Raj Sherman ) and nomination contests already having been held to replace retiring  Calgary-Varsity MLA  Harry Chase and  Edmonton-Riverview MLA  Kevin Taft, it makes little sense to not allow constituencies with incumbent Liberal MLAs running for re-election to participate in this new party structure.

Opening Leadership Contests to All Albertans
Allowing any Albertan who registers as a supporter of the Alberta Liberal Party to vote in the Party’s leadership contests, commencing in 2013.  

A lot of people will heckle that only a Party that cannot sell large swaths of memberships would do this, and in this case they would be correct, which is why I believe this is a good idea. Opening leadership contests up to “primary style” voting could draw in new blood and new candidates, something the Liberal Party desperately needs.

In a recent column in the Globe & Mail,  John Ibbitson  recommended that the Liberal Party of Canada make a similar move to open its leadership contests beyond its dwindling membership base.

Expediting Implementation of Open Contests
Speeding up the implementation of the previous two resolutions to commence immediately.  

A good move. See  my comments above for caveats.

Weighted One-Member-One-Vote
Moving from a pure one-member (or one-supporter) one-vote system for deciding leadership contests to one weighed by constituency, where each constituency gets up to 200 points. 

There are good arguments for and against this type of weighted system. A weighed system was used in the recent BC Liberal leadership contest that selected  Christy Clark. The idea behind the weighed system is to increase the equity between voters in constituencies with heavy support and low  support, which would be urban versus rural constituencies in this case.

What do you think?

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Alberta Politics

alberta politics notes 5/13/2011

Hancock astray on Education
Parents are holding a “don’t drop the ball” stop the cuts rally at the Legislature on May 29, calling on Minister Dave Hancock to stop layoffs in schools that would affect the quality of K-12 education in Alberta. In a recent interview with CBC Radio, Minister Hancock said that class sizes had little effect on a child’s education and the education students looking for jobs as teachers in Alberta would need to slug it out. The recent Education budget cuts mixed with his recent comments raises the question about how much influence Minister Hancock actually has among his PC cabinet colleagues.

Minister Hancock participated in a flash mob earlier this week…

Tears in Tory wallpaper
Two-term Calgary-Hays MLA Art Johnston was defeated by Rick Fraser in his attempt to be his party’s candidate in the new Calgary-South East constituency. With a low-turnout for PC nominations, Mr. Johnston was defeated 78-74. Mr. Johnston now has the option of seeking the PC nomination in the redrawn Calgary-Hays.

As noted in a post last week, three-term PC backbencher Alana DeLong is facing a nomination challenge from Lars Lehmann that will take place on May 14.

Tough guy Rick Orman
Billing himself as “The Right Choice” for the job of PC Party leader, former cabinet minister Rick Orman has some tough talk for his party.

Alberta’s NDP Bill 208: Guaranteeing Public Healthcare for Our Future
NDP MLA Brian Mason introduced Bill 208 in the final days of the Spring sitting of the Assembly. The NDP are billing this piece of legislation as a law that would “shield public health care from the attacks it is facing.”

Liberals appoint Interim leader
The Liberal Party approved their leadership contest rules last weekend and appointed outgoing leader David Swann as the interim leader until the contest, set to conclude on September 10, chooses a new leader. Edmonton MLA Laurie Blakeman is kicking off her leadership campaign on May 15.

Energy Superboard
Energy Minister Ron Liepert must like something about Superboards that he is not telling us.

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Alberta Politics

laurie blakeman kicking off liberal leadership bid.

Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman is kicking off her campaign for the Liberal Party leadership at a May 15 BBQ at the Rossdale Community Hall. The kick off will take place right after the conclusion of a constituency nomination meeting where Ms. Blakeman will be acclaimed as the Liberal candidate in her riding.

Ms. Blakeman was first elected in 1997 and announced her bid for the party leadership not long after current leader David Swann announced his resignation in February 2011. The Liberal Party released the rules for their leadership campaign this week and members will choose a new leader on September 10, 2011.

The only other candidate to announce interest in the contest is former Edmonton-Meadowlark PC MLA Raj Sherman, who joined the Liberal Party in March 2011.

The next Liberal leader will face many pressing challenges, most urgently to find a way to pull together a party which has fallen behind the other opposition parties, namely the Wildrose Alliance, in public support and fundraising over the past year. With a provincial election potentially being called as early as November 2011, the new leader will not have time on their side.

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Alberta Politics

alberta party leadership contest.

The contest for the Alberta Party leadership is nearing its end, with the results scheduled to be released at an Edmonton event on May 28. The deadline to purchase a membership in order to vote in the contest is May 13 and it is my understanding that the actual voting will take place online over the following weeks.

While the low-key contest was largely overshadowed by the recent federal election and the ongoing Progressive Conservative leadership contest, it has been interesting to watch a new cast of characters, not veteran provincial politicians, join this contest. None of these new characters could be characterized as “superstars,” but their lack of substantial political baggage could be a benefit to the newly revitalized Alberta Party. I will be writing more about this contest over the next few weeks.

Here are a series of video interviews with the leadership contenders that that Party has prepared:

Lee Easton

Lee Easton, Alberta Party Leadership Candidate from Alberta Party on Vimeo.

Tammy Maloney

Tammy Maloney, Alberta Party Leadership Candidate from Alberta Party on Vimeo.

Randy Royer

Randy Royer, Alberta Party Leadership Candidate from Alberta Party on Vimeo.


Glenn Taylor

Glenn Taylor, Alberta Party Leadership Candidate from Alberta Party on Vimeo.

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Alberta Politics

rick orman joins alberta pc leadership contest.

As recently reported by Mark Lisac‘s Insight newsletter, and now confirmed by a tweet from Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Doug Horner, former MLA Rick Orman has joined the PC leadership contest.

For anyone new to Alberta in the past 17 years or under the age of 30 who may not be familiar with Mr. Orman (myself included), he served as the MLA for Calgary-Montrose from 1986 to 1993. He was the Minister of Labour during the 1988 Nurses Strike and placed third in the 1992 PC leadership contest, behind Ralph Klein and Nancy Betkowski.

Eric Young is the former President of the PC Party and was also recently rumoured to be a potential candidate.

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Alberta Politics

updated: nomination updates – alberta election.

With the federal election behind us, it is now time to turn attention towards the quiet preparation happening in the run up to the next provincial election. I have updated the growing list of declared and nominated candidates for the next provincial election and below are some of the interesting nominations and contests that I have been following. If you have any updates or know of any candidates that are missing from the list, please comment in the section below.

Calgary-Bow: Three term PC MLA Alana DeLong is facing a nomination challenge from Lars Lehmann at a May 14 nomination meeting. Mr. Lehmann may be the only candidate to also have a profile on IMDB.com, where he is listed as a Production Director for a number of films including Calgary-based Exit Wounds, and others including Rat Race (starring Whoopi Goldberg, John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson, and Seth Green among others). Ms. DeLong has sat in the Government backbenches since being elected and gained media attention for her brief entry into the PC leadership contest in 2006 (she dropped out and endorsed Jim Dinning before the vote was held).

Calgary-McCall: The Wildrose Alliance nomination scheduled for May 7 has been suspended until the party can address a number of irregularities in the local membership list. The hotly contested nomination has drawn at least three candidates, Grant Galpin, Khalil Karbani, Deepshikha Brar. McCall has been represented by Liberal MLA Darshan Kang since 2008.

UPDATED: Calgary-South East: Two-term PC MLA Art Johnston is facing a nomination challenge from Paramedic Rick Fraser in this new constituency. Mr. Fraser is the former President of CUPE 3421, the Calgary Paramedics Union. Mr. Johnston has served as the MLA for Calgary-Hays since 2004.

Calgary-Varsity: Justin Anderson was nominated as the Wildrose Alliance candidate after defeating challengers Kevin Dick and Brian Sembo. Mr. Anderson is the brother of Airdrie-Chestermere Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson and Town of Crossfield Mayor Nathan Anderson. The riding has been held by retiring Liberal MLA Harry Chase since 2004. The Liberals have nominated Union Representative Bruce Payne.

Edmonton-Manning: Former Mayoral candidate Daryl Bonar is the Wildrose Alliance candidate in this north east Edmonton constituency. Mr. Bonar, a Community Relations Officer with the Canadian Forces, is a good catch for the Wildrose, who had yet to attract anything close to a “star candidate” in Edmonton. Manning is currently held by first term PC MLA Peter Sandhu, who was elected with 35% of the vote in 2008.

Edmonton-Rutherford: The first constituency to have a nominated candidate from each of the main political parties. This full-ballot was complete with the nomination of Michael Walters as the Alberta Party candidate in April. Mr. Walters is that party’s Provincial Organizer and previously served as an organizer for the Greater Edmonton Alliance, a coalition of community associations, church groups, and labour unions. Also on the ballot will be first-term PC MLA Fred Horne, former Liberal MLA Rick Miller, NDP candidate Melanie Samaroden, and second-time Wildroser Kyle McLeod.

Edmonton-Riverview: Arif Khan was nominated as the Liberal candidate in the constituency being vacated by former party leader Kevin Taft at the next election. Mr. Khan is a consultant and western Vice President of Condo Store Inc. Riverview has been represented by Liberal MLAs since 1997.

Innisfail-Sylvan Lake: Penhold Town Councillor Danielle Klooster is seeking the Alberta Party candidacy in this central Alberta constituency. It will be an uphill battle for Ms. Klooster, as voters gave incumbent PC MLA Luke Ouellette 62% support in the 2008 election.

Leduc-Beaumont: In a contested nomination, two-term PC MLA George Rogers fended off a spirited nomination challenge from Leduc Alderman Dominic Mishio. According to the Leduc Representative, Mr. Rogers earned 826 votes to Mr. Mishio’s 625 votes. Mr. Mishio’s candidacy was seen by some political watchers as an opportunity to rejuvenate the PC caucus, where Mr. Rogers has sat as a backbencher since he was first elected.

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Alberta Politics

federal election 2011: alberta painted conservative blue, with a spec of ndp orange.

The NDP surge seen in other parts of the country did not manifest itself in Alberta. While Jack Layton‘s Party surged in Quebec, and increased their caucus numbers in British Columbia, Ontario and the Maritimes, the NDP only elected one MP in Alberta, dashing hopes that the party had in three Edmonton ridings. The NDP placed second province-wide with 16.8% of the vote, increasing their total by 4.1% since the 2008 election.

The Liberal Party took a historical beating in every province yesterday save Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island and that Party fell to a pathetic 9.3% province-wide vote in Alberta. No one expected the Liberals to be strong in Alberta, but less than one in ten Albertans voted for the Liberal Party in yesterday’s election.

The Conservatives maintained their dominance in Alberta and elected 27 of 28 MPs, while receiving support of 66.8% of voters province-wide.

Federal NDP candidates Lewis Cardinal, Linda Duncan, and Ray Martin at an April 2011 rally.

Edmonton-Strathcona MP Linda Duncan was re-elected with a clear mandate of 26,134 votes (53% of the vote) over her Conservative Party opponent Ryan Hastman, who earned 19,755 votes (40% of the total vote). The Conservatives had hoped to reclaim this riding, which they held until Ms. Duncan’s upset victory against Rahim Jaffer in 2008. Instead the ridings voters rejected the Conservative Blue wave that swept Alberta and granted Ms. Duncan the first majority vote that any MP from Edmonton-Strathcona has received since 1984.

In Edmonton-East, a riding the NDP has hoped to succeed in, former MLA Ray Martin increased his vote share from the 2008 election, but it was not enough to defeat incumbent Conservative Peter Goldring. Mr. Goldring managed to finish almost 7,000 votes ahead of Mr. Martin. This was Mr. Martin’s fourth attempt to win a seat in Parliament since 1997.

In Edmonton-Centre, the NDP dislodged the Liberals in the contest for second place, while Conservative MP Laurie Hawn finished with 47% support. Mr. Hawn finished around 9,000 votes ahead of his nearest opponent, the hardworking NDP candidate Lewis Cardinal. The Liberal candidate Mary MacDonald had waged an aggressive campaign in the riding, but failed to beat her Party’s national downward trend.

The Conservatives elected two rookie MPs in Alberta yesterday, Michelle Rempel in Calgary-Centre North and Jim Nation Hillyer in Lethbridge.

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federal election 2011: what could it mean for alberta and the oil sands?

Majority Government without Majority Support of Canadians
A big weakness of our electoral system reared its head last night as the Conservative Party formed their first majority government since 1988, but did not earn the majority support of Canadians. Prime Minister Stephen Harper‘s Party increased their seat count in the House of Commons to 167 while only receiving the support of roughly 40% of Canadian voters, creating a situation somewhat reminiscent of the Liberal Party victories of the 1990s.

In Alberta, the Conservatives elected 27 of 28 MPs while only receiving support of 66.8% of voters province-wide.

Back to two and a half
There are all sorts of predictions and speculative analysis that could be made about what the new dynamic means for Alberta. With the Bloc Quebecois decimated and the Liberal Party collapsed into third-party status, Canada has unexpectedly returned to a two [and a half?] party system similar to what existed before the 1993 election. It will be interesting to watch how this new old dynamic manifests itself and whether the Official Opposition NDP will be able to present a strong alternative to the probable Conservatives moves towards privatization of governments services and health care. It will also be interesting to watch whether the Liberals can recover from such a devastating electoral blow.

What could the new Parliament mean for Alberta?
With a Conservative majority government, Alberta will have a strong supporter of oil sands development in Ottawa, but it will also have a more vocal critic in the new and large NDP Official Opposition and Green Party leader Elizabeth May, who was elected in Sanich-Gulf Islands.

While visiting Alberta during the campaign, NDP leader Jack Layton only briefly mentioned his party’s position on the oil sands, which is quickly replacing the old Central Canadian industrial base as Canada’s economic engine. As Official Opposition lead with a large contingent of MPs from Quebec, Mr. Layton may feel stronger license to criticize the development of the oil sands, which appears to be a popular stance in Central and Eastern Canada.

Early in the election campaign, provincial Liberal leader David Swann and NDP leader Brian Mason were reportedly distancing themselves from their federal counterparts on this issue and Premier Ed Stelmach and Wildrose leader Danielle Smith weighed in during the election campaign.

As NDP Environment Critic in the last Parliament, Edmonton-Strathcona NDP MP Linda Duncan could find herself placed front and centre of any upcoming Parliamentary debate on the future of Alberta’s oil sands.

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may 2, 2011 federal election results in alberta, calgary, and edmonton.

Preliminary election results data from the Elections Canada website shows the unofficial federal election results across Alberta and in Calgary and Edmonton.

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the new canada: painted blue and orange.

2011 Federal Election Results: Conservative (Blue), NDP (Orange), Liberal (Red), Light Blue (BQ)

What started as a less than exciting federal election when the writ was dropped in April 2011 turned into a monumental political shift tonight.

The Conservative Party has formed a majority government under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Toronto-Danforth Member of Parliament Jack Layton led the NDP in dislodging Michael Ignatieff‘s Liberal Party and decimating the Bloc Quebecois to become the Official Opposition for the first time. In the British Columbia riding of Sanich-Gulf Island, Green Party leader Elizabeth May has become her party’s first elected Member of Parliament.

Seat Count
Conservative 166 MPs
NDP: 103 MPs
Liberal: 34 MPs
BQ: 4 MPs
Green: 1 MP

Percentage of National Vote
Conservative: 39.6%
NDP: 30.7%
Liberal: 18.7%
BQ: 6.1%
Green: 3.8%

It certainly gives this blogger a lot to think about.

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back from the land down under. vote today.

Having just returned from a wonderful three week sojourn in Australia, you can likely imagine how surprised I was to see the turn of events that has taken place in the run up to today’s Federal Election (I am referring to the NDP‘s surge in the public opinion polls).

I am looking forward to catching up on the past three weeks worth of politics and will be easing my way back into provincial political blogging over the next week.

Remember that voting stations are open until 7:30pm tonight, so get out and vote.

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gone fishing.


I am heading to Australia until May.

Enjoy the rest of the federal election and remember to vote on May 2 (find out where to vote).

Try not to build any expensive downtown arenas while I am gone.

Cheers,

Dave

PS. I feel lucky that daveberta.ca has been nominated as one of Edmonton’s best blogs in SEE Magazine‘s annual Best of Edmonton 2011 survey. Pop over to their website and cast a vote if you feel inclined. Thanks!

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thinking about social media and the federal election.

Over the past two weeks, I have had the pleasure of joining those energetic morning people, Bridget Ryan and Ryan Jespersen on Edmonton’s Breakfast Television to talk about social media and the federal election (you can watch this week’s segment here).

Levels of Twitter-ability among some local election candidates varies. While some candidates, like Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont Conservative candidate Mike Lake, Edmonton-Strathcona Conservative Ryan Hastman, and Edmonton-Centre Liberal Mary MacDonald, have or are beginning to demonstrate an more nuanced understanding of Twitter, the social media literacy of most candidates appears to be lacking. It makes me wonder if some candidates just checked off “social media” on their campaign do-list, but are not sure why they are actually doing it.

Most candidates have begun their Tweets and Facebook Pages to blast out one-way messages about 1) how great their campaign is going, 2) how awesome their party leaders are, 3) how amazing their party’s policies are, or 4) how terrible the other parties/leaders and their policies are for Canada. For example, only three of the last 50 tweets posted by Edmonton-Centre Conservative MP Laurie Hawn have been responses to other twitter users. The remaining 47 tweets fit into the previously mentioned four categories.

Yelling loudly in a room packed with people
Operating in a one-way social media bubble obviously lessens the chance of making embarrassing mistakes, but makes for a boring Twitter feed. A friend described recently, sending one way Tweets is kind of like standing in a crowded room and yelling. Believe me, election candidates, you probably do not want to be “that guy.”

Media tweets
At least in the first two weeks of the Federal Election campaign, I have found many members of the national media to be the most engaging and interesting people to follow on Twitter. Follow @Kady @ScottFeschuk and @DavidAkin to see what I mean.

Follow the election on Twitter
To follow the election tweets on Twitter, #yegfed for Edmonton federal election news, #elxn41 or #cdnpoli for Canada-wide election news.

Creative online ads
On a more cheeky and creative side of the online campaign, both the Liberals and NDP have created two ads that have caught the attention of some online users:

Hey Stephen Harper, stop creeping me on Facebook!

NDP Hamster Wheel Ad

Remember, social media is a tool.
As I have written before, it is important to remember that social media is a tool. Social media is an important additional tool to complement traditional campaigning, but it does not replace actually connecting citizens in-person.

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doreen barrie on the politics of health care: confusing the public.

Why is health care political? How literate are Canadians about the system? What strategies are in use to influence public opinion? Are there solutions to be found elsewhere? These were the topics focused on by University of Calgary Professor Doreen Barrie at that University’s recent Health Care Forum.

Dr. Barrie used her presentation to deconstructed many of the myths, half-truths, and political tactics being used by groups like the Frontier Centre and the Wildrose Alliance, which promote vaguely-described “European-models” of health care as their solution to the challenges facing Canada’s public health system.

See the slideshow.

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bizarre photo from laurie hawn campaign launch.

There are some photos that say a million words. There are some photos that make you say “huh?”

This photo from Edmonton-Centre Conservative candidate Laurie Hawn‘s Facebook Page is certainly one of the latter.

Caption contest?

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