Category: Alberta Tories

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Alberta Liberals Alberta Politics Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach polls

albertans going shopping.

A poll released today by Cameron Strategy Group shows Ed Stelmach’s Tories dropping 22 points in the past 7 months to 32% support across Alberta (down from 54% in January 2007).

The poll also shows Stelmach’s Calgary approval ratings dropping from 52% in January to 38% in August (his disapproval rating in Calgary is 40%). Stelmach has also dropped from a January high of 58% to an August 45% in Edmonton, and a 59% to 50% drop in the other regions of Alberta (his disapproval ratings in Edmonton and other Alberta regions are 39% and 26%).

But what is most interesting is the dramatic increase of undecided voters from 18% to 36% in 7 months (with 39% of Calgarians and 36% of Edmontonians falling in the unsure or won’t vote category). From the report:

“The increase in undecided voters in the past 3 months in Alberta is unprecedented. A huge swath of the Alberta electorate is now without a firm voting intention, which means that dramatic changes in the electoral landscape are possible. The key question remains to be answered in the next 6 months is who will be successful in luring these newly undecided voters: the PC’s, who need to bring them back to the fold, or the Liberals, who have not yet shown signs of growth in voter support.”

Here are the regional breakdowns:

Provincial Voting Intentions (January support in brackets)
Province-wide
PC – 32% (54%)
Liberal – 16% (16%)
NDP – 11% (9%)
Alliance – 5% (3%)
Unsure/Won’t vote – 36% (18%)

Calgary
PC – 30% (59%)
Liberal – 17% (14%)
NDP – 8% (8%)
Alliance – 5% (2%)
Unsure/Won’t vote – 39% (16%)

Edmonton
PC – 27% (50%)
Liberal – 17% (16%)
NDP – 16% (12%)
Alliance – 5% (2%)
Unsure/Won’t vote – 36% (19%)

Other Alberta
PC – 41% (52%)
Liberal – 13% (18%)
NDP – 7% (6%)
Alliance – 7% (4%)
Unsure/Won’t vote – 31% (20%)

Another poll released by Cameron Strategy Group asked the question “Is the Stelmach Government Leading Alberta in the right direction?”

26% responded the ‘right’ direction, 30% responded the ‘wrong’ direction, and 44% were ‘unsure.’ When you compare these numbers to January 2007 when 54% responded ‘right,’ 10% responded ‘wrong,’ and 36% responded ‘undecided’ you can see a pretty substantial shift.

Though these numbers clearly don’t benifit any specific political party, the growing undecided pool of voters leaking from the Tory support hints that a fall 2007 election may start to look more likely (before the S.S. Stelmach sinks any further).

It also means that the Liberals and Tories are going to have to put in extra effort to woo the growing undecided vote in the run up to the next election.

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Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Jim Dinning

it’s cozy in there.

If you haven’t already, read Sheila Pratt‘s column from Sunday’s Edmonton Journal. It’s a great article that takes Ed Stelmach to task for hiring Suncor VP Heather Kennedy as an assistant deputy minister in the Tory Governments oilsands development secretariat. Pratt hits it right on the mark:

“This stinks so badly it makes the toxic lakes on the oilsands mines smell like garden ponds. The worst is that the government doesn’t seem to get the potential conflicts staring it in the face.

Something about the fox and the henhouse quickly comes to mind when the job of coming up with public policy to best manage growth around the oilsands is handed over to a current oilpatch executive, even temporarily.

Would you hire agriculture biotech giant Monsanto, purveyor of GM seeds, to run the agriculture department’s crop improvement program? Or hire Greenpeace to run the environment department? No, the captains of industry and active lobbyists have their own agendas and it’s not always the public agenda.

…

The treasury department did consult the ethics commissioner about Kennedy’s appointment, which is a signal it had a few qualms. Too bad Alberta’s ethics report is off limits to the public — even though it involved a public servant.

Maybe Stelmach doesn’t understand the mood in post-Klein Alberta.

People voted for him — and against Jim Dinning — partly because they were unhappy about the cosy relationship between business and government, because they thought the oilpatch had too much influence and they wanted a change.

Well, now they’ve got the oilpatch in the senior civil service.

This controversy was totally unnecessary if the government had thought for one moment about it.

There’s no lack of smart people in this province to do the jobs. But there’s shortage of good political judgement in Stelmach’s cabinet.

Kennedy’s appointment comes on the heels of another business cozy controversy in Stelmach’s Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville riding. The Fort Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce attempted to organize a $300 per person fundraiser where half the funds would go to Stelmach’s Constituency Association. The breaks were put on the fundraiser only after a frontpage story and editorial in the Sturgeon Creek Post called on the Chamber to halt its partisan hackery. Dave Truscott is the editor of the Sturgeon Creek Post:

“…there is a time and place for political support, and the Chamber of Commerce is not that place. As a long time member and support of the Chamber I must protest…”

“…to support a whole party or a candidate would be a mistake even if it were not against the bylaws. Governments and candidates come and go. The Chamber of Commerce represents something more enduring. It must be prepared to deal with whoever is in office.”

“I have to add that there is also something very wrong with paying so high a fee to get the ear of our premier. This smacks very much of bribery…”

Chamber of Commerce by-laws are supposed to assure that all Chambers are apolitical, non-partisan, and are not to support any political candidates.

It looks like Ed’s making Jim happy.

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Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Greg Melchin polls

melchin poll continued…

The hilarious saga of Greg Melchin’s website poll continues as the votes continue to rise this morning in a dramatic seesaw of shifts between ‘excellent’ and ‘below average.’ As of 12:11PM today there have been over 1200 more votes than yesterday morning (I’m betting it’s only 2 or 3 people actually voting)…

Survey of the Month
How would you rate Premier Stelmach’s first session?

Excellent 50.0%
Below Average 37.8%
Satisfactory 10.5%
Average 1.6%
Total Votes: 1395

UPDATE: 1:38PM… 1250 votes later…

Survey of the Month
How would you rate Premier Stelmach’s first session?

Excellent 44.9%
Below Average 35.8%
Satisfactory 18.4%
Average 0.9%
Total Votes: 2645

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Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Greg Melchin polls

the beauty of online polls.

The downside of putting up online polls on your website is that you don’t always get the response you’d like. Take this poll from Calgary North West PC MLA Greg Melchin’s website…

Survey of the Month
How would you rate Premier Stelmach’s first session?

Below Average 87.2%
Average 8.1%
Satisfactory 3.5%
Excellent 1.2%
Total Votes: 86

Online polls. Easy to have fun with…

UPDATE! It’s 3:40PM and it looks like Greg Melchin’s Constituency Staff have been keeping themselves busy over the past couple hours…

Survey of the Month
How would you rate Premier Stelmach’s first session?

Excellent – 62.7%
Satisfactory – 17.4%
Below Average – 16.2%
Average – 3.7%
Total Votes: 628

And I’m still trying to figure out what the difference is between ‘Satisfactory’ and ‘Average.’

(Larry Johnsrude also picked up this up on his blog)

ANOTHER UPDATE: It’s 7:29PM and it looks like a battle has begun on Greg Melchin’s website poll between pro- and anti- Stelmachian forces…

Survey of the Month
How would you rate Premier Stelmach’s first session?
Below Average 44.9%
Excellent 41.3%
Satisfactory 11.4%
Average 2.4%
Total Votes: 965

I bet you Greg Melchin’s website has never received this much attention…

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Alberta Liberals Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Kevin Taft

what is ed stelmach really up to?

The results of the latest daveberta poll are out:

When will the next Provincial General Election be called in Alberta?
Fall 2007 – 41% (53 votes)
Winter 2008 – 9% (12 votes)
Spring 2008 – 33% (43 votes)
Summer 2008 – 2% (2 votes)
Fall 2008 – 9% (12 votes)
Winter 2009 – 1% (1 vote)
Spring 2009 – 4% (5 votes)
Summer 2009 – 0% (0 votes)
Fall 2009 – 2% (2 votes)

This leads me to two specific theories that I have heard about when the next provincial election will be held…

Theory One: Spring 2008

Finance Minister Lyle Oberg has already set the date for the 2008 Alberta Budget for February 14, 2008. With Ed Stelmach‘s Tories having a very hard time gaining traction on the announcements they’ve made since December 2006, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Stelmach attempt to pull a page from the 1997 Election playbook and drop the writ minutes after tabling the budget and run on the budget.

A Spring 2008 election would also give all the parties time to organize over the next five to six months.

Theory Two: Fall/Winter 2007

There are four points that lend support this theory:

a) The Stelmach Tories should be concerned about how much further they could fall in the polls by Spring 2008.

After 36 years of Tory government, Albertans moods and political attitudes are shifting. With the election of Craig Cheffins in the Calgary Elbow by-election in May 2007, Stelmach must be worried about growing support for Kevin Taft‘s Alberta Liberals in Calgary.

The Tories only need +42 of the 60 seats they already hold to form a majority government – and with there only being half a dozen opposition held ridings likely to be hotly competitive for the Tories it is not unimaginable that they will only mount strong campaigns in these ridings (including already nominated PC candidates in Edmonton Meadowlark, St. Albert, and Cardston-Taber-Warner).

The Tories may also need to concentrate on gaining seats in Edmonton and area in order to offset expected losses to the Alberta Liberals in Calgary.

b) Stelmach has lined up a number of high profile speaking engagements across Alberta in September and October (Premier’s Dinners in Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer, and Fort McMurray along with PC policy conferences in Edmonton and Calgary) to raise his profile.

c) A pre-campaign memo sent by the Tories to their constituency associations, MLA’s, and members was widely distributed and made very public – which could be an attempt to throw off the opposition parties in their election timeline planning. The Stelmach Tories have also appointed a Campaign Manager (Randy Dawson) and Camapign Co-Chairs (Doug Goss and Douglas Black).

d) The Tory candidate nomination timeline requires all PC-incumbent ridings to have candidates nominated by October 31, 2007 and non-PC-incumbent ridings to have candidates nominated by November 30, 2007. These are deadlines, so it is possible that the Tories could have all their candidates nominated by the end of October, leaving enough time to avoid a Christmas election and call an election similar to 2004 (immediately following the October municipal elections).

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Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Ted Morton

an unruly bunch.

Ed Stelmach leaves the province for only a couple of days, and already the kids are at each others throats…

Tory MLA slams Ted Morton
By RENATO GANDIA, SUN MEDIA

Tory MLA Denis Ducharme is slamming Sustainable Resource Minister Ted Morton’s decision to allow seismic tests by a Calgary-based company on Marie Lake, one of Alberta’s remaining pristine bodies of water.

He’s also “very disappointed” that he found out about the decision through the media.

“I found that his lack of professional courtesy to me was unacceptable,” Ducharme, of the Bonnyville-Cold Lake constituency, told Sun Media. “I’m certainly going to be having a discussion with the premier regarding this decision.”

Ducharme suggested Morton’s hands may be tied by the province’s oil development policy.

“Maybe there are some changes that have to be done,” he said. “Unfortunately, Mr. Morton did not show leadership.”

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Alberta Tories Daveberta à Quebec Ed Stelmach Murray Smith

living the high life in d.c.

I may be all the way in Chicoutimi, Quebec but this still caught my attention. It looks like the Alberta Tories Ambassador to the United States of America isn`t having many problems enjoying a taxpayer funded high life in the District of Columbia…

Bills detail lavish perks for Alberta’s D.C. envoy
Taxis cost $6,000 despite car; annual allowance of $15,000 added to $223,000 salary
Darcy Henton, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 1:50 am

EDMONTON – Alberta’s man in Washington had just the right pitch to get the taxpayers to pay for a GPS for his $42,500 government fleet car.

Murray Smith told provincial officials he needed the global positioning system because he’d been lost for an hour chauffeuring premier Ralph Klein around Maryland during the premier’s visit last year.

“Don’t want to do that again,” he wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Journal under Freedom of Information legislation.

…

But the Canadian Taxpayers Federation expressed shock at the Washington office expenditures, especially the GPS.

“That’s unbelievable,” said Alberta director Scott Hennig. “What does it cost to buy a map? $5? What about a Google map? That’s free.”

Indeed…

Also, Jeffery Simpson has some thoughts on Ed Stelmach`s Alberta Tories 34% approval rating…

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AEUB Alberta Liberals Alberta Politics Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

top ten.

I’m going to be taking a break from the world of blogging for the month of July, but I will be back in August.

Until then, I will leave you with the Ed Stelmach Top Ten List…

10. The $5,000 Fundraiser

9. Ed Stelmach’s first cabinet (90% male, 90% rural, 90% rookie)

8. Ed Stelmach’s second cabinet (89% male, 89% rural, 89% rookie).

7. The Stelmach-Oberg 2007 Budget.

6. Ed Stelmach agreeing with Calgary Elbow PC candidate Brian Heninger that he should be choked (Heninger was defeated by Alberta Liberal Craig Cheffins. Kevin Taft’s Alberta Liberals won Calgary Elbow after 36 years as a Tory stronghold).

5. Ed Stelmach picking a fight with Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier over municipal funding.

4. Ed Stelmach letting Education Minister Ron Liepert pick a fight with the Alberta Teachers’ Association over the unfunded pension liability during a bargaining year.

3. Ed Stelmach defending the AEUB for hiring four private investegators to spy on Albertans and their lawyers.

2. Ed Stelmach doing nearly nothing to address Alberta’s growing affordable housing crisis.

1. Ed Stelmach blaming market forces for his 19 point drop in support in Calgary.

There you have it folks, see you in August!

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AEUB Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

commissioner to investigate aeub.

As Ed Stelmach and Mel Knight continue to defend the AEUB for its hiring of four private investagators to spy on Albertans and their lawyers in Rimbey, Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work has opened an investigation into the AEUB scandal.

Meanwhile, the angry letters continue to roll into the newspapers.

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Alberta Liberals Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

take two.

In reaction to the Alberta Liberal victory in the June 12 Calgary Elbow by-election, Ed Stelmach has added three Associate Ministers to his cabinet. Here are my thoughts on the move:

– A cabinet shuffle this early is a very odd move for a Premier that has yet to receive a mandate from the electorate.

– Appointing Gene Zwozdesky (Edmonton Mill Creek) puts two of three Edmonton Tory MLAs at the cabinet table (does Zwozdesky get a ‘half-seat?’). Zwozdesky’s responsibilities surround “capital planning,” something that suffered greatly over the past decade under the Tories. This may also give Zwozdesky a boost if he decides to run for re-election next Spring (Zwozdesky was re-elected by 781 votes in 2004).

In a related position, Yvonne Fritz (Calgary Cross) becomes Associate Minister of Affordable Housing and Urban Development. I’m not convinced that these two new Associate Minister appointments will actually solve the problems facing Albertans (ie: municipal funding, infrastructure, affordable housing) as what is needed is action and policy change – not the creation of new political jobs with hefty pay increases.

– In an odd move, Cindy Ady (Calgary Shaw) becomes Associate Minister of Tourism Promotion (with responsibility for Alberta’s participation in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver). I’m not quite sure why Alberta needs an Associate Minister of Olympics, but Hector Goudreau needs all the help he can get. I wonder how Mark Norris is feeling this week…

– All three newly appointed Associate Ministers supported Jim Dinning in the PC Leadership selection.

– Both Fritz and Zwozdesky were Ministers in Ralph Klein’s cabinets. All three supported Jim Dinning in the 2006 PC Leadership selection.

– These appointments raise serious concerns about the effectiveness of the Cabinet Policy Committees created after Stelmach became Premier.

– Appointing Justice Minister Ron Stevens as Deputy Premier is substantial only in a superficial manner. Considering that no one noticed when no Deputy Premier was appointed in December, it’s hard to say that this is anything more than bestowing another title. That said, Stelmach would be smart to move closer to veteran Ministers like Stevens and Dave Hancock – as surrounding himself with rookie rural Ministers Ray Danyluk, Lloyd Snelgrove, and Luke Ouellette hasn’t done him much good.

This all occurred the day before the release of a new Ipsos poll released on Saturday that shows party support sitting near 2004 levels (the more things change…).

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AEUB Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach

aeub hired p.i. to spy on albertans.

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board hired a private investegator to spy on Albertans. Yes. A spy.

To quote Paula Simons:

Activists also allege that one of the EUB’s agents, Don MacDonald, infiltrated the Alberta Environmental Network by posing as a concerned environmentalist.

Under that guise, they claim, MacDonald took part in conference calls in which the landowners and their lawyers discussed legal strategy.

For the record, the EUB denies hiring MacDonald to spy on the Alberta Environmental Network, suggesting MacDonald was acting for some other, unnamed client. (And for the record again, AltaLink insists it did not hire any PIs, including MacDonald.)

You know what? In a free and democratic society, the state does not normally hire private detectives to spy on citizens. If the EUB was sincerely worried about threats of violence, it could have called independent officers from the RCMP to investigate — officers who wouldn’t have been in the pay of the EUB, officers who would have had to worry about things like search warrants and probable cause and the Charter of Rights.

That’s what makes the EUB’s actions so disturbing. The board tried to do an end-run around civil liberties by contracting out surveillance work to a private company. For a quasi-judicial body to behave in the way that’s alleged, in the midst of a hearing, is reprehensible.

I’m speechless on this one. Someone in the AUEB had a case of very very poor judgement on this one. For a Public Board to hire a PI to spy on a group of ordinary Albertans is completely unaccetable.

What is even more confusing is Ed Stelmach‘s poor judgment in defending the AEUB’s spying tactics. Honest Ed, eh?

(*Cough* Spelling errors corrected – thanks, Bee)

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Alberta Tories Ed Stelmach Ted Morton

and it’s only thursday.

What a week…

– Tory Education Minister Ron Liepert claims poverty. Finance Minister Lyle Oberg announces an $8.5 Billion surplus. For some reason, Liepert’s argument sounds more ludicrous today than it did yesterday…

– The Edmonton Journal Editorial Board rebutted Ed Stelmach in today’s editorial:

Stephen Mandel is right and Ed Stelmach is wrong. Edmontonians don’t need a plebiscite on new taxation powers. They need politicians with the courage to make decisions on this and other questions, to explain and defend those decisions to a skeptical public, and to be held responsible for them at election time.

In short, they need politicians who are more willing to do the difficult parts of the job for which they are paid.

In Stelmach’s case, one is tempted to note that a politician who has yet to subject his own premiership to a popular vote has a lot of nerve lecturing the mayor of Edmonton on the wisdom of seeking popular endorsement for his tax ideas.

– The House of Commons sheds a layer: Myron Thompson, Bill Graham, Michel Gauthier, Jean Lapierre, Jim Peterson and is about to make an unfortunate addition.

– Ted Morton wants to raise the drinking age from 18 to 19 years-old to cut down on crime and violence. I’d love to see Ted Morton’s data that shows it’s the 18 years-olds causing all the trouble, and not the rig pigs in town for a weekend romp.

– And finally, it wouldn’t be an election in Alberta without a crazy wingnut: enter Bill Whatcott.

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Alberta Tories Calgary Elbow By-Election

stranglehold.

More later, but what?

“I’d choke our premier,” Heninger says to the disgruntled voter, the latest in a string of citizens who have expressed frustration with Progressive Conservative Premier Ed Stelmach.

UPDATE: As Dan points out, Stelmach has provided Albertans with an incredibly entertaining update:

According to reports, [Henninger] told a constituent at the door he would like to “choke” Stelmach. The premier said that kind of enthusiasm is exactly what he wants in his MLAs.

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Alberta Liberals Alberta NDP Alberta Tories Campaign Finance Ed Stelmach

flap flap flap.

The adventures of Honest Ed continue…

EDMONTON — Premier Ed Stelmach admitted Monday that “overzealous” organizers for his Conservative leadership bid wrongly solicited a $10,000 cheque from a municipal garbage agency, money his campaign returned after he won the race.

The premier said the donation last summer from Beaver Regional Waste Management Service’s Commission was legal but clearly unethical, though the Tofield-area body’s records show the cheque was only returned a day before Stelmach’s campaign had officially cleared its debt in February.

It’s the second time Stelmach has blamed his campaigners for questionable practices, months after public outcry forced him to cancel a $5,000-a-ticket fundraising reception billed as a chance to have a private audience with Alberta’s top politician.

Liberal Leader Kevin Taft, who made public the $10,000 donation in the legislature Monday, accused Stelmach of developing a “conscience of convenience” once the leader had a campaign surplus and knew his finances faced more public scrutiny.

“It was only after they began to feel they would be watched that they developed a conscience and refunded the money,” Taft told reporters.

And yet some people will tell me that donations to leadership races have no business being public.

I’m of the belief that there should be much more accoutability through involvement by Elections Alberta in internal party financial and fundraising rules similar to those of Elections Canada.

Can you imagine an Alberta where an end would be put to massive secret and loophole backdoor out-of-province political donations?

Sigh.

UPDATE: Calgary Grit’s take on Stelmach’s ““The donation might have been legal, it certainly was not ethical.” comment.

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Alberta Politics Alberta Tories

trouble in toryland.

The outgoing President of the Young Tories took a parting shot at Premier Ed Stelmach on the front page of today’s Calgary Herald.

Outgoing executive members of the Alberta PC youth wing continued their assault Monday against the Tories and the Stelmach government, arguing their policies are rural, stale and ensuring a “slow death march” for the party.

[…]

The entire nine-member executive has resigned from the youth wing, largely due to the party’s and government’s lack of vision and attempts to muzzle young Tories, insist the former executive members.

“PC Alberta will continue its slow death march, to the beat of a rural drum and tired, stale policies,” outgoing president David McColl, 26, wrote in an op-ed letter to the Herald.

There is also a surprisingly nasty letter on the front page of the YAPCA website. The Herald described the situation well.

Some of the outgoing members of the youth wing say they’re disillusioned with the party’s lack of vision and the way it kept the lid on their views and input. It is difficult to gauge the overall mood in the whole wing from a handful of dissenters, but what should worry Stelmach is that these are more people adding their voices to a chorus of disillusionment with his government that is growing steadily louder.

On that note, today’s Herald also included a new poll showing Premier Ed Stelmach’s disapproval rating in Calgary and Edmonton doubling to 29%, from 15% in January. In Calgary, the poll shows that Stelmach’s disapproval rating has soared to 39% (from 18% in January) and is coming close to challenging his approval ratings of 44% in Calgary (down from 52% in January). The poll also showed that 41% of Calgarians believe Premier Stelmach is leading Alberta in the wrong direction (35% think he’s taking Alberta down the right path).

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