Category: Wild Rose Alliance

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Calgary-Glenmore Danielle Smith Darshan Kang David Swann Ed Stelmach Kent Hehr Paul Hinman polls Wild Rose Alliance

snapshot wildrose: new poll places wildrose alliance in second place.

Polls can sometimes be strange and unpredictable snapshots, but this one is fascinating:

Alberta-wide
Progressive Conservative: 38.4%
Wildrose Alliance: 21.5%
Liberal: 20.5%
NDP: 10.7%
Other: 8.5%

Edmonton
Progressive Conservative: 34.5%
Liberal: 27.5%
NDP: 17%
Wildrose Alliance: 13.1%
Other: 11.1%

Calgary
Progressive Conservative: 38.2%
Wildrose Alliance: 27%
Liberal: 20.7%
NDP: 6.6%
Other: 7.7%

Initial thoughts: A public approval poll in June revealed that Albertans were disgruntled and cranky with their current political leadership and the results of this poll appears to confirm that.

This is obvious good news for the Wildrose Alliance because it means that many Albertans are aware enough of their existence to support them when questioned by a telephone surveyor (even if they’re not sure what that party stands for). Their leadership vote is on October 17, and this poll paired with the recent by-election of Paul Hinman in Calgary-Glenmore strengthens the appearance that they are the only party with a semblance of momentum. The challenge will be to keep Albertans interested as they learn more about the right-wing party. In my opinion, Danielle Smith is the only candidate in their leadership contest with the potential to drive the momentum further.

The poll results show negative momentum for the traditional political parties in the two largest urban centers (I haven’t seen the rural results). With Official Opposition leader David Swann hailing from Calgary, the Liberals should be concerned by their 13% drop in the city that was their only growth area in the last election (the Liberals increased their Calgary seat total to five MLAs with the election of Kent Hehr and Darshan Kang). While they remain in a province-wide distant third place, the poll results suggest that the NDP are have largely held on to their base of support in Edmonton and very moderately increased their already extremely small base of support in Calgary.

With a leadership review fast approaching, this poll is bad news for Premier Ed Stelmach. The PC party brass may attempt to spin the results as a case for party members to rally to protect their party’s brand, but for the non-partisan majority, there is a large question of what the long-governing PCs even still stand for. With their lowest poll results in recent memory, it is clear that many Albertans are questioning the leadership and the confused direction that the the near 40-year ruling party is taking our province.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the PDF of the poll results.

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Bill Aberhart Danielle Smith Wild Rose Alliance

smith speaks.

If you’re looking to be blown away by impassioned speeches from Alberta politicians, you’ll probably have to find a way to travel back to 1935, when the last fiery orator gripped his hands on Alberta’s political helm: Bill Aberhart,

She didn’t light the room on fire, but I was still impressed by the well-spoken and articulate Danielle Smith during her closing speech at the recent Wildrose Alliance leadership forum in Edmonton. Her campaign has posted the video:



Mind you, Aberhart’s speeches also led to the election of a government that wanted to print its own provincial currency and tried to pass legislation that would have forced newspapers to print government rebuttals to stories the provincial cabinet objected to. Perhaps Aberhart isn’t the ideal example?

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Calgary-Glenmore Danielle Smith Ron Stevens Stephen Taylor Wild Rose Alliance

danielle smith strongly considering a wildrose alliance bid.

David Climenhaga was the first to write about it last week, and this week, Ontario blogger Stephen Taylor has posted a video interview with Danielle Smith where she suggests that her bid for the Wildrose Alliance leadership is very likely. Smith resigned from her position at Canadian Federation of Independent Business last Friday.

During the interview, Smith mentioned that a PC MLA had approached her to run as a PC candidate in a potential Fall 2009 by-election in Calgary. Over the past three months, a number of sources have indicated to me that Calgary-Glenmore PC MLA & Deputy Premier Ron Stevens may resign before the end of the year.

(h/t Dawn Walton)

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Brian Mason Bridget Pastoor Danielle Smith David Swann Ed Stelmach Paul Hinman Ron Liepert Wild Rose Alliance

week in review: wildrose to northumberland clog dancing.

– Guards at Government House barred Official Opposition leader David Swann, NDP Leader Brian Mason, and Lethbridge-East MLA Bridget Pastoor from attending an announcement by Health Minister Ron Liepert this week. The Edmonton Journal’s Trish Audette reports that Premier Ed Stelmach will be having a chat with Cabinet Ministers next week about that incident.

– David Climenhaga is speculating that Canadian Federation of Independent Business Director Danielle Smith could be the next leader of the Wildrose Alliance. Current leader and former MLA Paul Hinman has announced his intentions to leave the position in June.

– Aaron Braaten has written an insightful post on the recent AIMCo. investment in Precision Drilling.

– MLA Bridget Pastoor waded into the Edmonton City Centre Airport debate this week. While most of the debate to this point has depended on anecdotal evidence supporting the closing or continued operation of the airport, the City of Edmonton is expected to release a comprehensive report in June.

– Northumberland fact of the week: traditions include clog dancing.

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Alberta Alliance Calgary-Egmont Cathie Williams Craig Chandler Jonathan Denis Paul Hinman Wild Rose Alliance Wildrose Party

wrap enters stage right.

The Wild Rose Alliance Party (WRAP) was formed this weekend with Paul Hinman as their leader. With only 3 or 4 weeks to organize and nominate candidates, I think it’s a little too tell what sort of an effect the merger (or reuniting) of the Alberta Alliance and Wild Rose Party will have in the next election. I’ll try to post something more in depth on this in the near future.

Calgary-Egmont Take Two: Paul Jackson-endorsed Jonathan Denis defeated Vicki Engel and Don Middleton in the Progressive Conservative nomination. In December 2007, Denis was defeated by Craig Chandler for the Calgary-Egmont Tory nomination before Chandler was booted from the PC nomination by Ed Stelmach and the PC executive for his extreme views. Denis will face off against former Calgary Catholic School District Chair and Alberta Liberal candidate Cathie Williams, and now-Independent candidate Craig Chandler.

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