Premier Klein has announced that this September, he will submit a letter to his party asking for a leadership convention to be held. Whether he will stay on as Premier after September or appoint an interim Premier is yet to be seen.
More analysis soon.
Does that mean that the grassroots are now the establishment?
From Maclean’s
Alberta Tories say delegates against Klein out of touch with grassroots
JOHN COTTER
EDMONTON (CP) – Should Ralph Klein stay or should he go? Alberta’s premier is mulling over his options after his Progressive Conservative party gave him a lukewarm 55 per cent support in a leadership review on the weekend in Calgary.
He has promised to reveal his decision by the middle of this week.
As Klein confers with advisers, senior government members were suggesting that delegates who voted against his leadership on Friday night are out of touch with the party’s grassroots.
After receiving a majority mandate from party delegates at this past weekend’s Alberta PC convention in Calgary, Ralph Klein now has the mandate to stay and complete his two-year retirement schedule.
Though 55.4% may not be a strong mandate in some political circles, surely it can’t apply to Alberta’s very own oil Sheik.
As someone who has earned his political capital one bottle of Baby Duck at a time at the St. Louis Hotel to bringing his party back from the grasp of Death’s cold claws, Klein now has a clear mandate from a majority of party members to stay and complete the mandate he earned in November of 2004.
What could those 45.6% of delegates been thinking they showed up on Friday night to vote against their glorious leader? Were they mesmerized by the siren calls of leadership beauties Jim Dinning, Lyle Oberg, and Ted Morton? Or was Preston Manning gracefully swooning delegates behind the scenes?
After 14 years of governing Canada’s oil province with an iron fist and a sealed wallet, the least Klein could give Albertans is an entertaining 2-year touchdown period.
warning! faulty product!
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Alberta PC Convention delegates, of Alberta, has announced a recall of Ralph Klein, Alberta PC leader. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
The electrical connectors in the political machine can erode, posing a fire hazard.
The product has E50, E55, E70 or E75 printed in large type on the front panel and model number 12941, 13035, 13085 or 13088 printed on the bottom of the political machine. This machine grinds complex policy ideas into rhetoric, pressure brews, stops automatically, and disregards parliamentary procedure. It can also dispense hot air for trial balloons and hot steam to froth and steam milk.
Consumers should stop using the recalled political machine immediately, and consult alternative producers to arrange for a free wire replacement.
This is a perfect example of what happens when a politician stays around past his best before date. As a non-Tory in Alberta, I am happy to see that 45.6% of delegates at the Alberta PC convention agreed with me that it was time for Klein to go. He was arrogant, visionless, and out of touch.
Allie has a couple posts up this morning live from the convention with her reaction.
Klein is expected to hold a press conference this afternoon to announce his future.
It should be interesting to see what the leadership candidates do from now… is the June 1st deadline for Ministers to resign in place? How will this effect Dave Hancock? I’m sure Jim Dinning is pleased.
Speaking of leadership candidates, what’s up with Mark Norris‘? The Edmonton Journal is reporting that he is collecting a monthly salary of $10,000 from private donors in his run for the Alberta PC leadership…
[Cal] Nichols and other Norris friends incorporated GLG Consulting (for Grassroots Leadership Group) on Dec. 29, 2004.
So far it has collected $10,000 each from almost 120 “founders,” for a total of about $1.2 million.
Norris, president of GLG and its “founders group,” sends donors a personal thank-you letter. And the company mails an invoice for $10,000, plus $700 GST, to contributors or their companies.
Norris and Nichols said the donors are free to claim the business expense as a tax deduction.
Asked if they’ve found a way to make leadership donations tax deductible, Nichols said, “Yep. We are transparent. We have nothing to hide.”
But U of C political analyst David Taras was shocked by the arrangement.
“Wow, I’ve never heard of that,” he said. “It’s like he’s a political trust fund baby. It sounds like a leadership campaign being run as a business. It’s hard to know whether they’re being really smart or really stupid.
“It takes your breath away — talk about a politician being sponsored by private individuals.”
Can I buy a stock in Mark Norris Inc?
Super blogger Allie is blogging that Premier Ralph Klein has received 55% of delegate support at the Alberta PC Convention and leadership review in Calgary.
After leading the Alberta PC’s to 4 massive majority governments, he has been very strongly shown the door.
I’m expecting he’ll announce his quick retirement plans at a press conference tomorrow morning.
Not me.
But check out Allie, Duncan, and Blake – who are blogging from the Alberta PC convention and leadership review in
Check out their live blogging – but just take everything they say with a grain of salt – they are “on Ralph’s Team” after all.
The whole “cult of the leader” bit that Alberta Tories try to pull off has always caused my stomach to churn in an unpleasant way. I just don’t buy it.
Mind you, I also don’t think Ralph Klein has been a good Premier by any sense of the imagination.
Anyway, here are my thoughts on the yet to be announced results of the leadership review…
As much as I’d like Klein to face a stunning rebuttal on the convention floor, part of me would like Klein to get a tempid showing of support that will allow him to stay on for the next 18 months. This would lead to months and months of wonderful blogging material as the leadership candidates jostle to force Klein to retire earlier. Alberta a la Chrétien.
But we shall see tonight… I’ll post the results when I get them…
For those of you who are addicted as myself to election results and analysis, this is a fun little site. The site includes detailed US Presidential, Senatorial, and Gubernatorial elections for the past 50 years with interactive maps with state and county breakdowns.
Cool.
Couple of things…
– Sacked former Tory MLA Lyle Oberg is stills wants to be in the PC Leadership race. Lord only knows why he would want to lead a caucus that doesn’t want him around in the first place…
– Advanced Education Minister Dave Hancock is now officially in the race to replace Ralph Klein as PC leader.
– After 35 years out of power and 27 years since electing a single MLA, the Alberta Social Credit Party has decided that they are doing just fine on their own. On Monday, the Socreds called off merger talks with the Alberta Alliance and the Alberta Party.
Their press release stated that:
Leader Lavern Ahlstrom welcomed all Albertans disillusioned with the governing Tory Party to join the Social Credit Party, the “common sense” alternative. “Our doors are open and will always remain open,” said Ahlstrom in a reference to welcoming members of other parties who left Social Credit to return to the “mother ship.” Stressed Ahlstrom, “Social Credit has a future in today’s Alberta and Albertans deserve better.”
Welcome to the mother ship. Vote Social Credit.
It’s been a busy day, but here’s a bit of an update:
– Thanks to Grant for offering me an invitation to Lyle Oberg‘s fork in the road press conference tomorrow – unfortunately, it’s in Calgary and I’m in Edmonton. So, I don’t think I’ll be making it.
But for interest’s sake, the press conference will be held tomorrow at 2pm. I’m sure 630 CHED will be carrying it live.
– As well, I’d like to thank the legions of Oberg supporters who have leaped to the defence of their wounded candidate in the Alberta PC leadership race and decided to drown the daveberta emailbox with letters of support for Dr. Oberg.
It’s heartwarming to know that an liberalish blogger in Alberta can attract such a conservative readership following and for this, I thank you.
– Meanwhile, it looks like I’m not the only one who thinks Oberg’s PC leadership chances are next to nil at this point.
– On a non-Obergish note, if you’re interested in the goings-on in the upcoming United States Senate and House primary elections, Politics1 is a great source of information. As well, for entertainment purposes, you should take the time to visit Arnold’s Neighborhood!
– Apparently, former Prime Minister Joe Clark was on the U of A campus today. I was hoping to hop over and say hi, but I was too intrigued reading over these lovely stats. I was hoping to put another check on the list of past and present PM’s that I’ve shaken hands with (the others being Turner, Chretien, Martin, and Harper). Plus, I kind of like Clark.
-And finally, if you’ve ever wanted to meet a real life terrorist – Angela Davis, former Black Panther member, will be on campus tomorrow night for the final installment of the 2005/06 Revolutionary Speaker’s Series.
It’s been an exciting couple of days in Alberta politics as something exciting has actually happened and the humdrum boring days of King Ralph’s fiefdom have been at least temporarily interrupted. In the wake of cabinet minister and leadership candidate Lyle Oberg’s purge from the Alberta PC caucus, here are some thoughts of mine:
1. Why would Lyle Oberg still want to be Alberta PC leader after this? As far as I know, he’s still a member of the Alberta PC Party (I would assume that the caucus doesn’t have the authority to revoke his membership and that this would be up to the party executive), so technically, he could probably still run. But why in the world would he still want to be the leader of a caucus that just voted to expel him from their ranks? I know I wouldn’t.
2. If Oberg drops out, where do his supporters go? Back last fall, I attended the leadership announcement event Oberg held in Edmonton at the Zuppa Cafe (I even got a nice thank you card from him and his campaign manager afterwards). Also attending the event were former Tory MLA’s Lorne Taylor (Cypress-Medicine Hat 1993-2004), Jon Havelock (Calgary Shaw 1993-2001), and Brent Rathegeber (Edmonton Calder 2001-04), and former Liberal MLA Peter Sekulic (Edmonton Manning 1993-1997). Both Havelock and Sekulic are managing partners in Strategic Resources Inc., an Edmonton-based consulting firm with a fancy website.
I would suspect that Taylor would levitate to a more right-wing candidate like Ted Morton, but I’m really not sure about the others.
3. What do Oberg supporters do at the Alberta PC AGM on March 31-April 2nd? Well, if they were planning on supporting Klein in the leadership review vote in the first place, you can probably bet they’ve had a change of heart in the past 48 hours.
4. Oberg can re-apply to join the Alberta PC caucus in six months. Other than asking why he would want to do that after they sacked him, I think Anonymotron said it best: “What is this, a roadside suspension for impaired driving? If he’s disloyal now, what makes them think six months in the penalty box will change anything?”
5. The rumours floating that Oberg may join MLA and fourth party leader Paul Hinman in the Alberta Alliance are very interesting. My first reaction is, why not? Oberg’s new seat in the Alberta Legislature is probably going to be behind Hinman anyway, why not form a caucus?
On the other hand, I’m not convinced that Oberg would agree to play Deputy to Hinman’s Sheriff. Something about a very large political ego would suggest to me that he would resign as an MLA before playing second fiddle in a two person caucus.
6. I really think Oberg’s biggest mistake was apologizing for his comments in the first place. Had he not apologized, he still would have been sacked from caucus, but he would have looked strong for not backing down. Now, he looks weak for backing down AND getting sacked. He missed a golden opportunity to look like a real life “anti-establishment” candidate. Now he just looks like a doofus.
7. As Duncan points out, how will Oberg react to his new office? As well, I’m sure the pay cut and lack of Ministerial staff (or any legislative staff for that matter) will make him wish he hadn’t shot his mouth off last week in Brooks.
8. I would love to know what the vote numbers for and against were in the Tory caucus for his expulsion. Was there an urban-rural split? A social conservative-moderate conservative vote split? Was it a landslide? Did Oberg have ANY support in the PC caucus?
9. It should be interesting to see how his constituents in Strathmore-Brooks will react to this news.
10. Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft must be sleeping well these days. I don’t think anyone can remember the last time there was this much chaos within Alberta’s Tory establishment.
11. This could change everything for Dave Hancock‘s leadership bid. Over the past week, I was beginning to be convinced that Advanced Education Minister Dave Hancock would drop out of the race in the face of Klein’s June 1st deadline, but I now think he may stick around the racetrack. Though I don’t think he stands much of a chance at winning the leadership, I think he could probably top the list of “best Tory Premiers Alberta never had.”
12. This week delivered Obergtastic good news for Ed Stelmach. Stelmach, who resigned this week as Intergovernmental and International Affairs Minister, will have quite a bit more room to manouver in rural Alberta with the sinking of the S.S. Oberg. Keep an eye on Stelmach.
And keep an eye on Assembly Speaker Ken Kowalski – the godfather of rural Tory politics. Kowalski is keeping a very low public partisan profile these days, which leads me to think he’s up to something. All rumours point to him supporting Stelmach, which could have huge effects in a suddenly Obergless leadership race.
13. Yesterday, Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason said: “I think it’s the initiation of a reign of terror in the Progressive Conservative Party. I think Josef Stalin would never dirty his hands either. He’d leave it to the party members to do it. That doesn’t make it right.“
I think if Klein were Stalin, Mason wouldn’t be around anymore. Out of all the things Mason could have said, I think he picked one of the most ridiculous options.
Former Tory MLA, PC leadership candidate, and Infrastructure & Transportation Minister Lyle Oberg released the following statement today, following his sacking from the Alberta PC Caucus last night. It’s pretty tame speech for someone who just got sacked from a caucus he really wanted to lead…
LYLE OBERG REMARKS
MARCH 24, 2006
Let me begin my comments by saying that I am and I have always been committed to the future of Alberta and to the Progressive conservative Party. I strongly believe that the province of Alberta is at a critical juncture – so is the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta.
In the past week, I have talked about some issues I am passionate about. But I also recognize that this enthusiasm and frustration was communicated inappropriately.
I consider the PC party to be like a large extended family. From time to time disagreements arise within any family, and it is at those times that certain things can be said – spoken from the heart – that cannot be taken back. For that I apologize to my Caucus colleagues and the Premier.
I left my career as a doctor and entered Politics to join the Progressive Conservative Party under Ralph Klein’s leadership. I was proud to serve in senior portfolios in the Klein government over the past decade. In all my portfolios – Family and Social Services, Learning, and Infrastructure and Transportation, I have always had the best interests of Albertans as my top priority.
My decision to run in the leadership race is fueled by this same passion.
When our Premier announced during the 2004 provincial election that he would not run
again, it opened the door for potential candidates to begin their work. Albertan’s deserve to have the greatest number of ideas presented to them so they can make the best choices. We need to improve our healthcare system, we need to make wise investments in Infrastructure and address the critical issues such as education and training as well as establishing a sustainable Municipal funding framework.
You all know the events of the past couple of days. It has been a difficult time within caucus. Some Government initiatives in the past few months have been hampered due to distractions caused by questions about the leadership race the Party faces. That is likely to worsen. Although I was disappointed with the decision of my colleagues yesterday, I also respect their right to make it. I know they were placed into a difficult position and that their decision was not taken lightly.
Given the urgency of the challenges that face the Province and also the amazing opportunities that lie before us, the impact of a two year leadership race must seriously be considered. The vote on April 1st is not a referendum on the Premier’s leadership; the Premier has already said he is not running again. The Vote at our AGM is a vote on WHEN the Leadership race should occur. What is best for Alberta must be at the heart of everything our Party and Government decides.
I will be taking the weekend to talk things over with my family, friends, and supporters and I will be holding a press conference next week. I would like to thank everyone who has called me today – I sincerely appreciate your support and words of encouragement.
I’ll be really looking to see what he does next week. More commentary on this soon….
