Categories
Alberta Politics

recap: alberta party leadership convention.

Outgoing Alberta Party interim leader Sue Huff sang a tongue-in-cheek rendition of "Over the rainbow" to participants at the Alberta Party leadership convention at Edmonton's Shaw Conference Centre on May 28, 2011. Over 300 people attended the Alberta Party leadership convention.
Over 300 people attended the Alberta Party leadership convention.

The Alberta Party held their leadership convention on May 27 and 28 at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton and I attended as a member from the Edmonton-Centre constituency. Despite my reservations about the low-key leadership contest, I was impressed with the quality, organization, and positive energy of the event, which drew over 300 attendees from across the province.

Hinton Mayor Glenn Taylor was selected as leader of the Alberta Party on the first ballot at the May 28, 2011 leadership convention at Edmonton's Shaw Conference Centre.
Glenn Taylor was elected on the first ballot.

Hinton Mayor Glenn Taylor was elected leader by earning 55% support on the first ballot. Candidate Randy Royer placed second with 23%, Lee Easton placed third with 12%, and Tammy Maloney placed fourth with 8%. One thousand  two hundred voting members cast their leadership ballots over the telephone and the internet. Twelve hundred votes may not seem like a lot, but it is a significant number when you take into account that the Alberta Party only had around 40 members at the beginning of 2010.

Outgoing Alberta Party interim leader Sue Huff sang a tongue-in-cheek rendition of "Over the rainbow" to participants at the Alberta Party leadership convention at Edmonton's Shaw Conference Centre on May 28, 2011.
Outgoing Alberta Party interim leader Sue Huff sang a tongue-in-cheek rendition of "Over the Rainbow."

Mayor Taylor takes over the party leadership from acting-leader Sue Huff, who has stepped into the position after former leader Edwin Erickson resigned in November 2010. Ms. Huff is expected to be nominated as her party’s candidate in Edmonton-Glenora, an area she represented as a Public School Board Trustee until October 2010. During the convention, Ms. Huff wowed convention attendees with a tongue-in-cheek rendition of “Over the Rainbow,” a good-humoured response to critics of the Alberta Party’s focus on its new approach to policy development through the Big Listen process.

Campaign swag from the various Alberta Party leadership candidates at that party's leadership convention on May 28, 2011 at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton. Candidates were Glenn Taylor, Randy Royer, Lee Easton, and Tammy Maloney
Campaign swag from the Alberta Party leadership candidates

Aside from the announcement of the leadership vote, the May 28 program included updates on constituency organizing from Michael Walters and the party’s 60 constituency Presidents, and speeches from Calgary-Currie MLA Dave Taylor, Election Readiness Chair Chima Nkemdirim, and the announcement of the Alberta Party’s new Health Care policy brief. The policy was introduced to attendees by University of Alberta Public Health PhD student Elaine Hyshka and former U of A Hospital CEO Don Schurman. The policy brief puts a strong focus on primary care and long-term care elements of Alberta’s health care system.

A campaign fortune cookie from the campaign of Glenn Taylor, who won the Alberta Party leadership on May 28, 2011 at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton.
A campaign fortune cookie from Glenn Taylor's campaign.

On the evening of Friday May 27 the Alberta Party launched its new visual identity and held a Pecha Kucha-style Big Ideas Night, giving participants five minutes on stage to share their “big idea.” Speakers included Dennis Lenarduzzi,  Everett Smith, Danielle Klooster, Connie Jensen, Lisa Marie Fox, Glenn Taylor, Jesse Rowe, and Wade Ferguson. I missed the Big Ideas Night while volunteering at Homefest’s One Room concert that night, so I was glad to read that Mack Male had written about it on his blog.

Alberta Party MLA Dave Taylor and newly elected Alberta Party leader Glenn Taylor at the May 28, 2011 Alberta Party leadership convention at Edmonton's Shaw Conference Centre.
Calgary-Currie MLA Dave Taylor and newly elected leader Glenn Taylor.

Having attended countless political events organized by nearly every major political organizations in the province, I have become accustomed to spotting the “usual suspects” in these organizations. One of the measurements I use to judge the success of political organizations are the amount of people I do recognize when attending political events. This weekend, I was pleased to discover that I only recognized around 1/3 of the convention attendees, which I believe is promising news for the Alberta Party.

I have posted more photos from the Alberta Party leadership convention on Flickr.

Categories
Alberta Politics

the alberta party chooses a leader – glenn taylor.

Congratulations to Hinton Mayor Glenn Taylor for being selected as the leader of the Alberta Party at this weekend’s convention in Edmonton. Mayor Taylor scored a first round victory with 55% of the vote.

Total Votes:
Lee Easton : 144 – 12.00%
Tammy Maloney: 104 – 8.67%
Randy Royer: 287 – 23.92%
Glenn Taylor: 665 – 55.42%

The convention has drawn over 300 attendees from across the province. Not a bad turnout for a political party that barely existed only a year ago.

Follow #abpleader on Twitter for Alberta Party convention related tweets.

Photos and commentary on this weekend’s convention coming soon.

Categories
Alberta Politics

by design or by default, a low-key alberta party leadership race.

Alberta Party leadership candidates Tammy Maloney, Lee Easton, Randy Royer, and Glenn Taylor at MacEwan University.
Alberta Party leadership candidates Tammy Maloney, Lee Easton, Randy Royer, and Glenn Taylor at MacEwan University.

A small crowd of around 80 interested Edmontonians gathered to hear the candidates seeking the leadership of the Alberta Party this week at MacEwan University in downtown Edmonton. It is a low-key contest that will culminate this weekend at a leadership convention at Edmonton’s Shaw Conference Centre. The forum could be described as tame and respectful, and the absence of major policy differences between the candidates meant that the audience had an opportunity to observe the differing leadership styles of the candidates.

Tammy Maloney stressed her experience as a social entrepreneur, as a past director of the Clinton Foundation in Nigeria, and as connecter. Ms. Maloney has the biggest heart of the four candidates in this contest, and she is driven by it.

Alberta Party leadership candidates Tammy Maloney and Lee Easton
Tammy Maloney and Lee Easton

Lee Easton was the most articulate of the candidates. The Mount Royal University English Professor speaks in an articulate and perfunctory tone about the challenges facing our province and what needs to change. He has some of the same characteristics of what I like about former Liberal leader Kevin Taft, but in the same breath I wonder about his ability to promote the party in non-academic language. I wonder if he can successfully play the game of retail politics.

Alberta Party leadership candidate Randy Royer at MacEwan University.
Randy Royer

Randy Royer needs to work on his elevator pitch. His introduction focused on his experiences as a Liberal Party of Canada member in the 1980s and having dinner with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, where he told the audience he advocated against Ottawa’s policies that hurt Canada’s western provinces. Over the course of the evening, only one thing became clear to me: that he would not be getting my vote.

Alberta Party leadership candidate Glenn Taylor at MacEwan University
Glenn Taylor

Glenn Taylor appears to be the clear front-runner in this contest. Mayor Taylor is a retail politician and is the only candidate in this race with actual governing experience, having been elected three times as Mayor of Hinton. Over the past week Alberta Party activists like Chima Nkemdirim, Michael Brechtel, and Don Schurman have piled their endorsements behind Mayor Taylor. Experience has taught me to be cautious of candidates who receive too much support from party intelligentsia.

Mayor Taylor is also the only candidate in this contest not from Calgary, and if selected as leader would be expected to run as a candidate in the West Yellowhead constituency.

The candidates answered at least twenty questions from a panel and the audience. The most pointed question of the evening came from an audience member who asked about the challenge of articulating how the Alberta Party is developing its policy and the perception that it is just another populist political party.

The candidates struggled to answer this question.

The short answer is that the process is very focused on sharing ideas.

Alberta Party Logo
The Alberta Party's new logo.

The longer answer is that The Big Listen process, which is how the party has been developing its policy positions, starts with a series of small meetings (usually held over coffee or in a living room) where participants are encouraged to share their stories, hopes, and aspirations for Alberta. The information collected from these Big Listens is then discerned into themes by the meeting organizers and passed on to an issue-specific policy team that summarizes the collected feedback, does research, and develops policies. The members of the issue-specific policy committees are people with backgrounds in those fields, be it professional, educational, or voluntary. The policy recommendations are then put to the membership for approval. At a policy convention or by using online tools, members are able to view the policy goals, contribute their input, and provide support for the policy goals. It is very process focused and driven by values and principles that the party was founded upon.

The leadership forum reminded me why I dislike the personality politics of leadership races and the cult of personality that perennially envelops partisans. There are politicians that I like, and have put my support behind. I had the pleasure of working with Kevin Taft when he was leader of the Liberal Party and I have enjoyed volunteering for Councillor Don Iveson‘s campaigns at the municipal level in Edmonton. While all the candidates seem to be nice people, some who would also do a decent job as leader, there is no candidate in this contest that I am excited about.

For many Alberta Party members I have spoken with, the leadership question has been almost an afterthought, with members instead focused on building policy and constituency organizations across the province.

As was wisely pointed out in an editorial in this week’s final edition of SEE Magazine

“the PCs and Alberta Liberals are leader-dominated parties, where the party’s identity is closely associated with the leader. The Alberta Party won’t be going that route, either by design or by default.”

Whether by design or by default, the Alberta Party’s low-profile leadership contest is not as crowded as the PC leadership race or oddly casted as the Liberal leadership.

In a political environment where a party leader almost always overshadows their team as the centre of attention (walk down the street and ask a random person how many MLAs they can name), it will be interesting to see whether the Alberta Party can break the growing trend towards the cult of leadership personality. Perhaps that is why, in spite of my general frustration with political parties, I have remained a member of the Alberta Party.

With only 2000 memberships sold in this leadership contest, the Alberta Party has both proven how far it has gone in the past year and how much work still lies ahead for its members and, after this weekend, new leader.

Categories
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.

Categories
Alberta Politics

alberta politics notes 3/18/2011

AMA President Dr. Patrick White

Public Inquiry.
As a third case of doctor intimidation was made public, opposition MLAs continued their chorus calls for a full public inquiry. The Health Quality Council of Alberta released the terms of reference for the investigation ordered by Premier Ed Stelmach last week. Meanwhile, the opposition held up a letter from Alberta Medical Association President Patrick White in Question Period today claiming that even the doctors’ union wanted a public inquiry. According to the Globe & Mail’s Josh Wingrove, Dr. White later clarified that the AMA is not calling for a public inquiry, but would support one if it were called.

The debate among politicians has shifted to now focus on doctors intimidation and away from the focus on patient outcomes that dominated the debate during the 2010 Fall session of the Assembly.

Mar enters, Redford makes a mark.
Former cabinet minister Gary Mar entered the PC leadership contest with a slick campaign speech, his own Twitter hashtag – #GOGARY, and an endorsement from cabinet minister Iris Evans. Candidate Alison Redford distanced herself from her party’s unpopular property rights legislation, criticising the Land Stewardship Act for not having “the appropriate balance” between the rights of individual property owners, industry and environment.

Former MLA supports Raj for Liberal leader
Conservative MLA turned Liberal leadership hopeful Dr. Raj Sherman has the support of at least one former Liberal MLA. Bharat Agnihotri, who served as MLA for Edmonton-Ellerslie from 2004 to 2008, left a gushing endorsement on Dr. Sherman’s Facebook wall.

Meanwhile, another former Liberal MLA, Maurice Tougas, takes a more critical look at Dr. Sherman’s politics.

Gibson’s back, not going quietly.
Former Chief Electoral Officer Lorne Gibson is suing the Government of Alberta after his sudden dismissal in March 2009. Mr. Gibson was dismissed from his role after releasing two reports with over 100 recommendations on how to improve Alberta’s election laws. Seen by many as a scapegoat, his dismissal was the result of a vote by PC MLAs at the Standing Committee of Legislative Offices.

Chima Nkemdirim at the 2010 Alberta Party conference.

Draft Chima
He says that he is not interested, but that is not stopping his supporters from trying to convince Chima Nkemdirim to join the Alberta Party leadership contest. A Calgary-based lawyer and smart growth advocate, Mr. Nkemdirim was the campaign manager for Naheed Nenshi‘s successful Mayoral campaign and now serves as the Mayor’s Chief of Staff. Mr. Nkemdirim is the former President and a founder of the new Alberta Party. Other candidates in the race are Calgarians Tammy Maloney and Chris Tesarski, and Hinton Mayor Glenn Taylor.

More candidate nominations…
I have updated the list of declared provincial election candidates

The Calgary-Foothills Wildrose nomination has attracted two candidates, Dustin Nau and Walter Wakula. Foothills is represented by Aboriginal Affairs Minister Len Webber, who has also been nominated as his party candidate for the next election. Said Abdulbaki will seek the Wildrose nomination against Chestermere Town Councillor Heather Davies in Chestermere-RockyviewJohn Hilton-O’Brien in Calgary-Bow. Mr. Hilton-O’Brien will be facing Tim Dyck in his party’s nomination contest. Bow is represented by backbench PC MLA Alana DeLong, who was first elected in 2001. Beiseker Mayor Bruce Rowe has announced his intentions to seek the Wildrose nomination in Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills.

The Liberals will nominate candidates in Calgary-Foothills on April 8 and Edmonton-Riverview on April 15 , where Arif Khan is the only declared candidate.

Meanwhile, a number of PC MLAs have been nominated for the next election: Mary Anne Jablonski in Red Deer-North, Cal Dallas in Red Deer-South, Yvonne Fritz in Calgary-Cross, Manmeet Bhullar in Calgary-Greenway, and Naresh Bhardwaj in Edmonton-Ellerslie.

Read more in the Alberta Politics Notes archive.

Categories
Alberta Politics

alberta politics notes 2/18/2011

Robbing Peter to pay Paul…
…or robbing the Liberals and NDP to pay the Wildrose Alliance. The PC MLA-dominated Legislative committee responsible for allocating funds to Assembly caucuses voted to give in to Wildrose Alliance demands for increased caucus funding, but it came at the expense of the other three parties caucuses. While the 67 MLA PC caucus will barely notice the decrease, the slightest decrease in funding is the difference between a one more staff member or not for the opposition caucuses. Chalk this one up to another round of institutional micro-management and political games by Speaker Ken Kowalski.

New Justice Minister Verlyn Olson.

Cabinet Shuffle
A cabinet shuffle led to two first term backbench MLAs replacing two Cabinet Ministers seeking the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party. Wetaskiwin-Camrose MLA Verlyn Olson replaces Alison Redford as Justice Minister and Lethbridge-West MLA Greg Weadick replaces Doug Horner as Minister of Advanced Education & Technology. Red Deer-South MLA Cal Dallas replaces Doug Griffiths as the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Finance, who is now Minister Lloyd Snelgrove.

Readers may remember Mr. Olson from his controversial motion on the Public Accounts Committee in 2010, which tried to strip the autonomy of the committee’s chairman, Edmonton-Gold Bar Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald. Fun fact: Mr. Weadick is a decedent of Guy Weadick, the founder of the Calgary Stampede.

Calgary’s new Political Minister
Filling Ms. Redford’s former position as political minister for Calgary is long-time Calgary-Cross MLA and Minister of Children & Youth Services Yvonne Fritz.

Bitumen!
The Provincial Government and North West Upgrading announced that a deal had been reached to begin the construction of the first phase of a new upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan. Premier Ed Stelmach called it “a bold step”, but that was not good enough for NDP MLA Brian Mason. Mr. Mason made the point of attacking Premier Stelmach, saying that despite past promises to keep upgrading jobs in Alberta, more jobs have moved to the United States.

Blakeman aims for Liberal leadership
Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman announced yesterday that she is seeking the Liberal leadership. The four-term opposition MLA is the first candidate to enter the contest to replace outgoing leader David Swann. In her speech yesterday, Ms. Blakeman, the party’s Deputy Leader, explained that she had toyed with the idea of joining the new Alberta Party, but later decided to stay with her current party.

Ms. Blakeman is one half of an Edmonton political power couple with her husband Ben Henderson, who is the City Councillor for Ward 8.


Ms. Blakeman’s second V-log takes a creative angle at explaining the political spectrum.

Lukaszuk weighing his options
A well-placed source has informed this blogger that Employment & Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk has been weighing his options about joining the PC leadership contest.

Second Alberta Party leadership candidate
Calgarian Tammy Maloney has announced that she is seeking the Alberta Party leadership. Ms. Maloney is an entrepreneur, a former Oil & Gas business analyst and IESE MBA. She also worked for the Clinton Foundation in Nigeria. Ms. Maloney’s only other challenger so far is Hinton Mayor Glenn Taylor, who entered the contest two weeks ago.

Unions call for fair revenue
At a joint media conference yesterday morning, the Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan, United Nurses of Alberta Vice-President Bev Dick, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Guy Smith, and Health Sciences Association of Alberta President Elisabeth Ballermann called for the Auditor General to investigate the amount of natural resource royalties collected by the provincial government. In advance of next week’s provincial budget, the Union leaders want an open debate about Alberta’s revenue challenges.

Carter: smooth political operator
Edmonton Journal columnist Graham Thomson focused his latest column on the strategies of paid political operative Stephen Carter. Mr.Carter, who is known for his work for the Wildrose Alliance and Naheed Nenshi‘s campaign, is a high-profile hire on Ms. Redford’s PC leadership campaign. Watch out Rod Love, at this rate Mr. Carter is becoming Alberta’s next biggest celebrity political operative.

PC leadership candidate Ted Morton hunting for conservative votes.

Morton country no more?
An editorial in the Rocky View Weekly questions whether former Finance Minister Ted Morton will receive the kind of support from Airdrie-Chestermere Tories in the current PC leadership contest that he did in 2006. Five years ago Mr. Morton earned the support of 57% of PC members in that constituency, with 26% supporting Jim Dinning and 17% supporting Premier Stelmach. With the constituency now represented by Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson, it will be interesting to see if conservative voters in that area are still comfortable with Mr. Morton or whether they have found a new political home.

Nomination updates: Calgary Varsity and Edmonton-Centre
The list of declared and nominated candidates for the next provincial election has been updated. The nomination contest to replace two-term Calgary-Varisty Liberal MLA Harry Chase looks to be an acclamation. The only candidate to step forward appears to be Bruce Payne, a Business Representative with Carpenters’ Union, Local 2103 in Calgary. Mr. Chase surprised many political watchers when he grabbed the seat from the PCs in a close election in 2004 and was re-elected in 2008 defeating PC Jennifer Diakiw.

The Wildrose Alliance nomination contest in Varsity has drawn three candidates, Justin Anderson, Kevin Dick, and Brian Sembo.

Meanwhile, 26-year old Drew Adamick is seeking the yet to be scheduled NDP nomination in Edmonton-Centre. Mr. Adamick was the 2008 federal Liberal candidate in Cariboo-Prince George, where he placed third behind Conservative MP Dick Harris.

Read more in the Alberta Politics Notes archive.