Link Byfield’s new Alberta based political party is looking for a name. In an e-mail today Link said:
“Albertans need a viable alternative to the Liberals. If we don't create one, the Liberals will win by default. The Conservatives are collapsing before our eyes, and so is the Alberta Alliance. But what should this new party be called? Eight names have been suggested:
Alberta Progress Party
Alberta Unity Party
Conservative Alternative Party
Freedom Party
New Vision Party of Alberta
New West Party
Right Party
Wildrose Party
Finally, we must prepare to sign up thousands of members this summer, hold a founding convention in the fall, and fight an election next spring. Sound impossible? It would be, except that it has happened repeatedly in Alberta, and can happen again. It just takes the right vision, the right people, and the right plan.”
I am starting to wonder if Link Byfield is a nascent neo-Preston Manning? Meech Lake and the Charlottetown Accord gave the Preston Manning Reform Party the boost it needed to get traction and momentum to do in Mulroney and the federal Progressive Conservative Party.
Has Mr. Harper’s nod to Quebec Nationhood and his buying into the myth of Quebec fiscal inequality revitalized the far right against him now? Is Link Byfield setting Harper up for the same fate as Mulroney?
Hell hath no furry like a Neo-Con scorned.
BTW - what name would you suggest for these folks?
Bloq Alberta sums up their mission and effect.
ReplyDeleteHow about:
ReplyDelete"The Circle the Wagons Party", or
"NRA Alberta Party", or
"The Alberta Republican Party".
All are in jest, even the last one. I like Americans. But if you want to be one, move a few hundred kilometres/miles south, and you're there. Much easier than rewriting the constitution, bringing Ontario & Quebec to heel, and ignoring changing voter demographics.
But in all seriousness, what worries me is names like "Freedom Party". What is this person implying then? Are we not free? It is that kind of thinking that perturbs me. Anyone is free to have their own opinion, but some of these people seem to hold to their opinions in the face of the facts.
Tell me. Is there something different with this proposed new party? Or is this Alberta Alliance Redux. Same sort of people behind it. If they can't hold their act together after getting one MLA elected, then why should I pay attention to them?
One other thing. This movement may be construed to be a knock on Harper, but if this is a provincial party, it is not completely analogous to Reform. A new Social Credit?
With a non-Calgarian/non-Edmontonian with strong rural support leading the PCs, I just don't see these guys making major inroads. Stelmach may not be conservative enough for those folks on the far far right, but he has good support from people who this new group would otherwise target. If someone like Dinning had won the PC leadership, these guys could POTENTIALLY have got the attention of disaffected northerners and rural conservatives. But it is less likely now.
"BTW - what name would you suggest for these folks?" Horses Ass Party.
ReplyDeleteor lets just call it what it is Alberta Report.
Now Eugene - Remember what Bambi's Mom said to Thumper! "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all." ;-}
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion is the Harper Has To Go Party.
Eugene beat me to it - I was going to suggest the Alberta Report Party : Your Link to Prosperity.
ReplyDeleteI've got it!
ReplyDeleteASCCRAAFF
"Another Social Credit Conservative Reform Alliance Alberta First Freedom Party"