I see Grog commenting on this Blog and I found that he resides at The Cracked Crystal Ball II Blog. I recommend you visit him and daveberta for more updates on amazing political adventures of Craig Chandler.
I wonder if the polls referenced in the Chandler Fundraiser Letter at CTV Calgary and the Calgary Herald were those much abused and laughably unscientific web based “polls” that can be invaded by self-selecting and self-interested trolls. My guess it they were.
I wonder if the polls referenced in the Chandler Fundraiser Letter at CTV Calgary and the Calgary Herald were those much abused and laughably unscientific web based “polls” that can be invaded by self-selecting and self-interested trolls. My guess it they were.
The line that I liked most from the Fundraising Letter was "Alliance, the Wildrose Party, Independents and many from the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party who are organizing to insure that Ed Stelmach is not supported in his next leadership review."
So Alliance and Wildrose members will get together with independents and some PCs, all under the Craig Chandler as martyr banner and conspire to take Ed Stelmach out as Progressive Conservative leader?
They obvously need a common enemy in order to have something they can agree on! Sweet!
Interesting. I thought Chandler's pal Crutcher was going seek the nomination in Calgary-Egmont. If he won, he would be running against Chandler? I must obviously be using old news... that particular piece of news was out a stunning 3 or 4 days ago, an eternity it appears. Things are changing fast-and-furious in the Democratic Republic of Chandlevaria.
ReplyDeleteDon't disagree with you, Ken. However, if Stelmach drops below 55seats, a net loss of 6 seats, after the next election, his leadership could be on thin ice. The Liberals, Alliance, NDs, and Wild Rose are no threat. The threat is disaffected PC voters sitting it out.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 4:59 - you are right on!
ReplyDeleteThink about this - Stelmach drops to minority - he is toast. Taft is toast too becasue he didn't have the jam to finish him off.
The reason Stelmach moves to a minority is not the Alliance moving on - they alreayd had. It is PC staying home AND a new voters showing up with women and youth protesting and voting GREEN.
The Greens get a larger or challenging popular the challenge the ND...net result within a year from now we have three new leaders for all the main line political parties.
That is intriguing but can Alberta afford
Ken, I am quite confident that no "current" Alberta Alliance candidates will be attending Chandler's function.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Jane Morgan
CFO
Alberta Alliance Party
Hi Jane - Why will no "current" Alliance candidates attend the Chandler bun-throw?
ReplyDeleteBTW are you the same first lady who is the prolific poster on Project Alberta?
Like Anon @ 4:31, I'm confused if Chandler will be running against his friend Crutcher. Something tells me there might be some vote-splitting there. Furthermore, if the Alliance and Wild Rose party are planning to run candidates in Calgary-Egmont will it not be extremely unlikely that any of these candidates will get enough support to even hit double digit support?
ReplyDeleteAlso I agree with you Ken, there will likely be a very strong Green vote in Calgary this go around which should further complicate things.
Attending will certainly be a personal choice. The ones I have spoken to have indicated they will not be attending.
ReplyDeleteYes, guilty, one and the same. It has taken me a couple years to get those "prolific" posts.... I have been trying to tempt you over, by commenting on your blog... LOL.
cheers,
Jane
Morning Jane - it will take a lot more than blog comments to lure me over to the Alliance :~}...but I appreciate your participation in the conversation.
ReplyDeleteThank you for using your real identity in our exchange. It is very refreshing.
Will the Alliance party be embracing Mr. Chandler as a candidate in the forthcoming election if he were nominated?
Morning to you Ken.
ReplyDeleteIt was not my intention to lure you to the Alliance... but rather the Project Alberta discussion forum.
The Alliance has not embraced Mr. Chandler as a candidate. Speaking personally; I wish him well in his efforts as an independent candidate.
Thanks for the linkage, Ken.
ReplyDeleteI can't see how Chandler's recently adopted cloak of Martyrdom is going to serve him or his followers for very long.
Most people want politicians with vision, not a chip on their shoulder.
Even Stelmach is a more positive leader than Chandler will be as long as he continues to play the "persecuted christian" card.
On the other hand, Chandler's noisy enough to confuse a certain percentage of the voters...
Ken:
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think of the way the government is playing the private schools funding issue? I think it erodes the good will on the TRF unfunded pension liability deal. I can't understand what the government was thinking.
I think none of this commentary matters. Alberta will NEVER vote Liberal as there is a connection with the federal liberals, who had the biggest political scandal in Canadian history (and implemented the NEP).
ReplyDeleteSo we have Alberta PC whether we like it or not unless and until a new right wing party wins the hearts of Alberta.
Anon @ 8:42 Interesting thoughts but it smacks of complacency...PCs can't presume we have a divine right to rule...any more than Mulroney or Chretien did - and they both had triple majority governments too.
ReplyDeleteBTW - the NEP being the death of the Alberta economy is a myth. It never was implemented...and it was a negotiated deal between Alberta and Ottawa too. It would have killed us given time but President Reagan got there first. He released all the US strategic storage supply of oil to bring prices down...boy did it work. Those reduced oil prices killed our economy along with Texas, Oklahoma and other oil-centric states too.
We kicked out the Liberals in the next election and Mulroney trashed the NEP and foreign investment regulations too. I see Harper is now looking at putting new foreign investment rules back in again.
My partner and I just did our regular column for LaPresse on that topic of foreign investment restrictions. Harper's rules look like they are deigned to only exclude China investment in Canada. I will post the column in English tomorrow.
Anon 4:58PM,
ReplyDeleteThe private school funding idea was an idea set forth by the education minister. It is not government policy, at least not yet.
While I agree that it is silly timing for the minister to bring it up, why can't the idea of providing more funding come up for discussion? Just because the ATA is against it? I had no idea that the government should abdicate its policy-making powers, and look for permission from the teacher's union.
Given my admittedly quick scan of the issue, $24 million in additional funding to NON-PROFIT private schools sounds like a very small amount, given that we spend billions on public education.
I think none of this commentary matters. Alberta will NEVER vote Liberal
ReplyDeleteDon't be so sure about that.
Consider the following:
(1) Massive population influx from outside of Alberta.
(2) You have to be over 35 to even have been alive when the NEP was put forward. There's a lot of new voters well under 35 on the scene.
(3) The Liberal opposition in Edmonton has been vocal, visible and surprisingly effective.
(4) Stelmach is struggling. He's made some good decisions, but his public image is rather ambiguous to a lot of voters.
(5) Alberta has record low voter turnouts - largely because of an expectation of the outcome.
I would argue that the PC's are more vulnerable than they were towards the end of Don Getty's tenure.
I agree with Grog but I also think the PC Party is transforming itself under Stelmach back to a Progressive and Conservative party that has a broader and more inclusive appeal.
ReplyDeleteQuestion is will that catch on before the next election - or even during the next election to turn this trend around.
Anon 7:51 am
ReplyDeleteThis is politics my friend. I agree that there is no harm in examining whether private school funding should be increased from a public policy perspective, but perception is everything in politics.
When you are in an election lockdown, you try to limit the number of controversial issues on the table. Let's face it, the government was trying to cozy up to the teachers by moving on the unfunded liability of the TRF. If you think it was altruistic, you are very naive.
Now by raising private school funding issue, the government pisses of the public teachers. Why go there?
Ken:
ReplyDeleteAlberta Energy is claiming that they were told that implementation of the Royalty Review Panel Report (the Hunter Report) would have resulted in the loss of $4 to $6 billion annually in future industry investment from the base line.
What do you think? Why didn't the Royalty Review Panel provide their own inmpact assessment. It sure would have made their case more credible.
I'll bet the Alberta Energy people making those claims have a lot in common with the Alberta Energy people who were lax in properly collecting and accounting for royalties that were due but merely ignored. The credibility of the calculations in that place is suspect.
ReplyDeleteHunter did do an impact assessment of their recommendations and a full disclosure of their methodology and assumptions in the report.
Have the bright lights in Alberta Energy who are making these financial allegations done the same level of analysis and disclosure? You would think they would.
The Royalty Review Panel determined that the department didn't even have a comprehensive model for oil sands royalty calculations.