Thanks To All Those Candidates Who Ran and Some Advice to Those Who Won.

There are almost 500 individual Albertans who have offered the rest of us their time and talents and have taken some serious time out of their lives to run for public office in this election. They represent a wide range of skills, experiences and qualities, some of them even applicable to a successful political life and some even applicable for governing. The rest of us can judge them as we wish because that is our right, after all, they are the ones seeking our consent to allow them to govern us. That citizen consent ought not to be granted lightly because we delegate a great deal of power to our elected representatives.

The irony of the paradox between politics and governing is that they are entirely different things. I call it the Catch 23 of our electoral system. The talents it takes to get the job, by using politics, are very different from the talents and skills needed to do the actual job of governing.

The vast majority of candidates will lose today and 83 will “win.” To win means your life will totally change. Privacy will be a thing of the past. You personal life will be public property as will most of your time. While you have governing to do you also have a constituency to represent and those are made up of real people with real problems. You are expected to be their advocate and to cut the red tape and the crap of government for them.

You will have to learn how to deal with the media and now to stay out of trouble and on message as dictated by your leader and his advisors. No political points are given for originality and as for freelancing -forget it - it comes with a cost.


You have to stake out your areas of interest and there better be more than just 3 or 4 key issues. You will have to become knowledgeable and authoritative and stay absolutely current in all of them if you are to be taken seriously. If you are taken seriously you will be pressed by special interests to become a political champion for them on those key issues. That is often a trap but not always. You will have to learn how to tell the difference and deal with it.

You will have to learn how to deal with a creature called a caucus and be a team player but also establish yourself as a thought-leader with a respected opinion if you are going to be effective at getting anything done. The art of persuasion and a facility at biting your tongue will be concurrent skills you will have to learn and hone.


You will have to create and collect something called political capital and learn how to use it to horse trade with you colleagues if you want to get thing done – especially if you are in government.


You will have to learn how to account for your expenses to the penny and round off program budgets like health and education to the nearest few million. You will have to learn to be prudent and cautious, innovative and imaginative, then grounded and transformational - all at the same time and see no conflict in that creative non-fiction approach to life.


You will have to learn to take a bullet for the mistakes of others, including your leaders, who may be prove to be fools from time to time - but they are your fools, get over it. You will have to suffer through too many official dinners, receptions, special events and community gatherings that will constantly take you away from your family and your sanity. You better like people because they are going to be everywhere in your life and many will think they own a part of you. Be especially afraid of those people.

You are going to be constantly judged and scrutinized by everyone you meet everywhere and all the time. They are entitled to be wrong in their opinions about you but they are still entitled tell everyone what they think about you anyway - and they will…mostly behind your back.

You will never again, while in public office, be entitled to presume you are having a private and personal conversation with anyone, anywhere at any time, including with your closest friends. Everything you say can and will become public, in some form or other, and if possible, used against you.

I understand from those who love both politics and governing that it is amongst the most rewarding thing you can do – if you are good at it. So thanks all of those who took the plunge and ran for purposes of the common good of the rest of us Albertans. Special thanks the leaders of the various political parties and for those who won. Very speical thanks in particular those who will get the call to become Cabinet Ministers.

Congratulations. Our prayers are with you…as is our future…no pressure!

CalgaryGrit: Stelmach's Environment Minister calls for a new NEP - I DON'T THINK SO!

Tip of the Hat to the CalgaryGrit for posting a video clip of Rob Renner, Alberta's Minister of the Environment.

Rob Renner's comments in the CalgaryGrit posted video clip and the reference to CEMA proposal have nothing remotely to do with the NEP, as the "Grit" would have you believe.

However this video clip of Renner is a great example of why I think Renner is a great Minister of the Environment for Alberta. We need him back in that job right after tomorrow nights election results.

Want the "Final Word" on the Alberta Election Results - It's In the Stars!

Finally, we have a political analysis on the Alberta election that eschews the pretense of authenticity of opinion polls. Check out the range of scientific the various opinion poll results we have been getting from numerous sources on the Alberta election.

Rick Mercer shows us the dark underbelly truth about polls and just because it is funny does not mean what he says isn't true.

I plan to drink some wine tonight and get out the Ouija Board and do some serious prognostication about the election results myself.

Remember the world is run by those who show up and in a democracy you always get the government you deserve - whether you voted or not.

Show up and vote tomorrow. It is only about you having your say about the future of Alberta that is at stake here. No big whoop!

Edmonton Riverview Survey Shows BIG UNDECIDED NUMBERS

There is a kind of hush all over the province this week end as Albertans reflect on the future of their province and who will best serve as our next Premier. Then there is the question of which local candidate is the most aligned with the personal perspectives and aspirations of voters to represent them in the Legislature. Not an easy decision but one an informed and engaged citizen must make on Monday.

There is one constituency where the weekend hush of reflection has been replaced by a vigorous campaign BUZZ. That BUZZ is what is happening in Edmonton Riverview where the PC candidate Wendy Andrews and her Green Theme as has snuck up on Alberta Liberal Leader, Kevin Taft.

A recent telephone survey of 3,453 Edmonton Riverview constituents was done by Banister Research. The findings are the basis for the PC BUZZ in this constituency campaign. Change is in the political air in Alberta in this election and these survey results prove it in spades.

Look at these numbers. There were 12409 original constituency household phone numbers called last week. There were 3,453 actual respondents who were asked would they support Wendy Andrews, yes or no. Here is what they said. There were 992 (28.7%) who supported the PC’s Andrews and 1,092 (31.6%) who will not.

Here is the kicker!!! There are 1369 – that is 39.6% - who are UNDECIDED in Edmonton Riverview at this late stage of the campaign.

This is in Alberta Liberal Leader, Kevin Taft’s home riding. Last election the Alberta Liberal leader, Dr. Kevin Taft got 65% of the vote. This time he looks like he is in a much closer contest. Time will tell.

This survey result has the makings of an upset if those undecided voters show up for change in the form of the Wendy Andrews and her Fresh Thinking green theme campaign. My guess is the Wendy Andrew’s Get-Out-The-Vote volunteers will be energized and vigorous on Monday. Will it be panicky and nerve-wracking for the Taft campaign in Edmonton Riverview tomorrow? Looks like it.

In any event getting out the vote is what will make ALL the difference in the Edmonton Riverview outcome on Monday night. Based on the size of the undecided factor, Edmonton Riverview just became another key race for the whole province to watch.

"All I am Saying is Give Ed a Chance."

UPDATE March 2/08 - THE STRATEGIC VOTING SECOND GUESSING HAS STARTED IN CALGARY. CHECK OUT LICIA CORBELLA IN THE CALGARY HERALD.

This weekend in Alberta has been eerily quiet and anxiety raising for the hard-core partisan campaigners off all political stripes who have been working hard for local candidates and their leaders in this election. This is because no one really knows what will happen tomorrow at the polling booth.

The opinion polls are all over the map. The undecided is high, there are 300,000 new Albertans since the last election and they are a wild card. The old political "order of things" in the power structure of Alberta is changing too.

Personally I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic…I am fatalistic. Que sera sera is how I see it. The citizens of Alberta who show up and vote will decide our future and I trust their wisdom. Albertans are quitely reflecting this weekend and struggling to make up their minds about how they will vote. They hold the future of the province in their collective hands and they are weighing the alternative choices before them and considering the consequences.

There are many regional differences and issues in play all over the provionce. Indications are that Ed’s rural vote is holding and Edmonton is firming up behind Ed where polls say he can expect more seats. The deep south is in play in some places and there are some other intereting local campaigns to watch too. And then there is the Calgary factor.

In Calgary it is all about choosing between being pissed with Ed Stelmach (because he is not one of them) or being practical and pragmatic about their continuing place in Alberta’s political power structure. This choice is made especially problematic for Calgary’s power brokers if Edmonton goes to Ed this time and he ends up with a comfortable majority. Sending message to Ed by voting RED is one thing but losing influence to Edmonton - that would be too much to bear.

There is an interesting and telling comment in the Edmonton Journal today that quotes a U of C political scientist who said “Calgary’s not used to being ignored.” Calgary has not been ignored by Stelmach since he won the PC leadership, and particularly since he called this election campaign. But Alberta has changed and it is no longer “Ralph’s World.” In Ralph’s World , Klein did not so much "own" Calgary as the Calgary elites "owned" Ralph. They had Klein's ear and he pretty much did what they whispered into it.

But now there is a new man in charge and he comes from northern and rural Alberta. He is definitely not from Calgary...and that is disquieting for the Calgaty old-boys who firmly believed what was good for Calgary was defacto good for the rest of Alberta. Ed is not in the pockets of these energy elites nor is he beholden to them. As a result the old energy sector power players don’t know how to respond to him except to be personally condescendingly at times, brashly aggressive at other time, especially over royalties, and a tad defensively too, from time to time.

The energy elites in Calgary are used to being “The Loop” not merely in the loop. The Calgary energy elite angst is made more complicated as they wonder and weigh what will be their future influence in Alberta politics if they go RED and Ed wins a comfortable majority particularly because of a strong “EDmonton” showing. The Edmonton outcome is still uncertain but that does not make the Calgary power-broker-voter decision any easier as they try and figure out how they can stay “in control and in charge of Alberta.”

In any event, sometime tomorrow night we will know the outcomes of this election. There will be many different outcomes depending on your perspectives and aspirations for the province - and your place in it. By Tuesday, the past will just be the past and Alberta will be moving on in one way or another, in one direction or another and with a new government with a new mandate.

I just hope the election results are clear and conclusive and not vague and variable. If the latter happens we will waste a lot more of our precious time fumbling around trying to get our political act together trying to get our future directions and destinations defined, designed and delivered. We have already lollygagged for 8 years at the end of Ralph’s World.” Alberta can’t afford 2 or 3 more years of wondering, wandering and squandering our future opportunities and potential.