Alberta Tories go home?

Hmm..Stelmach should not visit according to Nelson Wiseman because Stelmach has a right wing image and this might feed into the NDP and Liberal narrative that the Conservative Party of Ontario is a right wing force. I always thought that the Conservative Party of Ontario was and is a right wing force. Certainly Ed Stelmach hardly looks like a right wing bogeyman compared to Harris who was surely in the running for having been one of the most right wing premiers of Canada but who was also quite popular. Mind you it might not be a good idea to suggest anymore that Ontario needs a common sense revolution!

Thursday, September 6th, 2007
Alberta premier taking heat for visiting Ontario during election campaign
Canadian Press
EDMONTON (CP) - Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach is being criticized from within his own ranks for agreeing to make a speech in Toronto during the Ontario election campaign.

A senior cabinet minister, who did not want to be identified, says there's no way the premier should make the Sept. 25 speech to the Empire Club, especially if it bashes Ontario.

"This is a mistake," said the minister as he left a three-day caucus planning session. "He shouldn't have agreed to deliver this speech."

But a Stelmach spokesman says the premier never hesitated to accept the speech when the invitation was extended by the Empire Club.

"The premier recognized that it was during the election and the fact that there's an Ontario campaign going on didn't play into it," said Tom Olsen, Stelmach's communications director.

Olsen says Stelmach will talk about the role of Alberta's economy and how what's happening in province is important to the rest of the country.

"We're going to go there with a specific message about Alberta. We'll be there two days and then we'll be out," he said. "And he'll talk a little bit about the importance of Alberta to Ontario as well."

Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, says Stelmach's right-wing image may have a negative impact on the election prospects for Ontario Tories.

"His presence could feed the Liberal and NDP narrative that the Conservative Party of Ontario is also a right-wing force," said Wiseman. "In fact, if he were to show up on the campaign trail with (Tory party leader) John Tory, I think that would hurt the provincial Conservatives."

Peter McCormick, a political analyst at the University of Lethbridge, says the Toronto speech is a mistake and he's surprised that Stelmach is risking the possibility of making headlines.

"I think it's a faux pas," said McCormick. "The trouble is you can't be sure that you don't wind up saying something that becomes news in the middle of the election campaign in such a way that it could conceivably influence the outcome."

Stelmach's speech is at the mid-point of the campaign leading up to the Oct. 10 election.