Layton is disappointing. His position seems to be identical to that of Harper. The same crapola that she is just a Liberal in disguise. If she were a Liberal why would she disguise it and why would she bother to run candidates against the Liberals in most ridings. May does seem to have good relations with the Liberals and has an agreement with them re running in her own riding but that does not add up to her being a Liberal. However, May should have criticized Dion as well since he said that if Harper withdrew because May was participating he would not debate either. Actually I think it would be great if there were a debate with no Harper. This would make him seem like an arrogant fool. As it is he shows his evasiveness by not answering the question as to whether he really said he would not debate if May were included.
May calls out Harper, Layton for boycott threats
Blasts leaders who 'secretly threatened' to skip debates
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 11:52 AM ET
CBC News
Green party Leader Elizabeth May plans to appeal to the CRTC over her exclusion from the leaders debates. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
Green party Leader Elizabeth May sharply criticized Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and NDP Leader Jack Layton on Tuesday, demanding they publicly admit they threatened to boycott debates next month if she were to be included.
"I think we have to out the leaders who secretly threatened not to participate," May said in an interview with CBC News on Tuesday.
Her comments come a day after a consortium of television networks declined to let May participate in the nationally televised debates, saying three parties threatened to boycott but providing no more details.
The Green party will file a formal complaint with Canada's broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission on Tuesday, May said.
The party also started an online petition Tuesday demanding May be included in the debates.
Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe didn't threaten a boycott, but did express a preference for only the four major parties at the debate, and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion has said he supported May's inclusion — but wouldn't attend the debate if Harper wasn't there.
"It looks like it's Mr. Layton and Mr. Harper," May said. "I think the Canadian public deserves an answer from each of them. Would they actually refuse to appear on a stage if I was there?"
In arguing against May's inclusion, the Tories and NDP cited a deal she struck with Dion, in which they agreed not to run candidates against each other in their respective Nova Scotia and Quebec ridings.
The NDP confirmed late Monday that Layton had said he wouldn't attend the debate were May allowed to participate.
"We said that if the Liberals were going to have two representatives, we would not accept the invitation," campaign spokesman Brad Lavigne said on Monday.
No comment from Harper
When asked by reporters in Winnipeg on Tuesday whether he told the consortium he would pull out of the debate upon May's inclusion, Harper said :"I gather that the consortium has made a decision, and I have no further comment on that decision."
On Monday, Harper said letting May participate in the debates would in essence allow a "second Liberal candidate" to participate, which he said was unfair.
Harper said May would endorse the Liberal party before the campaign was over.
But May told reporters in Ottawa on Monday afternoon, that there's "absolutely no way" that she would turn her back on Green candidates running against Liberals and endorse Dion.
Harper was afraid the Greens would cut into his voter base, said May.
"Progressive Conservatives and former Reformers … are really disappointed and disillusioned that Mr. Harper has taken a party whose roots were in grassroots democracy and populism and turned it on its head into a top-down control machine that wants to run over everyone."
May also criticized the consortium for giving in to Harper and Layton's demands, saying it should have "called their bluff."
Showing posts with label Alberta Green Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alberta Green Party. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Wildrose Alliance short 22 candidates (updated)
This is from the Edmonton Journal. The lack of candidates in some Edmonton ridings may help the Conservatives retain some urban seats that they otherwise might lose through a split vote.Although the Greens are running more candidates it remains to be seen if they are able to elect anyone.
Wildrose Alliance short 22 candidates (updated)
edmontonjournal.comPublished: Monday, February 18
EDMONTON - Voters in 22 Alberta ridings won't be able to choose a far-right alternative to the Conservatives. The Wildrose Alliance is fielding only 61 candidates this election, party officials confirmed shortly after today's nomination deadline for Elections Alberta. Its predecessor party, the Alberta Alliance, fielded a full slate of 83 candidates in the 2004 election, electing one member and getting 90,829 votes. Paul Hinman, the party's leader and lone MLA, has attributed the recent merger with the fledgling Wildrose party to the organizational woes. As it was, several Wildrose Alliance candidates barely made this afternoon's 2 p.m. deadline. "It's been a mad rush to find candidates, and to get the paperwork in place," Hinman said in an interview from his riding of Cardston-Taber-Warner, where he's in a tough race to keep his own seat. "My understanding is there would have been 10 others, if we had one more day." Meanwhile, the Alberta Greens' website proclaimed they had nominated 79 of 83 candidates. Last election, the party ran 49 candidates but won no seats.
"It's going to give us a huge leap in credibility," said a jubilant George Read, the Greens' leader. "A lot more people are going to have the opportunity to vote Green."
The Liberals, NDP and Progressive Conservatives all announced full slates shortly after the campaign began Feb. 4, but the Liberal in Peace River dropped out at the last moment. The declared candidate was Cory Van Der Aa, an Edmonton scaffolder who had never been to the northwestern riding before tentatively putting his name forward, according to a local media account.
Kevin Taft's party ran one candidate shy of a full slate in 2004 as well, when the Liberals' contender in Drumheller-Stettler also pulled out.
The Alliance's vacancies include five ridings in Edmonton - including the three currently held by Tories Gene Zwozdesky, Thomas Lukaszuk and Dave Hancock. The Alliance garnered about 500 votes in each of those constituencies last election. The absence of those votes this time may boost the re-election chances of the capital's only Tory MLAs.
Wildrose Alliance short 22 candidates (updated)
edmontonjournal.comPublished: Monday, February 18
EDMONTON - Voters in 22 Alberta ridings won't be able to choose a far-right alternative to the Conservatives. The Wildrose Alliance is fielding only 61 candidates this election, party officials confirmed shortly after today's nomination deadline for Elections Alberta. Its predecessor party, the Alberta Alliance, fielded a full slate of 83 candidates in the 2004 election, electing one member and getting 90,829 votes. Paul Hinman, the party's leader and lone MLA, has attributed the recent merger with the fledgling Wildrose party to the organizational woes. As it was, several Wildrose Alliance candidates barely made this afternoon's 2 p.m. deadline. "It's been a mad rush to find candidates, and to get the paperwork in place," Hinman said in an interview from his riding of Cardston-Taber-Warner, where he's in a tough race to keep his own seat. "My understanding is there would have been 10 others, if we had one more day." Meanwhile, the Alberta Greens' website proclaimed they had nominated 79 of 83 candidates. Last election, the party ran 49 candidates but won no seats.
"It's going to give us a huge leap in credibility," said a jubilant George Read, the Greens' leader. "A lot more people are going to have the opportunity to vote Green."
The Liberals, NDP and Progressive Conservatives all announced full slates shortly after the campaign began Feb. 4, but the Liberal in Peace River dropped out at the last moment. The declared candidate was Cory Van Der Aa, an Edmonton scaffolder who had never been to the northwestern riding before tentatively putting his name forward, according to a local media account.
Kevin Taft's party ran one candidate shy of a full slate in 2004 as well, when the Liberals' contender in Drumheller-Stettler also pulled out.
The Alliance's vacancies include five ridings in Edmonton - including the three currently held by Tories Gene Zwozdesky, Thomas Lukaszuk and Dave Hancock. The Alliance garnered about 500 votes in each of those constituencies last election. The absence of those votes this time may boost the re-election chances of the capital's only Tory MLAs.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Alberta Greens claim "legitimate shot" in 2 rural ridings.
This is from 570News. There probably will not be too much coverage of the Greens so I thought I would post something! I wonder what a legitimate shot is?
Probably it means something like a one in a thousand chance! However they came second in one constituency last time so perhaps it is more like one in a hundred or even ten.Their policies are a mixed bag some tilting to the right and some to the left.
Alberta Greens claim 'legitimate shot' in 2 rural ridings in upcoming election
February 8, 2008 - 19:06 By: THE CANADIAN PRESS
CALGARY - Launching his party's 2008 election campaign from the couch of a cluttered inner-city apartment, Alberta Greens Leader George Read couldn't get more grassroots or low-budget if he tried.
But the fact that there's no buzzing war room, fancy tour buses, glossy pamphlets or other expensive advertising is clearly a source of pride for the Alberta born-and-raised Read.
And he boldly predicts that Green momentum and mounting concerns over the environment give his party a "legitimate shot" at winning at least two seats in the March 3 Alberta election.
"If you're wondering why the Green party's growing, it's because ordinary people are doing something," Read said Friday.
"They're going out and they're saying: 'You know what? That's wrong, I want it changed, how do I get it changed?' "
The party is holding campaign schools in Edmonton and Calgary this weekend and hopes to field candidates in more than 50 of the 83 ridings across Alberta.
Greens are running in each of Calgary's 23 ridings, including Read himself in Calgary North West, where he confesses to having a "long-shot" chance at winning.
The leader says Green popularity is strongest in rural Alberta, where concerns over land, air and water quality are paramount.
Whatever limited resources the party can muster are being thrown at two rural ridings where it believes there's a chance for a historic breakthrough. Currently there are no elected Green politicians in Canada above the municipal level.
Joe Anglin, a Massachusetts-born businessman who raised his profile by successfully rallying local landowners to fight a proposed power transmission line between Edmonton and Calgary, is running in Lacombe-Ponoka.
And Edwin Erikson is running again in Drayton Valley-Calmar, where he had the party's best showing in the 2004 election with a second-place finish.
When the Alberta New Democrats launched their Calgary campaign earlier this week, leader Brian Mason called the Greens "quite conservative" and predicted they would erode Liberal and Conservative support more than his own.
Mason also said votes are parked with the Greens as a safe harbour location during the campaign until "push comes to shove" on election day and they go to one of the three major parties.
Read tries to avoid getting pinned left or right on the political spectrum, saying instead that policy decisions are based on what makes sense for long-term sustainability.
To be fair, some ideas sound downright pro-business: Read advocates homeowners being able to generate solar power to sell on the provincial grid. And while he calls Alberta's controversial royalty review a "compromise on a compromise," he doesn't advocate reopening it, as the Alberta Liberals and NDP do.
But he also is a strong advocate of public health care and said a Green government would impose much stricter environmental legislation on the oilpatch.
"The people of Alberta are moving towards a green agenda, and I believe the politicians are behind."
But Peter McCormick, a political scientist at the University of Lethbridge, said the Greens have been slow to get candidates and launch their campaign, and that could quickly erode support.
"This election has not exactly snuck up on anybody - it's been marching down the street with the bells going off for quite a while," said McCormick.
"Green is the colour of the new century, clearly, and considering that, I'm surprised at how low-profile they've been and how they don't seem to be coming out of the gate very quickly.
"Obviously they don't have much money, but they just don't seem to have gotten ready for this."
Probably it means something like a one in a thousand chance! However they came second in one constituency last time so perhaps it is more like one in a hundred or even ten.Their policies are a mixed bag some tilting to the right and some to the left.
Alberta Greens claim 'legitimate shot' in 2 rural ridings in upcoming election
February 8, 2008 - 19:06 By: THE CANADIAN PRESS
CALGARY - Launching his party's 2008 election campaign from the couch of a cluttered inner-city apartment, Alberta Greens Leader George Read couldn't get more grassroots or low-budget if he tried.
But the fact that there's no buzzing war room, fancy tour buses, glossy pamphlets or other expensive advertising is clearly a source of pride for the Alberta born-and-raised Read.
And he boldly predicts that Green momentum and mounting concerns over the environment give his party a "legitimate shot" at winning at least two seats in the March 3 Alberta election.
"If you're wondering why the Green party's growing, it's because ordinary people are doing something," Read said Friday.
"They're going out and they're saying: 'You know what? That's wrong, I want it changed, how do I get it changed?' "
The party is holding campaign schools in Edmonton and Calgary this weekend and hopes to field candidates in more than 50 of the 83 ridings across Alberta.
Greens are running in each of Calgary's 23 ridings, including Read himself in Calgary North West, where he confesses to having a "long-shot" chance at winning.
The leader says Green popularity is strongest in rural Alberta, where concerns over land, air and water quality are paramount.
Whatever limited resources the party can muster are being thrown at two rural ridings where it believes there's a chance for a historic breakthrough. Currently there are no elected Green politicians in Canada above the municipal level.
Joe Anglin, a Massachusetts-born businessman who raised his profile by successfully rallying local landowners to fight a proposed power transmission line between Edmonton and Calgary, is running in Lacombe-Ponoka.
And Edwin Erikson is running again in Drayton Valley-Calmar, where he had the party's best showing in the 2004 election with a second-place finish.
When the Alberta New Democrats launched their Calgary campaign earlier this week, leader Brian Mason called the Greens "quite conservative" and predicted they would erode Liberal and Conservative support more than his own.
Mason also said votes are parked with the Greens as a safe harbour location during the campaign until "push comes to shove" on election day and they go to one of the three major parties.
Read tries to avoid getting pinned left or right on the political spectrum, saying instead that policy decisions are based on what makes sense for long-term sustainability.
To be fair, some ideas sound downright pro-business: Read advocates homeowners being able to generate solar power to sell on the provincial grid. And while he calls Alberta's controversial royalty review a "compromise on a compromise," he doesn't advocate reopening it, as the Alberta Liberals and NDP do.
But he also is a strong advocate of public health care and said a Green government would impose much stricter environmental legislation on the oilpatch.
"The people of Alberta are moving towards a green agenda, and I believe the politicians are behind."
But Peter McCormick, a political scientist at the University of Lethbridge, said the Greens have been slow to get candidates and launch their campaign, and that could quickly erode support.
"This election has not exactly snuck up on anybody - it's been marching down the street with the bells going off for quite a while," said McCormick.
"Green is the colour of the new century, clearly, and considering that, I'm surprised at how low-profile they've been and how they don't seem to be coming out of the gate very quickly.
"Obviously they don't have much money, but they just don't seem to have gotten ready for this."
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