Progressive Conservatives win majority again in Alberta

From the polls it looked as if the Wildrose party might win a minority or even majority government. However the polls were wrong. In fact the popular vote was running at almost 44 per cent for the PCs and just around 36 per cent for the Wildrose as I am writing this at just about ten thirty PM central time.

The CBC has just declared that there will be a majority Conservative government even though many ridings are still too close to declare who is elected. But the figures show the situation: The Conservatives are leading in 60 seats the Wildrose in 19 the NDP in 4 and the Liberals in 4. The NDP has doubled their numbers if they actually win whereas the Liberals seem to have lost several seats.

Some Liberal voters may have decided to vote PC to keep the Wildrose out but the NDP vote percentage held. Over the weekend many who earlier intended to vote for the Wildrose must have changed their mind or perhaps the undecided voters chose to vote for the Progressive Conservatives. I did not think that the strategic voting campaign was working but perhaps it did have some effect although not on New Democratic Party voters. The Conservatives have been in power in Alberta for over 40 years.

UPDATE : Results here as of April 24th
Progressive Conservatives elected in 61 seats and leading in one, Wildrose Party elected in 17, NDP elected in 4 and Liberals elected in 4. Popular vote:: PC 43.9 , Wildrose 34.5, NDP 9.8, Liberal 9.6.

Alberta Liberals vote for change..

This is from canada.com.
Interesting that the Liberals have such a negative brand image in Alberta that Swann is thinking of changing the party name to that of the province. This imitates the right wing Saskatchewan party next door. No doubt the Conservatives will paint Swann as an extreme environmentalist who will completely wreck the Alberta economy.

Alberta Liberals vote for change
Calgary MLA unveils big plans as new leader

Jason Fekete
Calgary Herald
Sunday, December 14, 2008
A lberta Liberals elected Calgary MLA David Swann as their next leader Saturday, and the new Grit boss already has an ambitious plan to travel the province, triple membership and possibly rename the party.
Swann, an environmental champion and medical doctor by training, defeated fellow Calgary MLA Dave Taylor and former Edmonton MLA Mo Elsalhy with a narrow majority on the first ballot of a preferential mail-in vote.
"The doctor is in,"Swann told about 150 Liberal party members at Calgary's Glenmore Inn.
"I won't be seeing patients, but I will be working for the health of Alberta."
A total of 6,258 ballots were mailed to eligible members, with 4,599 returned to the office before Friday's deadline.
A total of 2,300 were needed for a majority on the first ballot and Swann pulled in 2,468 votes, compared with Taylor's 1,616 and Elsalhy's 491. There were 24 spoiled ballots.
The 59-year-old replaces Kevin Taft, who led the Liberals for more than four years and through two elections, but saw his party soundly thumped by Premier Ed Stelmach's Conservatives in the March campaign.
Swann's first orders of business are re-engaging Albertans and re-evaluating everything the party is doing--including its messaging, fundraising techniques and brand name. He wants to triple the membership to 18,000 within three years and attract more women and youths.
On Saturday, he said he'd like to put a proposed name change to party faithful within 18 months, suggesting Alberta Party.
"I am open to any name that reflects Alberta and Albertans and a progressive, centrist future," he told reporters.
Swann regularly promotes environmental and social democracy causes, and is seen as sitting further left on the political spectrum than his leadership opponents.
He was fired in 2002 as medical officer of health for the Palliser Health Region, after endorsing the Kyoto accord on climate change that the then Klein government opposed. But Swann insisted Saturday the party will not lurch to the left, vowing to "build a party of the sensible centre."
Taylor, Liberal MLA for Calgary-Currie, said the party has a pile of organizational work to do if it's to become a government in waiting, and pledged to work alongside Swann.
He considered himself more business-friendly than Swann, "but I think we both met in the middle."
Asked where the party will go with Swann as leader, Taylor said: "That's going to be interesting to see."
Swann inherits a party $475,000 in debt, a small membership and only nine MLAs in the 83-seat legislature.
He is the first Calgary-based Liberal leader in nearly 40 years, and likely the first city MLA to lead the party into a provincial election since Grant MacEwan -- a personal hero of Swann's--did it nearly 50 years ago.
Elsalhy, meanwhile, said the Liberals must become "a household brand," and believes Swann will keep the party in the centre by heeding members' wishes.
Political analyst David Taras called Swann an extremely good human being who's "very idealistic" and understands grassroots politics.
"The question is whether he can take those humane instincts and translate it into the rough-and-tumble of Alberta politics, and whether he can be a conventional politician," said Taras, a professor at the University of Calgary.
Outgoing leader Taft predicted Swann will prove to be "quite magnetic" and"some-body not to underestimate."
© The Calgary Herald 2008

Edmonton Sun backs Stelmach

The Edmonton Sun comes out in support of Stelmach but without great passion it seems! The author actually puts in a plug for the NDP!
The Calgary Herald still seems to hold out some hopes for Liberals at least in Calgary.

" Liberals are hoping to wedge through widening cracks in several Calgary ridings, a once nearly impenetrable Tory fortress, while the New Democrats, Wildrose Alliance and Greens are also vying to break through in the city's 23 seats.

"Calgary is where one senses change," said political analyst Bruce Foster, chair of policy studies at Mount Royal College."

This is from the Edmonton Sun.

March 2, 2008

Steady Eddie the best choice

By NEIL WAUGH



If elections were all about issues then the candidate with the biggest wheelbarrow of documents would win.

And if the barrage of policies and promises coming out of Liberal Leader Kevin Taft's war room were measuring sticks, then the Alberta Liberals would take Election 2008 in a runaway.

But if Albertans' past election records are anything to go by, they look beyond the pitches and stump speeches for an intangible ingredient in their politics. That's a difficult-to-define concept best summed up in one word: Leadership.

While the Canadian parliamentary system is the sum of many parts, the person who occupies the premier's office must be someone who Albertans admire, respect and believe in to do the right thing when the chips are down and Albertans' backs are against the wall.

In recent memory, we've been blessed with several such leaders.

Both former premiers Ralph Klein and Peter Lougheed earned their stripes as leaders. And the late Laurence Decore and Grant Notley, while neither formed a government, continued this strong Alberta legacy of leadership.

It's clear that many Albertans were searching for leadership throughout the campaign, reflected in the large "undecided" bloc in the polls.

Early on, the blunder-struck campaign of PC Leader Ed Stelmach muddled the political landscape. But when the other three provincial party leaders were given the chance, they failed to seize it.

The turning point for us was the TV debate where Stelmach clearly showed the cool, calm leadership qualities Albertans have come to expect of a premier. The other party leaders' credibility deteriorated as the squabbling, name-calling grew.

After that, the PC campaign gained momentum by placing Ed out front. With Tory policies and spending announcements already laid out, Stelmach's leadership qualities shone through.

And it became clear to us at the Edmonton Sun that Stelmach and his Progressive Conservative candidates are the best choices to govern the province.

But that shouldn't mean we're giving Steady Eddie a blank cheque.

The last few years of PC rule exposed a lot of backsliders and goof-offs in his cabinet and backbenches.

We expect and demand that Stelmach use the same leadership skills he displayed on the campaign trail by whipping his new government into shape pronto. And we'll be the first to criticize him if he doesn't.

Albertans also need strong opponents to the PCs in the legislature to keep Team Stelmach on its toes.

During the campaign, Brian Mason's New Democrats have shown they have the policies and philosophy to provide effective and consistent opposition.

That said, the rest is up to you - the voters.

Alberta Liberal Leader has plan to wage "war on carbon"

This is from the Globe and Mail. It is amazing how many different wars there are that involve stretching the meaning of the word: the war on poverty, the war on terrorism, the war on crime, and now a ' war on carbon'. Common to all cases is a pleading for more resources to be devoted to a problem. Often too it involves regulation or even as in the war on terror a dimunition of rights.
In the case of the oil patch they may worry about their rights to produce and profit without much in the way of regulation. A good environment for them is little regulation and a good environment for profitable investment. It is not clear that this good environment is compatible with the "war on carbon"!

Alberta Liberal Leader has a plan to wage 'war on carbon'

ROY MacGREGOR
rmacgregor@globeandmail.com

February 13, 2008
CALGARY -- Kevin Taft believes he has unique qualifications for bringing an end to the 37-year run of the provincial Progressive Conservatives.
It has nothing to do with him telling a grade school teacher he would one day be premier - politics, right up until he could take it no more, never once entered his mind.
It has nothing to do with being asked by then-premier Peter Lougheed's PC government to serve on a hospital task force while still in high school.
It has nothing to do with having worked, at various times, for the PC government of former premier Don Getty.
And it has nothing to do with his background. Politicians don't chase doctorates in business, and authors - he has written bestselling books on Alberta - tend to turn to print because they're no good at talking.
No, it has to do with China.
When the 52-year-old Liberal Leader was in his late 20s, he organized a series of scientific expeditions to the Gobi Desert. Once there, they would look for fossils - and, whenever possible, extract these dinosaurs from positions they had held for eons.
"Great practice," Taft grins, "for going after the Tories in the legislature."
Taft, in his own way, is a bit of fossil when it comes to Alberta Liberals. He is fighting a second provincial election as leader; the rule of thumb being they get one chance, blow it and are then blown away.
Seven years ago, Taft became the only new Liberal in the province to land a seat when he took the Edmonton riding in which he had grown up and now lives. He only ran, he says, because he could take no more of Ralph Klein running the province like a personal fief.
When Taft led the Liberals against Klein in the last election, taking 16 of the province's 83 seats, it was considered a good enough show for another chance - no one ever thinking for a moment that the chance would come against a force the Liberals once considered the least threatening of all government members: Ed Stelmach.
Stelmach seemed a quietly efficient minister, Taft recalls, but on his feet was considered such a disaster that "it got to the point where you didn't ask him questions because you just felt bad for him."
Now, however, all such sympathies must be set aside. Stelmach became the surprising leader 15 months ago and today becomes, by necessity, the target for whatever attention the Liberals can attract to their campaign.
The Stelmach target seems to add a ring a day - early stumbles over doctors, daycare, openings on lobby legislation, etc. - but hitting it squarely has so far eluded both Liberals and NDP opponents.
Taft himself is big, square of jaw and friendly, but a dynamic speaker only by comparison to Stelmach. He has until March 3 to draw those comparisons favourably in his direction.
Taft knows he is up against the "Liberal" label, which in this province still conjures up images of Pierre Trudeau and the national energy program.
"It's a mixed brand," Taft concedes, "but one that comes with credibility." Alberta, he says, has historically been such a hotbed of new parties - some 70 having existed at one time or another - that Liberals are "the only party that has been here from the start."
Day by day, Taft has introduced new planks in the platform - a performing arts centre for Lethbridge, an aboriginal affairs ministry - but he knows fully well that whatever comes of this election will be decided by two interlocked issues: the provincial economy and energy. Taft is a climate-change believer. He wants "aggressive action" to cut emissions. Stelmach, who wants to go slow after a long period of going nowhere, hints that Taft's plans would cost the province a billion dollars and more than 300,000 jobs.
Taft, of course, scoffs at this and calls it "fear-mongering."
But he understands how easy it is to start people fretting. "If not for the oil sands," he says, "the provincial economy would be flat right now."
But he still feels that climate change is an issue of "national security" and one that will increasingly involve the entire world.
"A lot of Albertans feel like they're caught between a rock and a hard place," he says. It would be wrong, however, "to sit and twiddle our thumbs."
Ralph Klein admitted on leaving office that he had no plan. Kevin Taft hopes to take office with a solid one in place. He would wage a "war on carbon" that would obviously affect - but he believes would hardly kill - the industry. He would use increased energy royalties to create "an RRSP" for the entire province, channelling billions into the Heritage Fund, postsecondary education and various infrastructure.
And if it costs a billion, so be it. This fabulously rich province has a gross domestic product of $242-billion, he says, and "we're willing to bet Albertans will be willing to have one dollar out of 242 invested in addressing climate change."
He has three weeks to sell this plan to voters who for years seemed quite content with Ralph Klein and no plan at all.
"Where are the voters of Alberta on this?" Taft asks out loud. "Well, we're going to find out ..."