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Ed’s "Pension Moment"
It’s really amazing just how big the royalty review has become in Alberta. In just four days 210,000 people have read the report online – I’d always thought those kind of hit numbers were limited to youtube or porn sites. The report calls for an additional 2 billion dollars in royalties a year and several […]
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THEY DID IT
Yesterday, the Progressive Conservatives broke the Social Credit government record, celebrating their 13,157th consecutive day in power. During that time, there have been 30 provincial government changes across Canada. There was no big victory speech last night, but it would probably go something like: I’d like to thank the Alberta Liberal Party, Lawrence Decore for […]
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Who you know in the P.O.
It’s been a rough weekend for Ed Stelmach. The private eye spying scandal (or, perhaps, the “Hall & Oates scandal“) continues to grow and, now, front page headlines in Calgary and Edmonton are blasting him hard on patronage. It appears half the board appointments in the province are card carrying Tories and, while they certainly […]
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Four Quick Hits
Municipal, provincial, federal, and American political links on this Labour Day Monday. Municipal: The Alnoor Kassam campaign will be running the first batch of radio ads this week, on traffic. They’re kind of cute, so feel free to give them a listen here. Provincial: Apparently Ed Stelmach is getting the always unpleasant Mr. Dithers label, […]
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Not so Great Moments in Spin
Further to the story of Ed Stelmach’s plunging poll numbers, comes a surprisingly candid explanation from his spokesman, Tom Olsen: The reason the dramatic plunge is “believable,” according to Olsen, is that “hundreds of thousands of new Albertans don’t know the history of Progressive Conservative governments in this province and are spending their time assessing […]
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Up For Grabs
Cameron Strategies has a new poll out and there’s a real Alberta stampede of voters away from Ed Stelmach. Still, the news isn’t all good for the Alberta Liberals, who can’t seem to capitalize on the “free agent voters” out there. The result is a remarkable 36% undecided rate – I don’t think I’ve ever […]
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And then we’re going to Red Deer, and Prince George, and Moose Jaw…yeaaaaaaa!
I got the chance to listen to a good discussion on a potential “308 riding” strategy for the Liberals over the weekend at Western Caucus in Saskatchewan. This isn’t a Liberal party policy – just a proposal from a member, but it’s certainly worth taking a look at and discussing. In Other News… While his […]
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The Best Non-Indoors Entertainment Event in North America!
From Premier Ed’s Stampede breakfast this morning: Stelmach raised a few eyebrows when, during his opening remarks, he welcomed everyone to “the Alberta Stampede.”
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Free Advice
After the Calgary Elbow by-election win, there are obviously a lot of heightened expectations for provincial Liberals. But, even though headlines like “Stelmach PCs plunge” are nice to see, the reality is the Liberals still have a long way to go to have any hope of forming government. So I thought I’d toss a few […]
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Let’s Try That One Again
Two women? Three Jim Dinning supporters? Two Calgarians? My, how it must have pained Ed Stelmach to announce this Cabinet shuffle. Cindy Ady becomes Hector Goudreau’s parliamentary secretary associate minister in tourism – presumably he’ll still handle the booming Grimshaw tourism industry while she focuses on the less important Calgary efforts. She’s also responsible for […]