Friday, October 31, 2008

These Past 8 Weeks in Alberta

OK, so my weekly Friday look at Alberta politics and the ALP leadership race got kind of sidetracked, what with the federal election being thrust upon us. So here's a run down of some of the things you (and I) may have missed:

1. To recap, the membership cut-off November 7th, with the mail-in vote to be announced December 13th. The three candidates are Dave Taylor, David Swann and Mo Elsalhy.

2. Daveberta takes a look at the history of ALP leadership races. My guess is that the winner will wind up with about 2,500 votes this time - on the first ballot, that is. I'm not expecting anyone to win this thing outright.

3. Speaking of Alberta's pre-eminent blogger, Daveberta has endorsed David Swann.

4. To the best of my knowledge, Kent Hehr (Taylor) and Harry Chase (Swann) are the only two MLAs to have endorsed a candidate in this race.

5. Dave Taylor released his very good party renewal document a few weeks back.

6. Slogans: Mo - "An Alberta for ALL Albertans", Swann - "The Courage to Lead. The Power to Inspire.", Taylor - "A New Way Forward"


Tune in every Friday from now until voting day for a look at the race - I'm planning to profile the 3 ALP leadership candidates starting next week.

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2 Comments:

  • So we've got a verbal nightmare; a televangelist's book slogan, and typical political slogan A.

    I'll take typical political on this one.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:10 p.m.  

  • A little background for all you non-Albertans who read this blog (because I know that you're all captivated by the Alberta Liberal leadership race).

    I've been following the race quite closely, and the impression that I've gotten is that the three candidates have staked out their territory as such:

    Swann - I love the environment. I'm committed to building a progressive alternative to the perpetually-governing PCs, and I'm prepared to be pragmatic about the specifics of that entity. It could be called the Alberta Liberal Party, but I'm not opposed to examining other options if they look more tenable. I want to build a broad, inclusive voting coalition, and I think that there are enough Albertans dissatisfied with the government that we can make this work.

    Taylor - I love being a Liberal. I believe that the Alberta Liberal Party is the vehicle with which the PCs will be unseated. We need to modernize our organization, rekindle the grassroots and stop blaming Albertans for the struggles of our Party. Let's not apologize for being Liberals, let's embrace it.

    Elsalhy - I am a young, first-generation Canadian, and we can build this Party up by including others like me. We need to reach out to young people, new Canadians and others outside the traditional Alberta voting demographics. Liberal values appeal to these people, and by emphasizing our Liberal values we will appeal to these people.

    The race has garnered a hilariously low level of attention in the Alberta media, probably for all the reasons that you would guess. Too bad, because the three candidates all bring something different to the table - there's a good story in here waiting to be told.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:38 p.m.  

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