Gosh, a lot of trees have been chewed by pundits working over the outcome of this little by-election in Calgary.
Interestingly, most pundits have recognized that electors of this quiet part of Calgary sended the Premier a message.
Well, I don't know what message that is exactly.
Mr. Hinman is a capable guy, I'm sure. He was the leader of the new Wild Rose Alliance Party. He is now their one opposition member of the Alberta legislative assembly.
No reflection on Mr. Hinman, but Progressive Conservative voters really did not want to scare the government too much. Electing the Liberal would be electing a credible cabinet member in waiting. Electing a single Wild Rose MLA was a bit like sending a eunuch into the harem. Mr. Stelmach agreed that with Mr. Hinman elected, nothing new will arise by way of government policy. Albertans elected a conservative after all. Mr. Stelmach opined that the government simply did not get its message out well enough. That's not promising a new message, simply communicating the old one better.
Pundits have been going on about how Mr. Stelmach is not really a very acceptable leader, especially in the rarified air of the towers of downtown Calgary. Small "c" conservative ideas are fine. The Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta might be acceptable, after all it has been elected for thirty eight years.
What's Mr. Stelmach to do?
The Alberta Liberal candidate, a very credible candidate, came in a close second.
I have heard it said by pundits and others that the Liberal brand is a tough sell in Calgary. I've even heard Liberals, mostly left wing Alberta Liberals to be sure, suggest that the Alberta Liberals could be electorally successful if only they ceased being Liberals.
Or at least changed the party name.
Then it hit me! It's so darned obvious!
What Mr. Stelmach needs to do is change his name. Just the first name? Just the surname? Oh what the heck, go for it. Change both of them. What an opportunity for public engagement. Mr. Stelmach could ask the people of Alberta to suggest names. He could then hold a referendum, or series of referenda, to choose the name most acceptable to Albertans.
Voila! Problem solved! Mr. Stelmach will then be a popular guy!
The pro-name choice Alberta Liberals will then have been proven correct. Name calling works!
Until the people have chosen, Liberals may have to run with an interim name, something like the Alberta Blanks, or Fill In The Blanks, but most certainly not the Alberta Blankety Blanks.
Mike
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Brilliant! The saying goes that the Conservatives could run a dead dog in Alberta & win - Hinman is elected without any policies or hope of being an effective opposition. Did Urqhuart's campaign, recognizing they were in trouble, encourage their supporters to vote Wild Rose rather than Liberal? Why are Albertan's so fearful of liberal values at the ballot box when clearly they personally hold liberal values?
ReplyDeleteAlberta PC supporters tend to be centrist, it seems, as they did choose the person I consider to be the most centrist of their leadership candidates to be their leader. Mr. Morton seems to me to reflect Wild Rose Alliance positions. Mr. Dinning seems to me to reflect Klein regime positions better than Mr. Stelmach who was also part of the Klein cabinet.
ReplyDeleteNotwithstanding my little joke about the Wild Rose Alliance campaign signs slogan "Send Ed a Message", which I couldn't help but read as "SendEd a Message", I really don't know what message that was supposed to be. I think it could only have been a protest vote, plain and simple. Protest votes will not necessarily go to someone with a real opportunity to replace the current regime and do things differently. They may simply be protests. Perhaps that's what Mr. Hinman earned, a lot of protests, even from those who might have supported ND, Green, Socred or Independent, all of whom received almost no support. Their protest support might have gone largely to Mr. Hinman.