This blog is not associated with the Alberta Liberal Party or Liberal Party of Canada. This blog belongs to one person with one viewpoint.“‘Rose leader ready for election call”–err, no she isn’t.
July 12, 2010, 8:01 AMRick Bell, likely starving for news, wrote a piece about a week ago about Ms. Smith’s Wildrose being prepared for an election.
They’re not.
I know this because (a) I have friends who I have conversations with who are inside the party as the ground and upper levels, and (b) I attended numerous sessions where they spoke about their strategic problems.
One of the sessions was almost two weeks ago at a Leadership Institute seminar that was brought up by heavyset political heavyweight, and excommunicated Progressive Conservative, Craig Chandler to teach conservative politicians and political operatives the ropes in Calgary. (As a side note: I attended because, well, it was partially advertised as a municipal-level training seminar and I was quite surprised to find it filled with WAP and PC folks. I was probably the most lefty person in the room. Oops.) At more than four points during two day course the Wildrose constituency presidents in the room asked for advice for their one man ridings, how to grow a political machine from nothing, and even at one point one gentleman pointed out that he was in charge of a riding as the sole organizer.
Also, the Wildrose is dominated by Calgary folks–there’s no province-wide network being created. It’s a Calgary-first strategy, ditching Edmonton and northern Alberta to the Liberals and the Tories. That’s not minority or majority territory that the WAP is aiming for. It’s an ineffectual base of support that’s completely harming any ability of theirs to form government.
And two weeks later.. he’s up there, on stage, with 82 of his fellow CA presidents and with Wildrose Queen Smith, who is declaring that the party is strong and growing in strength.
Seriously.
The level of hubris coming out of the Wildrose camp is nauseating. Personally, I wasn’t even going to comment on the Leadership Institute event (heck, I happen to adore my Republican friends of whom have oozed their love of that institute’s training seminars, which further propelled me not to talk). But this article by Rick Bell, the stench of pride and hubris is just too much.
It’s just too much.
The WAP need to go a long way before it can even talk about being prepared to wage a campaign against the Tories. Their infrastructure, their information network, their war chest are not there, and blindly flaunting that they’re prepared for an election call at any time is absolutely idiotic.
As a guy who wants to see change in Alberta and to have a competitive democracy I want the Wildrose to have a modicum of success (while the Liberals form government, of course). But at the lackluster pace they’re going, the limited outreach they’re doing, and areas they’re not covering, I’m worried about them. The Wildrose simply isn’t tough enough, and it needs to be tougher.
Please try to remain within some facts. Chandler is not a CA president for the party thus he was not on stage with 82 others at the AGM. Indeed Chandler was not even present at the party AGM at all.
Why must you fabricate?
Having another read as you do wander as Liberals are prone to doing. I see that perhaps you were referencing that un-named person who claimed to be a lone organizer in a completely unreferenced way on your part and claiming that this anonymous person reflects the party organization. I guess that sort of makes more sense of your odd conclusions.
By all means continue to underestimate the organization of the WAP. It certainly served the flacid Liberals well in Calgary Glenmore.
I suspect that you guys would be better served to look within rather than keep shooting out. Your party is falling apart (as Swann’s recent begging for allies indicated).
“The WAP need to go a long way before it can even talk about being prepared to wage a campaign against the Tories. Their infrastructure, their information network, their war chest are not there, and blindly flaunting that they’re prepared for an election call at any time is absolutely idiotic.”
And you know this, how? Having a misinformed friend or two or attending a session is hardly enough to make these type of assertions.
As a member in good standing, I know that WRA is slowly but surely putting its infrastructure into place and is more in tune with Albertans than the pathetic Liberal party. (Wave bye bye to Dave Taylor.) It already has garned more public support for a party its age than one could rightly expect.
I suspect that your Liberal bravado is more to assuage the fears you face as a lonely voice in a sea of conservatism, rather than as a beacon of truth.
I never said he was the one up on stage.
The Calgary Glenmore Liberal team was only beaten by 2.5% by the WAP. Only 300 votes was what separated Hinman from Dr. Avalon. I wouldn’t call that flaccid. Also, you misspelled ‘flaccid’.
Mr. Morgan is correct. I am not a President of a CA. Further, I am not on a board at any level within the party. I am not an advisor, I am not a staffer.
My focus is municipal politics.
I am a little surprised you did pass the screening from Jannette Milne to attend the training. All the more reason to make sure we conduct even further due diligience at the Canadian Leadership Institute (CLI).
[...] Institute event on political campaigning that he had a two months ago (I wrote about it, actually, here) he posted numerous times to the University of Calgary’s Wildrose and Conservative campus [...]