CalgaryLiberal

Archive for the ‘Federal Politics’ Category

Rarely does one hear politeness, somber, and well versed folks speak in politics. This–this here–is a video of a talented person that encapsulates the need for change in the CRTC and the regulations that can make our information systems the best of the world. As someone who has spoken about the internet and the need for a fair policy before on the radio, I know it’s hard to stand up for yourself and stand up for your ideals. Andrew Moore does this perfectly with a grace rarely shown by people involved in our society.

Please view his excerpt below where he addresses the public hearing for the CRTC.

As per rule #9 of my 10 Rules for Liberal Debate, I’m going to spend this post complimenting and bragging about what Calgary is doing on the federal Liberal scene.  Here are just three of the many things that the Liberal Party of Canada is doing right in Calgary:

(1) Regional events.

I firmly believe the regionally supported and run events, by all the presidents coming together in Calgary and just outside of Calgary, are extremely beneficial to liberalism in Calgary and supporting people in Alberta. Case in point? The Calgary Liberal Stampede breakfast. It got everyone together, provincial Liberal and federal Liberal, to fill a room that (a) helps with cohesion, (b) networking with other Liberals, and (c) fund-raises for the region of Calgary. On this third point (c) is fundamental–when I was interim president of Calgary East it was awesome having some funds come in and assist the riding get up on its feet and regional fundraisers made it a possibility.

Another example was the 2010 Oktoberfest put on by Calgary East in conjunction with the Calgary region: it brought in a whole bunch of Liberals for $20/each, we had Liberal Vancouver MP Hedy Fry drop in and give a barn burner of a speech, and showcased an up and coming riding association. The social aspects were great, drew a whole bunch of attention to the association, and began the sharing process of the riding’s candidate.

This is a really amazing technique that has brought a lot of riding associations up from nothing and breathed a renewed life into older associations.

(2) Monthly Regional Presidents Meetings (including the campus Liberals)

Every month, even during the summer, the presidents of Calgary region (and then some) come together to talk about plans, ideas, and events. It’s great to avoid overlapping Liberal events, coordination of attendance at community events (like Calgary Pride), updating each other on MPs/candidates coming into town, and sharing information. This is really useful.

Not only is it an avenue for organization and communication, it is an able location to get advice, knowledge, and create institutional memory. It also brings together skills and resources: particularly, a new project is being created for a social portal on liberalcalgary.ca that will have community events posted as people hear about them and Liberals can join together in going to them, and is also a planning site for ridings who are interested in doing things across Calgary. This is really neat and would have great implications across Canada if this case study does really well.

(3) Dawn Litzenberger

Dawn has the worst position in Calgary–she has to say no to candidates, to riding associations, and hyper-active volunteers like yours truly. She always has to be the ‘bad guy,’ and that role is both thankless and rarely rewarding. Her role? Calgary Co-Chair. She provides her time and efforts at great cost to herself and zero gain to herself to build liberalism in Calgary. She has to handle uplifting defunct ridings, getting people going, and being a pillar of strength to buoy people.

She goes to almost every AGM in Calgary, every event, and every town hall, helping in organizing and administrating of many things in Calgary. As an organizer and a leader she is first rate. And she does it again, and again, and again, with no reward. I have a huge amount of respect for her and I don’t believe Calgary would be as strong and growing as fast as it is today without her tireless efforts.

With the new seats coming federally in the House of Commons to the economic seat of Canada–Alberta–the province will finally get a more reasonable level of representation. No longer will each of our votes matter less than Ontario or Quebec and the seismic changes of the last ten years will finally be recognized. Gargantuan growths in population and in economic clout in the last twenty years has secured Alberta a unique place in Canada and so too should it earn itself the just level of representation that should be allocated with such unique importance. And, as the population and economic clout of the province increases so too will its larger role in Alberta’s political system.

There will be more seats, more economic clout, and Alberta will be the center of Canadian politics in the 21st century. There is a problem with this for Liberals. Firstly, it first appears that the province has a tendency to be dominated by a single party other than the Liberals. Secondly, the Liberals will need Alberta in any winning coalition in the 21st century. I believe quite firmly that the Liberals can break into Alberta and especially into Calgary. Firstly, however, there needs to be an understanding of what exactly Alberta political culture ‘is.’

A Tradition of Federal Malcontents

Almost eight weeks ago I attended a forum where one of the panellists, a professor at the University of Calgary, articulated a theory that stated that Alberta replaced the province’s opposition groups in the legislature with that of Ottawa thus making local opposition moot and anti-federal government voting a reality in federal elections. This makes non-government parties, like Reform, federal Progressive Conservatives, and Alliance politicians of yesteryear, very attractive to Albertan voters because of the consistent messaging that traditional governing parties (Liberals?) were bad.  With public opinion assuming the federal and provincial tories are one and the same it would appear the tactic of making the federal government “the enemy” or an opposing force to Albertans a tactic that would gather less and less returns.

In essence, the competition between the federal and provincial Tories for the best ‘boogeyman’ position will cause a lot of damage for both groups, both provincially and federally.  A way to view it provincially is to look at the level of federal Tories involved in Wildrose politics against the Progressive Conservatives, and angry Progressive Cosnervativess staying home rather than voting for the Conservative Party of Canada. The divisiveness in the Conservative party opens new opportunities as donation money stays home and volunteers are split between differing camps of supporters.

It also opens up an avenue of support for non-traditional Alberta parties to enter into the political fray. Seeing that both the provincial and federal tories will be embroiled in the strife between them, the opening for parties other than those two will become mainstream will become eas

A Fundamental Shift

Taking a step back, the demographic changes in Alberta, in particular in the cities, have been gargantuan. First of all, it is a rare sight to see a third or fourth generation Albertan in Calgary anymore: the rapid immigration to the city has simply been that great. From across Canada and the United States Calgary, and Alberta, has had a shift in who lives here. With this shift also came a shift in political opinions that have been brought from elsewhere. Additionally, there has been a swelling of the urban centres in Alberta–particularly along the Calgary-Edmonton belt–which has been a boon to industry and cultures that develop in urban centers (like internet technologies).

I argue a fundamental shift has occurred in the province. And, as I’ll argue below, the Liberals have increased their voting tallies, likely taking advantage of these shifts.  So not only has there been a seismic demographic shift (arguably with an accompanying cultural) with a likely political shift, there has also been a shift in the amount of economic-political clout of the province of Alberta coupled with an increase in Liberal votes.

A question that is posed from this situation is whether or not the Conservative Party of Canada can hold the province as they currently do. With growths in Calgary and in Edmonton in opposition votersExamining the election results in Calgary from the 2011 election we can see several races that had an increase in turnout for opposition parties: either (a) because of the Orange Wave effect and (b) strong campaigning by the Liberals. In Calgary North East as one example where Liberals jumped from 20% to almost 28%, not only the highest Liberal result in Alberta but one of the highest opposition results as well. Although, the orange ‘wave’ effect was notably muted in southern Alberta as a whole with most NDP candidates seeing their vote tallies increasing only marginally (in North East the NDP only had their vote % increased by 1% and in Centre the NDP vote actually dropped by nearly 5%).

Substantial Growth

There was some substantial growth for the Liberal Party of Canada in the May election in Alberta. Taking a look at North East Calgary with candidate Cam Stewart the party experienced the most growth in Liberal votes in the country. This is an amazing amount of growth and, coupled with a strong campaign, earned Cam Stewart amazing results. Sadly, this did not translate into an upset victory but it is a sign of the change times in Calgary and Alberta’s  Additionally, a shift seems to be occurring where Liberals find the most of their support in the province. As pointed out by Dan Arnold over at CalgaryGrit Calgary had more votes than Edmonton.

If we assume that the voter turnout for the Liberals was lessened because of the stance Ignatieff took on exporting oil to China (barring tankers along coast of BC which endanger Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline), amongst other things, the votes garnered this election may be a group of voters that will stay with the Liberals until the next election. I believe there is a seed of a change in the province of Alberta where the Liberals will be increasingly raising their voter tallies in the next decade of elections. This election was substantial for growth in the province for the Liberals and lay a foundation for further growth and possibly even a seat or two. Stranger things have happened.

Conclusion

With a growth in Liberal support, shifts in the character of Alberta, and a long time trend benefiting an entrance to an alternative in Alberta, Calgary–and the rest of Alberta–is a place to watch for the Liberal Party of Canada in the next few years.