Noticeably, my post on the Next Conservative Leader seems to have struck a nerve. It pulled in almost 800 page views on that day alone.

Check it out.

Look at the right about mid-way down the page–there’s me, “Calgary Liberal”, third from the bottom.

I’m going to read into this placement. It’s obviously not a alphabetical list and Capital Notebook seems to have the more senior bloggers/writers near the top. While I’m a tad bit sad that I’m near the bottom at least I can take a little bit of solace at being above the lone WAP blogger.

Hm. Actually, come to think of it, there’s only one WAP blogger on there–Ms. Morgan, in fact. There’s:

2 Alberta Party folks (Daveberta and Chapman)

2 Liberals (Calgary Grit, myself)

3 Conservatives (Calgary Rants, Cosh, Labossiere)

4 Rabble rousers ["Independents"] (SOE, Given, Searching for Liberty, Climenhaga)

3 True Neutrals (Enlightened Savage, Phendrana, Alberta Views)

… And one WAP (Ms. Morgan).

That’s a small bit unfair methinks. I know there’s more than a few WAPers about who have very solid opinions

Also, there’s not a Dipper on that list (although Climenhaga, AUPE director, could be considered NDP-leaning if we twist some of his posts on him).

I’m also surprised Jeremy Zhao isn’t on the list but a little less so after the fact that Capital Notebook covers Alberta/provincial news and Jeremy does solely (or mostly solely) Calgary news.

But really this is all just fluff. It’s Cap’ Note’s top picks for blogs in Alberta, nothing more. Probably wrote it up as she went along her regular schedule, tossing in bloggers/sites she felt were important as she came upon them.

You might have noticed the banana yellow warning label just below the header image (the one with the bear) at the top of this blog.

It notes, just like in my “About” page, that this blog is unaffiliated and unconnected with the Alberta Liberal Party or the Liberal Party of Canada. Or the Liberal Party. I put the warning label up there, in such a prominent position, because certain readers were confused over whether or not this site was an actual outlet for the Liberals.

The concern mostly came from some of my elderly readers and people in search of the federal Liberals in Calgary, who have the same address as I but with “Calgary” and “Liberal” switched (www.LiberalCalgary.ca).

And, just to reinforce the point, this blog is not affiliated with any Liberal party. I am just one underemployed 19 year-old with a $10 blog.

Yessiree. I have just hit 100 posts with this one post right here.

Maybe Capital Noteboook will finally find it within himself to link to me now that I’ve hit 100.

Yeah. I’ve been removed for the second time from Daveberta’s blogroll.

I’m slowly beginning to think he really doesn’t like me too much.

Although… He has added several others to his list since I last checked (Capital Notebook being a fairly big example) so I suppose he may have made a simple judgement call that asked: “Is Vincent important enough to be on my list?” And answered, of course, in the negative.

I guess I will have to work harder I suppose.

Click to enlarge.

Monthly tallies:

1,068 Visitors

1,641 Page Views

As somewhat long term readers likely know–this blog has been online and in action for the last six months.  The expansion in readership has been, quite simply, surprising. This most recent month, December, has seen a rather large jump in readership. In fact, the 1,227 page views completely eclipsed the previous three months before it. The blog has received a little more than the sum of visits in the months of September, October, and November.

This means that people are actually reading this blog. And more than just a few are.

It seems like I have some form of a soap box now to broadcast my message in the new year.

Most blogs, at least by gauging my regular haunts (daveberta, calgarygrit, and the random hodge podge of bloggers I am following on twitter), are having year end posts extolling the man of the year, such as calgarygrit, or some other venture, like Dave’s MLA-centric list of what has gone on with who in Edmonton. Glancing back at the past hasn’t always been my forte, however. Nor has it even been in my interest.

What interests me most is not what has gone on before but, in fact, what is about to happen. Of course to have an understanding of the past is important to gaze into the future and is fundamental to understanding the world around us, but that echo in one’s heart and a flutter of one’s mind of the future, whatever it may hold, is an instant draw for me.

The draw of looking forward to 2010 is cemented by the fiasco of Nopenhagen (misspelling is on purpose), the threat of another winter prorogation by Harper, the rather unharmed Conservative support even though scandal after scandal has marred the Conservative name, and, last but not least, there was the tumbling economy. Looking to the future, in my humble opinion, is better than staring at a rather terrible year.

And what a year is in store for us!

We have the Reboot Alberta movement kicking things up into high gear. Partially lead by daveberta through his blog and Ken Chapman also through his blog, the movement espouses not to political ends of changing policies or being elected but rather to change the public discourse in Albertan politics. There is a democratic deficit, as shown by the low turnouts in the last several elections along with the dwindling trend therein as well, to be solved and the progressives of the province can push for a ‘reboot’ of Alberta. The New Year, being fraught with promises of a better future, may have a lot in store for Alberta as this movement gets of the ground.

More information about RebootAlberta can be found at their blog here.

We have Ed Stelmach in the dumps at 14% approval… and a party out of nowhere, the Wild Rose, being the  go to party to park one’s support as the Progressive Conservatives become more progressive than conservative. This division on the right and the willingness of Albertans to want either change or a clear vision place Alberta at a threshold. Albertans have never, ever been a group of people who have lent their votes to a set of parties. It is always all or nothing with Albertan voters. Either your win big, a new dynasty is made, and the other parties are pushed out into the wilderness–or you yourself are pushed out into political exile.

To see the Stelmach government jump to and fro for the next two years in order to woo the love of Albertans  and the rebounding economy retuning the confidence of entrepreneurs will likely prove an interesting game to watch. Noting the royalty fiascoes of the last year, and how the Stelmach government just can’t seem to get it right, the repeat of  Getty’s  numerous economic screw ups in the 80′s seems likely, thus spilling gas on an already brewing fire.

Next, we have a conference on the Federal level in Montreal in March called “Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge“. Liberal leader Ignatieff will be walking around Canada in preparation for the conference. By the way, if you’re in Calgary on January 14th consider slipping by the University of Calgary for Ignatieff’s town-hall-esque  event.

Following the line of thought of Liberals we can turn to the Alberta Liberals with the yearly report. More than half of the debt of the Alberta Liberal Party has been removed, fundraising has gone up, the party has developed a twenty-first century grasp of technology and of communication, and, of course, has a charming and cool headed leader to boot. The yearly report is here.

Things are changing and there is an opening for Canadians of all stripes. The future does show some decent promise and, of course, it can only go up from what has happened in 2009.