Sunday, November 26, 2006

Second Ballot

It's going to be a second ballot run for the man who will replace Ralph. It's between Dinning and Morton.Alberta Tory leadership bid a two-horse race

CALGARY/AM770CHQR - Alberta Tory Leadership Results (10:30 p.m.)

Jim Dinning 26,115
Ted Morton 21,507
Ed Stelmach 12,019

130/179 polls reporting

Second Ballot Required in PC Race

The other five contenders have dropped off the ballot, including Lyle Oberg, whose campaigned was dogged with missteps. The jockeying has already begun among the first ballot losers and former cabinet minister Dave Hancock -- who finished fifth -- has thrown his support behind Stelmach.

Now the cheerleaders at the Edmonton Sun can quit promoting Norris, he wasn't even in the running. He never was except in the minds of the Edmonton Sun editorialists.

And if Smilin' Ed Stelmach is really a 'centerist' he had best throw his support behind Dinning or the next Premier of Alberta will be a Seperatist.

Earlier in the week, Mark Norris told The Journal's editorial board that he Stelmach and Hancock had an agreement to support each other on a second ballot. Hancock, it seems, has fulfilled that promise. But Norris was less certain.Though Hancock’s endorsement looks good for Stelmach, his support may not mean much, as his voters won’t necessarily come with him. In the last Tory leadership race in 1992, all the losing candidates jumped to Nancy Betkowski’s campaign, but she was still routed by Ralph Klein the following week.


Hmmm maybe that's why Harper recognized the Quebecois as a nation, laying the groundwork for his pal Morton.




1 comment:

Feynman and Coulter's Love Child said...

One of the more interesting unpredictable developments is going to be how effective the endorsements are.

As I alluded to in (yours? somebody's) comments yesterday, its hard to gauge support levels because of the weather. If you could guess that perhaps 70% of Hancock's supporters would back Stelmach, you still wouldn't have much indication of how many delegates that is, since Hancock supporters were probably more likely to stay home than Morton supporters. We're left in the same pea soup we've been in for weeks, where nobody has a clue how many members Candidate X has signed up. Doerkson certainly had more than 816 supporters, but who in north-eastern Alberta would drive to Elk Point in the cold to cast a ballot that was more a show of support than a strategic vote.