Pallins Pipeline 2

As I posted here previously the Alaska pipeline being built to transfer oil and gas south into the Gulf Coast refineries is being built by TransCanada Pipelines. Which originally was created by C.D. Howe and the Liberal Government and included the Alberta Socreds provincially created pipeline. Private capitalism which would not take a risk then took advantage of crown corporations created by public infrastructure funding. As taxpayers in Canada we have always funded big projects, like the railways and Air Canada, only to hand them over to private business interests when they were successful. Today you and I still pay for the privatization of our public infrastructure. Because that is the history of economic development in Canada, state capitalism for private benefit.



Ernest C. Manning was premier for 25 years. He was the wilful leader who walked the narrow path between powerful ideological opponents on the left and the right.
The socialists hordes in 1955 -- OK they were the Liberals and the CCF (today's NDP) - took 40 per cent of the popular vote in the election and wanted more government ownership of the oil industry.
Manning held the day with his 46 per cent of the vote -- and 37 of 61 seats.
The oilpatch capitalists, on the other extreme, tried to maximize their profits during the post Leduc oil boom that began in 1947.
Manning fought them off, too.
And Manning's government created a unique pipeline company in 1954 that was neither government owned, nor the profit-making tool of the international oil companies. It was called the Alberta Gas Trunk Line and is today part of TransCanada Pipeline.



In 1956, C.D. Howe forced the plan for the Trans-Canada Pipeline, a gas pipeline from Alberta to central Canada, through Parliament but paid heavily when the Liberal government lost the next election and he lost his seat.C.D. Howe retired from politics in 1957 at the age of 70.





Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:

C.D.Howe, C.D.Howe Institute, , Alberta, tarsands, oilsands, Canada, state capitalism, royalties, oil, profits, Alberta Royalty Review,Alberta Cabinet, CAPP, Ed Stelmach,Big Oil,oil royalties, John McCain, republican, U.S.presidential election, Sarah Pallin

Nothing New Here Move On

New party for Alberta's right It's not a new party it's the same old right wing rump of Social Credit.

A clone by any other name;Wildrose Alliance Party born in Alberta

Another good reason for supporting abortion on demand.

SEE

0+0=0

Wild Rose Party In and Out Scheme

Rent A Crowd

More Shills For Big Oil

Link Byfield's New Party

Link Byfield Goes AA

Where's The NDP?

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy, Alberta, Link Byfield, protestant fundamentalists, right-wing politics, Alberta-Report, Wildrose PArty,separatism, confederation, Canada, federalism, Alberta separatism, separatist, firewall, right wing rump party, Alberta, Premier,Ed Stelmach, PC, Calgary, Conservatives, Calgary Egmont,social conservatives, PGIB, Alberta, Craig Chandler,
Alberta, Premier,
Republicans, Conservatives, Canada, Alberta, politics, religion, right-wing
Mormons, Cardston, Alberta, Mormonism, Hinman, Alberta-Alliance, MLA, PC,
Calagry, Alberta, Manning, Byfield, Klein, Alberta-Report, Right-wing, Reform-Party, separatism, confederation, Canada, federalism,
Ted Morton, Alberta, Dinning, Stelmach, Edmonton, Redmonton, Capital, North, Calgary, Alberta seperatism, seperatist, firewall, politics, PC, Alberta PC Leadership Race, Reform Party, Premier

0+0=0

The right wing rump parties which really are political zeros in Alberta, except in their own minds, have declared their intention to merge. These parties have no real base, and in fact the only reason the Alberta Alliance has even a modicum of publicity is that it's leader Paul Hinman is an one seat wonder as the only AA MLA (see comments below). AA get it. Its the seven step program for Alberta's wannabe Republicans.

The question is will the new party, tentatively to be called the Wild Rose Alliance, be offering a home to Craig Chandler? If so this collections of zero's could end up as less than zero; -1.

Alberta Alliance Party & Wildrose Party to Unite

Two Alberta right-wing parties propose merger for anticipated spring vote

Wildrose, Alliance parties seek merger

SEE:

Wild Rose Party In and Out Scheme

Rent A Crowd

More Shills For Big Oil

Link Byfield's New Party

Link Byfield Goes AA

Where's The NDP?

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy, Alberta, Link Byfield, protestant fundamentalists, right-wing politics, Alberta-Report, Wildrose PArty,separatism, confederation, Canada, federalism, Alberta separatism, separatist, firewall, right wing rump party, Alberta, Premier,Ed Stelmach, PC, Calgary, Conservatives, Calgary Egmont,social conservatives, PGIB, Alberta, Craig Chandler,
Alberta, Premier,
Republicans, Conservatives, Canada, Alberta, politics, religion, right-wing
Mormons, Cardston, Alberta, Mormonism, Hinman, Alberta-Alliance, MLA, PC,
Calagry, Alberta, Manning, Byfield, Klein, Alberta-Report, Right-wing, Reform-Party, separatism, confederation, Canada, federalism,
Ted Morton, Alberta, Dinning, Stelmach, Edmonton, Redmonton, Capital, North, Calgary, Alberta seperatism, seperatist, firewall, politics, PC, Alberta PC Leadership Race, Reform Party, Premier

Vote Conservative...Or Else

More Historical Revisionism with a dash of threat. Love it or Leave It. And vote Conservative or else. According to Craig Chandler, who is running to be the Alberta PC Candidate for MLA in Calgary Egmont.

"To those of you who have come to our great land from out of province, you need to remember that you came here to our home and we vote conservative. You came here to enjoy our economy, our natural beauty and more. This is our home and if you wish to live here, you must adapt to our rules and our voting patterns, or leave. Conservatism is our culture. Do not destroy what we have created."

The graphic from his web page its entitled "Wanna Fight."

I guess he can be forgiven for not knowing that Alberta was home to the founding convention of the socialist CCF, the radical industrial syndicalist union the OBU, and the original farmers workers government the UFA, it was the origin of socialized medicine in Canada, even before Tommy Douglas. Even the right wing Social Credit party was result of left wing farmer worker discontent in Alberta.Like the rest of the Conservative historical revisionists in Alberta Chandler forgets that Alberta politics were based on populism and producerism.

Like those he threatens Craig is not originally from Alberta.

Chandler moved to Alberta, and ran in the 1997 provincial election as a candidate for the Social Credit Party of Alberta, led at that time by future Alberta Alliance party leader Randy Thorsteinson. Chandler ran in the riding of Calgary West, finishing with 1,100 votes, or 7.5% of the electorate. He later rejoined the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, and endorsed United Alternative candidate Brian Pallister in the party's 1998 Progressive Conservative leadership convention.

Nor is the right wing political business lobby front group he represents.

The Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB) was founded in 1992, in Burlington Ontario as a voice for small 'c' conservative business owners and individuals who were rapidly becoming economic refugees in their own country.

And he is proudly paleo-conservative. Which is how he makes his money. Through setting up political front groups. Which he then services. All very Republican.

Craig Chandler is chief executive officer of Concerned Christians Canada Inc., and a former pro-merger leadership candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

You will remember him from the Conservative Party leadership Convention.

In 2003, Chandler took out a membership in the Progressive Conservative Party in order to run in that party's 2003 leadership race. He ran on a platform of creating a coalition between the PC and Alliance party caucuses. He withdrew prior to voting in order to endorse the only other candidate that was open to tangible cooperation on the right, Calgary lawyer Jim Prentice.

The night before the PC leadership convention, Chandler delivered a platform that the Canadian Press described as homophobic, fundamentalist and "neoconservative to the bone." James Muldoon, a fundraiser for front runner Peter MacKay, described Chandler as "the true black face of neoconservatism. He could live to be 100 and he'll never know the meaning of, I am my brother's keeper." Chandler's statements were called "bitter and resentful" by MacKay, whom Chandler criticized for supporting of the passage of Criminal Code of Canada amendment Bill C-250 that added homosexuals to the list of groups protected by hate crimes legislation. Chandler suggested that the amendment would lead to the banning of the Bible and other religious texts in schools and public libraries. Chandler complimented Tory MP Elsie Wayne on her "honest statements" about homosexuals, suggesting that no one has to apologize for having an opinion, even if it is not politically correct. This section of his twenty minute speech was booed by many delegates.

And his political campaign against gays and lesbians resulted in this.

Edmontonian Rob Wells was pleased when the Canadian Human Rights Commission investigated his complaint against Craig Chandler, a Calgary-based “family values” activist. But Wells is not impressed with the actions the federal body is taking to remedy the situation.

Wells had alleged that three websites linked to Chandler—freetospeak.ca, concernedchristians.ca and freedomradionetwork.ca—contained material that is “likely to expose persons of an identifiable group to hatred or contempt.”

The Canadian Human Rights Commission’s investigation, received by the complainant in early July, agreed with Wells.

Canadian broadcast standards council

PRAIRIE regional panel

Decided January 9, 2007

CBSC File # 05/06-1959 – Complaint regarding a Freedom Radio Network program which was broadcast at 6:30 pm on Saturday, July 29, 2006 on AM 1140 Radio Station CHRB from High River, Alberta.

Freedom Radio Network is a talk show broadcast on CHRB-AM (High River) on Saturday evenings. The program’s website declares that the program is produced by people who are “freedom fighters for family values” and “socially conservative”. It is hosted by Craig Chandler and, on July 29, 2006, was co-hosted by Stephen Chapman

the decision

The Prairie Regional Panel examined the complaint under the following provisions of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) Code of Ethics:

CAB Code of Ethics, Clause 2 – Human Rights

Recognizing that every person has the right to full and equal recognition and to enjoy certain fundamental rights and freedoms, broadcasters shall ensure that their programming contains no abusive or unduly discriminatory material or comment which is based on matters of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status or physical or mental disability.

CAB Code of Ethics, Clause 6 – Full, Fair and Proper Presentation

It is recognized that the full, fair and proper presentation of news, opinion, comment and editorial is the prime and fundamental responsibility of each broadcaster. This principle shall apply to all radio and television programming, whether it relates to news, public affairs, magazine, talk, call-in, interview or other broadcasting formats in which news, opinion, comment or editorial may be expressed by broadcaster employees, their invited guests or callers.

CAB Code of Ethics, Clause 7 – Controversial Public Issues

Recognizing in a democracy the necessity of presenting all sides of a public issue, it shall be the responsibility of broadcasters to treat fairly all subjects of a controversial nature. Time shall be allotted with due regard to all the other elements of balanced program schedules, and the degree of public interest in the questions presented. Recognizing that healthy controversy is essential to the maintenance of democratic institutions, broadcasters will endeavour to encourage the presentation of news and opinion on any controversy which contains an element of the public interest.

The Prairie Regional Panel Adjudicators reviewed all of the correspondence and listened to a recording of the challenged episode. The Panel concludes that the broadcast was in violation of Clauses 6 and 7 but not Clause 2.

The Panel does not find that the co-hosts fared as well in terms of Clauses 6 and 7 of the Code. To begin, essentially all of the half hour was consumed with a one-sided attack on the complainant, who was a private, not a public, individual. This constituted, in and of itself, an unanswered application of the powerful microphone which broadcasters are licensed to use for the purposes laid down in the Broadcasting Act. This opportunity creates a disparity of power between the person(s) on the transmitting side of the microphone and those on the receiving end of the radio waves. There is, therefore, a need for those whose transmissions are to all extent untrammelled to exercise their licensed authority with a particular appreciation of the responsibility that that privilege bestows upon them. In the view of the Panel, the co-hosts exceeded reasonable bounds in this episode.

Among other things, they distorted the nature of the acts of the complainant in a serious way. They said that they had been accused of a “hate crime”.

The Panel considers that the cumulative effect of the comments discussed in the previous paragraphs of this section constitutes a breach of the obligation of broadcasters to present opinion, comment and editorial matter fully, fairly and properly, as required by Clause 6 of the CAB Code of Ethics.

The Panel is also mindful of the not unrelated obligation established in Clause 7 to treat fairly all subjects of a controversial nature. In this respect, it also finds the broadcaster in breach. Not only has Freedom Radio stacked the odds against the complainant by directing virtually the entire half hour against the complainant, it has boasted that it will not only sue him and take the matter to the Supreme Court if necessary (which is their right to do), but it will not pay any fines that may be levied (in apparent disregard of the anticipated order of the duly constituted judicial authorities). It is rather arrogant to state baldly that “We won’t pay those.” The Panel considers the judicial assertions unfair and an example of electronic bullying, which is precisely the opposite of what is anticipated by the requirement of fairness in Clause 7.

Appendix A

Appendix B

After failing to lead the Conservative Party, he went back to being a third party lobbyist in the 2004 Federal Election.

Craig Chandler, chief executive officer of Concerned Christians Canada, says some of his membership are worried there won’t be any surprises behind the curtain should the Conservatives get elected.

“I’m getting lots of calls from people thinking Stephen might be abandoning them for the sake of appearing moderate,” said Chandler, who says he has faith in the Conservative leader. “I’m hearing from some people who are not going to vote. What I’m trying to tell them is that’s crazy. We’ve never been this close to getting rid of the Liberals.”

While Harper, by all accounts, doesn’t rank social issues at the top of his agenda – “He’s never ever given two hoots about social issues,” says REAL Women’s Gwen Landolt – groups like Chander’s and Landolt’s believe he will have to listen to his caucus. And their goal is to get MPs who share their beliefs elected.

“Harper is busy distancing himself from social issues, but who is in his caucus? They can put pressure on him. We have to get them in,” says Landolt, who stresses there are candidates they support in all three main parties. “Individual MPs carry more weight. He’ll have to listen to them.”

Chandler says he’s been stressing to his organization that this is an election, and that their best opportunity to influence the party’s direction will come at the policy convention.

“I tell them to get involved, become delegates and then we can make a difference,” he says. “There will be huge pressure from social conservatives at the policy convention.

“We have to stick to the game plan. It’s all in the follow through.”

Ever the political opportunist he supported the creation of the Alberta Alliance.

Alberta Alliance Party leadership election, 2005

David Crutcher

Campaign slogan: "A new Alberta"

David Crutcher, a member of the Progressive Group for Independent business, backed by Craig Chandler, ran in Calgary Egmont, and won the largerst percentage of the popular vote of any Alliance candidate in Calgary in the 2004 election.

• Supports an Alberta provincial tax on consumer goods
• Supports publicly funded alternative medicine in order to save money and resources
• Supports traditional marriage and is pro-life
• Supports Alberta's separation from Canada if the Conservative Party of Canada does not win in the upcoming federal election

Now he is running for Eddie Stelmach's Tired Old Tories. With friends like these Eddies in big trouble.




H/T to Idealist Pragmatist and Daveberta



g posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Alberta, Premier,Ed Stelmach,
Social Credit,Socreds, PC, Calgary, Party of Calgary, politics, leadership, Conservatives, Edmonton, One Party State,History, Politics, Economics,Craig Chandler, social conservatives, PGIB,
Alberta, MLA,

Strom More Popular Than Stelmach

Here is another nail in Eddie Stelmach's coffin.

He is less popular than Harry Strom.

Stelmach polled at 32% in a new poll released Tuesday, likely the lowest ever for a Conservative leader in Alberta.

Even Harry Strom, Alberta’s last Social Credit premier, polled at 43%.

Strom led the Alberta Socreds in their swan dive as the lame duck Premier who would be defeated by Peter Lougheed's PC's.

The PC's had only seven seats, and the NDP had one, when they defeated the eternal party of Alberta.

Strom became Premier and Social Credit leader in 1968, succeeding Manning who had just led the Socreds to their ninth consecutive term majority government in 1967. However, this election proved ominous for the party. Despite winning 55 of the 65 seats in the legislature, it won less than 45% of the popular vote. It previously won with more than half the popular vote. More importantly, the once-moribund Progressive Conservatives, led by young lawyer Peter Lougheed, won seven seats, mostly in Calgary and Edmonton.

Today the Opposition Liberals have sixteen seats, the NDP have four and the right wing Alberta Alliance has one.

Whenever Stelmach calls the election, winter or spring, it will not be an anointment of a new King for Alberta. It will be a defeat for the Tired Old Tories, not the ultimate defeat, but like the one that Strom faced from the upstart Lougheed, it will be the penultimate defeat. A loss of seats and support. Which will then lead to a final defeat in the following election.

It is not how the opposition parties look now that will determine who comes out the winner, but how they are poised after the next election.



g posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Alberta, Premier,
Alberta Cabinet, Harry Strom, Ed Stelmach,
Social Credit,Socreds, PC, Calgary, Party of Calgary, politics, leadership, Conservatives, Edmonton, One Party State,History, Politics, Economics,leadership, politics, PC,
Alberta, MLA,

THE BRITISH DISTRIBUTIONISTS

Those who are regular readers will know that I have a passing interest in Distributionism and its impact on Canadian reformist populist politics of the Right and Left.

From the Canadian Anarchist Journal; Any Time Now. ATN #26 - Spring 2007
it includes a critique of Elizabeth May's mentor; Commander Coady.*

THE BRITISH DISTRIBUTIONISTS
review by
Kevin A. Carson
Race Matthews. Jobs of Our Own: Building a
StakeholderSociety--Alternatives to the Market & the State
(Australia and UK, 1999).

Matthews starts with the nineteenth century origins of
distributism: in the Catholic social teaching of Leo XIII's De
Rerum Novarum (heavily influenced by the proto-distributist
cardinal, Henry Manning, who in turn translated it into
English and added his own commentary), and the wider
tradition of Christian socialism; and in what Matthews calls
the "communitarian and associative" strand of the greater
socialist movement.

The distributist vision of a social order based on
widespread, small-scale ownership of property, and of
an economy where the means of production were
mainly owned by workers, dovetailed closely with the
principle of "subsidiarity" in Catholic social teaching:
that social functions should be carried out at the
smallest scale and the most local level of control
possible.

Distributism clearly also had strong roots in the socialist
revival of the 1880s, but was alienated from an increasingly
statist and collectivist socialist movement. In the terminology
of Chesterton and Belloc, distributists saw themselves in
opposition to both capitalism and socialism. But I get the
sense, from reading Matthews, that their position was less a
repudiation of socialism as such than a recognition that the
state socialists had permanently stolen the term for
themselves in the public mind.

Rather than a breach with socialism, it would perhaps be
more accurate to say they abandoned the term to their
enemies and adopted the name "distributism" for what
"socialism" used to mean. One contributor to the Distributist
Weekly, W.R. Titterton, commented that distributism would
have fit nicely with the kind of socialism that prevailed in
England back when William Morris was alive (and, I suspect,
would have fit in better yet with the earlier socialism of
Proudhon and the Owenites). "It was a fine time that, and
the vision which possessed us might at last have captured
England, too. If we had not met Sidney Webb!"
The Fabians, like other collectivists who have tried to
marginalize cooperativism within the socialist movement,
dismissed distributism as a "petty bourgeois" or "preindustrial"
movement relevant only to "artisan labor," and
inapplicable to large-scale industrial organization. Cecil
Chesterton, whose premature death dealt distributism a
serious blow, treated such arguments with the contempt
they deserved. "If Mr Shaw means... that it cannot distribute
the ownership of the works, it might be as well to inquire first
whether the ownership is distributed already.... I must
confess that I shall be surprised to learn that Armstrong's
works are today the property of a single man named
Armstrong.... I do not see why it should be harder to
distribute it among Armstrong's men than among a motley
crowd of country clergymen, retired Generals, Cabinet
ministers and maiden ladies such as provide the bulk of the
share-list in most industrial concerns."

Of the major intellectual figures of British distributism, Cecil was the most
aware of the central importance of producer organization.
The distributist movement of G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire
Belloc, unfortunately, was long on theory and short on
action. It made little or no attempt at common cause, for
example, with the Rochedale cooperative movement.
Although distributist intellectuals were strongly in favor of
cooperatives in principle, they seemed to have little
awareness that the wheel had already been invented!
Despite impulses toward practical organization in the
provincial chapters of the Distributist League, and Fr.
Vincent McNabb's support of agrarian colonies on vacant
land, such efforts were inhibited by the leadership vacuum
in London (whose main concern, apparently, was apparently
intellectual debate, soapbox oratory, drinking songs, and
public house bonhomie).

Antigonish

The first large-scale attempt to put distributism into practice
was the Antigonish movement of Frs. Jimmy Tompkins and
Moses Coady, among the Acadian French population of
Nova Scotia. Tompkins and Coady acted through adult
study circles, strongly geared toward spurring practical
action. One of the first outgrowths of their educational work
was a decision by lobstermen to build their own cooperative
canning factory. This quickly led to cooperative marketing
ventures, buying clubs for fishing supplies, and cooperative
outlets for household woven goods. The movement
continued to spread like wildfire throughout the Maritimes,
with over two thousand study clubs by the late '30s with
almost 20,000 members, and 342 credit unions and 162
other cooperatives. By keeping for themselves what formerly
went to middlemen, the working people of the Antagonish
movement achieved significant increases in their standard of
living.

Through it all, Coady and Tompkins were motivated by
the "Big Picture" of a cooperative counter-economy on a
comprehensive scale: cooperative retailers, buying from
cooperative wholesalers, supplied by cooperative factories
owned by the movement, and financed by cooperative
credit.

In practice, though, the main emphasis was on
consumption and credit rather than production. The
fundamental weakness of Antigonish, Matthew argues, was
that it relied mainly on consumer cooperation, on the
Rochedale model. Consumer cooperation, by itself, is
vulnerable to what Matthews calls the "Rochedale cul-desac,"
in which cooperatives have "gravitated from the hands
of their members to those of bureaucracies," and adopted a
business culture almost indistinguishable from that of
capitalist firms. Worse yet, cooperatives are sometimes
subject to hostile takeovers and demutualization.

The problem with the cooperative movement, idealized by Distributionists, Social Credit and even the CCF was it was limited as a producer's movement in opposition to existing capitalism. It was unable to produce a strong enough alternative economy and political force, whether from the right or left as the legacy of the UFA, Socreds and CCF show, to defeat existing capitalist relations.

When these producer based movements became political parties within a parliamentary system they literally sold their souls to the company store.
In building a broad based alliance between farmers, workers, and urban professionals, these movements pushed for real parliamentary reform calling for direct democracy; referendum, recall.

In becoming a political party especially one in power, whether in Alberta or Saskatchewan, or indeed in some American states, the ability to reform the parliamentary system was limited, and in fact a straight jacket around the realpolitik of the movements.

Ultimately such movements during the last century in Europe and in North America ended up as consumer cooperatives, rather than independent artisan or producer alternatives to the banks and ultimately the capitalist system of production and distribution.

As such they became cogs in the existing capitalist system, as they are today. One really cannot tell the difference between the CO-OP stores and Safeways, or the Credit Unions and the big Banks.

Since once you transform producers to wage slaves they ultimately become 'consumers' in capitalist culture. As such they are subjects of history, rather than class conscious objects; makers of history.

The advent of transforming producers into wage slaves and ultimately declasse consumers, was the ultimate key to the survival of post Depression, post WWII capitalism.

The secret to becoming a revolutionary class for and of itself, the object of history, is the proletariats realization of the need to once again become producers,and land owners, thus self-valorizing individuals.



* a cheeky reference to a ground breaking rockabilly group from the sixties; Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen.


SEE:

Corporatism

Shameless

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
social credit, Major Douglas, Prairie, agrarian, farmers, populism, populist, producer, producerism, distributionism, Hilare Belocq, Green Party, Conservatives, Wheat Board, Alberta, William Irvine,Henry Wise Wood,UFA,CCF,Manitoba, Canada, US, Grange,

Where's The NDP?

This opinion poll about today's Alberta By-elections, is posted on the rightwhingnut website Free Dominion. I only have to ask where is the NDP? They have four seats in the house compared to the Alliance's one. Oh yeah it's a rightwhinghut poll.

Who will win the by-elections?

Tory sweep 12% [ 2 ] Alliance sweep 12% [ 2 ] Liberal sweep 12% [ 2 ] Tory - Alliance split 12% [ 2 ] Tory - Liberal split 31% [ 5 ] Alliance - Liberal split 18% [ 3 ]

Total Votes : 16

Historical revisionists that they are, like their pal Link Byfield, they forget that this province is home to the One Big Union, the CCF and twenty years of the United Farmers of Alberta.

For them history begins with the Socreds. Forgetting that radicals of the left supported the original 1935 Social Credit movement as a natural extension of the farmer labour populist UFA. And that the party had a left and a right wing until Ernest Manning consolidated power in the party, and turfed the radicals in favour of his evangelical rural base.

The decline of the Socreds was their reliance on their rural base. A base that Ed Stelmach now has, and that is rapidly urbanizing. Challenging the sorry old Tory establishment. Rural Alberta has become the suburbs even in the staid reactionary southland's.



blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Alberta, Premier,
Alberta Cabinet, Harry Strom, Ed Stelmach,
Social Credit,Socreds, PC, Calgary, Party of Calgary, politics, leadership, Conservatives, Edmonton, One Party State,History, Politics, Economics,leadership, politics, PC,

Writing On The Wall

Our lame duck premier Ed Stelmach continues to prove he is the political heir of Harry Strom.

a growing number of urban Albertans are unhappy with the rookie premier's performance.

Mr. Stelmach was responding to a poll in which fewer than half of those surveyed this month said he was leading Alberta in the right direction.

The poll also suggests the overall number of people in the province who felt Mr. Stelmach was leading the province in the wrong direction has tripled to 30 per cent since January.

The Cameron Strategy poll found Tory support in rural areas has increased slightly to 58 per cent, while support in Calgary and Edmonton is down to roughly 40 per cent over the last five months.

The Cameron Strategy poll provided to the Calgary Herald shows disapproval of the premier's performance in Calgary at 39 per cent, more than double what it was in January. In Edmonton, 29 per cent of people disapprove of Stelmach's performance, again, more than double what it was in January.

"It's the doubling of the disapproval that should be worrying," said pollster Bruce Cameron. "It's the first shoe dropping."

Also, more Calgarians (41 per cent) believe the premier is leading Alberta in the wrong direction than those who think he's taking it down the right path (35 per cent).

Stelmach noted that during the race for leadership of the PC party, polls consistently showed him behind the other candidates. For him, the real test is yet to come. "The big poll for me, judgment day, is the next general election."

Which is why he is afraid to call one.


ind blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Alberta, Premier,
Alberta Cabinet, Harry Strom, Ed Stelmach,
Social Credit,Socreds, PC, Calgary, Party of Calgary, politics, leadership, Conservatives, Edmonton, One Party State,History, Politics, Economics,leadership, politics, PC,

So Long Ed Been Good To Know Ya

Nice to see other folks have noticed the similarity between Ed Stelmach and Harry Strom.

The next Harry Strom?

I have been saying the same thing for six months;

Rural Roots

Strom's Curse

Ed Stelmach=Harry Strom

And you know its bad when the guy running for ya in the Calgary Elbow by-election claims not to know ya....

Brian Heninger, that's right, of Heninger Toyota, pins his hopes on being seen as the best for the job. He knows the premier has no coattails to ride. Brian says he doesn't know the premier, hasn't been alone in a room with him and doesn't know many of the Tory MLAs

After five months in power, promising to change his stale dated government from the callous clueless regime of King Ralph, to a more open, friendlier one, all we get from Ed is more of the same callousness; full steam ahead, we have no plan, except to sell off the province to the cheapest bidder....

Alberta, BC to meet over public-private partnerships

“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” Karl Marx

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Alberta, Premier,
Alberta Cabinet, Harry Strom, Ed Stelmach,
Social Credit,Socreds, PC, Calgary, Party of Calgary, politics, leadership, Conservatives, Edmonton, One Party State,History, Politics, Economics,leadership, politics, PC,