Gatherin of Conservatives Calls For 3rd Party

[tay]

At the “Alberta Can’t Wait” meeting held Saturday at Red Deer College, a straw poll of the crowd of roughly 400 saw overwhelming support for the idea of a new party, rather than unification under either the Wildrose or Progressive Conservative parties or continuation of the status quo.

Rick Orman, a former Tory cabinet minister and leadership candidate who was one of the main drivers of Saturday’s event, said the next step will include more meetings and the formation of a steering committee.

He said the PCs and Wildrose should pay attention to the meeting’s result but that ultimately it shows there is a conservative movement in the province bigger than the existing parties.

“The fact of the matter is the people in this room obviously don’t identify with either of the two parties,” said Orman.

“You sort of have to get yourself to a zen state around it. Like, they don’t matter. The infrastructure doesn’t matter — the PC infrastructure and the Wildrose infrastructure has nothing to do with this or the momentum this will create. And they’re not needed.

They’re welcome but they’re definitely not needed.”

However, Wildrose MLA Jason Nixon said in a statement that forming another party would only divide the right, calling it “folly.”

“Wildrose will continue to have grassroots discussions with principled conservatives about becoming an even broader and more inclusive big tent party,” he said.

Earlier, veteran political operative Cliff Fryers told the crowd that the ongoing division of Alberta’s conservatives could mean a second election victory for the NDP, which ended four decades of PC rule with its win last year.

Fryers said Alberta has been “the bastion of conservatism in this country.”

“We need to build a conservative option that will again dominate the province,” he said.

Fryers was supposed to lay out the arguments in favour of four different options: maintaining the status quo, folding Wildrose into the PC party, folding the PC party into Wildrose and forming a new party.

However, he said there is no compelling argument for the status quo.

Pollster Marc Henry of ThinkHQ told the crowd that it is a “nice theory” that simply combining Wildrose and PC together would result in a majority vote but it “doesn’t work in practice.”

He said polling shows a large number of PC and Wildrose supporters in the last provincial election would not switch to the other party.

There is “reasonably strong support” for uniting the right under a new conservative party, said Henry.

However, if a new party is formed and the Wildrose and PC parties soldiered on, “you’re essentially giving the NDP another majority,” he said.

Gathering of Alberta conservatives backs call for new provincial party | Calgary Herald

 

[tay]

If Jason Kenney decides to be in, Sandra Jansen will be out.

The Calgary-North West MLA said she will quit the provincial Progressive Conservatives if Kenney makes a successful run for leader of the party.

"I would leave, I would not be a member of the party anymore," she told CBC News Calgary.

"I think there are enough people who feel the way I feel that we would look for a different alternative, but I don't think we have to."

Jansen said she takes issue with what she sees as support for the Wildrose from Kenney during the last three provincial elections.

"I think Jason has never been a friend of the Progressive Conservative party, there's nothing progressive about Jason Kenney," she said.

"I think it's an interesting strategy, the idea of coming in to a party that stands for very little of what he stands for to try to take it over and create a merger where we certainly haven't asked for one."

Rumours of Kenney jumping from federal to provincial politics have swirled for months and came to a head Tuesday when University of Calgary political scientist Tom Flanagan revealed on CBC News Calgary he'd discussed the idea with the Calgary-Southeast MP during a recent dinner.

Kenney has remained coy about a potential leadership run.

"I've been encouraged by a lot of members of our federal Conservative Party to pursue the national leadership, but also a lot of folks back here at home in Alberta to help bring together free enterprise Albertans so we can get this province back on track," he said, adding he will make a decision in the "near future."

Flanagan said his discussions with Kenney centred on uniting the PC and Wildrose parties in Alberta.

But provincial PC members voted against pursuing a merger with Wildrose at the party's AGM in May, said Jansen.

"So the idea that someone is going to come in who is not progressive and wants a merger is diametrically opposed to everything that the general PC membership stands for," she said.

Jansen is also considering a run at the PC leadership, she said.

"The fact is, I think there are a lot of things to consider when you're going to do that and that's certainly a conversation I'm having with my family," she said.

"I'm talking to all sorts of people and it's certainly not an idea I've ruled out."

Sandra Jansen threatens to quit if Jason Kenney becomes PC leader - Calgary - CBC News

 

[tay]

If you think the gossip, rumours and speculation over Alberta’s frantic unite-the-right movement haven’t reached bizarre levels, listen to this.

Officials with the Alberta Party were so rattled by suggestions they were about to be the target of a hostile takeover by right-wing activists that the party held what amounted to an emergency meeting of members June 11.

The officials had heard that supporters of Alberta Can’t Wait — a unite-the-right movement — were going to show up at the Alberta Party’s annual general meeting in August, become members, vote to change its leadership, hollow out its policies and make it into a vessel for a new conservative party.

It would have been a good old-fashioned political coup with the prize being the coolest name in Alberta politics: The Alberta Party.

“Anyone that tries to take us over from the right is going to have a hell of a fight on their hands,” declared Clark.

more

Graham Thomson: Jittery Alberta Party holds emergency meeting to avoid a political highjacking | Edmonton Journal

 

[tay]

Three times since December 2014, conservatives in Alberta are known to have tried to subvert the normal democratic process by what amount to stealthy palace coups to destroy or take over another political party.

First came the attempt said to have been orchestrated by Preston Manning in December 2014 to push the to push the Wildrose Opposition led by Danielle Smith into Premier Jim Prentice’s governing Progressive Conservative caucus.

Next came the ham-handed effort by Rosehip Tea Party agitator George Clark’s rightward fringe of the province’s conservative movement to first join and then take over the NDP before its annual general meeting, a plot that came to be mockingly known as the #Kudatah.

Then came the effort this spring reported by the media to involve supporters of Alberta Can’t Wait, a unite-the-right group associated with Mr. Manning, to pack the Alberta Party’s AGM with new members, take over the party, and grab its valuable name as a prize of ideological war.

The first scheme – reminiscent of the way Mr. Manning and his advisors engineered the takeover of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada by his Reform Party back in 2003, when it was known as the Canadian Alliance – fell apart when the plotters failed to anticipate the hostile reaction of the Wildrose base, which had spent too long being encouraged to hate the PCs.

The second was fairly easily thwarted by the NDP, which was able to identify and weed out most of the conservative infiltrators thanks partly to the fact they’d never made a donation.

The third, by the sound of it, was halted when Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark lucked out and got wind of it from a newspaper columnist and moved up the party’s AGM to early June. This may only be a reprieve, however, as the takeover conspiracy may still be percolating.

Now, as is well known, former prime minister Stephen Harper’s lieutenant in Ottawa, Jason Kenney, proposes to do essentially the same thing twice more.

To his credit, I suppose, Mr. Kenney has been quite open this time about the plan, first to snatch the PC Party from its traditional big-tent conservative supporters despite his reputation as a Wildroser at the provincial level, then to use it to take over the Wildrose Party in a rare double reverse hostile takeover.

As has been pointed out by many commentators, this plan is not guaranteed to work, but it has big money behind it and Mr. Kenney has already proved he is willing to campaign in violation of Alberta’s election spending laws by pretending not to be a candidate yet for the job he’s openly seeking. I leave it to readers to decide on the ethics of that decision.

He has been endorsed by the former Conservative prime minister, Mr. Harper, and the current Conservative Opposition leader, Rona Ambrose, and many of the unite-the-right front groups set up by lobbyists with Conservative ties to push the NDP out of power, so it must be recognized that he could well succeed.

Of course, there are also conservatives predisposed to using traditional Canadian democratic means to achieve their goals. But they are the very people Mr. Harper purged from the federal Conservative Party, leaving them with precious little influence at the national level. Mr. Kenney continues to vilify them today, as in his broadsides at former PC prime minister Joe Clark, who like NDP Premier Rachel Notley is a real born-and-raised Albertan.

Perhaps if the so called “Red Tories” were still around the federal party, they could exert some influence against this kind of disreputable scheming, most of which has involved figures associated with the Conservative Party of Canada after its takeover by the Reform-Alliance Axis.

Such people still exist in the Alberta PCs – the names of Sandra Jansen and Thomas Lukaszuk are often named nowadays, and former premier Ed Stelmach is one too. But they will not have much influence for long if the schemers from the former federal government have their way with their party.

Even if they manage to hang on, as Mr. Lukaszuk observed recently, “it forces political parties to be on the defensive instead of developing policies and alternatives for the benefit of Albertans.”

That’s likely the idea, especially when it comes to voters on the right side of the political spectrum.

The core beliefs of Mr. Kenney, Mr. Harper and Mr. Manning, to name three of the most prominent examples, are becoming too extreme for the average Alberta voter if they are not already. So the only way to capture center-right votes for their radical vision of society is to deny more moderate voices on the right the political space to offer competing visions.

Alberta PoliticsAbout those conservative coup attempts: once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times has got to be enemy action! - Alberta Politics

 

[taxslave]

Since they were all basically one party originally until so many outsiders showed up in the province there is little other than egos keeping them apart. Hopefully they will do whatever it takes to get rid of the dippers once and for all.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Bloc Cementheadcois?

 

[Danbones]

Dear Abby, Dear Abby...
My feet are too long
My hair's falling out and my rights are all wrong"
- John Prine...

Not that right, your other right.....

 

[tay]

Sandra Jansen just confirmed she’s running for the leadership of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative party. This is good news because her campaign will test Jason Kenney’s assertion that there’s no such thing as a progressive conservative.

Kenney is peddling the line that there are only two kinds of people in Alberta—small “c” conservatives who yearn to merge the Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose into a single “free enterprise party” and a bunch of nutbars who accidentally elected the NDP.

Jansen acknowledges the PCs demonstrated poor leadership in the past and suggests PC leadership candidates should take a hard look at themselves and figure out how they can be better leaders and better MLAs.

Which leads one to wonder why Jason Kenney, notwithstanding his high praise for the PCs under Peter Lougheed and Ralph Klein, decided the best PC leader is one who buries the party, rather than rebuilds it.

Kenney says if Peter McKay and Stephen Harper could unite a bunch of small “c” federal conservatives under the Conservative Party of Canada banner, merging Alberta’s PCs and Wildrose parties will be a “walk in the park”.

He points to a recent report published by the Manning Centre as evidence he’s right.

The Manning report says that since May 2015 when the NDP came into power the majority of the Wildrose and PC MLAs voted the same way 90.2% of the time on legislative votes and 95.8% of the time on money votes and this demonstrates there’s little of substance separating the Wildrose from the PCs.

Aside from the fact that the Manning report is not a quantitative analysis—the issues put to vote range from inconsequential to significant and the number of Wildrose and PC MLAs voting on each issue varies from vote to vote—it fails to address two instances where the Wildrose and the PCs are sharply divided, namely fiscal policy and democratic renewal.

In June 2015 the PCs proposed Bill 201, Assuring Alberta’s Fiscal Future. The Bill required the government to invest 25% of all non-renewable resource revenue into the Heritage Fund. The investment obligation jumped to 50% in years where operating revenue was expected to exceed operating expense.

Every Wildrose MLA voted with the NDP to reject the PC’s Bill.

Jason Kenney says Albertans are sophisticated and will be able to see through the objections to merger thrown up by naysayers.
That’s true. Albertans can also tell the difference between a politician spouting vacuous slogans and one with a vision for Alberta that goes beyond simply getting into power.

It’s time for Mr Kenney to show his respect for Albertans by telling them what he would do the day after he’s elected premier to address climate change and convince Justin Trudeau not to impose a federal carbon tax after Kenney eliminates the provincial carbon tax and how he will ensure religious schools protect the rights of LGBTQ students…and that’s just for starters.

Because a campaign built on destroying two political parties in order to unseat a third isn’t going to cut it.

https://susanonthesoapbox.com/2016/...ere-are-progressive-conservatives-in-alberta/

 

[tay]

No reason to unite with 'confused' PC's, says Jean


Wildrose Leader Brian Jean is rejecting a union with the Progressive Conservatives, a party he described in a speech Friday as "confused about its values" and rife with "instability."

Speaking to the Wildrose annual general meeting in Red Deer Friday, Jean addressed the elephant in the room — how to respond to PC leadership candidate Jason Kenney's vow to unite all right-wing Albertans under a single conservative party.

Last year, Jean called on Wildrose members to invite everyone into their tent. He seemed open to merger talks with the PCs even as late as last summer. But much has changed since then.

Last May, the majority of delegates at the PC AGM rejected a merger with the Wildrose, so Jean is no longer interested.

"That party still remains confused about its values, its principles and what it stands for...And, right now, their party is rife with uncertainty, division and instability," Jean said, adding it was not time for Wildrose to be distracted by a possible merger and putting the province's future at risk by not being ready for the next election.

"We've already been very successful consolidating conservative-minded Albertans," he said.

"In the months ahead, let's not put the future of our province at risk waiting for the PC party to figure out what they do or don't believe in. Because friends, we are just two years away from an election. Two years away from defeating the NDP."

While they liked Jean's speech, a couple of party members worried about his message on a merger.

"I think you're naive to think one single right party can beat the NDP next election with the vote-splitting of the Wildrose and PCs," said Jason Wilson.

"I think the only solution would be to unite."

Keean Bexte said he was concerned with Jean's apparent rejection of a merger just because the PCs have some internal issues. He says all conservatives need to unite to defeat the NDP.

"We need to do everything we can to stop that, and that starts with getting conservatives under one party and whether that's the Wildrose Party or a new party, we'll see."

This weekend Wildrose members are expected to debate a policy calling for the Alberta government to appeal the carbon tax.
Jean has long been vocal in his opposition to the provincial levy which kicks in Jan. 1, 2017. In his speech he vowed to fight the federal government's own carbon-tax proposal, which he described as more aggressive and a "sledgehammer" against the provinces.

"Let's mark this weekend as the first step taken to ripping up the carbon tax and sending a message to Ottawa that Albertans won't back down when Wildrose forms government."

A number of candidates for the federal Conservative party showed up at this weekend's AGM. Kellie Leitch, Andrew Scheer and Maxime Bernier were seen making the rounds meeting party members.

Wildrose leader rejects PC merger in speech to party faithful - Edmonton - CBC News

 

[Cannuck]

The solution is simple. Change the name of the Wild Rose to Conservative (since they are the only conservative party in Alberta. Change the Conservative party name to Liberal to more accurately reflect their views. I'm sure the two card carrying Alberta Liberal party members won't mind as they have no real values anyway and this means the Liberal party will have a chance. Change the name of the Dippers to whatever you want. In a couple of years they will be done

 

[tay]

The strange case of the Boys on the Bible Buses


Today is the deadline for new entries into the Progressive Conservative Party leadership race, and you have to ask: is the party executive now working directly for the Jason Kenney campaign?

It certainly seems so when you consider the strange affair of the Boys on the Bible Buses at last weekend’s PC policy conference in Red Deer, not to mention the harassment of at least one female candidate by Mr. Kenney’s supporters during the meeting.

While Mr. Kenney’s minions were yelling at Sandra Jansen in the hallways of the Red Deer hotel where the conference took place, the now-famous busloads of mysterious Bible school students were showing up at the convention to execute a takeover of the PC youth wing for Mr. Kenney’s campaign.

As the CBC explained it in its coverage of the conservative kiddie coup, the four buses of young Kenney supporters arrived on Saturday. “The young men and women, many in their teens, were led to a room where they could take pictures with former prime minister Stephen Harper. The youth were then directed to the room where the annual general meeting for the PC Youth Association was taking place.”

The reason for the visitation? The PCYA appoints 20 of the delegates who get to vote for the next leader at the party’s convention in March 2017, the CBC explained.

No one seems to know exactly who these mysterious young people were. An unconfirmed rumour circulating online last night
suggests they’re from one of the religious schools that refuses to obey the government’s policy on gay-straight alliances – a drama in which Mr. Kenney’s campaign appears to be pulling the strings.

Donna Kennedy-Glans, who with Ms. Jansen dropped out of the leadership race on Tuesday, complained about the bus voters – but failed to arouse any interest among the members of the party executive.

Now, here’s the thing. None of the young bus people – whoever they were – were PC Party members until their buses pulled up at the door.

So, under the PC Party’s own rules – based on a resolution party members insist was properly passed as required by the party’s constitution – you can’t vote at a PC meeting unless you’ve been a member for seven days. None of the young bus people had been, as they were signed up at the door.

After this – and presumably after the protest by Ms. Kennedy-Glans noted by the CBC – I am informed the PC executive met and decided not to enforce the constitutional rule.

In other words, Mr. Kenney’s supporters now appear to be in control of the party executive. Leastways, the executive is acting as if that’s the case. Given that, one wonders why they’d bother with the expense and inconvenience of a leadership convention.

As for Ms. Jansen and Ms. Kennedy-Glans dropping out, the party executive appears to be completely unconcerned.

Whatever the circumstances that led to their decisions, it is clear Kenney campaign – backed by the likes of former prime minister Stephen Harper and former Reform Party leader Preston Manning – wanted them gone. Otherwise, they could have potentially pooled their support for a more progressive alternative on a second ballot at the March leadership convention.

Alberta premier Rachel Notley may think, as she said yesterday, that “if a party or a campaign cannot conduct itself in a way to ensure the most basic of rules around inclusivity, for instance, anti-harassment, then quite frankly that party or that campaign is not equipped to govern the province.” But important people in the PC Party, by the sound of it, do not agree or care.

In a Facebook post last night, former deputy premier and 2014 leadership candidate Thomas Lukaszuk lamented the way Ms. Jansen and Ms. Kennedy-Glans were driven out of the race. “I know both of these women. I worked with them. They are brilliant, resilient and politically experienced. I know that they entered the race with full intentions to compete; they had the resources, and I know that it must have taken a lot for them to withdraw.”

“Both of the silenced candidates were bringing policy options and alternative perspectives that Albertans deserved to hear,” Mr. Lukaszuk wrote. “However, with the two candidates pushed out and with (today’s) deadline for new candidate entries, the PC race is set to proceed without any female representation and under a cloud of controversy.”

To restore faith in the process, Mr. Lukaszuk called on the executive to immediately suspend the deadline for new candidate entries while it investigates the candidates’ allegations.

Don’t expect this to happen.

Fear and loathing on the campaign trail with Jason Kenney: The strange case of the Boys on the Bible Buses | rabble.ca

 

[tay]

Alberta PC leadership hopeful Jason Kenney is being fined by the party.

Party President Katherine O'Neill confirmed to CBC News Sunday night that the board of directors accepted the recommendation of Chief Returning Officer Rob Dunseith for Kenney to forfeit $5,000 of the $20,000 performance bond he put up for his leadership bid.

The ruling is related to Kenney showing up at a delegate selection meeting in Edmonton-Ellerslie last week. Party rules stipulate candidates running for the leadership cannot be in attendance.

The PCs launched an investigation into Kenney's presence at the Mill Woods golf course clubhouse on Nov. 16 following complaints from the scrutineers of the other candidates — none of whom were around.

The Kenney campaign booked a hospitality room in the same building on the same floor as the delegate selection meeting, arguing that what meant to be "near" the event was ambiguous.

"We have been from the outset very determined to run a fair, open and transparent race because we're trying to rebuild the trust of Albertans after the last election," O'Neill said.

"One of the ways we can do it is by showing Albertans that as party members, we follow rules," O'Neill said.

Alberta PC leadership hopeful Jason Kenney being fined by party - Edmonton - CBC News

 

[Cannuck]

Kinda refutes the point you tried to make a week ago, doesn't it?

 

[tay]

Kinda refutes the point you tried to make a week ago, doesn't it?

Which was?

I just post the news. I have no sway in Alberta Politics.......

 

[Cannuck]

Which was?

Party brass are working for Kenny.

I just post the news.

Hehehehe...yes, of course.

 

[tay]

Party brass are working for Kenny.

Hehehehe...yes, of course.

They may be working or prefer to have him but when these type of things go public they have to at least pretend they are being fair to the others. A $5,000 dollar fine is peanuts to the machine...

 

[Danbones]

If you think the gossip, rumours and speculation over Alberta’s frantic unite-the-right movement haven’t reached bizarre levels, listen to this.

Officials with the Alberta Party were so rattled by suggestions they were about to be the target of a hostile takeover by right-wing activists that the party held what amounted to an emergency meeting of members June 11.

The officials had heard that supporters of Alberta Can’t Wait — a unite-the-right movement — were going to show up at the Alberta Party’s annual general meeting in August, become members, vote to change its leadership, hollow out its policies and make it into a vessel for a new conservative party.

It would have been a good old-fashioned political coup with the prize being the coolest name in Alberta politics: The Alberta Party.

“Anyone that tries to take us over from the right is going to have a hell of a fight on their hands,” declared Clark.

more

Graham Thomson: Jittery Alberta Party holds emergency meeting to avoid a political highjacking | Edmonton Journal

haha
look out for them danged muslims with the sharia law....
ooops, lol,....wrong thread

 

[Cannuck]

They may be working or prefer to have him but when these type of things go public they have to at least pretend they are being fair to the others. A $5,000 dollar fine is peanuts to the machine...

That sounds an awful lot like an opinion. You're supposed to just report news remember?

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

“Alberta Can’t Wait”

It's down the hall on the right.

 

[tay]

In an email to supporters sent late Sunday with the bland subject line, “A Wildrose Update,” Opposition Leader Brian Jean drops a bombshell with the revelation someone broke into the party’s Edmonton office several weeks ago, stole two laptop computers and tried unsuccessfully to walk off with the party’s server.

Mr. Jean starts a section of the email headed “I also want to update you on matters related to our party’s data security” with another startling revelation: “Some of you have been receiving unsolicited calls and letters from another political party.”

Mr. Jean doesn’t say whom in the email, or what the calls were about, but sources have confirmed, unsurprisingly, that the caller was the Progressive Conservative Party and the topic was the leadership campaign of Jason Kenney.

“I do not know how parts of our membership data appear to have been obtained by organizers in another party, but I have directed staff to investigate this and take all necessary steps to further protect our lists,” the Opposition leader stated in the email to members.

“I want to be very clear that the unauthorized use of Wildrose membership data and the protection of Wildrose information are serious matters for me.”

Mr. Jean then appeared to connect a couple of dots, going on to make the statement the break-in had taken place.
“A number of weeks ago, our party office in Edmonton was targeted in a break-in,” he said. (The party office is the only one in the building.) “Some laptops were stolen and an unsuccessful attempt was made to steal Wildrose’s computer server.”

“We do not believe there was any data released during this incident but we cannot be certain. No credit-card information was contained on any of the missing password-protected laptops. A police investigation is ongoing and since the robbery we have moved our computer server offsite to a high-security location.”

Describing the Progressive Conservatives as “going through a divisive fight right now,” Mr. Jean then revealed another interesting tidbit: “I’ve heard some concerning reports from some of you that you’ve received unsolicited calls claiming that I am encouraging Wildrose members to buy memberships and influence the leadership vote in the PC party. This claim is absolutely false. I would NEVER ask our members to interfere in the activities of another party.”

A Wildrose member not associated with the party leadership has confirmed he will ask Elections Alberta and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta today to investigate the information breach.

Alberta PoliticsWatergate anyone? Wildrose Edmonton office burgled, computers stolen, membership data being misused: Brian Jean - Alberta Politics