Alberta Progressive Conservative Leadership Election - March 18, 2017
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  Alberta Progressive Conservative Leadership Election - March 18, 2017
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Author Topic: Alberta Progressive Conservative Leadership Election - March 18, 2017  (Read 10117 times)
Njall
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« on: July 06, 2016, 12:55:46 PM »



Given that Kenney seems poised to enter the race today, I figured that I should go ahead and give this leadership race its own thread.

Here's some very quick background info:
  • May 2015: The PCs lose the 2015 Alberta General Election after 12 terms (44 years) in government. Then-leader Jim Prentice resigns his position and seat on election night. The PC caucus subsequently picks Calgary-Hays MLA Ric McIver as interim leader. Immediately after the election, some pundits and commentators begin calling for a movement to "unite-the-right" in Alberta
  • The 12 months following the election: The PC Board launches an engagement initiative in order to consult members about the future direction of the party. Meanwhile, the party continues to show a dedicated base in provincial opinion polls following the election, garnering 20-30% of the decided vote
  • May 2016: the party holds its first post-election AGM, with just over 1000 attendees.  The delegates overwhelmingly vote in favour of rebuilding the party instead of merging. They also decide to switch their leadership election system to a delegated convention, and to hold a leadership election within the next 12 months
  • June 2016: the party decides on a timeline for the leadership election

The leadership election process will officially begin on October 1, concurrent with the party board meeting in Lethbridge. The actual leadership convention will be held March 17-19, 2017, in Calgary.

The only candidate who is currently confirmed to be running is Jason Kenney, federal Conservative MP for Calgary-Southeast. Although he is a much better ideological fit for the Wildrose Party, he seems to be mounting a bid for the PC leadership in an attempt to unite the right.

Other potential candidates at this point include:
  • Sandra Jansen, PC MLA for Calgary-North West
  • Richard Starke, PC MLA for Vermilion-Lloydminister
  • Thomas Lukaszuk, former PC MLA for Edmonton-Castle Downs and 2014 leadership candidate
  • Michael Oshry, Edmonton City Councillor for Ward 5 (southwest Edmonton)
  • Doug Griffiths, former PC MLA for Battle River-Wainwright and 2011 leadership candidate

It's worth noting that none of the five above potential candidates would be in favour of uniting with the Wildrose Party.
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MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!
Kalwejt
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« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2016, 01:24:49 PM »

"Progressive Conservative" is a hilarious oxymoron.
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Njall
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« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2016, 01:56:41 PM »

The contempory understanding of it amongst PCs is that it represents our party being fiscally conservative and socially progressive.
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Njall
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« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2016, 02:17:29 PM »

Okay, Kenney's in.
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Hatman 🍁
EarlAW
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« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2016, 02:18:21 PM »

The contempory understanding of it amongst PCs is that it represents our party being fiscally conservative and socially progressive.

You can kiss that goodbye if the creepy virgin wins.
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Njall
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« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2016, 02:45:54 PM »

The contempory understanding of it amongst PCs is that it represents our party being fiscally conservative and socially progressive.

You can kiss that goodbye if the creepy virgin wins.

Worth nothing that Sandra Jansen said that she would leave the party if Kenney won, as there's "nothing progressive about Jason Kenney." I'd likely be pretty quick to follow her, tbh.
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MaxQue
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« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2016, 03:32:54 PM »

The contempory understanding of it amongst PCs is that it represents our party being fiscally conservative and socially progressive.

You can kiss that goodbye if the creepy virgin wins.

Worth nothing that Sandra Jansen said that she would leave the party if Kenney won, as there's "nothing progressive about Jason Kenney." I'd likely be pretty quick to follow her, tbh.

Where would you go, if that came to happen?
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Njall
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« Reply #7 on: July 06, 2016, 03:42:15 PM »

The contempory understanding of it amongst PCs is that it represents our party being fiscally conservative and socially progressive.

You can kiss that goodbye if the creepy virgin wins.

Worth nothing that Sandra Jansen said that she would leave the party if Kenney won, as there's "nothing progressive about Jason Kenney." I'd likely be pretty quick to follow her, tbh.

Where would you go, if that came to happen?

Leaning towards the Alberta Party at this point. I'd want a centrist option, and the Liberals still have no momentum. Plus, Greg Clark has essentially been branding himself as a PC who's not in the PC Party (in terms of policy and so on) these days. I wouldn't be surprised if a number of progressive and moderate PCs end up migrating to the Alberta Party if Kenney wins and merges the PCs and WRP.
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EarlAW
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« Reply #8 on: July 07, 2016, 09:06:21 AM »

What is it that you don't like about the NDP again? It's not like you're on the right of the average Albertan.
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RogueBeaver
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« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2016, 10:43:51 AM »

Kenney will resign his seat this fall.
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Njall
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« Reply #10 on: July 07, 2016, 01:18:38 PM »

What is it that you don't like about the NDP again? It's not like you're on the right of the average Albertan.

Haha, I consider myself to be relatively at the centre of the Albertan political spectrum...or at least the urban Albertan political spectrum.

Anyways, it's not that I don't like the NDP. In fact, I don't mind them too much, and would certainly vote for them in a two-way race between them and the Wildrose (or a Kenney-led Conservative Party). With that said, there are some elements of their policies, particularly on the economic side of things, that I find myself disagreeing with. For example, they're increasing the minimum wage in a way that won't effectively help those who truly need assistance, and that could see adverse effects on employment of young/under-skilled individuals. Not that I disagree with poverty reduction, by any means, but I've always favoured models such as a guaranteed annual income/negative income tax over minimum wage hikes, and increasing the minimum wage too much can have undesired effects for some individuals. Their unwillingness to consider implementing an HST to deal with the budgetary shortfall was another disappointment (I know that a sales tax is a political bogeyman here, but it'll need to happen at some point and the NDP refused to ever consider it). While I'm not a debt hawk by any means, I am still concerned with the level of debt that they are planning on taking on over the next few years. Their inaction towards reforming campaign finance on a municipal level has been disappointing. And speaking as a post-secondary student leader, it's been disappointing to see the lack of action towards reversing the funding cuts that we were forced to endure under Redford.

I also wish that they had tried to bring in a provincial-level MMP electoral system, so that prospects of single-party dynasties and FPTP-oriented unite-the-right movements could be removed Tongue
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Hatman 🍁
EarlAW
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« Reply #11 on: July 07, 2016, 04:56:54 PM »

While electoral reform would save the NDP from the possibility of returning to obscurity way down the road, it would ultimately help the right wing, as I do not believe a majority of Albertans are centre/ centre-left.

Also, the NDP didn't campaign on electoral reform, so there's that.
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Njall
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« Reply #12 on: July 07, 2016, 05:34:28 PM »

While electoral reform would save the NDP from the possibility of returning to obscurity way down the road, it would ultimately help the right wing, as I do not believe a majority of Albertans are centre/ centre-left.

Also, the NDP didn't campaign on electoral reform, so there's that.

I know they didn't campaign on it, but it was still a forlorn pipe dream of mine that they might be able to implement it Tongue I feel like it would benefit them in the long run though, not only by saving them from obscurity, but also by likely being able to prevent a single right-wing party from attaining majority government status again, at least for the foreseeable future.
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Njall
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« Reply #13 on: July 08, 2016, 03:28:23 PM »
« Edited: July 08, 2016, 03:33:42 PM by Fmr. Assemblyman Njall »

Interesting article in the Calgary Metro listing some of the potential candidates who may enter the race to challenge Kenney. In addition to those that I listed at the top of the page (Jansen, Starke, Lukaszuk, and Oshry), the article mentions:
  • Diana McQueen: former PC cabinet minister, former MLA for Drayton Valley-Devon, former Mayor of Drayton Valley
  • Stephen Khan: former PC cabinet minister, former MLA for St. Albert
  • Harman Kandola: Edmonton lawyer, ran as the 2015 PC candidate in Edmonton-Ellerslie
  • Doug Schweitzer: Calgary lawyer, managed Prentice's leadership campaign. Also apparently former Executive Director of the Manitoba PCs

--------------------------------------------------------------------

In other news, Nenshi isn't happy about the Kenney candidacy

EDIT:Current St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud (NDP) challenges Kenney on his current views on abortion
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RogueBeaver
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« Reply #14 on: July 09, 2016, 08:54:39 PM »

Harper endorses Kenney.
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Njall
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« Reply #15 on: July 12, 2016, 10:54:10 PM »

Gerson: Jason Kenney may already be on cusp of uniting Alberta’s right — against him

Interesting article...and one that really reflects how negative the coverage of Kenney has become over the past few days.
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Pandaguineapig
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« Reply #16 on: July 12, 2016, 11:33:25 PM »

It's seems looking at the polls pc needs wildrose more than vise versa, at least as long as notley seems set on sabotaging her own government
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Joe Republic
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« Reply #17 on: July 13, 2016, 12:53:46 AM »

Why the heck do Canadian political parties - federal and provincial - take so frickin' long to elect new leaders?  This timeline is utterly ridiculous.
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exnaderite
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« Reply #18 on: July 13, 2016, 01:10:32 AM »
« Edited: July 13, 2016, 01:12:41 AM by Thoughtful Cynic »

Canadian Taxpayer's Federation, which Jason Kenney used to lead, has demanded that he take an unpaid leave before resigning as MP. Why doesn't he simply resign now? At least Harper had the decency to quietly disappear from Ottawa.

Why the heck do Canadian political parties - federal and provincial - take so frickin' long to elect new leaders?  This timeline is utterly ridiculous.
You can ask that question about US primary races.
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Joe Republic
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« Reply #19 on: July 13, 2016, 01:52:06 AM »

Why the heck do Canadian political parties - federal and provincial - take so frickin' long to elect new leaders?  This timeline is utterly ridiculous.
You can ask that question about US primary races.

You could, but with the difference being that these take literally twice as long, and with a significantly smaller electorate.
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Hatman 🍁
EarlAW
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« Reply #20 on: July 13, 2016, 11:12:51 AM »

Good question, Joe. I really don't have a good explanation, other than that's how we do things. I suppose the advantage is it gives parties a chance at a gradual transition to the new leadership, rather than what we're seeing in Britain: "Surprise! you have a new Prime Minister!".

Unlike Australia and the UK, Canadian parties have had a longer tradition of having leadership elections where the party membership votes rather than just the MPs themselves. We used to have (and still are in some jurisdictions / parties) delegated conventions, meaning the process would have to be longer and drawn out like in the U.S.
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Njall
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« Reply #21 on: July 15, 2016, 02:14:18 PM »

It's seems looking at the polls pc needs wildrose more than vise versa, at least as long as notley seems set on sabotaging her own government

More to the point, with the NDP consistently polling below 30%, I fail to see the pressing need for an anti-NDP party merger.

Why the heck do Canadian political parties - federal and provincial - take so frickin' long to elect new leaders?  This timeline is utterly ridiculous.

I would imagine it's so the leadership candidates have an extended timeframe in which to go out and meet as many party members and prospective members as possible. In delegate-based leadership elections like this one, the campaigns also need time to cultivate local organizations in each constituency in order to have a reasonable shot at success.

That said, even though Kenney has already declared, the actual race doesn't kick off until October 1st. The rough timeline is as follows:

  • October 1, 2016: Race begins; candidates may begin filing their paperwork
  • November 5-6, 2016: PC Policy Conference in Red Deer (will include leadership debate as part of proceedings)
  • January 9, 2017: Last day for candidates to file their paperwork
  • Throughout early 2017: Leadership debate in Edmonton; leadership town halls in Fort McMurray and Lethbridge; constituency associations begin holding delegate selection meetings
  • February 16, 2017: Last day for constituency associations to file their delegate slates for the convention (30 days before voting day)
  • March 17-19, 2017: Leadership convention in Calgary (the actual vote will be on the 18th)
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Hatman 🍁
EarlAW
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« Reply #22 on: July 18, 2016, 08:53:24 AM »

Oh yeah, a big reason for the long leadership races is the fact that parties in Canada tend to have low membership numbers most of the time (compared to other countries), so time is needed to build that up by the respective campaigns.
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Njall
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« Reply #23 on: August 29, 2016, 01:34:42 AM »

It's been pretty quiet over the summer, but that may be ending. The PC Party Board finalized leadership rules over the weekend, including a number of new or modified rules that are seen as being detrimental to Kenney's campaign.

On a (likely) related note, Kenney has apparently called a press conference for tomorrow.
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RogueBeaver
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« Reply #24 on: September 08, 2016, 01:01:08 PM »

Donna Kennedy-Glans is in.
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