Voting strategically!

[cowman]

My spouse is a die hard Liberal...secretary/treasurer of the local Liberal party! I am an old red neck who thinks the Torys are much to RED for me!(Makes for some darned interesting conversations around the dinner table!)
And yet here we are both voting in the PC election for premier! Apparently a lot of local Liberals are buying memberships and voting for Morton...because they believe they can knock him off in the next election!
My second choice today is Dinning because if Morton doesn't get in...I believe the Alberta Alliance can make inroads on Dinning better than Stelmach!
Nothing more fun or devious than politics!

[JD4ME]

By RICK BELL, CALGARY SUN


(STUART DRYDEN, Calgary Sun)
You have to wonder. Maybe it's time for some folks to hit the history books.

What else can you say when Jim Dinning is cast by know-nothings as some sort of weak-kneed liberal, a wimpy whipping boy for the blogs of far-right wonks, a supposed buddy of Paul Martin who will somehow make leftie Torontonians feel cozy and comfy?

I was in Edmonton covering provincial politics when Jim Dinning served as this province's treasurer in the '90s and I didn't see any of these critics around, those who seem to know so much about the man and feel they have the only acceptable definition of what constitutes a conservative.

In fact, if those now blathering about Dinning had actually been there in the trenches, they would have seen Jim slammed for being too tough, screeched at for sticking too closely to a plan, slimed for keeping colleagues on track when they began to feel like wavering or could no longer stand the sound of protests.

It was Dinning who brought in Sir Roger Douglas, the New Zealand tough-guy politician, to help convince Conservative MLAs their balancing of the books could be done. Sir Roger even gave the PCs the buzz word for when the going got tough. Don't blink.

It was Dinning as treasurer who appointed a blue-chip panel of experts to advise where Alberta's finances needed cleaning up. It was Dinning who introduced the law to outlaw deficits. It was Dinning who forced government paper-shufflers to make three-year business plans.

It was Dinning who was a leader of the fight to get government out of the business of business. And it was Dinning who gave Albertans a report every three months on the state of the province's bottom line and didn't allow any cash to be blown on anyone's pet projects.


It was Dinning who also created a reasonable 25-year plan to get rid of the debt, a blueprint the Tories later ditched, leaving us with little money for building when people began moving here in the late '90s. Now we have a construction backlog in the billions.

Funny thing. It was only after Dinning and some other stalwarts of the deficit fight left office that the Tories started weaving from one position to another, ending in a policy platform of absolutely nothing.

Had enough, you who figure Dinning is some sort of fake Conservative? I've got a catalogue of Dinning deeds because I was there to cover each and every one. And where were the bloggers back then? Where was Professor Ted Morton? He wasn't even in the party. Talk is much easier than walk.

I still recall when Ralph decided he wanted to cancel Newfoundland's debt to Alberta. Ralph had a soft spot for the Rock but the move raised questions because this province was facing cuts of one out of every five dollars from the public purse.

Dinning was confronted by this scribbler and others wanting answers. Dinning told us to wait. We assume he went to talk to Ralph because the premier soon cancelled his brainwave, tossing off the idea as mere musing. It wasn't the only time Dinning meted out the discipline.

And now, he's somehow namby pamby. Not.

The real issue isn't what he is. But some people are peeved because Dinning won't buy into scrapping the Canada Pension Plan, creating a provincial police force, expanding private health care and violating the Canada Health Act.

They want Dinning to get all worked up about the evils of same-sex marriage. They don't care for Dinning spending so much time talking about catching up to the boom, building roads and schools, protecting the environment, dealing with real-life issues and not enough time pondering all the things Ottawa might do to Alberta in a fantasy future.

So Dinning is cast as being soft. Well, there are many things you can say about Dinning, many bones you can pick with him. Soft isn't one of them. Yesterday, after an early morning breakfast speech, Dinning called the campaign "the ultimate job application process."

[ivbinconned]

They way I understand those times is that others kept Dinning on the straight and narrow. People like Steve West, Stockwell Day etc...(the names of others escape me right now) were a great influence on Dinning.

[JD4ME]

I just wanted all of you on here to think a little I believe a track record has a lot more weight tham a broken record. And I'm going with one of the two that have proven themselves. I think both ED and Jim would do the job, we need dorection in this province right now not conflict. I respect all that take the time to post and discuss these matters thank you for your passion if it's true.

[coppertop]

agreed. Nothing the Liberals want more than to see a Morton government that alienates the tried and true PC members that have built the party. There is already a rumor mill going around that candidates are being recruited with strong REFORM ties to run in key constituencies when the next election is called. Cliff Breitrkeuz former Reform MP certainly alluded to that fact in an interview with the Journal. If the Reform party wants to make inroads in Alberta, then they should run candidates under their own banner.
Liberals locally are buying memberships, but a lot of them are voting for Ed, because many of them know him and feel that he will ensure that rural Alberta communities are looked after properly. Of course they don't intend to vote PC in the next election anyway !!!

Dinnings folks are scrambling to stop the bleed to Morton in the South, and many of those folks supporting Morton are the same ones that fought tooth and nail against the grazing lease review etc. Old money !!!!

Rather than a rural urban split, this vote is going to be a north south split which is not healthy for the province.

[cowman]

Well I might point out it was "you old tried and true Torys who built the party" who decided anyone with $5 could vote? So don't complain if you get what you asked for?...and there should be a few extra bucks in the old war chest?
I sure hope you are right that they recruit some new blood? The old gang was starting to get pretty stale!I think the idea that somehow the "excellent management of the PC party" just doesn't wash? I think any party that had the oil and gas boom, could have done just as good?...well wait a minute...no not the NDP...they would have found a way to screw it up!
Just got back from the polling booth and there sure were a lot more people there than last week? Good to see average Albertans taking an interest in their future? And hey however it goes I'm sure in the end there will be a strong PC party in the next election?

[ivbinconned]

"I think both ED and Jim would do the job, we need direction in this province right now not conflict."

If wishes were horses beggers would fly!

To think that Alberta will not get into conflict (which not a matter of if but when) with a federal government sometime in the future or have its coffers ****d by the same is very naive. Having a premier who has no firm up front position on how the confederation should work will not save you from the mob rule system that is Canada.
To not learn from the past is a mistake.

By the way copper, since you are now mad at Harper for the Quebec resolution, are you in favor of the "firewall"???

[cakadu]

Yeah, we all know how well good old Stockwell faired and how much he cost the taxpayer. To this very day, the name Steve West will still cause some government workers to pale.

Seems to me that no matter what the candidates intentions are prior to getting in, they somehow change once they are in. Might be no fault of their own, but looking from the outside in, one doesn't really get a true feel for how the machine actually works.

[wilagro]

cakadu: I agree with your sentiments all de way.

My blood pressure goes up when I see the title "Steve West"...but I am trying to control the anger...