Wednesday, April 4, 2012 12:54 PM EDT
Life on Alberta's campaign trail: a death sentence for the waistline
JOSH WINGROVE AND DAWN WALTON
Doughnuts, sandwiches, watered-down coffee, beef jerky, pop - life on the campaign trail can be a death sentence for the waistline.
Regular meals are little more than a faint hope, but would-be premiers need to fuel their long days without piling on weight, as some politicians are prone to do during campaigns.
For Progressive Conservative leader Alison Redford’s strategy is simple: Atkins.
“All protein,” she says, after a dinner of steak and prawns on the campaign trail, which she has been on for over a year, dating back to her campaign to win the leadership of the PC party.
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith also has a number of rules on the road: frequent stops at Tim Hortons for coffee - lots and lots of coffee. Rarely is she without a Roll up the Rim to Win cup. (So far, staff have mostly won more free coffee.)
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Monday, April 2, 2012 11:56 PM EDT
In this spoof of Alberta politics, the NDP is in charge
JOSH WINGROVE
Alberta’s Wildrose Party is surging in the polls, within grasp of forming government and ending 41 years of Tory rule.
They may have The Sergeant to thank for that.
Fifteen months ago, when Wildrose was still a fledgling right-wing challenger, they showed good humour in agreeing to be part of a spoof video. The Alberta Legislature Press Gallery Association – that is, the collection of journalists who regularly cover provincial politics in Edmonton – hosts an annual Christmas party where each political party, and the press, make a spoof video. (We don’t mess around, either. I once missed a Gallery meeting and was punished by being appointed to treasurer. Our water bills are months overdue.)
Anyhow, the deal is straightforward: They never go public. This (sometimes) allows the parties to have some actual fun and get off the talking points. Which brings us to The Sergeant.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 9:29 PM EDT
The rush to spend Alberta's windfall is on
DAWN WALTON and JOSH WINGROVE
Sweeping promises to slash the family budget by dangling cold-hard cash and other financial incentives has now turned the election campaign in oil-rich Alberta into an escalating game of high-stakes poker.
To kick off the second week of the month-long campaign, the Alberta Liberals pledged Monday to eliminate tuition fees by 2025, and if elected to form the next government, the party will start to pare back post-secondary education costs by $250 immediately.
Campaigning in Edmonton Leader Raj Sherman said the ambitious goal is possible through his party’s Fair Tax plan, which forces larger corporations and the 10 per cent of Albertans with incomes exceeding $100,000 annually, to pay more in provincial income tax.
Dr. Sherman, who is a former emergency room physician, said the Liberal tuition platform is “the most aggressive in the nation,” but one that is based on achievable budgeting.
He accused the Wildrose and Tories essentially of bribing Albertans.
“Our policy is smarter. Ours is an investment that will generate returns for generations,” Dr. Sherman said. “Theirs is about buying votes.”
“We’re the invest and return Liberals. They’re the bribe and buy vote Conservatives,” he added.
The Liberals, which had Official Opposition status with eight seats during the last session, are polling well back of the right-leaning Progressive Conservatives and Wildrose Party, leaving them in a battle for third with the NDP.
But that hasn’t stopped the frontrunners from also offering goodies to the Alberta electorate.
Following in the footsteps of Ralph Klein populism, Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith has announced that if elected premier, she would introduce “energy dividends,” which could mean $300 tax-free to each Albertan in 2015.
Symbolically, Ms. Smith made the campaign pledge Monday while standing near a pump jack north of Calgary, where she promised to direct 20 per cent of future surpluses generated by oil and gas royalties into the pockets of Albertans.
With Alberta’s population pegged most recently by Statistics Canada at more than 3.6 million, the initiative could cost government coffers around $1.1-billion annually.
Progressive Conservative Leader Alison Redford dismissed the promise as one that - combined with Wildrose pledges to not add taxes, add $185-billion to the heritage fund currently valued at $15-billion and bring in tax credits - will mean cuts elsewhere.
“It's another daily announcement that just doesn't add up,” Ms. Redford said.
“So the question must be asked - if there are these daily announcements without understanding or being prepared to explain the overall framework, where do we end up losing? Where do we end up making those hard choices? And my fear is we end up losing on education, on health care, on infrastructure.”
Sunday, April 1, 2012 3:15 PM EDT
Saskberta? It’s April Fool's Day on the Alberta election trail
Dawn Walton
Alberta’s Wildrose Party appears to be taking a page from the policy playbook of the defunct Rhinoceros Party of Canada.
But instead of paving the Bay of Fundy and flattening the Rocky Mountains, if elected premier on April 23, Leader Danielle Smith pledged to embark on negotiations with neighbouring Saskatchewan to merge it with Alberta to form a new province to be dubbed “Saskberta.” The capital cities would be relocated to the border town Lloydminster, which would be renamed Regimonton, she added in a statement released April 1.
“Alberta and Saskatchewan are both blessed with abundant natural resources, which is clearly an area we can better pursue as a single province,” Ms. Smith said in what was obviously a prank. “We also have a shared commitment to eliminate pirate activity on the North Saskatchewan River.”
The merger only makes sense, according to Ms. Smith, since it would give Alberta both a deep-water port to help export energy resources as well as “significantly expanded parking.”
Saturday, March 31, 2012 10:57 PM EDT
Government staffer’s tweet makes fertility an issue in Alberta election campaign
Dawn Walton AND Josh Wingrove
Progressive Conservative Leader Alison Redford pledged a positive, policy-filled Alberta election campaign, but nonetheless braced herself and her family for the potential of personal attacks.
Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith similarly warned her family for a campaign most pundits agreed would turn negative and downright nasty.
But few expected fertility would become an issue.
And now, the Tories are in serious damage control after a staffer in the premier’s office publicly questioned the Wildrose commitment to family since Ms. Smith, who turns 41 on Sunday, and her husband, David Moretta, don’t have biological children. (Ms. Smith has a stepson from Mr. Moretta’s previous marriage.)
On Friday, Amanda Wilkie, who once worked for the Wildrose Party before joining the government, tweeted:
“If @ElectDanielle likes young and growing families so much, why doesn’t she have children of her own?’ Ms. Wilkie wrote, along with “#wrp family pack = insincere.”
On Saturday, Ms. Smith issued a response: she tried, and failed to conceive.
“When David and I married in 2006 we intended to have children together,” Ms. Smith said in a statement, “After a few years we sought help from the Calgary Regional Fertility Clinic. I appreciated the support and assistance of the caring staff as we went through tests and treatments, but in the end we were not successful.”
Saturday, March 31, 2012 10:58 PM EDT
Danielle Smith’s Wildrose vision is focused much closer to home
GARY MASON
It's happy hour in Wildrose country, but Danielle Smith doesn't dare have a drink.
“You have a sip of wine these days, with this government, and they'll tow your car away,” the Wildrose Leader is telling a mob of supporters jammed into the back of a Best Western hotel.
“Bloody ridiculous!” a man in a chocolate-brown cowboy hat yells out.
It's 5 o’clock on a Thursday night and Ms. Smith is among her people. Airdrie is a Calgary-area bedroom community of 30,000 and one of the Wildrose Party's surest bets in the election campaign now under way. Meanwhile, the 40-year-old leader of the party to the right of Alberta's governing Progressive Conservatives is in an ebullient mood. As first weeks of election campaigns go, this one has been about as good as it gets.
Early polls show the Wildrose Party neck and neck with the Conservatives. Tory Leader Alison Redford has appeared somewhat rattled and uncomfortable with the nasty tone the campaign struck from Day 1. Ms. Smith, on the other hand, seems like she was born for this kind of bare-knuckle fight. And when the lights come on, and a microphone is thrust into her hand, the former television host's speeches are both personally compelling and politically effective.
Today, she talks about the importance of individual rights and freedoms, and how the governing Tories have become a nanny state. Wildrose is opposed to the government's strict new drinking-and-driving laws. Her one-liner about people getting their cars confiscated for having a sip of wine resonates with the libertarian types in the crowd.
Friday, March 30, 2012 10:42 PM EDT
Meet the voters key to a Wildrose victory …
DAWN WALTON AND JOSH WINGROVE
The Wildrose Party is working hard to soften its hard-line image and appeal to a broad base of Alberta voters.
Specifically, the party has set its sights on four hypothetical groups of voters, which they refer to as: “Hank” (the party stalwart), “Diane” (the could-be-convinced), “Martha and Henry” (the updated take on former premier Ralph Klein’s “ordinary Albertans”), and “Bennifer” (the young family).
The right-wing upstart has been narrowly construed as the political destination for Bible thumpers, rednecks, libertarians and social and fiscal conservatives – but that’s not how Leader Danielle Smith wants the party to be viewed heading toward an April 23 election.
“When I look at Alberta, I think what we’re reflecting is the same kind of Alberta that people remember their parents and their grandparents talking about,” Ms. Smith told reporters during a recent campaign stop in Edmonton.
That was a place, she continued, where free enterprise flourished, individual know-how was applauded and local decision-making as well as unshackled MLAs were the norm.
“I don’t think that’s a particular demographic,” Ms. Smith said. “I think there are individuals of all demographics who want to see those values returned to the way our province is governed, and we’re not getting that under the current government.”
A flurry of polls show that the momentum is currently with Wildrose, while the governing Progressive Conservatives are losing ground – fast.
“For sure they are in trouble,” said Calgary-based pollster Bruce Cameron of Return on Insight. “A lot of it is self-made.”
The hemorrhaging began in Tory support with the scandal involving MLAs getting paid to sit on a committee that didn’t meet, Mr. Cameron said.
Friday, March 30, 2012 8:21 PM EDT
Greenpeace: The loneliest campaign in the Alberta election
Josh Wingrove
There they stood - three of them, against the wall of what was once a Blockbuster movie rental store, since converted to a PC campaign office.
“Go home, you’re not welcome here,” a man said as he walked past. “I’m from here,” one of the trio replied.
Such is the life of Greenpeace in Alberta. A total of seven protesters showed up at two events attended by Progressive Conservative leader Alison Redford on Thursday. As she campaigned along a downtown row of businesses, four moved diligently along the street with her entourage, clutching signs. “I’m an Albertan and I oppose the tar sands,” one read. “Oil may run our cars for now, but it shouldn’t ever run our government,” said another. A Taekwondo dojo locked its doors to keep them out, and checked the I.D. of anyone coming in.
Later that night, at the Edmonton campaign office of PC candidate Steve Young, the three other protesters were admonished. They waved their signs through the window as Ms. Redford fired up Mr. Young’s supporters with a speech. Few noticed.
It’s a lonely, fringe campaign that largely forms the extent of anti-oil sands sentiment in the provincial election - none of the major parties oppose oil sands mining, though some would slow the pace of new development. In Thursday’s federal budget, the federal government introduced measures that would speed up environmental approvals for major energy projects.
Far from deterring Greenpeace, however, the group is pledging further protests.
“Definitely it’s not just the [Progressive] Conservatives. You’ll see this type of [protest] tactic with various leadership candidates as this goes along. I think the purpose really is to inject an issue into this election, and an issue that needs to be talked about - stopping the rampant environmental destruction that’s been caused by tar sands development,” Greenpeace campaigner Mike Hudema said.
The oil sands play a minor role in the election. Though federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair is an outspoken critic, the provincial NDP have taken a moderate stance to avoid angering Alberta voters. They support slowing the pace of new development and refining, or upgrading, bitumen before exporting it, but aren’t calling for the oil sands to be shut down. The Liberals would raise Alberta’s carbon tax.
Friday, March 30, 2012 8:22 PM EDT
Trash talk builds as Alberta race heats up
JOSH WINGROVE
Alberta’s New Democrat leader, trailing in the polls, has a message for his counterparts: Play nice.
NDP leader Brian Mason sent a letter to the province’s other four party leaders Friday urging them to avoid personal attacks.
The last week has seen a variety of barbs sent across party divisions:
– Wildrose leader Danielle Smith accused Progressive Conservative leader Alison Redford of not liking Alberta very much;
– PCs said Wildrose supports drunk driving (because they oppose administrative penalties – such as license suspension for people with a blood alcohol level between 0.05 and 0.08 -when criminal penalties kick in);
– Liberal Leader Raj Sherman crashed Ms. Redford’s campaign stop Thursday;
– Mr. Sherman also talked about the “ugly divorce” between the PCs and Wildrose;
– the PCs published a “What Smith Said” blog about Ms. Smith’s record;
– and the two parties leading in the polls, accused each other of using misleading robocalls.
“I’m writing because I’m concerned about the negative personal tone that has developed in the first five days of this campaign,” Mr. Mason says in his letter, later adding: “The issues are what are important – not personal attacks.”
Despite his rosy hopes, there’s little sign that tactics will change in a race expected to be a fight to the finish. The PC leader, for one, has also pledged a clean campaign (only to see her campaign staff accused of using dirty tactics).
“I think it is important to talk about the issues that matter to Albertans, and we’ll keep doing that,” Ms. Redford said Friday at a campaign stop in Leduc, Alta. She has kept out of the mud, never mentioning her opponents by name on the campaign trail, while her campaign staff attack Wildrose and put out what some call push polls – telephone surveys designed to scare people off a certain party. Ms. Smith’s own father got one.
PC campaign strategist Stephen Carter rejected the criticism, saying the party’s phone polling is legitimate research on voter opinion. “I don’t want this tone to get too nasty, but [Mr. Carter] is doing this work in a way he thinks is important for our campaign,” Ms. Redford said this week.
Wildrose, meanwhile, is no stranger to attack politics – in the week before the election, house leader Rob Anderson called Ms. Redford “spineless” during question period.
Alberta’s election has developed into a horse race more quickly than many expected – some polls show Wildrose and the PCs neck and neck, while others give Wildrose a lead. Voter turnout is expected to be higher than in 2008, when it was a dismal 40.6 per cent. A negative tone may, however, hurt turnout if it scares off new voters.
The upstart Alberta Party, which isn’t fielding a full slate but has high hopes in a handful of ridings, is built on the notion of “doing politics differently.” The negative tone so far is hurting turnout, said Sue Huff, an Alberta Party candidate who also served as interim leader. “The way it’s being done is turning people off,” Ms. Huff said.
Friday, March 30, 2012 6:39 PM EDT
Georges Laraque wants to fight the tar sands
JOSH WINGROVE
Count former Oilers and Canadiens tough guy Georges Laraque out of Alison Redford’s camp – or any party in the current Alberta election.
Ms. Redford made a campaign stop Friday at a fundraiser for the Scotia Bank Pro-Am for Alzheimer’s, which will benefit the Gordie & Colleen Howe Fund for Alzheimer’s. Several former NHLers, including Mr. Howe himself, attended Friday’s luncheon at an Edmonton hotel.
It was an apolitical affair – but among the crowd was Mr. Laraque, who played 12 seasons in the NHL before retiring in 2010. He lives in Edmonton and has since been active in politics, serving as deputy leader of the federal Green Party. Ms. Redford’s brief appearance and speech, however, wasn’t wooing him to her PC party.
“Well, the difference between me and the premier is I didn’t come here for votes,” Mr. Laraque, 35, said, flashing a smile. He has avoided actually running as a candidate – if he did, it would be for the Green Party, which folded three years ago in Alberta (since replaced by the upstart EverGreen Party, which is currently running candidates in 18 of 87 ridings). Ms. Redford’s announcement this week of $150-million in annual funding for 20 years – $3-billion total – for research into renewable and non-renewable energy didn’t sway Mr. Laraque.
“I would fight all those tar sands,” the NHL enforcer, and vegan, said. “Tar sands are the biggest in Alberta and I know it’s running our economy.”
He didn’t speak to Ms. Redford during her visit, however. Instead, she signed a jersey with Mr. Hockey himself, got a round of applause and was wished good luck on the campaign trail by Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel, among others. Mr. Laraque said Alberta should clean up its environmental performance – though spoke carefully, given where he was.
“I would be more conscious of that question if I was outside of Alberta,” he said, laughing, when asked what he’d tell the party leaders about the oil sands. “I’ll make sure I’d be able to leave.”
Alberta Election Watch Contributors
Dawn Walton
Dawn Walton has been based in Calgary for The Globe and Mail since 2000. Before leaving Toronto to head West, she won a National Newspaper Award and was twice nominated for the Michener Award for her work with the Report on Business. She’s still bitter that her stint as auto industry reporter didn’t involve test drives.
Josh Wingrove
Josh Wingrove is The Globe and Mail's reporter in Edmonton, his hometown, having previously worked for the paper's Toronto office. He's spent much of the past two years covering Alberta politics, including the P.C. leadership race and now the provincial campaign. His friends and family don't expect to see him until April 24 _ the day after the election ends.
Gary Mason
Gary Mason joined The Globe and Mail in 2005 as a national columnist writing on B.C. affairs.
He has won six Jack Webster Awards, the highest journalism honour handed out in B.C., including Commentator of the Year in 2010. He won National Newspaper Awards in 2000 and 2002.
He split his early days between his hometown of Niagara Falls, Ont., and Sarnia, Ont., where he attended St. Patrick's High School. He has lived in B.C. since 1979.
