It seems he's just generally all upset with the outcome and Stelmach's cabinet as well. According to Paul, the losers, like Dinning and Morton, should pack up their bags and migrate over to the Alberta Alliance party.
I also speculated Ted Morton, who on the second leadership ballot had 41,000 votes -- twice as many as contenders Lyle Oberg and Dave Hancock combined -- had been slapped in the face by Stelmach, receiving only the somewhat irrelevant portfolio of sustainable resource development.
What Morton should do is take his 41,000 members over to the Alberta Alliance and help the right-wing party do an end-run around Kevin Taft's Liberals, whose mouths are salivating at the thought of coming up the middle, grasping Alberta's treasury, and putting us in a straitjacket of Lib-Left policies.
But then a political insider suggested former provincial treasurer Jim Dinning, who came second to Stelmach with 35.5% of the votes compared to just 35.9% for Stelmach for the first choice ballot (Morton's peak was 28.6%) should also move to the Alliance.
If both moved, taking with them theoretically a combined 62.5% of their backers, Stelmach's 1950s-style rural-based PC party would be devastated.
Basically, as is standard among the right-wingnut crowd, we are seeing another exhibition of poor loser. Jackson's man, Mr. Morton, didn't win under the rules the party set up for itself, so somehow or another the party "failed them".
Where Stelmach is concerned, my own opinion is somewhat reserved - I'll see what I think after seeing some policy and legislative activity out of Edmonton before I decidde if Stelmach is worth my time or not.
1 comment:
Paul Jackson must be seriously mentally unbalanced. He used to support Morton, then flip-flopped to Dinning before the vote. Both lost. Guess his mastery of prophecy is somewhat lacking.
But that's not where the mentally unbalanced comment comes from. He seems to think that BOTH Dinning and Morton should move over to the Alberta Alliance. Dinning and Morton. Two guys that traded barbs throughout the Alberta PC leadership campaign are both going to join hands and jump ship from their party. It is conceivable that Morton could, but Dinning?
Ooh, I can't wait until Jackson drops his Harry Strom reference to Stelmach... yet again. In his mind, Strom was a nice man and a farmer by background. Stelmach by all accounts is a nice man and a farmer. Ergo Stelmach=Strom. Typical urban condecension.
You were right in your initial comments. The Calgary Sun is seriously put off. They fell in line behind Dinning, with one holdout (Licia Corbelia) supporting Morton. And were wrong. They, and many other media outlets, didn't bother to do any work getting to know Stelmach since they didn't think he could win. Now they are scrambling to find something to say.
Post a Comment