In a move somewhat unusual for a party riding nomination, it would appear that he has chosen to take his campaign "door to door" - a friend of mine e-mailed me a scan of the flyer left in their mailbox. (It appears to be a reprint of this, only printed on bilious green paper.
A browse around his website shows the usual Alberta pseudo-separatist rubric, with little of any real surprise - at least to those who have followed his antics for any length of time.
Most of it is the usual neo-Con positions, most of which we only need look south of the 49th the recognize how badly they have failed. However, on certain issues, he treads very carefully:
FAMILY VALUES - Elimination of Child Pornography and strict enforcement laws at the municipal and provincial levels of government. Elimination of interest group funding. Supports the traditional definition of marriage as between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others. Stands for the sanctity of life. Craig also believes in creating a provincial sex offenders registry.
Fascinating, but I wonder if his veiled allusion there might be related to his comments in resigning from CCC, and this ruling from the CBSC that went against his little platform radio project?
Of course, he's not going to say anything - he seems to have figured out that even in Alberta, some things are beyond the pale when uttered out loud:Ruth,
You have a deal. No more comments on any issue on this site until I win.
I will post events, BUT, I will NOT comment.
Craig
I'll admit that I'm a little surprised to see Chandler going after the PC party nomination in Egmont - I don't believe he lives in the riding, and I'd be surprised if even Alberta's PC party reflects his expressed ideas about conservatism in general overly well.
But then again, I wouldn't be surprised if he believes that he can turn the PC party further to the right from within:
The current Alberta Progressive Conservative Party reminds me of the 1992 Ontario Progressive Conservative Party when it was a crumbling. Until Mike Harris became leader, the party was dying. Then the PGIB helped with the Common Sense Revolution and the most conservative government Canada has ever seen formed two back to back majorities.
In Alberta, we believe that creating another party, regardless of whether this is a merger of many little parties is a grave error at best. What will occur is a splitting of the vote and Liberals will merely crawl up the middle, dominate this province and destroy the advantage we have in Canada, in North America and the world.
In two weeks, the PGIB is launching a campaign to take back the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party called ONE RIDING AT A TIME. This campaign will help conservatives such as yourselves to win nominations within the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party.
We appeal to all of you to think before you act. The result of your actions will be detrimental to Alberta. We encourage you to participate in our ONE RIDING AT A TIME campaign and work within the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, rather than wasting precious time and resources on a venture that will only lead to Liberal victories.
With the failure of the Social Credit Party under Randy Thorsteinson, the demise of the Alberta First Party under Jon Reil, the failure of the Alberta Separatist Party, the non-existence of the Alberta Party and the rapid decline of the Alberta Alliance Party, one thing is certain. Alberta conservatives have tried everything, but, actually working within the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party.
In short, he's hoping to "pull a coup from within" is what I take out of this rant. I don't know the inner politics of the Alberta PC's, but I would hazard a guess that Chandler's brand of conservatism is farther right leaning than much of the rank and file membership that would participate in the nominations process. (which would explain the 'door to door' campaign recruiting members - he needs naive new members to vote for him - I can only imagine that his management of David Crutcher's run at Calgary Egmont last election won him a few long lasting opponents among the Egmont PC's.)
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