When party stalwarts like Don Braid are telling you "don't do it", you know it's got to be bad.
Granted, Stelmach's PC's have had little to smile about in recent months. A series of spending and policy announcements seem to be falling on deaf ears in the last couple of weeks. While I agree with Stelmach on some decisions he's made, I'm far from "won over" by his overall performance.
The all-too-recent debacles over party nominations in Calgary Egmont and Calgary Montrose do little to suggest to Albertans that the PC's have a clue what they are about, further reinforcing the perception that they are essentially rudderless right now.
Recent polling results in Calgary are hinting loudly at the prospect of major changes coming from the city, and Edmonton doesn't seem too far behind either. While that may not be enough to topple the PC's as the governing party, Stelmach is in the awkward position of leading the party into an election where they are sure to come away with a diminished standing in the Legislature.
Party leaders that lose seats tend not to be very long lived. I don't imagine that Stelmach will fare that well once the election has been concluded - the knives will come out, as the power mandarins in the party will not be pleased if they don't have an overwhelming majority like they got used to with Ralph Klein.
Of course, Albertans stand to gain the most from this situation. It will be healthy for us to have more than one party in the legislature, and the governing party (whoever it may be) held accountable by an opposition that is nearly the same size. That is the kind of environment where our style of democracy works best. Regardless of your opinions about Ralph Klein, his era was not good for the state of democracy in Alberta.
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Party stalwarts like Don Braid... yeah right.
Don has been scarce with praise from the get-go... I don't think much has changed since. He has the same problem as a number of Calgary columnists - they are unable to cope with the notion of a Premier being from outside of Calgary. For the full frontal examples, take a look at the Herald business section. Charles Frank is nothing but a shill for the oil industry... prostituting himself for a few free meals at the Petroleum Club. And Deborah Yedlin... funny how there is never any disclosure that her husband is a senior partner at First Energy - a Calgary-based investment bank. I am sure her chicken little comments with respect to royalties are entirely her own.
Let's face it though - the Herald's columnists have been very unwilling to criticize the PC's until just recently.
Braid was loathe to say anything negative about the oh-so-infallible King Ralph, which was really my point.
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