11.16.2012 11:03 PM

Calgary Centre! Could it be?

When I was in Calgary to promote Fight The Right, the impressive Calgary Centre Liberal candidate showed up at my speech thing – and a lot of Greens, too. They were all so hungry to win, you could tell they could taste it. It was awesome.

Some of them asked me for advice. “Keep doing what you’re already doing,” I said. “You’ve got a centrist Calgary mayor and a centrist Premier, both of whom beat the Right. You guys are already doing what you need to be doing.”

Calgary Centre! Tonight, can you hear that sound? That’s the sound of Messrs, Harper, Kenney et al. starting to shit their pants.

12 Comments

  1. Kev says:

    My cheque is in the mail!

  2. !o! says:

    I’m not surprised at the green party momentum in Calgary at all– it’s one of their bases, and their mix of fiscal conservatism, economic pragmatism, coupled with the CPC disdain for environmental issues give them a lot of traction in the urban riding. They’ve also been really good at filling spaces with bodies. It’s too bad that GPC/LPC are fighting for the same real estate in many ways, but there is definitely a chance at an upset.

    • !o! says:

      Everyone here probably knows it already, but it’s worth saying that the environment is a much bigger issue throughout Alberta for people of all political stripes than the impressions one might get from most media. I’ve always thought that when you couple this with growing disenchantment with the (in)ability of the CPC to manage the economy you have a pretty good foundation for a strategy.

  3. kitt says:

    Calgary McCall has a Liberal MLA who was elected in 2008 and 2012. Federally this riding could have elected a Liberal IF the NDP would do what they want everyone else to do – vote for the 2nd place progressive candidate. In this riding it would be a federal Liberal.

  4. DJ says:

    Please Calgary! For the sake of making things interesting, please put the Conservatives in a tizzy and defeat Joan Crockatt! ABC-anybody but Crockatt! You have countless numbers of Conservative sheep in Alberta. Elect a maverick!

  5. W DM says:

    Question: If you’re a Redford PC, you may not vote Liberal, NDP or Green on November 26th, but are you going to donate money or volunteer for JMm$çrockatt? That, as I noted before, could be the challenge for the Conservatives going forward in Alberta at the federal level.

    • kitt says:

      Redford is a true PC and not the Conservative that you are implying here. She is the Lougheed, Kline and not Reform/CRAP/WildRoseSinkweed type of conservative that Crockatt is. A majority of Albertans are Lougheed/Kline/Redford type and will easily elect a liberal who is fiscally conservative and socially liberal.

  6. bluegreenblogger says:

    Hey, I used to know a lot of Greens in Alberta. They were, on balance bluegreens, fiscally conservative, socially progressive. Their so-called Conservatism was too much for the Elizabeth May Green Party, and they were literally hounded out of the Party. (Remember the fiasco where the Provincial Greens were de-registered as a consequence of this ridiculous schism?)Too bad, because Calgary Centre GPC (ground zero for the party purge) could have had a much stronger EDA had the GPC leadership not found them so ‘conservative’ that they had to go. There were some fine organisers on the losing side of that battle. Actually, the political landscape of Canada would be different today if the Alberta Greens had been allowed to continue to make inroads amongst fiscally conservative progressives in Alberta. Even Albertans have to breathe the air, and drink the water, and they were listening in droves. Back then Alberta Greens were growing FAST, and were outperforming Liberals and Dippers in the province. Oh well, that is history now. I will drop my sour grapes, lol.

  7. frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

    Nothing would give me more pleasure than a win in “Dear Leader’s” back yard……

    I know Calgary to be, overall, an open, progressive and tolerant city…..it just begs the question….how do you explain Rob Anders?………

    • que sera sera says:

      I suspect psychiatrists have yet to be born who will be still be working to “explain Rob Anders” & the “cult” responsible for his re-elections.

    • Jon Adams says:

      I look at it this way: if the CPC hadn’t stacked the nomination process for Calgary West, Premier Redford would merely be another Conservative backbencher. Now she has a voter mandate to call the shots in an economic powerhouse, and the party the CPC backed in the ’12 provincial election was rejected.

      Yeah, I think the Tory braintrust wants to take *that* one back.

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