daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: living in the one party state of alberta: “vote today. today is election day.”

Today is election day in Alberta, but not the kind of election day that would dominate the airwaves and twitter streams in most other provinces in a modern liberal democratic state like Canada. Today, Alberta’s forty-year governing Progressive Conservatives are casting their vote in the first ballot for their new leader, which has become in […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: alberta candidate nomination update – september 2011 (part 2)

I have updated the list of declared and nominated candidates standing in the next provincial election. Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater: At a nomination meeting scheduled for September 26, former Liberal caucus staffer turned NDP activist Mandy Melnyk will face Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3550 President Trudy Grebenstein for the NDP nomination. Calgary-Bow: Former Alderman and mayoral […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: new environics poll shows gary mar in the lead, alison redford in close second.

The Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald have published the results of a joint-Environics poll gauging support for Progressive Conservative leadership candidates among 800 card-carrying party members: Province-wide Gary Mar: 31% Alison Redford: 20% Doug Horner: 12% Ted Morton: 10% Rick Orman: 5% Doug Griffiths: 4% Undecided/Won’t vote: 17% Edmonton Gary Mar: 43% Doug Horner: 14% […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: what’s next for raj sherman and the alberta liberals?

What kind of leader will Raj Sherman be? This is a tough question to answer. As Edmonton Journal columnist Graham Thomson somewhat dramatically described yesterday: Sherman – energetic, intelligent, charismatic – could prove to be a political white knight riding to the Liberals’ rescue. Or Sherman – inexperienced, mercurial, impetuous – could yet prove to […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: raj sherman sweeps alberta liberal leadership poll.

When asked who will win the Alberta Liberal Party leadership vote on September 10, readers of this blog overwhelmingly chose former Tory MLA Raj Sherman. Four-term Edmonton-Gold Bar Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald placed a distant second and Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman and conservative Calgarian Bill Harvey placed a close third and fourth in this online […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: ted morton aka frederick lee and the shredder.

After a week of dodging questions from intrepid CBC reporter Charles Rusnell about a covert email alias and shredded ministerial documents, former Finance Minister Ted Morton‘s campaign for Alberta’s Progressive Conservative leadership has taken its first big hit with just more than a week before the first ballot vote. After making ‘government transparency’ a key […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: what effect can danny williams have on alberta’s pc leadership contest?

Former Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams traveled to Fort McMurray this week to support Alberta PC leadership candidate Gary Mar and to give the candidate a boost in support from Newfoundland’s diaspora in the northern Alberta community. The retired Newfoundland Premier’s support may be one of the former Calgary MLAs most significant endorsement in […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: alberta candidate nomination update – september 2011.

I have updated the list of declared and nominated candidates standing in the next provincial election. Airdrie: The Airdrie City View is reporting that former Airdrie Mayor Linda Bruce is volunteering for Gary Mar‘s PC leadership campaign, adding to the speculation that she may seek the PC nomination to challenge Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson. Banff-Cochrane: […]

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: by airing his party’s dirty laundry, is hugh macdonald hurting the liberal party?

Is Alberta Liberal leadership candidate Hugh MacDanald‘s continuing criticism of the legitimacy of the new “registered supporters” voting system hurting the chances of his party’s next leader? “This list, as it exists, is a mess,” said MacDonald, a longtime Edmonton MLA. “This is not democracy.” (Edmonton Journal, August 31, 2011) Over the course of the Liberal […]

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