Smoky Lake Signal Article No. 191
(October 5, 2011)
Congratulations To Alison Redford - Alberta's "new" Premier
The province's Progressive Conservative party's leadership race was settled in the wee hours of Sunday, October 2 ... and the winner, Alison Redford. Today, not only is Alison Redford the leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, she is also Premier-Designate and soon to be Premier Redford, Province of Alberta. Congratulations goes out to Alison Redford on her win and from my hopeful, humble perspective, there is a possibility that she might re-invigorate the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party! As Alison Redford ponders a new cabinet structure along with the concurrent disappointments, threats and challenges attached to a competitive race for leadership, let me offer some recommendations to the Premier-Designate, for what its worth: First, the importance of party unity has got to be paramount. Ms. Redford has been branded as being on the "progressive" side of the progressive conservative movement, so if the Progressive Conservative Party is to function as a "big tent" movement, then Premier-Designate Redford will have to garner support from the right and that means a senior cabinet position to someone sitting in the legislature that has a lot of respect and has views that are on the right side of the progressive conservative movement - there are a number of contenders.
Second, the rural voter is still a very important component of the progressive conservative movement in Alberta, in terms of seats as well as philosophy - that means a rural, small business development person who has the party leader's philosophy on "property rights" - one candidate comes to mind is Athabasca - Redwater MLA, Jeff Johnson who has already shown experience in his work on Treasury Board. Two other names come to mind that are worthy of consideration for cabinet responsibility - obviously Doug Horner needs top consideration for a senior cabinet posting and secondly Doug Griffiths who has youth, vigor and commitment that is second to none.
My last suggestion (at this point in time) is to recommend a brand that is different from the "change" theme - the "change" theme was the most appropriate label to win a leadership race, but Alberta now has an Alison Redford Administration and needs an appropriate action label - one thought is: Let's Build Alberta Together! or: Building Alberta Together!
A Final Assessment on the Candidates:
Everybody has an opinion on why Alison Redford won the leadership race; why Gary Mar wasn't able to turn an impressive lead toward victory on the first ballot, only to go down to defeat in the second ballot; and Doug Horner's inability to attract more than just rural voters in northern Alberta. My take on these three candidates and their campaigns:
Alison Redford:
Prior to the first ballot I wrote that Alison Redford was "clear, articulate and knows her stuff...has a chance if her campaign can show herself to be strong enough to fight the big boys in Calgary...." Nothing more needs to be said, she was able to show strength and fortitude and she will go down in history as becoming Alberta's first female premier.
Gary Mar:
Gary Mar made a couple of poor judgment calls while holding senior positions in the Alberta government and these screw-ups did have an impact on Mr. Mar's chances, but his biggest mistake in the campaign was when he suggested that more medical services could/should/might be considered for private sector delivery - the public interpreted his poor judgment mistakes and his musings on healthcare as; "Anybody but Mar" and Gary Mar is advocating "a two-tiered healthcare system" which to the general public is a no-no. Nevertheless Mr. Mar did maintain solid support in many constituencies, which should not be ignored by Premier Redford.
Doug Horner:
Doug Horner wasn't able to penetrate the cities and the rural constituencies in southern Alberta - in general Albertans didn't want to see another rural, Stelmach-type person in the Premier's chair. I think Premier Redford would be ill-advised to ignore Doug Horner's experience and capabilities in Alberta's rural constituencies.
A Final Assessment on the Leadership Race, the Numbers:
Now that all the ballots have been counted and a winner declared it is worth offering a "brief" final assessment of the election results. Gary Mar was the obvious front runner in the first ballot vote and received 41 percent of the votes cast - Alison Redford received 20 percent and Doug Horner got 15 percent. In the second ballot on October 1st Gary Mar got 43 percent of the votes; Alison Redford jumped up to 37 percent and Doug Horner moved up to 20 percent of the vote. Since none of the three candidates received a 50 percent plus 1 vote count; Doug Horner's second place votes kicked in and the final vote count for Gary Mar was 25,491 compared to Alison Redford's 37,104, making Alison Redford the victor with 51 percent of the vote.
The "Election" Process
For a number of Albertans, the "election" of Alberta's 14th Premier, Province of Alberta was a little confusing (particularly for some seniors) but when you think about it, the two stage "preferential ballot" process is more efficient and in some ways a timesaver - what bothered me was the length of the campaign itself, it was far too long - something like 8 months when you consider that Ed Stelmach announced in January his intention to resign as Premier, Province of Alberta - and that's why I labeled the whole "election" thing as too drawn out and a lot of Oh-hum - only in the last month or so did we hear and see a few sparks of interest. To me, some of the blame for low voter turnout rests with the major city newspapers and TV stations, they didn't give the coverage such an important event warranted - from my perspective, none of the leadership debates were covered properly by the media and the internet coverage was dismal, even on election night.
