[PharmACT]

I have no doubt you would be tired of it. If I heard it all day from everyone I'd tire of it as well.

[Evelinessa]

I'll drop it when you cease being a complete and utter moron.

[ananciguinter]

Apparently Stelmach has a mandatory leadership review this weekend.

Any predictions on his support %?

I'll make a wild guess: 65% - just enough to cause confusion in the party.

[giturbewan]

Way to go out on a limb there NYE.

[beepbeet]

Way to go out on a limb there NYE.

I have no idea what PC party members are thinking. I do think a result such as your guess would be very bad news for them and is therefore unlikely.

[enrisaabsotte]

~78% reject a new leadership race. Steady Eddy keeps his job.

[highattainlet]

Clark got 67%.

[proslaviy]

Summary: Ben had no idea what he was talking about?

[WGRocky]

Dp

[BEyng6hj]

The convention is that leadership alternates between North and South.

I find it somewhat humorous that people in Calgary would have their noses out of joint following Lougheed, Getty, Klein, Stelmach.

Calgary is making a good study of Toronto.

[ephennaCypota]

?

Centre of the universe. Everything is about them.

Calgarians are grousing that the leader of the party is not from there. That despite...
Lougheed, Calgary, 1971-85
Getty, Edmonton, 1985-92
Klein, Calgary, 1992-2006
Stelmach, Northern Alberta, 2006-

Not to mention the current PM.

[Frinzer]

?

It's Edmontonian sentiment.

People in Calgary don't give a **** where the premier is from, to be honest. It's a non-issue.

The problem is Stelmach is a ****ing charismaless moron. He's a farmer and it shows, he's not a politician or intellectual. Blaming this on regionalism is a joke -- if anything it only explains why the good folks in Edmonton don't yet have their pitchforks out yet, not why Calgary wants him out.

An analysis of the Alberta economy and how the Stelmach government has dealt with it would show he ****ed up more than once in massive ways.

[freddyujnf]

It's Ben and nye's combined worst nightmare.

Small-c conservative focus for Ben, Calgary focus for nye.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/technol...436/story.html

Tories plan to win back Calgary

Blueprint also aims to fight off Alliance threat

CALGARY - The Alberta Progressive Conservative party is set to launch a two-year plan in the lead-up to the next provincial election designed to win back alienated small-c conservatives--especially in Calgary--and appeal to a broad range of voters.

Fresh off a divisive leadership review and facing tumbling polling numbers, new PC party president Bill Smith said Sunday the organization is taking stock and will spend the next few months consulting with members to fine-tune the two-year strategy.

Beyond reaching out to centre-right voters, the plan will also aim to improve fund-raising and communication efforts, and identify the critical values and policies the party wants to champion.

The Tories have ruled Alberta for the past 38 years, but their grip on power has loosened recently. The party finished third in a recent byelection in their former stronghold of Calgary-Glenmore-- a race won by the emerging Wildrose Alliance.

An Environics poll released last week also revealed the Conservatives have dipped to their lowest popular support in 16 years and have been overtaken by the Wildrose Alliance as the favoured party in Calgary. Some of that discontent manifested itself over the weekend at the Tory leadership review in Red Deer, when Premier Ed Stelmach nabbed 77.4 per cent support from PC delegates.

"It was clear coming out of (the) Calgary-Glenmore (byelection) there's some things the government can work on, there's a lot of things that we can do as a party," said Smith, 46, who took over the party presidency Saturday at the Tory convention.

"There's been some real challenges (in Calgary) in terms of some government decisions being unpopular."

Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart, the failed PC candidate in the Calgary-Glenmore race, said she experienced the discontent while campaigning for the byelection.

While the premier survived his leadership review with comfortable support, the results must not blind party members to the growing concerns being raised in the city, she said.

"I am pleased that things are happy in Toryland, but we need to take those (concerns) seriously," Colley-Urquhart said. "Messages have been sent. I know that all too well."

Stelmach told Conservative delegates on the weekend his government has heard loud and clear that PC members and the general public are looking for change. But he wouldn't speculate on whether he'll shuffle his cabinet and overhaul his top aides, like some Tories are calling for.

"Yes, (we've) listened very carefully. Changes are coming but they will be done in due course on my timeline," Stelmach said.

The premier also said he's heard "time and time again" from Tory faithful about the need to improve communication with Albertans and respond to their worries.

The new PC president, meanwhile, is hoping he can help patch up the threadbare relationship some Calgarians now have with the governing party.

Smith--a respected Calgary lawyer, business owner and member of the University of Calgary's board of governors -- takes over from Marg Mrazek, an Edmonton-area lawyer.

Calgary-area cabinet ministers Ted Morton and Alison Redford both said the government must reach out to the energy industry and address any lingering competitiveness issues, something Smith wholeheartedly agrees with.

He acknowledges the party faces some challenges, including bringing disillusioned conservatives back into the PC fold and maintaining strong fundraising as the Wildrose party builds its own war chest.

"The PC brand in Calgary still has a solid name," he added. "We certainly know the Wildrose Alliance is there and that they're making some steps in fundraising."

Indeed, Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith is the featured guest at a sold-out fundraising breakfast today sponsored by FirstEnergy Capital, an energy industry investment bank, with a few hundred of Calgary's oil and gas players expected to attend. She's also scheduled to speak Tuesday at a heavy oil conference in the city and make a "major" energy-related policy announcement.

She said following the Tory leadership review that "Albertans are upset with this government for destroying investor confidence in our energy industry, for mishandling our health-care system and for taking us back into deficits."

Oilpatch veteran and FirstEnergy co-founder Brett Wilson is one of the prominent energy industry leaders to voice his displeasure with the Tory government over its new oil and gas royalty framework and the direction the province is headed.

"The PC party endorsed the premier. His mandate is to repair the rift his party created between rural and urban, Calgary and Edmonton. Now," Wilson said on his Twitter feed.

Former southern Alberta federal Conservative cabinet minister Monte Solberg, who now works in downtown Calgary, believes changes are quickly coming within the provincial government as the Tories attempt to stem their bleeding popular support.

"In the end, Premier Stelmach handily won the vote on a leadership review, but there will be choppy waters ahead. I'd be amazed if there weren't cabinet and maybe staff changes before Christmas," Solberg said on his blog.

"Between the rise of the (Wildrose) Alliance, and the woes of Premier Stelmach, Alberta politics have once again become fascinating."

Alberta Conservative Senator Bert Brown said he's not worried just yet about the Wildrose party and voted to support the premier in the review.

But he cautioned the Stelmach government must listen--and answer-- the public's mounting concerns, otherwise the Tories could crumble like the provincial Socreds did at the hands of the PCs, or the Mulroney government's downfall during the Reform party's rise.

"It's a message to everybody," Brown said. "You either deal with the complaints or you lose. It's not a philosophy, it's a fact. There's a lot of gripes out there and if you don't address them, you're going to lose seats."

[uncoodync]

Yes, centre of the western universe. Edmontonians are very, very upset that no one is giving them attention.

[limpoporanique]

Centre of the universe. Everything is about them.

Calgarians are grousing that the leader of the party is not from there. That despite...
Lougheed, Calgary, 1971-85
Getty, Edmonton, 1985-92
Klein, Calgary, 1992-2006
Stelmach, Northern Alberta, 2006-

Not to mention the current PM.

I don't think Calgarians think that having the premier from here in Calgary is such a massive benefit. Its not like having a premier/provincial minister where it makes huge difference in how much paving/infrastructure seems to get done. Maybe there are many things happening in the background but compared to the fed's dominant role in Atlantic Canada (largely due to fishery jurisdiction, plus coast guard and marine links) the fed's seem downright invisible in Alberta