Progressive Conservative Leader - Alison Redford

CBC News

Posted: Mar 16, 2012 11:53 AM MT

Last Updated: Mar 19, 2012 4:35 PM MT

Source - CBC, Canada

Alberta Premier Alison Redford is seeking to win her first election as premier. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

She's Alberta's first female premier. But Alison Redford was a dark horse candidate in the 2011 leadership campaign organized by the four-decade-old Alberta Progressive Conservative dynasty.

The 47-year-old lawyer replaced Ed Stelmach as party leader after she rallied from behind for a stunning upset.

She had the support of only one backbench MLA heading into the campaign, not normally a good sign.

She won on the second ballot, largely due to the party's voting system. It didn't give frontrunner Gary Mar enough first-choice ballots for a clearcut victory, but boosted Redford over Mar when second-choice ballots cast by other rivals were counted.

"It's time for us to understand that there needs to be a generational change and an attitudinal change," Redford told the CBC at the time.

International experience

Born in Kitimat, B.C., Redford's family moved to Calgary when she was 12. Her first success in politics was as a student at Bishop Carroll High School in Calgary. She was elected president of the Progressive Conservative Youth of Alberta.

She got her law degree at the University of Saskatchewan in 1988. After graduating, she worked as a senior policy adviser for Joe Clark when he was secretary of state for external affairs. She also worked in former prime minister Brian Mulroney's office.

Redford is not bilingual, but is comfortable answering questions in French. She worked at a small law partnership in Calgary before starting her own law firm. Still, her resume stands out compared to previous Alberta premiers because of her extensive involvement in international affairs.

In the 1990s she worked as a technical adviser on constitutional and legal reform issues in Africa for the European Union, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Canadian and Australian governments.

Redford helped co-ordinate the first all-race elections in South Africa in 1994, which saw Nelson Mandela become the first black president.

In 2005, she was appointed by the United Nations as an election commissioner to help organize Afghanistan's first parliamentary elections.

She's worked in various advisory roles and foreign projects in Vietnam, Bosnia, Serbia and the Philippines, among other overseas countries.

Redford's first run for front-line political office was at the federal level in 2004. She ran - but lost - attempting to knock off MP Rob Anders in the Conservative nomination contest.

Prior to the vote, Anders predicted he had the contest sown up "unless she's got some magic support base of people who like feminist lawyers."

First elected in 2008

She ran provincially in former premier Ralph Klein's riding of Calgary Elbow in 2008. It had been won temporarily by the Liberals in a byelection.

She beat second-place Liberal challenger Craig Cheffins narrowly by just over 400 votes, and was immediately appointed justice minister and attorney general by Stelmach.

Since becoming Alberta's 14th premier, Redford has spearheaded a push toward tougher impaired driving laws, called an independent inquiry into allegations of health care queue-jumping, and tried to rally other provincial leaders behind a Canadian energy strategy.

Redford has already shown she's sensitive to public criticism, taking little time to reverse an early decision to scrap a fall legislature sitting.

She also wasted no time when she suspended without pay Alberta's trade representative to Asia, Gary Mar. That was after questions were raised about the propriety of a Mar fundraiser held to eliminate debts from his unsuccessful leadership bid.

Redford is married to lawyer Glen Jermyn. They have a school-aged daughter, Sarah.

Alberta Liberal Leader -- Raj Sherman

CBC News

Posted: Mar 19, 2012 12:18 PM MT

Last Updated: Mar 19, 2012 4:35 PM MT

Source - CBC, Canada

Former Tory MLA Raj Sherman became the leader of the Alberta Liberals in September 2011. (John Ulan/Canadian Press)

Raj Sherman makes no bones about it: he got into politics to help fix Alberta’s health care system.

But the emergency room doctor has another challenge in the upcoming provincial election: ensuring the Official Opposition Liberal party he heads doesn’t fall into third-party status.

Sherman, 45, first won his Edmonton-Meadowlark legislature seat as a Progressive Conservative candidate in 2008.

But he was turfed from the party after publicly accusing former Premier Ed Stelmach and others about mishandling the province’s health care system, in particular the nagging issue of lengthy wait times for care in hospital emergencies and for surgeries.

Sherman carried his crusade to fix the health system into the leadership race for the Alberta Liberal Party.

Following a campaign where opponents attacked him for being a one-issue candidate and a party intruder, Sherman captured nearly 55 per cent of the ballots cast to become the new leader, replacing David Swann to head the eight-member caucus.

'We're coming back'

Political pundits say Sherman faces an uphill task rebuilding a party that hasn’t held power in Alberta for 90 years.

Polls repeatedly suggest the conservative Wildrose Party has supplanted the Liberals as the main challenge to the governing Progressive Conservatives, while the left-of-centre NDP and upstart centrist Alberta Party may bleed some of the anti-government vote.

As well, party finances are in disarray compared to the other main parties. And with a provincial election on the horizon in mid-March, Sherman was still admitting the party was short of finding candidates in a surprising 30 to 40 ridings, gaps he was hoping to fill, or at least reduce.

“We’re coming back,” vows Sherman. He adds that unlike the other main parties, “The Sherman Liberals are not in the pockets of industry or in the pockets of unions.”

Sherman, or “The Shermanator” as some supporters have dubbed him, bristles at the suggestion he’s a one-issue politician. That’s despite the fact he says health care is the No. 1 issue in the upcoming election – and who voters can trust to fix it.

And it’s true that his party – even before the election was called - released a glossy, 40-page election platform, covering everything from its plans to expand home care, end school fees, introduce MLA recall legislation and increase taxes for large corporations and for individuals making more than $100,000 a year.

Emergency medicine doctor

Sherman was born in India. But his family moved to the Lower Mainland of British Columbia in 1975 when he was a youngster.

He moved to Edmonton in the 1980s to study at the University of Alberta, graduating from the faculty of medicine in 1990. He specialized in family and emergency medicine.

Sherman has continued to practise medicine on weekends since entering provincial politics. His medical career has also included stints as president of the Alberta Medical Association emergency medicine section, and as a AMA Health Issues Council member.

He owns a small construction business building and designing custom-made houses. A basketball and soccer coach, he also serves as a director of the Society for Helping Lives in Poverty.

Sherman married while he was still in medical school at the age of 21. The marriage ended, but he has two children – a son and a daughter.

NDP Leader - Brian Mason

CBC News

Posted: Mar 16, 2012 11:53 AM MT

Last Updated: Mar 19, 2012 3:18 PM MT

Source - CBC, Canada

Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason speaks at the Alberta Legislature in February 2011. (John Ulan/ Canadian Press)

Brian Mason likes to paint himself as a defender of the little guy. But he has big hopes heading into the 2012 provincial election.

Mason, now 58, was born in Calgary. He first became politically active at the university level. After studying political science at the University of Alberta, he was executive director of the Alberta Federation of Students from 1977 to 1979.

Mason worked as a city bus driver for years with the Edmonton Transit System after leaving university. An early scrap that put him in the limelight involved a legal challenge he spearheaded.

A provincial law prohibited municipal employees from running as candidates in civic elections - unless they resigned their jobs. Mason lost his bid to quash the law, but it was later changed anyway.

Former city councillor

Before jumping into provincial politics, Mason honed his skills in politics as a city councillor in Edmonton for 11 years.

After winning a council seat on council for the first time in 1989, he quickly developed a reputation as a scrappy, media-savvy, politician.

He brands himself as a defender of "the average Alberta family" and blue collar workers from the onslaught of corporate interests.

Following the resignation of former NDP leader Pam Barrett, Mason was elected in a June 2000 byelection in Edmonton-Highlands, a riding stretching northeast of downtown renamed Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood in 2003 following a boundary redesign.

He was re-elected three times — in 2001, 2004 and 2008 — each time fending off second-place Progressive Conservative candidates by margins of between 1,100 and 3,850 votes.

Mason was acting leader for a time following the resignation of leader Raj Pannu in July 2004. A vote at a party convention made his leadership official in September of 2004. In the general election that year, the NDP caucus doubled from two to four.

It has since dropped back to two, with Mason joined after the 2008 election by newcomer Rachel Notley, who won the Edmonton-Strathcona seat formerly held by Pannu.

Vote-splitting on the right a factor?

At the legislature, Mason has carved out a reputation of mixing passion and humour with politics, using props like knitting needles and rubber ducks to poke fun at the government.

Mason says he’s looking for seat gains heading into the election. He argues that riding battles between the Conservatives and Wildrose will split the conservative vote, favouring the New Democrats more than the Liberals, still trying to define themselves under a leader who ran in the last election as a Tory.

As well, Mason says the provincial party could get a boost from the last federal election, where the party fared well nationally as a credible alternative, gaining the title of Official Opposition in Ottawa for the first time in Canadian history.

But the big question, Mason says, is whether Alison Redford’s Tories can distance themselves from some of the foibles of the Tory past.

“I think it’ll come down to: Can the Conservatives really convince people that they’ve changed their spots,” he says.

Pollster Bruce Cameron says recent polling suggests the two-MLA NDP caucus could gain two or three seats in Edmonton where support is concentrated in certain areas. But the issue of leadership also hangs over the party, Cameron suggests.

“Another issue the NDP is going to have to address is, when is Brian Mason — who is fairly popular and has performed fairly effectively in the legislature — when does he give way to Rachel Notley?” says Cameron.

Mason has lived in his riding for over 20 years. He and his wife Karin have two sons, Peter and Alex.

Wildrose Leader -- Danielle Smith

CBC News

Posted: Mar 19, 2012 12:18 PM MT

Last Updated: Mar 19, 2012 4:35 PM MT

Source - CBC, Canada

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith is joined at a news conference by MLA Rob Anderson in January 2010. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press )

Danielle Smith says Albertans have a clear-cut choice to make in the upcoming provincial election. Do they want a conservative-led government, or one run by a closet left-winger?

Smith says the Progressive Conservatives have lost their way, inexplicably failing to balance the books by falling into former bad habits like deficit spending, despite having enviable revenues.

“I think Albertans are really on the cusp of a major choice,” says Smith, who likes to paint Premier Alison Redford as “the first Liberal premier in 90 years” in Alberta.

By contrast, Smith describes herself as “libertarian and pro-choice.”

The Tories are heading into the election promising not to raise taxes for a three-year period. But Smith says her party would go further.

She publicly signed a pledge in late February promising not to increase taxes, health-related premiums or taxes of any kind if Wildrose forms a government.

“We think Alberta families and businesses are taxed enough,” she explains.

Smith argues the province needs to take a more hands-off approach when it comes to things like business and environmental regulation. If her party is elected, she would allow citizen referendums on contentious issues at the community level.

Running in Highwood riding

Smith and her party have also highlighted property rights as a major issue, repeatedly attacking the Conservatives for infringing on them in legislation covering government acquisition of land for things like electricity transmission lines.

It’s an issue that appears to find a more receptive audience in rural Alberta than in the cities.

Smith is vying for a legislature seat for the first time — in the Highwood riding just south of Calgary. But Wildrose has four seats in the legislature, more than the NDP and less than the Official Opposition Liberals.

Still, the Wildrose has consistently placed second in polls for more than a year, showing its strongest pockets of support in Calgary and southern Alberta.

Perhaps a strong indication that the Conservatives fear inroads made by the Wildrose surfaced in early March.

The Conservatives confirmed plans to start running attack ads against Smith and her party, targeting Smith in particular for her opposition to the government’s plans to toughen drunk-driving laws.

The Tories say they want to add penalties for those caught driving just below the current legal impairment limit of .08. But Smith and Wildrose say that won’t make roads safer, and tougher enforcement of existing laws is the answer.

In 40 years of power, the Tories have largely stayed away from attack ads. Some pundits think that will change in the upcoming election.

Former newspaper columnist, radio host

Smith, 40, was born in Calgary. She has a B.A. in economics and a B.A. in English from the University of Calgary.

She studied public policy with a one-year internship at the Fraser Institute, a conservative think-tank.

Smith’s first taste of politics came in 1998 when she was elected to the public school board in Calgary. Following a high-profile public squabble, Learning Minister Lyle Oberg fired the entire board in 1999 after the chairwoman alleged the board was dysfunctional.

Smith then worked as an advocate with the Canadian Property Rights Research Institute and the Alberta Property Rights Initiative on behalf of rural landowners.

She later worked for the Calgary Herald as an editorial board member and columnist, and as a host of two talk-radio shows. She also hosted for a time the national current affairs program Global Sunday.

Prior to running for the leadership of the Wildrose party, Smith was Alberta provincial director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Smith won the Wildrose leadership in October of 2009 by a wide margin after party leader Paul Hinman resigned the position.

A marriage to college boyfriend Sean McKinsley didn’t last. She remarried in 2006, to second husband David Moretta, a TV news manager.

Alberta party plans to share wealth if elected

By: Staff Writer

Winnipeg Free Press

Posted: 1:00 AM

Source

CREMONA, Alta. -- Alberta's Wildrose party is promising free oil money for all if it wins the election on April 23.

Leader Danielle Smith announced Monday a Wildrose government would pay directly to citizens 20 per cent of all future budget surpluses generated by oil and natural gas revenues.

"We all own the resources and we all deserve to have a share in that wealth," Smith said at a campaign stop.

Smith has already said her party will pass a law to have half of all surpluses go to growing the nest-egg Heritage Trust Fund.

On Monday, she said the next 20 per cent will go into the Alberta Energy Dividend Fund.

"Whenever this fund exceeds $750 million, we will distribute it equally to all Albertans," said Smith.

The Alberta government is predicting oil will average out at US$108 a barrel by 2015. Smith said if that happens, her team would cut a $300 cheque to every man, woman, and child.

She said the payout makes more sense than the waste seen under Premier Alison Redford's Progressive Conservative government, which includes $2 billion for pilot projects on carbon capture and storage.

"The Alberta Energy Dividend makes sure when times are good it's Albertans who will benefit directly, not politicians, not the bureaucracy," said Smith.

The promise echoes a payback plan delivered in 2005 by former Progressive Conservative premier Ralph Klein.

With the budget surplus approaching $7 billion that year, Klein announced a direct $400 cash rebate to all Albertans at a cost of $1.4 billion.

The move was panned by some as a cheap stunt from a premier who had given so little thought to economic planning, the only idea he could come up with was to give some money back.

But it was a public relations success, with Albertans putting their "Ralph Bucks" into savings accounts for children or treating themselves to trips or consumer goods.

Redford said the Wildrose is budgeting with rose-coloured glasses by promising in recent days it can give cash back, grow the nest-egg Heritage Fund to $200 billion within 20 years, balance the budget and not raise taxes.

"It's another daily announcement that just doesn't add up," Redford told reporters while on a stop in Strathmore.

"If there are these daily announcements without understanding or (the Wildrose) being prepared to explain the overall framework, where do we end up losing?

"We need to make sure that we're thinking long-term."

Source - Calgary Herald

Alison Redford and Danielle Smith face off for the first time in tonight’s Alberta debate

Jen Gerson, Apr 12, 2012 – 5:58 PM ET

[url]http://news.nationalpost.com/2...ghts-alberta-debate/]Source[/url]

Alison Redford and Danielle Smith will face off in a debate for the first time tonight.

Two of the most powerful women in Canadian politics have been sniping at each other for months through advertisements, speeches and campaign announcements, but Thursday night will mark the first time Alberta premier Alison Redford and challenger Danielle Smith will actually face each other in a public debate.

The televised showdown will be a pivotal moment in the two-week old Alberta election campaign.

Either Ms. Redford will regain the confidence of the electorate, turning around what has so far been a disastrous campaign for the Progressive Conservatives; Or, Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith will ease fears about her party’s socially conservative agenda, consolidating her support among voters.

Since the election was called two weeks ago, the Wildrose Party has maintained a commanding lead in the polls amid a series of Tory missteps including pay for MLAs who sat on a committee that never met, allegations of illegal donations, and a general sense that the 41-year PC dynasty has developed a culture of entitlement and intimidation.

Likewise, Ms. Smith has not been immune to the slings and arrows of the campaign trail.

The party continued to take flak for its stance on a referendum on defunding abortion, and its support of conscience rights — which would enshrine the ability of public servants to opt-out of services they find morally contentious. This week, Ms. Smith tried to ameliorate fears about the socially conservative wing of the Wildrose Party by affirming her personal support of gay marriage and pro-choice policies.

Wildrose has also been criticized for transferring $20,000 to the constituency associations of two MLAs who crossed the floor from the Progressive Conservatives.

These issues are expected to top the agenda Thursday evening.

The debate, which is taking place in the Global TV studios in Edmonton, will start at 6:30 p.m. MT.

All eyes will be on Ms. Smith, a charismatic former journalist, and Ms. Redford, a trained lawyer with several years experience in the legislature.

Chaldeans Mensah, a political scientist at MacEwan University in Edmonton said Ms. Redford had to juggle several feats: She has to point out the weaknesses of the Wildrose platform while defending the Tory record, and simultaneously presenting herself as an alternative to that record.

“She’s got a tougher challenge than Danielle Smith. Danielle Smith just needs to close the deal and offer assurances that there’s nothing hidden under the hood,” Mr. Mensah said.

For Liberal opposition leader Dr. Raj Sherman and NDP chief Brian Mason, the debate will be about staying in the political arena.

“It’s survival mode,” Mr. Mensah said. “Raj Sherman has to set himself apart and make himself seem relevant, otherwise [the Liberals] really could face oblivion.”

Demerara Guy I hope you turn off that computer and get to the poll and put an x next to the Doctor's name.  The Doc's a good guy. 

I never met an Indian man with blue eyes until I met Doctor Raj.  He is a nice guy.

However, Smith and her party received a boost Thursday when Reform party founder Preston Manning, the patriarch of the modern-day federal Conservatives, appeared to endorse the Wildrose in an op-ed article he penned.

Redford and the Conservatives, meanwhile, have been fighting public outrage over the committee pay scandal, and trying to shore up their health-care credentials following continued accusations that physicians have been intimidated and bullied by the PC government.

The Tory leader also was thrown on the defensive for a few days after a PC staffer resigned from her job in the premier's Calgary office after questioning on Twitter why Smith doesn't have children. Smith later explained she and her husband wanted to have children but could not.

Redford, however, got her own boost via an influential endorsement from former Alberta PC premier Peter Lougheed, a political god in the province, who did battle with the federal Liberal governments in the 1970s and 80s.

jfekete(at)postmedia.com

Twitter.com/jasonfekete

Me personally, I man would vote for the woman with the largest breasts.

Alberta will never vote for a brown/paki man to be their leader.  A chinese man get a much better chance of being elected there as leader. It is the most racist redneck province in Canada.  The racism in Alberta is different.  People here practice their racism in secret. This is because they are afraid of the laws against discrimination because it can come with large monitary fines. Those of us who have lived here a long time have experienced it.  

I will give you two examples here. When I first came here I notice two things when I rode the buses.  Even if the buses were filled.  Not a single white woman would sit next to me.  They would prefer to stand.  Yet the black women and the Canadian red indian women had no trouble sitting next to me.  When on a rare occassion a white woman would sit next to me she would turn her back towards me and face the opposite direction.  (I wanted to shout in a loud voice that I am only interested in non-white women).

One time I had to deliver some equipment to West Edmonton Mall with a white boss who was female.  She bought me lunch after we delivered the equipment and we sat in the food court eating it.  The looks of scorn that I got from the white people passing was unbelievable.  If looks can kill I would have been a dead man that day. ( again I wanted to get up and shout in a loud voice "Don't worry people  I am only interested in non-white women").

I was speaking recently to a Sudanese man and he told me that the identical thing happened to him on buses that happen to me when he first came here. 

While some polling stations had lineups, others were not busy at all

Posted: Apr 19, 2012 5:24 PM MT

Last Updated: Apr 19, 2012 6:31 PM MT

Source - CBC News

Advanced polls are now open for the Alberta Election through Saturday. (CBC)

Election Day is on Monday April 23, but the advance polls opened Thursday morning for voters who can't or don't want to wait.

Some stations had lineups while others were a virtual ghost town.

"I'm urging people to just get out and voice their opinions,” said voter Jo-Anne de Repentigny, adding it's the only time they have a say in what's going on with the government.

It was a message on the lips of several voters casting ballots this morning.

Voters wait to cast a ballot at an advanced polling station in south Edmonton. (CBC)

"I always do,” said Hazel Hopkins. “Every time they have advance [polls] I come out because I don't want to be in the lineups."

And some say it's the only day they can make it.

"Well, unfortunately we're not going to be here on Monday," said Catherine Ford.

Turnout varied depending on the station.

In Calgary-Elbow where Progressive Conservative Leader Alison Redford is running, several hundred had showed up or voted by special mail-in ballot within the first few hours.

It was the same story at a polling station in the Edmonton neighbourhood of Bonnie Doon on Thursday evening. Voters turned out in droves, with many saying they plan to be out of town on Monday or want to avoid the possibility of waiting in long lines on voting day.

But at a polling station in Calgary-Mountain View, the riding previously held by Liberal candidate David Swann, voters were trickling in.

Voter turnout expected to be up from 2008

Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal University, says early turnout isn't a good indicator of what will happen on Monday.

People gather to place their ballot Thursday for the Alberta provincial election. (CBC)

"Advance polls tend to be your most dedicated voters to make sure they vote ... and get out there."

But Bratt believes overall voter turnout will be up dramatically from 2008's record low 41 per cent.

"Just because it's a competitive election,” he said. “Competitive elections draw voters."

Residents are eligible to vote they're Canadian Citizens, 18 years of age or older, who have lived in Alberta for the past six months.

All eligible voters should have received a registration card in the mail.

Otherwise, Elections Alberta says bring along proper ID in order to cast a ballot.

Advance polls are open through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. MT, and may be different from polling stations on election day.

Elections Alberta says anyone who is in line at an advance polling station by 8 p.m. will be able to cast a ballot.

You can find your advance station on your voter card, in the local newspaper or online at elections.ab.ca.

Elections Alberta said it won't know the advanced poll numbers until Monday night.

I can bet that the Wild rose party will win a majority.  I spoke to one of their representatives at the legislature.  She said that one of their first acts is to close down the Alberta human rights commission. A commission that was started because people of colour were being discriminated when they try to rent a place from an Albertan (the place, like what was happening in Britain also, would all of a sudden be already rented out to someone else) So if a colored person is discriminated against then the only avenue available would be for that person to get a lawyer and go to the courts and the issue will be in a judge's hand.  If you as a colored person cannot afford a lawyer then who knows what will happen. 

Never mind that. How are the breasts (hers)?

Don't be an as- these are more important issues at play here than the size of some white woman's breasts.  I have a feeling that if you are a coloured man then the chances of hooking up with any of the two ladies in question may be close to zero.  In the case of Ms. Smith maybe zero for sure. Certainly her supporters would not like that.

Breasts are very important. Maybe not to you but to the ladies out there and to me.

This is what you learned from Dr. Jagan, Dr. Rodney and Burnham's political legacy.  The size of white women breasts being important in politics.  What a waste of those men time you turned out to be Cain. 

Interesting video "I never though I will vote Progressive Conservative"

Sums up the complete Alberta Election.

Source - Montreal Gazette

Bigots vs Thugs.  I think I will stick with the thugs and support them in their battle against the bigots.

Them Wildrose people are going to the hindu temples all of a sudden