Phendrana Drifts

Old news unfortunately, as I really meant to blog about this last Tuesday, or maybe Wednesday, or Thursday, well you get the picture. But I didn't. And now almost all of it has been said. So how to add? Well, a couple of observations.

The importance of organizing: The PCs did well in Calgary, and I'm happy. But I don't think the polls prior to the election were lying, Calgary has a fair number of people who didn't plan on voting PC. So why did Calgary remain a conservative strong hold, winning Calgary-Elbow and containing the losses to McCall and Buffalo. I was sitting in my campaign office, working on getting people out and realized that even if there are some voters in Calgary who would vote Liberal if they got to a poll on March 3, the Liberals might not have the organization to call them. For thirty years the idea of being Liberal in Calgary is kind of alien. There are not a lot of long-time Liberals there, especially ones who would volunteer for a month. That might come in time, but for now the PCs win Calgary not just because they are the better choice, but because they are more organized.

How important was money: Regardless of how the vote turned out, I bet the loser would blame money. If the PCs had lost, eventually the labour campaign of "No Plan" would have got the blame. Or possibly the nearly $1 million spent in Edmonton by the NDP (which would rival and possibly be more than what the PCs spent in the capital region). Add the lefty special interest groups and it turns out it wasn't just the right throwing money around this election. I still believe money is second to volunteer efforts and good planning.

We're not stupid, so stop telling us we are: This has been covered elsewhere, but all the same it can't be repeated enough - political parties don't win government by telling people they are stupid. Dr. Taft's decision to tell Albertans they made a huge mistake electing 10 consecutive PC governments was the stupid decision. The bizarre decision to run against Ralph Klein when he wasn't even on stage should go down as the reason the Liberals lost. Maybe it appeals to your base, but as it turns out the Liberal base is not that big.

Labels: alberta politics

8 Comments:

At 3:26 PM, Quynn said…

Agree with you about relative importance of money - to a point. The point is the way money is used. At a constituency level an extra $20-30K can be very useful, running ads during the Oscars, much much less so...

Calgary was... interesting this time around. But regarding the campaign overall, for parties that were advocating 'change' the Libs and the NDs didn't really offer any. Same leaders as last time, same sort of platforms, same strategy and tactics. Guess what? Same results too.

To paraphrase Wellington: they campaigned in the same old way and we kicked the crap out of them in the same old way. Maybe one day the Libs will learn (I'm pretty sure the NDs never will), but they haven't shown any signs of it in the last decade...

Now I'm back in town, we'll have to get together and trade stories.
At 10:31 PM, The Space Cowboy said…

It was your Dear Leader who treated Albertans like they were stupid.

Like when he lied about 335,000 jobs lost due to a serious climate change effort.

Or like when he lied about the Elections Alberta appointing all those Tory insiders as returning officers, not the PC party who handed over the lists.

But maybe that last one hits too close to home.
At 9:01 AM, Anonymous said…

Funny how the Liberals just can't let go - still trying to find all the non-issues they can to blame for their horrendous ass-kicking from the people of Alberta. It's over guys - and the Alberta Liberal Party is over too, especially since your glorious leader can't see that for himself.

On to the comment about the post - good post. Really what it boils down to is simple. Get out your vote. Good organization gets the vote out - money might help but only if it's spent the right way, like Quynn said.
At 9:10 AM, Are there Cowboys in what's left of the ALPs??? said…

The same "Spaced-Out-Cowboy" who earlier on this blog (in comments) suggested the whole PC Party was "going down" ???

Loser.
At 12:14 PM, Duncan said…

Quynn: I've got some good ones. And great points.

Space Cowboy: Umm... do you have actual observations? I'm pretty thick-skinned so no worries about being close to home, but I'd love to hear the Liberal observations on the night. Why were you predicting the PCs were going down to defeat and why did the people of Alberta disagree? Why did a majority of those who turned out vote PC? I gave three reasons, add to it.

Anonymous posters following the cowboy: Good points. Excited about the cabinet announcement today.
At 2:40 PM, Quynn said…

MUCH better Cabinet than his first one...

As for the Space Cowboy: Liberals, like the Bourbon Kings of France, learn nothing and forget nothing.
At 10:05 PM, Simon said…

Don't forget the advantage that you get when your party controls the returning officers! And when the "independent" elections agency gives opposition parties a voters list 4 years old.
At 3:49 PM, Anonymous said…

Incredible the absolute moronic comments coming out of peoples (liberals) mouths!

If it isn't one thing to explain why they lost, it's another! Let's now attack Elections Alberta for your ass kicking. That makes sense! Next it will be who, the Dala Lama?

Ask yourself this - how can Elections Alberta supply any one with a voters list supposedly 4 years old when legislation only allowed them to start keeping a permanent voters list less than 2 years ago?

Lay the light of scrutiny on yourselves and figure out where you went wrong, cause you did go wrong. Stop trying to lay the blame elsewhere (everywhere elsewhere!) and take some responsibility for your own campaigning.

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