Alberta PCs cry wolf

 #abpoli #pcaa #wrp #abndp
 At a PC Edmonton-Millwoods delegate selection meeting on Nov 16 at the Millwoods Golf Course, Jason Kenney violated PC party rules regarding being present at these meetings.  Mayhem broke loose on his arrival and knowing there was a hospitality suite down the hall, but all 15 delegates still went to Kenney.  To say he is a bull looking to win, sails short of the

Now, let's have a quick history review. Remember that the PCs haven't used a delegate system for a very long time and used a one-member one-vote preferential ballot system which saw Ralph Klein become leader and premier for a long time. Then after Klein stepped down, that same system saw Ed Stelmach, Alison Redford, and the late Jim Prentice become leader and premier.  All three premierships had their positive moments, but ultimately were failures as they all stepped down, as party was mired in inaction, a struggling economy, environmental policy pressures, a war on fun, and ultimately a growing misuse of taxpayer dollars for extravagances peaking with the Premier's Palace.  Also, having public groups pay for attendees to hob knob at PC Party dinners is a big no-no, yet it went on.

That system allowed initially not-as-popular candidates to win.  Ed Stelmach defied the odds, shooting up the middle on the second round runoff vote, beating heavyweight candidates Jim Dinning, a former provincial preasurer, and Ted Morton. Alison Redford accomplished the same, beating Gary Mar, super minister, on the third round.

So, enter Jim Prentice, former federal PC leadership candidate and Harper Conservative cabinet minister. The PC party insiders, seeing that they didn't wish to repeat the debacles of previous votes, as well as trying to bridge Wildrosers (who are assuming all federal Conservatives) back into the fold, essentially guaranteed his win as leader and premier through many interesting campaign tactics. The main one being the campaign buying memberships for voters.  With 76% of the vote it wasn't even close, and Ric McIver and Thomas Lukaszuk never had a chance.

Then Rachel Notley's NDP won with a slick campaign riding a huge wave of voter discontent, Prentice stepped down immediately.

My point here is although Kenney showed up at a riding delegate selection meeting when it violates the rules and is bulldozing his way through this race, their ongoing tactics throughout the last ten years in their previous leadership races hasn't been ethical itself.  I don't approve of Kenney's actions here and he should face some punishment for it from the PCs, but we should really call the kettle black on the PCs crying wolf.

And they wonder why the Wildrose exists and why they lost to the NDP.