In a recent poll, the Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta is now way out in front of Ed's PCs, who are now tied with Swann's Liberals.
39% Wildrose
25% PC
25% Liberal
9% NDP
h/t daveberta
If I was Danielle Smith, I would ignore this poll. There's still much to be done in the party to build it into a strong, disciplined organization. They don't even have 87 constituency associations setup yet, let alone a sound, prioritized policy platform. They have a long way to go yet, especially funding. My sources tell me they lost some potential big donations due to a lack of judgment by hiring Stephen Carter who posted a derogatory comment on Twitter about Premier Ed Stelmach's speech.
Besides that, from my cheap seats, I read that Smith recently spoke about anthropogenic global warming (AGW) being a myth (very bold of her), and appears to be buddy-buddy with the energy and oil industry (a good thing in this province).
It's obvious that Alberta conservatives are simply not happy with the PCs and are merely parking their vote to the Wildrose in protest. Or are they simply impressed with Danielle over Ed as an articulate spokesperson for Albertans?
Is there also a deeper issue in government democracy, accountability, and transparency? Perhaps. Everyone knows how secretive and tight the PC caucus is.
So the questions remain...
1) Will Danielle Smith be able to harness Alberta conservative frustration of the PC government and continue the momentum she apparently has?
2) From this, will the party attract quality candidates?
3) Will they be able to raise enough funds to run a credible campaign?
Time will tell.
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