Wild Rose Alliance wins it in Glenmore

[CUG]

:thumbsup:

The ONLY reason I didn't vote for Urqhart was purely because she voted to keep our race track, and I didn't want to see her leave City Hall.

Story:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Hinman+headed+narrow+victory+Calgary+Glenmore+byelection/1993762/story.html

CALGARY - Results from Monday's byelection in Calgary-Glenmore indicate Wildrose Alliance candidate Paul Hinman is headed for a narrow victory over his Liberal opponent, as Premier Ed Stelmach's Conservatives finished third in a riding that's voted Tory for four decades.

With 63 of the 66 polls reporting, Hinman pulled out in front of Liberal hopeful Avalon Roberts and Tory candidate Diane Colley-Urquhart.

Hinman garnered 37 per cent of the 9,733 ballots counted so far, compared with 34 per cent for Roberts and 26 per cent for Colley-Urquhart.

At a little after 9 p.m., Hinman wasn't ready to declare victory but was feeling very positive.

"Isn't it great to do the impossible," Hinman said as hugged a supporter.

Hinman said he entered the race with victory in mind. He said the Wildrose Alliance performance in the byelection should send Stelmach a message.

"It's not a message he doesn't already know. He just doesn't accept it," Hinman said. "Everything he's doing is just a major deficit and he's gettiung the message tonight."

Hinman grew more jubilant with each poll result announced. He said a victory would be a major boon to the party.

"We got roots in the ground again and watch the party grow. It's goiing to be exciting," Hinman said.

As polls closed Monday night, Liberal Roberts appeared before supporters and several Grit MLAs, including party Leader David Swann, at her campaign headquarters.

She conceded she felt nervous. Of her three attempts in Calgary-Glenmore, she said this is her best shot at winning.

"I don't know how it's going to turn out," Roberts said.

"There is a much better chance of winning in this race because of the wild card - the 'wild' Alliance, as one Conservative said to me," she added.

"The wild card has definitely added a different dimension to the race."

Roberts also suspects bad fiscal news on the government front, primarily an increased forecasted deficit of $6.9 billion and the emergence of cuts to education and health care, has also helped her campaign.

[Hakkola]

I'm going to miss that Avalon Roberts signage.

[CUG]

Originally posted by Hakkola
I'm going to miss that Avalon Roberts signage. Yeah, I saw it all over your hood.. actually, every election I see that in your hood :rofl:

[Xtrema]

Haha, that's why she's keeping her job.

Liberals must be fucking mad. They can't even capture the hate votes.

[kertejud2]

And much like the protest vote that saw the Liberals win Ralph Klein's old seat in a byelection, this will do fuck all to the PC party's attitude.

[ZenOps]

So is it safe to assume that Alberta Wild Rose is synonymous with Texas Lone Star state?

Terrible time to be thinking about it - we will afterall be getting equalization payments for being a poor province (damn natural gas prices, lol) this year.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[CUG]

Originally posted by kertejud2
And much like the protest vote that saw the Liberals win Ralph Klein's old seat in a byelection, this will do fuck all to the PC party's attitude.
Be surprised, Calgary Glenmore is the wealthiest constituency, and the most influential.


Originally posted by ZenOps
So is it safe to assume that Alberta Wild Rose is synonymous with Texas Lone Star state?

Terrible time to be thinking about it - we will afterall be getting equalization payments for being a poor province (damn natural gas prices, lol) this year.



Originally posted by Sugarphreak


I thought Alberta Wild Rose was more like the Christian party? I read through their platform a while back, they seem like ultra conservatives.
:rofl:
Even if what you were saying is true, it would still probably be better than the liberals. No, they aren't a christian party
:facepalm:

[KrisYYC]

I too did not vote Urqhart for the same reason.

Civic politics affects your life a lot more than provincial or federal. I didn't want to see some clown get into city hall, even though I'm not in Urqhart's riding.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak


I thought Alberta Wild Rose was more like the Christian party? I read through their platform a while back, they seem like ultra conservatives.

Far right isn't always religious. But given rich demographic of the area, not surprise they vote Wild Rose.

[kertejud2]

Originally posted by CUG

Be surprised, Calgary Glenmore is the wealthiest constituency, and the most influential.

Calgary-Elbow is a rather wealthy constituency (and was considered as safe as a seat can be) and Calgary-Currie is very wealthy and very influential as well. Winning both hasn't helped the Liberals and hasn't done anything to change the PC (because when the PC protest non-voters actually come out, they'll win again.




Even if what you were saying is true, it would still probably be better than the liberals. No, they aren't a christian party
:facepalm:

I don't really know what they are. They're basically your run-of-the-mill conservative libertarians (a useless political leaning for any party, both philosophically and politically) who as far as I can tell:

Want to lower royalties but increase the size of the Heritage Fund
Reduce government size and bureaucracy while regaining responsibilities and programs from the Feds.
Have a leader who only narrowly beat the Libs in a PC-protest byelection victory, and he's going to be stepping down anyway.

I'm sure their plan to get us out of the recession and eliminate the new deficit is to lower taxes (because that solves everything) and cut spending, leaving this province even further behind in its overstretched and undeveloped infrastructure, but at least everybody will have an extra $400 in their pocket.

They're basically the right wing version of the NDP, unrealistic goals and will always find something to compain about but are really nothing to be afraid of (though the NDP does have more of a say in the legislature than the WRA).

[CUG]

When I spoke with them on the phone, they claimed to be a "small c conservative party" when asked if they are left of the PC's they said by inches.

So they weren't openly aligning themselves with being redneck religious zealots, that' what I'm going on.

I also meant to say one of the wealthiest, not THE wealthiest.

There's really no big deal that he got the seat, it's a drop in the bucket I think, but if we can't slap Stelmach directly in the face, we can do it indirectly, I suppose.

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by CUG

I also meant to say one of the wealthiest, not THE wealthiest.


Probably the wealthiest, Bayview has the highest average income in the city, Pumphill would likely be higher but 27% of the population is 75+, with another 8.5% 65-75, plus the people in the apartments.


I got a letter from the Wild Rose Alliance telling me to vote Paul Hinman


Letter

Dear Matthew,

I'm writing you today from my desk at the Paul Hinman campaign office. It's past midnight but I still have work to do.

Today I received the results of an internal poll that we conducted for the Calgary Glenmore by-election.

With only a few days to go the by-election is a horse-race between our candidate Paul Hinman and Stelmach's PC with the Liberal candidate in a distant third place.

Every single vote will count.

We have a real chance to elect Paul Hinman to send the Stelmach government a message....

If the Stelmach PCs are successful in this by-election the only message that Ed will receive is that Albertans are happy with his record:

Unemployment levels not seen since the National Energy Program

The Alberta Heritage Fund drained to pay for Stelmach's lavish spending and pet projects

A hiring freeze on Alberta-trained nurses

A Healthcare Super Board that took decision making power away from Calgary's hospitals and moved it to Edmonton

A new prescription drug plan for seniors which will quadruple the price of some drugs

The best evidence of the poor performance of the Stelmach government actually lies just outside of Alberta:

While Alberta experiences record deficits and job losses Saskatchewan's economy is booming.

In Saskatchewan new jobs are being created every month and the government is posting record surpluses...

For the first time since the 1970s Alberta is losing people to Saskatchewan.

Alberta and Saskatchewan have the same resources and same opportunities. The oil in the ground doesn't stop at the provincial border.

Where we differ is our government.

In Saskatchewan the government has cut taxes and opened its doors to business and hardworking families seeking a better life.

In Alberta the Stelmach government has done the opposite.

It's not market failure that has caused Alberta's problems.

It's Stelmach's government failure.

Paul will propose real solutions to help fix our healthcare system and push for the Healthcare Super Board to be disbanded.

In the legislature Paul will not be muzzled and will be able to truly represent you.

Unlike PC MLAs Paul will be your guy in Edmonton not Stelmach's guy in Calgary-Glenmore.

This by-election will have a huge impact on how the government operates.

A PC win would send Ed the message that he is on the right track and that he doesn't need to change a thing.

A victory by Wildrose Alliance candidate Paul Hinman would put the government on probation and send Ed the message that he's on the wrong track.

The Stelmach government will no longer be able to sweep anything under the rug with Paul Hinman shining a light on their mismanagement.

If you want to SEND ED A MESSSAGE Hinman is your choice.

According to thepolling results I mentioned earlier the by-election will likely be decided by just a few dozen votes.....


There's just a few more lines, I'm sure you guys get the point.

I'm happy he won.

[kvanderlaag]

I'm a little embarrassed for my constituency.

[CUG]

Originally posted by kvanderlaag
I'm a little embarrassed for my constituency.

Then move out. Your constituency is embarrassed to have people like you living in it, trust me.