Calgary Federal Politics

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by fusili

Elizabeth May has spoken more than any single MP in Parliament during Question Period, including Stephan Harper (this is from official records of Parliament). She was elected the "Parliamentarian of the year" by members of Parliament themselves this week.

I also disagree with May's take on certain issues, but I respect her commitment to the fundamentals of democracy and Parliament.

During question period? No, that is not possible. No way, no how. During everything else? Totally possible.

[Radley77]

Originally Posted by Cage

Independants don't get anything in HoC. If they get to survive an election (exclude independants who are thrown out of their caucus) its usually due to a very usual local riding situation. Nenshi could run as an independant in Calgary Centre and win on name recognition.

If Turner wants into politics, he should consider running for Councillor in the next election (remember this is the last year when Alderman will be used as the job descriptor).

Let's crowd source Turners next gig - City of Calgary Councillor.

I would like to see Chris Turner take on Richard Pootmans or John Mar. Dale Hodges should also be unseated, but I think it's most likely to be done by Chris Harper. Urquhart needs to go as well. Of the new councillors, I think Carra and Keating have done the best job so far. I would like to see more councillors championing urban cycling boulevards as I think this is something that can be done relatively cheaply, if done right will improve transportation option choices, and has major potential to improve quality of life (health).

[Radley77]

Originally Posted by Cage

Answers:

(1) My viewpoint is inner city wards - 7, 8, 9. Alternates are wards where the LRT/BRT is early stages of maturit - 6 (there will be a lot of work over the next 5 years to get WLRT ridership to capacity, thisn includes stick handling complaints from people who preferred previous bus network, PnR users, and road users who might need to be inconvenienced and persuaded onto LRT), 9 and 12 (SELRT and SETWAY), 7 and 4 (NCLRT and busy BRT line).

(2) Hodges and Lowe are ready for retirement. Chabot has repeatedly been on lists of wanting to do other jobs (like mayor). Colley-Urquhart has tried to get into other things.

(3) Don't know the man, perhaps others could provide a better viewpoint.

(4) I would like Turner to give the boots to Farrell, Pootmans, or Pincott.

That said if Turner got the right desire and platform to represent ward 2 (lowe), I would vote for him and volunteer extensively on his team. I just don't know if Turner wants to represent a suburb riding, I think he is an urbanist at heart.

Agreed about giving the boot to Pootmans. I actually like Farrell quite a bit and Pincott while directionally I like him, watching him in chamber is almost painful and he is not effective. Carra and Keating are already firmly pro-transit and are supportive of the SE LRT construction; I can't think of any better advocates. Chabot has very high levels of support in his ward and is reasonable and asks a lot of questions.

[suburbia]

Chris Turner's marketing team continues to do quite the spectacular job, especially Brian Singh, the man behind 1CalgaryCentre and key to Chris' campaign.
http://www.1calgarycentre.com/news/

Brian is kind of like the scientist producing fantastic reports about why milk fat is not bad for you, while being on the dairy farmers association payroll. None the less, the propaganda machine seems to be working.

[Bigtime]

I honestly can't make sense of any of this now, Monday is going to be a crap shoot and I think it will be close.

[artvandelay]

The premier of Quebec seems open to east to west pipeline expansion. Who would have though that a separatist PQ leader would show more rationality on the subject than the Liberal premier of BC?

Alberta’s Alison Redford and Quebec’s Pauline Marois announced late Thursday that they will create a working group to exchange economic and environmental information on natural resource development that will shape discussions over the possibility of oilsands crude heading east.

On Friday, a number of premiers gathered at the Council of the Federation meeting on the economy lauded the move by Alberta and Quebec as a good step in trying to create an east-west oil pipeline network that could increase Canadian energy security.

Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger said his province is very supportive of moving western Canadian crude into Central Canada and the Atlantic provinces, and believes it could be an economic boon for the entire country.

Read more in the Herald...

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

I honestly can't make sense of any of this now, Monday is going to be a crap shoot and I think it will be close.

Realistically only Crockatt and Locke have a chance to win. Best Turner can do is 2nd place.

This is however a get out the vote fight right now. Any of the top three candidates fails to get thier supporters into the voting booth will not win the election. This includes the conservatives war machine.

Turner's downfall will be that he cannot pull votes from the Liberals. Turner has been sucessfull at getting support from Conservatives and NDP, but the Liberal vote has remained constant.

[fusili]

Originally Posted by suburbia

Chris Turner's marketing team continues to do quite the spectacular job, especially Brian Singh, the man behind 1CalgaryCentre and key to Chris' campaign.
http://www.1calgarycentre.com/news/

Brian is kind of like the scientist producing fantastic reports about why milk fat is not bad for you, while being on the dairy farmers association payroll. None the less, the propaganda machine seems to be working.

Brian Singh is not working for the Turner campaign. 1CalgaryCentre is a registered third party and thus follows all the rules as per the Elections Act. Any members of 1CalgaryCentre that have been involved in any campaign have been asked to leave the organization.

[simster3]

I'm traditionally Liberal but am considering switching to Green as the air feels like he has the most support and almost the best chance at winning. I could be completely wrong and throwing my vote away. It is a difficult choice this time. I know the Liberals claim that it is a two way race but in my opinion its definitely 3 way.

[Radley77]

One of the things I'm having a hard time reconciling is the demographics of these polls versus what I am observing. Turner's facebook page has his support mostly coming from 25-34 year olds. From the Return on Insight poll, I'm suprised that young Albertans are so likely to vote Conservative, and secondly, that young Albertans are more likely to place their second choice as NDP over Liberal or Green.

I'm curious as to why the two groups that have the least amount of engagement online (Conservative & NDP) are polling so high in this demographic...

[MalcolmTucker]

^ Self selected versus a random sample.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by fusili

Brian Singh is not working for the Turner campaign. 1CalgaryCentre is a registered third party and thus follows all the rules as per the Elections Act. Any members of 1CalgaryCentre that have been involved in any campaign have been asked to leave the organization.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certain all is above the board and that there are no formal ties.

On a related note, here is a more scientific poll:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/poli...-centre-by-election-poll/article5609301/

Originally Posted by simster3

I'm traditionally Liberal but am considering switching to Green as the air feels like he has the most support and almost the best chance at winning. I could be completely wrong and throwing my vote away. It is a difficult choice this time. I know the Liberals claim that it is a two way race but in my opinion its definitely 3 way.

I don't think it is just the Liberals saying it is a two way race. The scientific polls are quite clear about this. Here is the absolute latest, just reported by the Globe and Mail in the article linked to above:

Conservative candidate Joan Crockatt, who had the nod of 37 per cent of respondents, was holding a five-point lead over Harvey Locke of the Liberals. That suggests Ms. Crockatt‘s support has slipped significantly from the 48 per cent support she registered less than a month ago in another poll of the riding.

Green party candidate Chris Turner was running third in the ROI poll with 17 per cent of the decided vote and Dan Meades of the New Democrats was fourth with 12 per cent.

So to be clear, currently it looks like this:

PC - Crockatt - 37%
*************************************
Liberal - Locke - 32%
********************************
Green - Turner - 17%
*****************
NDP - Meades - 12%
************

It is clearly a two horse race, Turner doubling his support would leave him short and his momentum has shifted to the down side in a big way. Turner climaxed too early.

The election may come down to the Ralph Nader effect.

[kw5150]

I really despise this Joan Crockett; heres why: Her stupid attack ad flyer that was delivered to my mail. It was all lies and quotes from the other parties to rile people up. This style of politics needs to end.......Something about "Harper and Joan are the only proud canadians running in this election" "The other parties will ruin Calgary and turn it into a hellhole with no economy..."

Eff off Joan, your tactics only work on old people.

[RyLucky]

the municipal government is already "Turner minded". We need more representation like this on the provincial and federal stage.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by kw5150

"The other parties will ruin Calgary and turn it into a hellhole with no economy..."

Well that one is somewhat true. Calgary's ecomony is more biased towards the private sector than any other city in Canada. Expansion of the federal government be it through increased spending or regulation would likely have a less favorable impact in Calgary than elsewhere. It all comes down to how much you believe the Conservatives would be less likely to increase regulation, taxes or debt relative to the other parties.

[MalcolmTucker]

^ You know who shrunk government a lot? The Liberal Party.

[artvandelay]

Originally Posted by RyLucky

the municipal government is already "Turner minded". We need more representation like this on the provincial and federal stage.

I normally vote for more liberal minded politicians at the municipal level because it is civic politicians who make the important decisions that affect the liveability of the city. Having said that, I believe it's important to have politicians at the provincial and federal levels with a high degree of financial acumen as it is these levels of government that have the power to implement policies that affect the economy on a macro level. My point being that you shouldn't expect a change in the federal and provincial voting trends based on municipal politics; Calgary has a long history of electing liberal mayors and aldermen.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by artvandelay

I normally vote for more liberal minded politicians at the municipal level because it is civic politicians who make the important decisions that affect the liveability of the city. Having said that, I believe it's important to have politicians at the provincial and federal levels with a high degree of financial acumen as it is these levels of government that have the power to implement policies that affect the economy on a macro level.

I think the thesis you're building upon above is absolutely false. There is no correlation between the right and business acumen OR the left and the lack there of. If you look at the municipal race, as an example, any thoughtful observer would note that the centrist Nenshi has arguably the highest level of business acumen of any mayor in Calgary's history, whereas his right leaning adversary, Dr. No, was a trained butcher. Taking this a pinch further, I think you'd find that the Liberal cabinets of the recent past have been far more educated, including in economics, as compared to the right-leaning conservative cabinets of virtually any time in history. The graph posted by Malcom demonstrates the outcome quite nicely.

I do agree at a general level that education and business acumen should be a consideration when assessing who you vote for, unless you want another Rob Anders.

[RyLucky]

Originally Posted by artvandelay

I normally vote for more liberal minded politicians at the municipal level because it is civic politicians who make the important decisions that affect the liveability of the city. Having said that, I believe it's important to have politicians at the provincial and federal levels with a high degree of financial acumen as it is these levels of government that have the power to implement policies that affect the economy on a macro level. My point being that you shouldn't expect a change in the federal and provincial voting trends based on municipal politics; Calgary has a long history of electing liberal mayors and aldermen.

Turner has written a book on sustainable economy. Crockett has spent most of her career in media.

We can have all the bleeding-heart urbanists we want in city council, but unless the province and the feds start to see things in the same way we'll never get funding for projects like the SELRT.

[suburbia]

Well - given it is voting day, will leave the politics aside and instead just say that if you are in Calgary-Centre, get out there and vote. There is no excuse for not participating. This thing could be a nail biter. Luckily the ballots are not chad based!