Strategic Terror

Well, yesterday's thoughts on strategic voting created the heaviest traffic flow this blog has ever seen, but it seems few of you agreed with my argument. It would seem that many progressive voters decided to forgive the PC government's many sins rather than take the chance of allowing a Wildrose government to form.

The Alberta Liberal vote has pretty clearly collapsed, reducing our caucus by half for the second election in a row. That's a tough pill for me to swallow, having served the Alberta Liberal Caucus for six years. But the will of the voters trumps my personal disappointment; progressives simply have to work harder and smarter if we want to earn the right to form government.

On a personal level, I'm very happy to see that Albertans have re-elected Laurie Blakeman, Kent Hehr, David Swann and - hopefully - Raj Sherman, who is currently 11 votes ahead with a few polls to go. While we may no longer be the Official Opposition, I have no doubt that these four MLAs will continue to serve our province with distinction. 

Strategic Error

I've been a strategic voter since the federal election in 1993, voting Liberal or NDP depending upon who had the best chance of defeating the Reform/Alliance/Conservative candidate. Since I started working for the province's Official Opposition, I have of course voted consistently for the Alberta Liberals - not merely out of loyalty to my employer, but because I admire and respect the three leaders I've served and their caucuses, and I support the policies they've developed over the years.

But as the Wildrose Alliance surged during the current provincial election, I had a brief moment of weakness: was it time to return to strategic voting to stop a party even worse than the provincial PCs from forming government?

Living as I do in Edmonton-Meadowlark, Dr. Raj Sherman's constituency, there was never any question that I'd be voting anything but Liberal. But in conversations with progressive friends earlier this month, I admitted that I understood the reasons why they're considering holding their noses and voting PC. Indeed, my friend Stephen has crafted a very reasonable argument to that effect.

It's an argument the panicking PCs are using themselves, pleading with progressives to vote PC in order to stave off the horrifying spectre of a Bible-beating, fiscally libertarian Wildrose administration.

I believe that a Wildrose majority would be a bad outcome for Alberta. But is it really the worst possible outcome? Should progressive Albertans sacrifice their votes for the sake of a PC government that's intimidated health care professionals and municipal officials, consistently underfunded public education, mismanaged public health care into a state of ongoing crisis, solicited and accepted illegal political contributions and exposed teachers to being sued for discussing topics some parents are uncomfortable with? Can a Wildrose government really be worse than this?

Perhaps they can. But consider the consequences if progressive voters flock to the PCs and help re-elect the Redford administration: 

1) Progressive Albertans will lose their already tiny representation in the Alberta Legislature. What a tragedy it would be to lose Laurie Blakeman, a powerful advocate for human rights and the environment. Or Raj Sherman, who risked his career and gave up the cushiest job in politics (PC backbencher) for the most thankless (Leader of the Official Opposition). Or David Swann, a man who has entered war zones to help the world's most vulnerable people. Or Rachel Notley, Kent Hehr, Brian Mason, among others who have spoken out consistently to expose PC corruption, defend vulnerable Albertans and uphold progressive values. Do we really want to sacrifice these people to keep the PCs in power?

2) We'll be sending a message to the PCs that they really can get away with anything, without consequences. Send threatening letters to municipal officials, bully doctors, pass regressive legislation, continue the slow privatization of health care - that's okay with us, because we're afraid that Danielle Smith might be even worse!

3) We'll demoralize ourselves, perhaps forever. If progressive voters give up now, how can we ever believe that one day we might elect a Liberal, NDP, or Alberta Party government - any government that's at least a little more in tune with our values? If we deny the many brave and excellent candidates running for progressive parties our support, how can we expect future progressives to step forward? Running for election is expensive and risky for progressives; I know this from personal experience, having run last time.

Maybe the Liberal or ND or Alberta Party candidate in your riding is a long shot, but doesn't he or she deserve your support if he or she truly reflects your values?

One day, a progressive party of one stripe or another will form government in Alberta. It probably won't be tomorrow, and perhaps not 2016 either. But that day will certainly never come if we vote against our own interests instead of supporting the policies and people we really believe in.

Raj Sherman is New Alberta Liberal Leader

Last night I attended the Alberta Liberal Party's special event at the University of Alberta to announce their next leader. With slightly more than 54 percent of the vote, that leader is ER doctor and health care crusader Dr. Raj Sherman. It's marvellous that this leadership race attracted more candidates and far more voters than our last race. Kudos to all the candidates, their volunteers, the Alberta Liberal Party staff and volunteers who made this very successful race possible. The hard work continues...

Here are some scenes from yesterday's event:

Edmonton-Riverview ALP candidate Arif Khan and his wife Nausheen.

The awesome Avril McCalla and Lethbridge-East MLA Bridget Pastoor.

The passionately purple "Laurie4Leader" buttons advertising Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman's campaign.

Leadership candidate Bruce Payne.

Renowned Edmonton blogger Dave Cournoyer, aka daveberta, was on hand to chronicle the event.

GQ model John "The" Santos was kind enough to pose.

Bruce Payne campaign slogan on a t-shirt.

Veteran MLA Hugh MacDonald finished a strong second.

PR guru Justin Archer.

Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman and her spouse Ben Henderson, one of Edmonton's city councillors.

Calgary-Buffalo MLA Kent Hehr and a pair of young Bruce Payne supporters.

ALP volunteer and former federal Liberal candidate Zack Siezmagraff was on hand to help ensure the proceedings ran smoothly.

The event's Calgary contingent included Neil Mackie, Jody MacPherson and Kent Hehr.

Josipa Petrunic was instrumental in organizing the race.

Outgoing ALP Leader Dr. David Swann delivered his last speech in that role yesterday, urging everyone to unite behind the new leader.

"Team Raj" supporters reacted with glee to the announcement of their candidate's decisive first-ballot victory.

Dr. Sherman on his way to the stage to deliver his acceptance speech.

Calgary-McCall MLA Darshan Kang seemed pleased with the results.

Media attention was intense, and Sherman was swarmed by reporters after his acceptance speech.

Best of all, I had the chance to visit briefly with some old friends who've moved on from the Alberta Liberal Caucus, including Tanara McLean and Kim Dewar.

All in all, it was an exciting day, the second leadership race I've attended and certainly the most dynamic and competitive so far. I look forward to working with Dr. Sherman, and hope I can remember to call him Raj...

My First Electronic Ballot

I just finished voting in the 2011 Alberta Liberal Leadership Race. This is the first time that I've ever voted electronically, and as far as I can tell, it worked pretty smoothly: I was snail-mailed a unique PIN along with the URL of a special website set up for the vote. I had to pass a CAPTCHA to ensure that I was a real person and not a robot attempting to subvert the vote; then, I was asked to rank my choices on the preferential ballot.

I've seen a few complaints on Twitter and FaceBook from Liberals (and others) disgruntled that Dr. Raj Sherman appeared at the top of the ballot, instead of at the bottom, where traditional alphabetic ordering would place him. At first this concerned me as well, but when I was presented with my ballot, the candidates were ordered as follows:

Laurie BLAKEMAN
Bruce PAYNE
Dr. Raj SHERMAN
Hugh MACDONALD
Bill HARVIE

That's not alphabetical order, but nor is Sherman at the top of the list. This suggests to me that the candidates are ordered randomly, and that each voter sees one arrangement of however many mathematical permutations there are of those five names. I have no idea what the paper ballots will look like, of course; I would imagine they're going to be sorted alphabetically.

Whatever the outcome of the race, I'm excited by the Alberta Liberals' efforts to make voting more accessible. My snail-mail voting instruction sheet also included options to vote by telephone, and of course people can still vote in person on September 10th if they choose to do so.

If you're an Alberta Liberal Party member or Registered Supporter and haven't yet voted, I encourage you to do so. It's fast, easy, and above all, satisfying to know that you've performed an important civic duty.

You Pick Earl's Next Boss

Earlier this summer, the provincial Liberal party made it possible for any Albertan to vote in our leadership race, and you don't even have to join the party to do so. Since I work for the Official Opposition, that means that you have an opportunity not only to pick the next Leader of the Alberta Liberals, but also to choose my next boss!

Registering to vote in the race is easy. Just fill in this form. Then research the five Alberta Liberal leadership candidates before making your choice. Here are the contenders, in democratic alphabetical order:

Laurie Blakeman

Bill Harvie

Hugh MacDonald

Bruce Payne

Raj Sherman

Whether you're a Liberal or not, this is an opportunity to have a real impact on the shape of our legislature. Make sure to sign up before August 19th if you want to vote by mail, or before September 6th if you want to vote in person. The Alberta Liberal Party will communicate all the details.

Alberta Liberal Caucus Podcast for November 5

My colleague Tanara McLean has produced another fun and informative podcast for the Official Opposition. Listen as we mock the practice of government MLAs receiving perks such as fishing trips, golf rounds and tickets to Lady Gaga and Rod Stewart! Tanara also interviews Official Opposition Environment Critic Laurie Blakeman, and takes a gentle jab at our absent Premier...and I have fun hamming it up for some of the supporting voices.

Listen here.

Laurie Blakeman on Conservation, Land Use and Oil Sands Development

Alberta Liberal MLA and Official Opposition Environment Critic Laurie Blakeman points out that the Alberta government is on the cusp of making some far-reaching decisions about how land in the Lower Athabasca region will be developed in the long term, and how much of that land - currently up to a mere twenty percent - will be conserved, leaving eighty percent open to development. The Alberta government will be holding open public stakeholder meetings at various communites in Alberta throughout September, and you can also leave your thoughts online. Visit http://www.landuse.alberta.ca/ for details.

Full disclosure: as a staff member of the Official Opposition, I did a small amount of work on this video (I took a couple of the still photos).

Edited to add: for some reason, embedding videos doesn't work very well with my blog setup, resulting in some of the image being cut off at the right. Until I solve this problem, you can also view the video here.

Call Me Out at the Ball Game - Game 4

Airways Park

Doucheballz 22, Liberators 1

The boys and girls of summer did their best, but only the league mercy rule saved us from a drubbing even more humiliating than the 22-1 pounding we received at Airways Park just south of the old City Centre Airport.

We faced the #2-ranked team, and without question they deserved the victory. They displayed a take-no-prisoners athleticism, though they were good sports about it.

Despite the loss, I'm pretty happy with my own performance this time around - relatively speaking, of course. I managed to halfway field one ball in the outfield, and served a couple of innings as a reasonably competent backcatcher, coming close to catching fly ball that was coming down the inside wall of the backstop. My Hurculean effort even resulted in the loss of my baseball cap!

Rick Miller scored our sole run, brought home by, I believe, Steve of Laurie Blakeman's office. Or it may have been Rick's son Chris who drove in the run - these two are certainly the anchors of the team, in any event.

Kim Dewar managed a solid base hit, as did I, maintaining my average. Twice at bat, one single, one strikeout.

They say winning is always more fun than losing, but I really enjoyed this game. I worked up a sweat, made my muscles ache, caught the ball a few times and reached first base once. That's better than I ever did in grade school!

Call Me Out at the Ball Game - Game 1

Tonight the Liberators took the field for the first game of our slo-pitch season! For the first couple of innings I stayed behind home plate as catcher. Actually managed to catch a few pitches and return them to Tanara's glove. Not bad. Well, bad, but you know...I'm at the scary end of the bell curve for this sort of thing.

We were outmatched by the other team, seen here looking on with confidence as I react in stunned disbelief. I'm not sure of the exact score, but I think they beat us by a dozen runs or so.

However, on a personal level, I was as surprised as anyone when I managed to connect with the ball all three times I tried. I hit two singles, and the third was a drive between second and third that was caught by the opposing shortstop. So two out of three...I guess that's a batting average of .666! Pretty good for someone that hasn't played baseball since junior high school.

Laurie Blakeman, Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition, came out to cheer us on.

Avril and Kim cheer on the team.

Running to first base. I think it's been a while since my feet left the earth.

Chief of Staff Rick Miller was an able third baseman.

Rick's son Chris Miller was one of our more gifted players. Here he scores a run, fleet as the wind.

Communications Director Neil Mackie hit a solid shot into the infield, but didn't quite have the legs to make it to first before being tagged.

We didn't bring home a victory this time, but I think everyone had fun. And I got a little exercise, with the bumps, bruises and grass stains to show for it.