Congratulations, It's seems the same!!

Well it's all over. After a gruelling 5 months of campaigning the PC party in Alberta elected it's leader, and it was not the front runner Gary Mar. Alison Redford was elected by the party to serve as premier.

I would have never guessed her in the come from behind win, but if one was to watch her strategist Stephen Carter, he has a knack for selling a candidate to full potential. Once again he showed his political brilliance, much the same as his come from behind win in electing Mayor Nenshi in the Calgary municipal vote. I will stop here on Carter so his head doesn't swell and explode if he reads this rag.

If I had to pick a turning point in the Redford campaign it would be when her mother passed.On the long drawn out campaign of politics, she had the opportunity to showcase herself as a human. With the double edged sword the timing was both great and awful, and she showed a great deal of personal strength by continuing on without stumbling. The other hot issue would be her garnering the support of the unions with her funding reinstatement for education. This one if anything should be a political hot button, spending a $100M of taxpayer money to push her over the top.

Now it's no secret I don't support Redford politically, but in all fairness I could not support Mar or mini Ed, Doug Horner.This campaign of change that they ran was a complete and utter joke. Tell me how a Cabinet Minister that has sat in cabinet and voted on the direction for the last 4 years equals change? Unfortunately there are no real records of her votes, as I would be interested to see where she stood before the "change" campaign came in. First day after being elected Redford was quick to add that she would be suspending the fall session of the legislature. So much for dealing with the issues transparently. Now we will sit until spring and have the promises made rammed down our throats debate free, and no transparency to be seen. Is this the type of change we can look forward to? One would have to guess the listening to Albertans is now done since my MLA is not allowed to speak on my behalf. A right she took away when she suspended legislature.

Politics will be interesting in the near term, especially with a provincial election looming for June of next year. One has to question the amount of support the PC party really has these days, I have seen the question asked alot of the Wildrose. Those pesky turnout numbers in the PC leadership race tell quite a tale. With 85 polling stations averaging a mere 918 votes each has to be of concern to the PC's. Alison's win was no landslide, having to go to a second ballot she won by a minuscule 19 votes per polling station. Is there really the support for her and her style of politics? Was Mar showing too well and many didn't go to the polls based on his healthy lead? Did the small "c" even bother to vote, or did they leave the party already? There were only half the amount of votes cast in comparison to the 2006 election.

So many questions to answer and June is not far away. Will we have the time to see Redford in her full capacity by the next election? Is the PC party fractured? I couldn't tell you, but politics in Alberta is interesting again.