Monday, May 02, 2005

Nomination Watch

First of all, here's a blog that the political geeks out there, myself included, are just going to eat up. It's called Nomination Watch and has all the dirt on candidates and potential candidates from across the country.

I wish I had some hot rumours to share with that site but really, it's Calgary so who really cares? However, I can give you what Nomination Watch refuses to do; the list of victorious local candidates in Election 2005:

Calgary Southwest: Stephen Harper
Calgary West: Rob Anders
Calgary Nose Hill: Dianne Ablonczkjkcztrzky
Calgary Northeast: Art Hanger
Calgary East: Deepak Obhrai
Calgary Southeast: Jason Kenney
Calgary Centre: Lee Richardson
Calgary North-Centre: Jim Prentice

Well, there you have it - your 2005 victorious Calgary MPs. As for the Liberals, it sounds like they're making progress in candidate recruitment. Ted Hanney, the anti-gay marriage cattle rancher, is the only incumbent who has confirmed they'll lose again for the Liberals. It appears that potential candidates have been lined up for the other ridings although, to put it mildly, there won't exactly be many hotly contested nominations. Regardless, the party will be doing everything to save costs and there will be at least one, if not two, shared campaign offices. People seem to have resigned themselves to reality so expect a lot of low budget, no frills campaigns from the Grits in Calgary.

But, like I said, it's all sort of irrelevant in a province where only one seat is up for grabs.

posted by calgarygrit at 6:05 p.m.

17 Comments:

  • Apparently the NDP has found candidates for every district of Calgary but the only two that I know are John Chan (Calgary North-Center) and Tyler Ragan (Calgary East).

    By Blogger Unknown, at 7:41 p.m.  

  • Okay, now I'm curious: Which, in your opinion, is the one seat that's up for grabs? In a year where there's more cause for optimism, I'd generally say there were three, while in a year like this one, it might be closer to zero, but I can't get anything to work out to exactly one.

    By Blogger Idealistic Pragmatist, at 8:04 p.m.  

  • I think Calgary West might actually be kind of interesting. If the Liberal vote goes NDP or vice versa Rob Anders might have a close call. North-Center will be interesting as well but I think Jim Prentice has it in the bag. That said, John Chan got quite a few votes (for a non-Conservative) last election and he's likely to do a little better this time. I think the rest of the ridings in Calgary will be pretty boring with gigantic Conservative sweeps.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 11:12 p.m.  

  • Idealistic; I think McLellan's seat is the only one really in play this time around. Last election, there were 4 seats in Edmonton the Liberals were targeting but I think most people realize that Kilgour's was a David Kilgour seat, not a Liberal one. And it's hard to see the party getting more votes in any riding than last time, so I think the Tories have 27 safe seats in the province.

    Anne's will be a big battle though...I imagine both parties will be pouring resources into it.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 11:27 p.m.  

  • Capitalist Pig; Anders got 56% of the vote last time, even with a very strong campaign against him. I suspect Calgary West may be the strongest Liberal riding in the city this time (that, or southcentre, but Julia Turnbull ran a very strong campaign last time and she won't be running again), but I can't imagine the Libs coming within 20% in any Calgary riding.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 11:32 p.m.  

  • CG,

    Frankly I can't either. I think the NDP could pull about 30% in North Center and maybe 20-30% in Calgary West (that is if people don't go Green as a protest vote), but those votes would be earned on the back of the Liberals. However, I do see a lot of run-off to the Greens rather than to the NDP. For some reason people really don't like unions in Calgary and they equate the NDP with being pro-union (which isn't a mistake mind you but is still a pretty stupid reason not to vote for a party).

    By Blogger Unknown, at 11:48 p.m.  

  • P.S. I think though that the longer Anders remains in office the more he alienates his constituents. I do think that he's lost a few votes in the last year or so. I mean I can't imagine anyone but the far right voting for that man. He's pretty much Canada's version of Pat Buchanan.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 11:51 p.m.  

  • He's pretty much Canada's version of Pat Buchanan.

    That's a bit unfair to Buchanan, who although pretty odious is intelligent and articulate.

    By Blogger buckets, at 12:06 a.m.  

  • Have a look at last year's numbers for Edmonton-Strathcona again: it's a three-way split. If either the NDP or the Liberals have a weak, lackluster candidate this time around, that seat's in play, too. Perhaps more so than McLellan's seat, even; she's going to be at a huge disadvantage this time around. I think you're right about Kilgour's, though. So that makes two, in an optimistic scenario, zero in a pessimistic one.

    By Blogger Idealistic Pragmatist, at 12:12 a.m.  

  • It's never irrelevant. I cast my vote for Dr. Roberts in Calgary SW last time. If I recall correctly, about 6,000 others did too. Sure, it would have been nice to have had a real race but at least we had a candidate worth voting for. I hope she runs again.

    By Blogger Psychols, at 12:40 a.m.  

  • U and D,

    My mistake, it's true that Pat Buchanan, while undoubtledly far more right wing than anyone should be, is actually a fairly bright and well spoken guy. Anders on the other hand is not.


    Cycles,

    I agree Calgary SW is a race that might be interesting as well. I forgot about that one.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 2:11 a.m.  

  • Anders dropped 5000 votes last time around after the parties merged. that one puzzled me. But all he really has to do is not show up for debates and not talk and he's back.

    edmonton strathcona might be one to watch. thats a very complicated riding.

    By Blogger Robert McBean., at 1:03 p.m.  

  • Does anyone know who's being nominated for their respective parties (well, the Libs and NDP anyways) in Edmonton Strathcona? I pressume the NDP will be going with someone other than Azania this time, right?

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 1:29 p.m.  

  • Re Edmonton-Strathcona: Don't know on the Grits, can't say on the NDP.

    By Blogger Idealistic Pragmatist, at 3:01 p.m.  

  • For Edmonton Strathcona there will be a nomination election on December 5th with Ellen Schoeck, and Andy Hladyshevsky, vying for the win. A few days ago George Hodgson has stepped down from the race in an attempt to allow Andy to start campaigning for the Liberals. He tried to convince Ellen to step down, but she wants the voters to decide.
    Obviously I’m a tad biased on who I want to win.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:47 p.m.  

  • They are only a candidate and not official.

    By Anonymous tuxedo shirts, at 7:35 a.m.  

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