Saturday, July 29, 2006

The Daily Dinning Returns

I must say, I'm downright giddy after reading this gem from Paul Wells. Apparently my best buddy Jim Dinning personally donated $25,000 to the Paul Martin campaign back in 2002 (this certainly won't help to dispel the frequently made comparisons between Dinning and Martin). Here's the text of the letter which I can only hope will be reprinted in every newspaper in Alberta over the next few days:

February 7, 2002

Mr. Jim Palmer
[Address]

Dear Jim,

Further to your conversation with Steve Snyder, I am pleased to provide you TransAlta's support for Project 2000.

On a personal note, I worry that our governments across the country have become a 'hotbed of rest' and I can only hope that Mr. Martin and others might be able to re-inject a sense of urgency, passion and priority into the affairs of our nation. Soon.

Kind personal regards,

[Signature]
Jim Dinning
Executive Vice President
Sustainable Development and External Relations


Now, for those of you confused as to why this would be a major scandal (besides the misleading statements Dinning gave back at the time that Wells gets into), let me explain a bit to you about Alberta politics. Albertans are very forgiving people. If you make fun of people on AISH, they'll forgive you. If you throw a book at a young girl, they'll forgive you. If you say that ranchers should have "shot, shoveled, and shut up" rather than reporting Mad Cow cases, they'll forgive you. If in a drunken stupor, you go and berate homeless people at a shelter, they'll forgive you.

But there is one thing Albertans will not forgive you for.

And that one thing is being connected to the federal Liberals. So I suspect donating $25,000 to Paul Martin's campaign will not go over extremely well with the PC members in this province. Just a hunch.

posted by calgarygrit at 2:42 a.m.

17 Comments:

  • Let's think long term... Dinning as a federal Liberal finance minister?

    By Blogger Independent Voice, at 9:36 a.m.  

  • That is long-term thinking.

    By Blogger RGM, at 9:58 a.m.  

  • This will not appear in any Alberta provincial newspaper. Bets, anyone?

    By Blogger foottothefire, at 10:29 a.m.  

  • I too caught that and was really quite surprised. Really curious to see what kind of play it gets, and what sort of effect it will have.

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 11:29 a.m.  

  • I know several PC members who are also members of the federal Liberals. There's no animosity between the PC and the LPC as such. If Dinning turns out to be yet another one who falls in that group, so be it. Let's not forget that even Ralph Klein's only federal affiliation was with the federal LIberals at some point.

    I don't think it's going to be a scandal. Albertans are not per se against federal Liberals; some are against what the party or certain prime ministers did in the past, but they are not opposed to liberalims at all.

    By Blogger George, at 12:06 p.m.  

  • I love Calgary Grit's posts!

    I don't understand Dinning supporting Martin. But then again, like CG said a lot of people don't understand Alberta politics.

    I remember watching Klein's news conference on his problem with alcohol and scratching my head thinking "why don't they run him out of town?"

    It is unfathomable to me how Klein was in power all these years.

    By Blogger Forward Looking Canadian, at 12:45 p.m.  

  • I'm not sure if the media will pick up on it, but Ted Morton is going to have a field day with this.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 12:46 p.m.  

  • Remember those weird days when Chretien was running things, Martin was quietly running his insurrection from the Finance Department and every conservative commentator was pushing the 'we need a fiscal realist like Martin in charge', 'everything will be marvelous if only the realists in the Liberals take over' 'yay Martin'? I actually saw pro Martin editorials in the CanWest and Sun chain papers.

    Of course once Martin took over they turned on him like maddened mongeese.

    Martin wanted to be a Bay Street, right wing business Liberal - his government fell because the conflicting needs of minority government and the dance partner who brung him drove him insane.

    When I was lobbying in Ottawa for my union in the summer of 2005 I spoke to MPs from every party. All the most vicious anti-Martin rhetoric came from back bench Chretinite Liberals.

    By Blogger Cliff, at 12:56 p.m.  

  • "...personally donated..."

    I'm beginning to think you're a popular blogger not because of your integrity, but because you happen to post a lot.

    Though I agree it's awfully embarassing for Dinning and should hurt his leadership campaign, I think it's a bit much to say he 'personally donated.'

    I'm a fan of your blog, maybe it is because you update often and don't bore us with too much rabble, but your credibility is eroding less then, well, Martin's.

    By Blogger Leroy McSodapop, at 7:05 p.m.  

  • Frank; While JD may not have "personally donated" the money, his company made the donation and he attached a "personal" note signed "kind personal regards", where he made some rather "personal" comments.

    Certainly this is a bit more than TransAlta making the donation on their own and Dinning having nothing to do with it as he's previously claimed.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 7:55 p.m.  

  • I still insist it won't hurt him. Alberta is not that anti-Liberal bloc that the rest of Canada believes it is.

    In fact, talking some "oldtimers" here in Alberta, I have found that they have no ill feelings towards the Liberals in general. They are angry over certain things the Liberals have done over the years (NEP, Adscam), but according to them, that doesn't mean the party itself is a write-off.

    Gerard Kennedy, for example, sold record numbers of Liberal memberships in rural Alberta. That says quite a lot, I think.

    By Blogger George, at 9:57 p.m.  

  • Naw, I know bloggers who post way more than Bart and get vastly less traffic.

    Granted, he's a *bit* partisan in my books - but he has a good general sense of things and is fair. He doesn't "hate" Conservatives or the NDP and bicker needlessly just for the point of bickering.

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 10:14 p.m.  

  • I just have to say how Impressed I am with the quality of investigative journalism in this country.

    Whazzat? The media didn't dig into this at a relevant time? No! They wouldn't!

    *&#$ %#@%!s

    By Blogger Paul, at 4:02 a.m.  

  • "Gerard Kennedy, for example, sold record numbers of Liberal memberships in rural Alberta."

    How hard would it be to break that record? How many did he sell?

    By Blogger Candace, at 1:37 p.m.  

  • Oh yeah, Michael Ignatieff didn't make it to the largest Liberal event of the year ouside of the convention, the Liberal BBQ in Toronto. 5000 Liberals attended. Does anyone still think this is because his mother in law is ill? HOw many other leadership candidates have needed a one month REST in the middle of the campaign? None. Can this guy be expected to fight an election against the Conservatives and then run the country? Not if he needs a one month rest now.

    By Blogger S.K., at 2:11 p.m.  

  • Lol.. very funny CG.. I'm not sure how it will all play out though. There are always many complicated reasons for the way people vote.

    By Blogger Eric, at 2:27 p.m.  

  • This reminds me of the time Belinda Stronach donated to paul Martin's campaign immediately before she jumped into the Conservative Party leadership race. That was a warning sign for me then.

    You're right, this will knock a few people off of the Dinning bandwagon. I wonder if it's too late for Preston to ride in...

    By Blogger Michael Fox, at 11:08 p.m.  

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