The Blackberry has just buzzed with excellent news from Calgary.
My good friend Jonathan Denis has been elected as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Calgary Egmont!
I don't have any numbers yet, but will be posting them once/if they are made public.
I have spoken at length about Jonathan's stellar qualifications for public office and the reasons we need more people like him in the Alberta Legislature. Still, I encourage you to visit his website and learn more about the best choice for Calgary Egmont.
Congrats Jono!
Showing posts with label Jonathan Denis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jonathan Denis. Show all posts
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Sunday, November 18, 2007
The albertatory drops in
On my way back to the left coast, I made an impromptu stop in Calgary. Surely, it doesn't take much to bring me back to a city I so dearly love, but I dropped in for a very important reason.
Seven years ago at the PC AGM in Calgary, I met a young and ambitious lawyer (only a few years my senior) who had recently moved to the Stampede City from Regina. We became friends very quickly and have shared many good times as active conservatives over the years. We have been keenly aware of each other's ambitions of public service and, naturally, very supportive of them.
I am speaking of my friend Jonathan Denis who was contesting the PC Alberta nomination in Calgary Egmont. I know first hand how nerve-wracking the nomination process can be for a candidate and I wanted to be there for support and, hopefully, to celebrate.
As has been reported, Craig Chandler was the victor of the Egmont nomination. The results were, out of a total of 1670 ballots cast:
Craig Chandler - 945
Jonathan Denis - 485
Rick Smith - 227
Jonathan and his campaign team worked tirelessly in their cause and have every reason to be proud of their efforts. They spoke of a positive and inclusive vision and managed to attract a wide array of new members to our party. And, although I will not share the percentage, I was amazed at the number of people who honoured their committment to vote for Jonathan. If I had had the turnout of ID'd supporters that he did, I would be a Member of Parliament.
Much like my friend Mr. Denis, I will take the high road and congratulate Mr. Chandler on his victory. Speculation of what his candidacy will mean for our party is something that I will stay away from for the time being.
In the meantime, I tip my hat and say bravo to Jonathan for the supurb fight he put up.
Briefly in closing, I was very pleased with the results of the other nominations I was watching over the past week. Bill Donahue, Kyle Fawcett, and Arthur Kent will all get the chance to carry the PC torch in the next election. To them I also extend my sincere congratulations and look forward to watching their respective campaigns take shape.
More on the upcoming nominations tomorrow... stay tuned!
Seven years ago at the PC AGM in Calgary, I met a young and ambitious lawyer (only a few years my senior) who had recently moved to the Stampede City from Regina. We became friends very quickly and have shared many good times as active conservatives over the years. We have been keenly aware of each other's ambitions of public service and, naturally, very supportive of them.
I am speaking of my friend Jonathan Denis who was contesting the PC Alberta nomination in Calgary Egmont. I know first hand how nerve-wracking the nomination process can be for a candidate and I wanted to be there for support and, hopefully, to celebrate.
As has been reported, Craig Chandler was the victor of the Egmont nomination. The results were, out of a total of 1670 ballots cast:
Craig Chandler - 945
Jonathan Denis - 485
Rick Smith - 227
Jonathan and his campaign team worked tirelessly in their cause and have every reason to be proud of their efforts. They spoke of a positive and inclusive vision and managed to attract a wide array of new members to our party. And, although I will not share the percentage, I was amazed at the number of people who honoured their committment to vote for Jonathan. If I had had the turnout of ID'd supporters that he did, I would be a Member of Parliament.
Much like my friend Mr. Denis, I will take the high road and congratulate Mr. Chandler on his victory. Speculation of what his candidacy will mean for our party is something that I will stay away from for the time being.
In the meantime, I tip my hat and say bravo to Jonathan for the supurb fight he put up.
Briefly in closing, I was very pleased with the results of the other nominations I was watching over the past week. Bill Donahue, Kyle Fawcett, and Arthur Kent will all get the chance to carry the PC torch in the next election. To them I also extend my sincere congratulations and look forward to watching their respective campaigns take shape.
More on the upcoming nominations tomorrow... stay tuned!
Monday, October 29, 2007
Renewal
For the record, i'm having a LOT of fun being back in the blogosphere.
Kudos for my return can go to a couple of unnamed regular readers (you know who you are) and, in a way, to the Premier himself for opening up this great big policy discussion on royalties.
One of the aforementioned regular readers shared a surprisingly accurate column from Paula Simons this morning, available online HERE.
I'm not sure what Paula put in her coffee this morning, but it sure has cleared up her thinking. She talks about a sea-change in Alberta's political thinking, made evident by the refreshingly open and frank discussion that Albertans have been having with their government and amongst themselves for the past five weeks. I couldn't agree more.
On the subject of change (or lack thereof), my Alberta-we're-not-Liberals-Liberal counterpart Dave has a post this morning suggesting that its the same old crowd running the government.
Not surprising, of course, but not terribly accurate either.
Dave points out that, of 61 PC MLAs, 42 have been re-nominated and that 19 of those have been in the Legislature since 1997 or earlier. Accurate.
What that means, though, is that over half of the incumbent PC MLAs have only been in the Legislature since 2001 or later.
Looking more closely at the representation around that cabinet table, and you can hardly claim a plethora of "stodgy" old tories. (Sidebar: I think Dave is way too cool to be using words like "stodgy")
Of the 22 Cabinet members (including Stelmach), only 5 were elected in 1993 during the "Miracle on the Prairies"... and one of them was elected as *gasp* an Alberta Liberal.
Fully half of the current Cabinet were elected in 2001 or 2004 and all but two of those 11 are first-time Cabinet Ministers.
I suspect the Liberals will counter with the fact that they've got a caucus/rump with plenty of people elected for the first time in 2004. Fair enough, but its not hard to get that kind of statistic when you consider the results of the election previous.
But let's look to the future.
The quality and calibre of some of the people who have stepped forward to seek (or have won) PC nominations is truly remarkable.
I'm talking about people like Jonathan Denis in Calgary-Egmont, Jennifer Diakiw in Calgary-Varsity, Kyle Fawcett in Calgary-North Hill, Alison Redford in Calgary-Elbow, Dr. Raj Sherman in Edmonton-Meadowlark, Bill Donahue in Edmonton-Centre, Justin (JC) Penny in Lethbridge West, and Monty Bauer in Athabasca-Redwater to name a few.
The fact that people like this are enthusiastically throwing their hat in the ring gives me great hope for the future of PC Alberta. Candidates like these represent various shifts in demographic, in generation, and in outlook. I think that, once Albertans see options like these on the ballot, the choice will be clear.
Dave's post was, as I said, completely expected. The "same old tory" line is one of the few that Kevin Taft seems able to use so i'm not surprised to see his party's number one blogger trotting it out.
What I do wonder, though, is if we're not seeing another strategy emerge...
At the end of his post, Dave takes a blistering swipe at the leadership of Stephane Dion and refers to the federal party as "Dion's Federal Liberals".
I have made nearly-continous reference to Kevin Taft's laughable efforts to distance himself and his party from the Liberal Party of Canada. I say laughable because I think there is far too much duplicity in the volunteer and donor bases of the two parties for it to be believeable. Still, you can understand some of Taft's rationale given the horrendous reputation that Stephane Dion and the Federal Liberals have amongst average Alberta voters.
But I smell a whiff of something more than just distancing. This may have been the opening salvo in an outward attack on Stephane Dion and the Federal Liberals. If so, Kevin Taft is taking a HUGE risk.
Even if the average Alberta voter does not care for Stephane Dion, i'm betting that your average Alberta Liberal volunteer or donor does. Trying to make voters believe he's not on the Dion team won't do him any good if he pisses off most of the people who hit the hustings to deliver his message (whatever it is) in the first place.
Some columnists have said that, in raising royalties on oil-and-gas, the Alberta PCs have alienated a large chunk of its donor base. I disagree, but even if it does have an effect on fundraising, the party is already in the most secure financial position of any political party in the country. Moreover, we seem to have regenerated and revitalized a province-wide team of grassroots volunteers.
Kevin Taft and the Liberals aren't starting from nearly as secure a position on either front. If he starts biting the hand that has fed his party for so long, it'll only get worse.
Kudos for my return can go to a couple of unnamed regular readers (you know who you are) and, in a way, to the Premier himself for opening up this great big policy discussion on royalties.
One of the aforementioned regular readers shared a surprisingly accurate column from Paula Simons this morning, available online HERE.
I'm not sure what Paula put in her coffee this morning, but it sure has cleared up her thinking. She talks about a sea-change in Alberta's political thinking, made evident by the refreshingly open and frank discussion that Albertans have been having with their government and amongst themselves for the past five weeks. I couldn't agree more.
On the subject of change (or lack thereof), my Alberta-we're-not-Liberals-Liberal counterpart Dave has a post this morning suggesting that its the same old crowd running the government.
Not surprising, of course, but not terribly accurate either.
Dave points out that, of 61 PC MLAs, 42 have been re-nominated and that 19 of those have been in the Legislature since 1997 or earlier. Accurate.
What that means, though, is that over half of the incumbent PC MLAs have only been in the Legislature since 2001 or later.
Looking more closely at the representation around that cabinet table, and you can hardly claim a plethora of "stodgy" old tories. (Sidebar: I think Dave is way too cool to be using words like "stodgy")
Of the 22 Cabinet members (including Stelmach), only 5 were elected in 1993 during the "Miracle on the Prairies"... and one of them was elected as *gasp* an Alberta Liberal.
Fully half of the current Cabinet were elected in 2001 or 2004 and all but two of those 11 are first-time Cabinet Ministers.
I suspect the Liberals will counter with the fact that they've got a caucus/rump with plenty of people elected for the first time in 2004. Fair enough, but its not hard to get that kind of statistic when you consider the results of the election previous.
But let's look to the future.
The quality and calibre of some of the people who have stepped forward to seek (or have won) PC nominations is truly remarkable.
I'm talking about people like Jonathan Denis in Calgary-Egmont, Jennifer Diakiw in Calgary-Varsity, Kyle Fawcett in Calgary-North Hill, Alison Redford in Calgary-Elbow, Dr. Raj Sherman in Edmonton-Meadowlark, Bill Donahue in Edmonton-Centre, Justin (JC) Penny in Lethbridge West, and Monty Bauer in Athabasca-Redwater to name a few.
The fact that people like this are enthusiastically throwing their hat in the ring gives me great hope for the future of PC Alberta. Candidates like these represent various shifts in demographic, in generation, and in outlook. I think that, once Albertans see options like these on the ballot, the choice will be clear.
Dave's post was, as I said, completely expected. The "same old tory" line is one of the few that Kevin Taft seems able to use so i'm not surprised to see his party's number one blogger trotting it out.
What I do wonder, though, is if we're not seeing another strategy emerge...
At the end of his post, Dave takes a blistering swipe at the leadership of Stephane Dion and refers to the federal party as "Dion's Federal Liberals".
I have made nearly-continous reference to Kevin Taft's laughable efforts to distance himself and his party from the Liberal Party of Canada. I say laughable because I think there is far too much duplicity in the volunteer and donor bases of the two parties for it to be believeable. Still, you can understand some of Taft's rationale given the horrendous reputation that Stephane Dion and the Federal Liberals have amongst average Alberta voters.
But I smell a whiff of something more than just distancing. This may have been the opening salvo in an outward attack on Stephane Dion and the Federal Liberals. If so, Kevin Taft is taking a HUGE risk.
Even if the average Alberta voter does not care for Stephane Dion, i'm betting that your average Alberta Liberal volunteer or donor does. Trying to make voters believe he's not on the Dion team won't do him any good if he pisses off most of the people who hit the hustings to deliver his message (whatever it is) in the first place.
Some columnists have said that, in raising royalties on oil-and-gas, the Alberta PCs have alienated a large chunk of its donor base. I disagree, but even if it does have an effect on fundraising, the party is already in the most secure financial position of any political party in the country. Moreover, we seem to have regenerated and revitalized a province-wide team of grassroots volunteers.
Kevin Taft and the Liberals aren't starting from nearly as secure a position on either front. If he starts biting the hand that has fed his party for so long, it'll only get worse.
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