Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Leor on April 30, 2011 at 9:50pm

Hello All,

 

Roger has been doing a great job of illustrating how exciting the Green campaign is going in Calgary Centre North so I haven't felt the need to weigh in but I will add this. Our volunteers are working very hard to get out the vote. We have identified an overwhelming number of supporters throughout this campaign. We ran out of lawn signs twice and continue to order more. We have engaged voters and especially youth in a way that no other campaign has done. The videos that Roger talked about are examples, as well as the Green Mile event which had more than 80 people turn up in the snow. This morning we served hundreds of pancakes to voters in the parking lot at North Hill Mall and our youth volunteers led chalking activities at SAIT, C-Train stations and various neighbourhoods around town.

 

Elizabeth May was the only federal leader to visit Calgary, which really energized people and got us front page coverage in the Calgary Herald. The reason May came here was because she knows we have a strong chance in Calgary Centre North. No other leader came to show that level of confidence in their candidate in Calgary.

 

Andrew said that according to the livestream from the Wildrose United debate, he felt Randall did best but I have not heard anyone who attended agree with that synopsis. I encourage anyone that wasn't there to watch this 15 min summary of the debate and see if you agree: http://youtu.be/kUU4Ihz8MfA Not in the video is all the booing and heckling that Randall received. Rempel of course received her fair share too but MacIntosh received none. That's because the Green Party does not have the same baggage as the other traditional and divisive parties. Greens are a comfortable alternative even for Conservatives

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The Green Party has been conducting a lot of polling. Both the national polls as well as polls that the Green Party paid for in Calgary Centre North demonstrate interesting trends. They show that people are hungry for change and they are willing to do something that they have not done before. Nationally, this means replace the official opposition and locally, it means look at new alternatives such as Green and NDP. It's important to note that the polls only reach landlines and therefore do not include a younger demographic, which the Greens typically tend to poll best with. The Liberals in Calgary Centre North started off strong. This is because Randall is indeed an excellent candidate. But after the Liberals identified their base of voters, they hit a plateau. They have stopped growing in support nearly two weeks ago. NDP started as a non-factor but the national polls are now causing their support to grow, however people still question the quality of the local candidate. Every time Rempell makes a public appearance, our polls show that she loses support. This explains why her team is reluctant to expose her too much. But Conservative voters are weary of her and will either stay home or move to their second place choice which for voters of every stripe - Cons, Libs and NDP - is overwhelmingly the Green Party. The Liberals are a second choice for almost no one. The question for us now is: is there enough time to expand Heather's momentum enough to catch Rempel whose support is slipping. We are doing our best to ensure this.

 

Cheers,

 

Leor

Permalink Reply by Laura Burton-Scheer on April 30, 2011 at 9:58pm

I think you're right about that debate, Leor - I was unable to attend, but watching through the video, I get the sense, as those who attended must surely have as well, that Heather's pragmatic platform really hits home and strikes at the core of what needs to happen to affect real change here - the kind of change people are looking for and won't find anywhere else.

Permalink Reply by Roger L. Gagne on May 1, 2011 at 11:17am

I got home from work at about 7 this morning, and I've been watching the full length video from the debate the other night at the Wild Rose United Church. Did anyone else notice that all the candidates CLAP for each other, EXCEPT Michelle Rempel?

 

Oh, right; we agree that the Tories need to be turfed. Okay...

 

Stephen Randall? Obviously, a fine man and a qualified candidate. But have you been awake in the past hundred years? He's running for the Liberal Party, and how many Liberal governments have we had in Canada?

 

Canada has given an average of $300 million annually to the nuclear industry since 1952; under Liberal governments, we've subsidized fossil fuels and their pollution to the tune of billions of dollars every year ( it's currently at $1.4 billion, under the Harper government.) And how marginally different have the Liberals been from the Conservatives? "Mainstream parties" indeed.

 

No more. Not in this riding. Canada and Calgary is ready for change, ready for stepping into a sustainable future for the 21st century. This is a future sketched out in Vision Green, the platform of the Green Party. And we have an excellent representative in Heather MacIntosh. Is it any wonder that she is the new voice capturing people's attention in this riding?

Permalink Reply by Roger L. Gagne on May 1, 2011 at 12:04pm

Hey, Vincent, were you at the Wild Rose debate? Did you notice the four + times that Stephen Randall said "Heather is absolutely right", or "I agree with Heather"...?

 

Stephen is not a stupid man. I think he is probably quite politically astute. I think he has been paying attention to the winds and the tides of public opinion, and deliberately chose to send a signal to CCN voters an acknowledgement and affirmation of a candidate he would be happy to support.

Permalink Reply by Roger L. Gagne on May 1, 2011 at 12:09pm

I don't make a habit of asking people who they're planning to vote for, other than during the two door-knocking sessions I volunteered in a week or two ago. But there are three co-workers, and then three other owners in my condo building, who actually told me who they're voting for; Green, every one of them. I do not personally know anyone who has stated they are voting NDP, Liberal, Conservative. But I know dozens of people in this riding who are voting Green.

Permalink Reply by Scott on May 1, 2011 at 2:50pm

I thought the whole point of this website - and in stopping a Harper government - was to put aside partisan politics and get behind the candidate with the best chance of stopping another conservative trained seal from being elected.

So far, all I've read is a bunch of the opposite, which will lead to a result which this website was created for in the first place.

I think it's time to park all your personal feelings about your candidate and your own political views and do what's right for the country at this moment in time.

Until all you anti-Harper voters get on the same page and get over your stubbornness, all the ridings in Calgary will continue to produce trained seals.

Calgary East has huge potential for an upset, as does Calgary Centre North but your partisan politics won't help. As for Calgary Southwest, I'm at the mercy of a bunch of old people who keep whining about Pierre Trudeau "stealing our oil' 30 years after the fact and stinking rich people who want more of the same make the rich richer and keep the poor poorer.

Let May have her day in BC, and get behind the two Libs in C East and C Centre North who are, clearly, intelligent and well spoken.

Permalink Reply by Roger L. Gagne on May 1, 2011 at 7:48pm

Hi Scott,

 

I genuinely believe that Heather MacIntosh will finish ahead of Liberal Stephen Randall tomorrow. I hope that she will also finish ahead of Michelle Rempel.

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