Friday, September 23, 2011

Convince Me

Nation, as I indicated in my most recent missive, I'm conflicted about this second stage of the PC Leadership race.

One of the big sticking points for me has been my awareness - seemingly rare among politicos - that I do not, in fact, know everything about everything.

Not to worry - I still knew MORE than enough to inform a Wildrose candidate on Twitter earlier today that his calls for "transparency" rang hollow, coming from someone whose party leader didn't release the list of donors to her own campaign. He accused me of innuendo, and informed me (as the well-informed candidate for an MLA job that he is) that all donations were posted on the Elections Alberta website. They're not, and that's not the rule. Leadership races are voluntary disclosure because you're donating to a person, not a registered political party. Oops. Might be something you want to know before throwing around words like "transparency" or running for office to re-write laws that you clearly don't understand.
But hey, this isn't about the ignorance - willful or otherwise - of a candidate for public office. That time will come. This is about MY blind spots. The things I don't know, or can't see, about the 3 remaining contenders for the leadership of the PC Party.

As I've mentioned before, there are people I know and respect who are backing each of the 3 finalists. What I want from them in this last 8 days of the campaign, then, is a little help. Not press releases or retweets from the official campaign account - I've seen more than enough of those.

I want to hear from people I *know*, in their OWN words...  why is your candidate the best choice to unite the party? To renew it? To reinvent the way the PC Party relates to Albertans? To make the party relevant again? To govern justly and with empathy and wisdom?

Convince me, Friends. Why should I, and my readers, support your candidate? Don't tell me he's got an "inspiring vision" - tell me what the vision IS. Don't tell me what she's done - tell me what she's GOING to do.

Send your pitch to oberhoffner (at) facebook.com.  A sample of the best ones advocating each candidate - with the names of the senders removed - will be posted on the blog, to convince the Nation.

I await Enlightenment.

Stepping off my soap-box, to make room for you and YOUR candidate...

- E.S.

5 comments:

@dollhouseyyc said...

Who are we?

Not about hero worship or about a saviour... at least not yet.

What have we done?.. In truth, not much.

What can we do?... That remans to be seen but what we are doing is trying to assemble the best brightest, involved and passionate Albertans togeter to build something new.

Still on the ground floor, but this elevator ride is going to be fun... Interested?
@dollhouseyyc

Jane Morgan said...

@dollhouseyyc

I think Joey was addressing PC leadership candidates.

Good to see though that the Alberta Party has grown and moved from the phone booth to an elevator.

Jane Morgan said...

Joey,

I'm pretty sure the individual is a nominee for a candidate position and not in fact (or yet) the "nominated"
candidate.

Enlightened Savage said...

Thanks for the clarification, Jane.

At any rate, you're welcome to him. ;)

Derrick Jacobson said...

We have cake. This is as good of a reason as any. That is all LOL