ALF V1

With polls predicting a Wildrose government, several groups went public this week pleading with Albertans for anything but.

The Alberta Federation of Labour called every Albertan with a landline phone over three days earlier this week, conducting a poll or leaving a message on answering machines suggesting that both the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties are wrong on health care.

"Many of you are justifiably angry with the Conservatives, They have brought us bed shortages, doctor intimidation, creeping privatization and a broken long-term care system, but if you care about medicare Wildrose is not the answer," said AFL president Gil McGowan in the message.

The message states the Wildrose intends to create a two-tiered system.

"They are committed to using public funds as seed money to facilitate the growth of corporate for-profit care."

The AFL has been a sharp critic of the ruling Conservatives, but in the recorded message McGowan argued the Wildrose are no better.

"On election day don't forget how badly the Conservatives have handled health care, but please don't support a party that would destroy medicare as we know it."

McGowan said the recorded message was left only when their calls didn't connect with a person. When a person answered the phone they were given a poll on issues around health care and the Wildrose platform.

Wildrose leader Danielle Smith countered the attack and said the party doesn't believe Albertans are concerned about how they receive health care, only how they pay for it.

"We believe that as long as a person doesn't have to pull out their credit card or their chequebook to pay for care that it doesn't matter to them if they go to a hospital or a private clinic to get their treatment."

She said their plan is not privatization and will actually improve the public system.

"Anyone who will go on our website, look at our platform and our wait time guarantee, knows that we are committed to the principles of the Canada Health Act."

McGowan said the recorded message is not a reluctant endorsement of the Conservatives over the Wildrose, but is a rebuke of both right wing parties. He said he wants medicare protected and both parties have worrying records.

"I have no confidence that the Conservatives will do that, based on their track record and based on the roster of people in the party."

He said he is pleased to see Albertans are prepared to change the government, but he doesn't think the Wildrose are offering real change.

"They have finally got up the courage to vote out the Conservative party, but they are putting their hopes on a party that will make a bad situation even worse."

The AFL's move comes as other groups are also calling for an "anybody but Wildrose" movement. A video entitled "I never thought I would vote PC" was posted online and calls for left-wing voters to hold their nose and vote Tory to prevent the Wildrose from forming government.

Smith said voters should look for themselves at her party's platform and decide if it represents them.

"I hope that they will look at our policies and will look at our platform and vote for the party that best represents their views on where Alberta has to go."

She said regardless of the outcome, she expects Monday's vote to create a better legislature that isn't dominated by one party.

Alberta has legislation that requires third party groups to register if they conduct political advertising, but McGowan argued the AFL campaign is in fact a poll and not an advertisement.

"It is a poll and we left a message for those who didn't get the live call."

St. Albert Gazette, Sat Apr 21 2012
Byline: Ryan Tumilty

EDMONTON - A live audience heckled and booed Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith at a leader's debate Thursday after she said she isn't convinced that climate change is real.

Smith, the front-runner in the race to become Alberta's next premier, was poised and unflappable despite the deafening jeers from the crowd.

"We've been watching the debate in the scientific community, and there is still a debate," Smith said. "I will continue to watch the debate in the scientific community, but that's not an excuse not to act."

Smith said she is frustrated by the climate change debate because politicians set impossibly high targets then do nothing to achieve them. She said the Wildrose will take a different approach, putting in place "constructive policies" that reduce overall emissions.

"Having consumer rebates, so people can make home renovations, do energy audits, switch to micro-generation, get a new hybrid vehicle or natural gas, switch to natural gas powered electricity," she said. "All of these things will have a really positive impact on reducing greenhouse gases, reducing overall toxic emissions and also saving Albertans a little bit of money."

She also chastised the Progressive Conservatives for wasting $2 billion on the province's carbon capture and storage program.

Her political opponents piled on.

"Rebates are not going to fix this problem," NDP Leader Brian Mason said. "The science is completely settled. The only people who are disputing it are the phoney scientists funded by the oil industry.

"We need to get serious about it, and we need to have some hard caps on (carbon) emissions. We need to move away from coal-fired electricity generation and we need to fund transit in a big way in this province. ... Denying the science of climate change is just foolish."

Progressive Conservative Leader Alison Redford said denying climate change will undermine Alberta's reputation on the global stage.

"When I go to Washington, and I talk to people in the White House, on Capitol Hill, and I'm trying to talk to them about why we need Keystone, they don't want to hear that I don't believe in climate change.

"They want to know that they have a premier and a leader from our province who understand that this impacts our markets, this impacts our investors, and if we don't take it seriously it's going to impact our economy and our way of life."

Liberal Leader Raj Sherman said the province must put a real price on carbon.

"If we put a real price on carbon, and have the big emitters decrease to 50,000 tonnes a year instead from 100,000, we will generate $1.8 billion a year four years from now," Sherman said. "Half of that goes to industry to green their technology, half of it goes to municipalities on a per-capita basis to green their transportation."

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, the Alberta Party acknowledge that climate change is real and proposed a move away from coal-fired electricity and increased emissions standards and steps to more prudently manage water.

A Pembina Institute study released in December said all of Alberta's climate-change strategies put together will cut emissions by 14 megatonnes by 2020, less than one-third of the goal of 50 megatonnes.

The institute issued six recommendations, including a substantial increase to the price of carbon (to $30 per tonne from $15) and requiring companies to pay tax on all of the carbon they emit — not just the current 12 per cent.

The institute also called on the government to "moderate the rate of approval" for new oilsands facilities and to implement stringent, mandatory greenhouse gas intensity standards for those that are approved.

Edmonton Journal, Fri Apr 20 2012
Byline: Karen Kleiss

CHESTERMERE - With polls showing a significant possibility of a minority government following the April 23 election, speculation has begun on whether some newly elected MLAs might cross the floor to either the Wildrose party or the Progressive Conservatives.

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said Wednesday she's heard some northern Alberta PC candidates have told voters they will switch parties should the Wildrose win the election.

"I can tell you our candidates up there aren't very impressed by that and I don't think voters are going to be impressed by that," said Smith, who did not name the PC candidates in question.

She indicated Tories who try to cross the floor after the election may not find a welcoming environment from a Wildrose government.

"We had the door open for a period of time. We had only three former PC MLAs who ended up coming over (Rob Anderson, Heather Forsyth and Guy Boutilier) and so we closed the door and we moved forward with our terrific team. I'm more focused on getting each one of my Wildrose candidates elected."

PC nominees in northern and central Alberta called the rumours of defections ridiculous.

"You've got to be kidding," Bonnyville-Cold Lake candidate Genia Leskiw said. "There are too many things in the Wildrose party I don't believe in, and when a constituency elects you as a member of a certain party, you should stick with it."

To the south in Battle River-Wainwright, candidate Doug Griffiths said the story sounds like a "trial balloon" being floated by Smith in case she winds up in a minority government.

"With her poll numbers going down, I think maybe she's getting desperate," he said. "I don't know any of my PC colleagues who would consider that. There is strong dislike for the Wildrose tactics."

Still, as Mount Royal University professor Duane Bratt notes, politicians are undoubtedly thinking about what the legislature might look like under a minority government. Such a scenario would put Alberta into uncharted political territory, forcing all MLAs and party leaders to make a number of difficult strategic decisions, he said.

Bratt said in a minority regime, it's more likely that PC members would cross the floor to the Wildrose than the other way around.

"If you are a Wildrose guy and you have just brought the PCs down to a minority situation, you will be playing for time to win the next election," Bratt said.

"But I could see PCs leaving a sinking ship," he said. "As a big-tent party, you have people in the PCs because it's power. So if power starts to shift ..."

But even if some PCs offer to cross the floor, Smith must decide whether it is strategically wise to accept them. Bratt said such decisions have to be handled on a case-by-case basis. One condition would likely be that a Tory must have strong conservative credentials to join Smith's team.

Another opening might occur if a Tory is needed to fill a geographic or regional hole in the Wildrose caucus.

"Let's say we have a Wildrose minority with no MLAs from Edmonton, which is a scenario that could happen," Bratt said. "The Wildrose might be willing to take an Edmonton MLA willing to cross the floor."

Bratt said NDP or Liberal bluster about holding the "balance of power" in a minority government is more fiction that reality. He pointed to recent minority governments at the federal level, in which Prime Minister Stephen Harper used an "ad-hoc relationship" approach that saw him stay in power by seeking support from either the Liberals or NDP on different issues.

"If you look at those governments, who would you say was the more powerful leader, Stephen Harper or Jack Layton?" Bratt said. "It wasn't Jack Layton."

In Alberta, the same sort of fate could await NDP Leader Brian Mason or Liberal Leader Raj Sherman, he said. As for a PC opposition in a minority, they, too, would be limited in what they could do.

"You'd get these sort of ultimatums, with the Wildrose daring the Conservatives to go to the polls again when they don't have a leader," said Bratt, suggesting that current PC leader Alison Redford would likely resign if her party loses power.

He said the "ad-hoc relationship" Harper used is the most common form of minority government in Canada, and the one Smith has indicated she will use if elected as a minority premier.

As an alternative, two or more parties could consider forming a fixed coalition, which hasn't happened in Canada since the First World War, Bratt said.

Another possibility would be a formal agreement between a senior and junior party, in which the junior partner does not sit in cabinet but agrees to support the other party on all confidence motions for a set period of time.

A fourth option involves a "loose alliance" in which there is no written agreement but a ruling party could count on backing from an opposition party in exchange for movement on some of that party's issues.

Jeff Johnson, the Tory candidate in Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater, said no matter what kind of legislature develops after the election, he knows of no PCs planning to join Smith. He said when Smith won the Wildrose leadership in 2009, there were reports that as many as 12 Tory MLAs would join her party.

"No one crossed then. Two eventually did, but right now I can tell you I am in pretty constant contact with my colleagues in the north, and there is no appetite to join the Wildrose."

Edmonton Journal, Fri Apr 20 2012
Byline: Kevin Gerein

But seat projections for Danielle Smith Wildrose majority come with big caveat

The Wildrose party would win a healthy majority government with 50 to 60 seats, based on the results of the latest public opinion poll, says an analyst renowned for the accuracy of her seat projections.

But Janet Brown, a public opinion research consultant, said her prediction comes with a big caveat.

The model she uses to do seat projections shows half the province's 87 ridings have a margin of victory of less than 10 per cent.

"At this point, unexpected events can have a big impact and the get-out-the-vote efforts of individual parties could have a big impact," Brown said in an interview Wednesday.

"So I'm sort of prepared to say that it looks like it's going to be a Wildrose majority, but I'm not necessarily prepared to say it's definitely going to be a Wildrose majority," Brown said.

A Leger Marketing poll, commissioned by the Calgary Herald and Edmonton Journal, shows Wildrose with 42 per cent support among decided voters while the Progressive Conservatives are at 36 per cent.

The survey, conducted between last Friday and Monday, shows 10 per cent support for the NDP, nine per cent for the Liberals and two per cent for the Alberta Party.

Brown's seat projection ranges would indicate a fundamental reshaping of Alberta politics.

The Tories - in power continuously since 1971 - would be reduced to somewhere between 23 and 33 seats. The Liberals, the official Opposition in the last legislature, face the possibility of being wiped out with a range of zero to three seats.

The NDP stands to win somewhere between two and five ridings.

Brown, who accurately predicted the 72-seat Tory win in 2008 and was a couple seats off in 2004, said she's less confident in her forecasts this time around because the provincial political scene is "a whole different kettle of fish" compared to the years of the Tory dynasty.

Wildrose - which won no seats in the 2008 election though it held four in the last legislature because of defections and a byelection win - has essentially risen from obscurity, she said. As well, three of the four parties have rookie leaders.

The Leger telephone survey of 1,200 Albertans has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

The timing - the survey was conducted between April 13 and 16 - means some respondents would have been aware of the furor over an Edmonton Wildrose candidate's anti-gay blog.

But the polling was completed before CalgaryGreenway candidate Ron Leech landed in hot water after saying he had an advantage because he was Caucasian.

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said her party is staying focused on winning a majority government in the final days leading up to the April 23 vote.

"We are wanting to win 44 plus seats but it is very, very close," she told reporters in Chestermere Wednesday.

"I think we've identified 23 constituencies where it's very, very close and we want to make sure that we want to give that last-minute support to our candidates. We want to do what we can to be able to help people make up their mind," said Smith, adding that she would travel over the coming days to seats where she can help push candidates over the top.

An e-mail sent to Tory supporters from the PC campaign said the Leger poll was good news for the Tories because of the tightness of the race, especially in Edmonton and Calgary and the large number of undecided voters still left in the latter days of the campaign.

PC Leader Alison Redford said she wouldn't comment on the numbers, but the final four days of the campaign will be crucial.

"What we're talking about right now . . . is Albertans looking at the people they think they want to lead their province, how they want their province to be represented in Canada and how they want their province represented in the world," she said.

The Liberals may be lacking the funds of the two larger parties but are undaunted by poll numbers and ready for election day, said Leader Raj Sherman. "We have local teams that have identified a lot of local voters and they are going to get the vote out," he said.

New Democrat Brian Mason said Wednesday he still expects some voter intentions to change in the time between the poll and election day. "Just taking a brief snapshot in time, it's interesting, but it's not going to reflect the final result," he said.

Calgary Herald, Thurs Apr 19 2012
Byline: James Wood

McGowan urges voters to reject both conservative parties and, instead, support parties that will "go to the wall" to keep Medicare public

Alberta voters are clearly turning away from the Conservatives, but a massive poll conducted for the Alberta Federation of Labour over the past two days shows that most Albertans don't support one of the main platform promises made by the front-running Wildrose party (click here for poll results).

At the heart of Wildrose's so-called Wait Time Guarantee is a promise to use public funds as seed money to facilitate the expansion of corporate, for-profit health care. Wildrose leader Danielle Smith has said that a Wildrose government would consciously and deliberately encourage the development of a parallel, for-profit health-care sector.

She says such a sector will improve health care by introducing more choice and competition – even though experience and research from around the world (and even right here in Alberta) shows that for-profit delivery of health services costs more and delivers lower quality care.

"We were concerned that in all the enthusiasm to get rid of the Conservatives, who clearly have been in power far too long, Albertans haven't been looking closely enough at what the Wildrose has to say about health care. That's why we decided to do the poll," says AFL president Gil McGowan.

"Well over 26,000 Albertans from all over the province responded to the survey, and the vast majority – 57 per cent – told us that they are opposed to using tax dollars to expand profit-driven health care. Only 15 per cent support the Wildrose idea of funding for-profit care with public money. Twenty-eight per cent were undecided. If we look at just those who have made up their minds on this issue, 79 per cent are opposed to public money going to for-profit health care. What the poll shows is that there is no meaningful support for the Wildrose prescription for health care."

In addition to releasing the poll results, McGowan is also circulating an open letter to Albertans, urging them to reject both of Alberta's conservative parties and, instead, vote for parties that actually believe in Medicare and will "go to the wall to defend it."

"The notion that people should vote for the Conservatives to stop the Wildrose and defend Medicare is ludicrous," said McGowan, explaining the rationale for sending the letter.

"This is the party that brought us Bill 11 and the Third Way. More importantly, if the Conservatives lose, as they seem likely to, then the party will almost certainly move to the right to chase the supporters they've lost to the Wildrose. They will also almost certainly turf Alison Redford and replace her with someone much more conservative. Do you really want to rely on someone like Ted Morton to stand up for Medicare when it's under attack? Frankly, that's a nightmare situation. When the fight to preserve Medicare comes, as it almost certainly will with a Wildrose government, then we need parties and MLAs who will stand up to the Wildrose, not join in the carnage."

The AFL's province-wide survey was conducted April 17 and 18 by the firm Public Polling. 26,487 Albertans from all regions completed the questionnaire, meaning the survey has a very small margin of error (plus/minus 0.6 per cent 19 times out of twenty).

-30-

For more information call:

Gil McGowan, President @ (780) 218-9888 (cell)

EDMONTON — With just three days until Monday's vote, many Edmontonians may be caught in a dilemma — do they vote Progressive Conservative for the first time to stave off a Wildrose victory, or do they vote for the opposition party they have traditionally supported?

The strategic voting factor is looming so large in so many minds it seems to have spooked opposition leaders, who have much to lose if their voters abandon them for the Conservatives.

Liberal Leader Raj Sherman, NDP Leader Brian Mason and Alberta Party Leader Glenn Taylor all started warning Albertans this week not to vote negatively but rather positively — for the candidate who best represents their values. That's code for: "Stick with us."

Mason put it bluntly at the CBC leaders' forum in Edmonton Thursday: "Voting for one right-wing party to keep the other out is foolish."

Sherman's party, meanwhile, created a website this week — toryorwildrose.ca — to highlight the similarities between the two right-of-centre parties.

But those appeals may be falling on deaf ears.

"I'm hearing a lot of Liberals and New Democrats talking about maybe biting the bullet and voting PC to stop the Wildrose," says Dave Cournoyer, a left-of-centre blogger and creator of the popular website Daveberta.ca.

"I'm hearing a lot of people talking about how they don't see any difference between the PCs and the Wildrose, so they're going to vote strategically for the progressive candidate who can win the riding.

"Or they're going to vote their conscience and vote for the party that they actually want to vote for and throw the strategic voting thing out the window."

The Liberal base, about 25 per cent of the 2008 popular vote, is vote-rich territory for the Tories looking for a bulwark against the Wildrose. There are signs that base, in Edmonton, is slipping: In the capital, the Liberals were down to 13 per cent in a recent Edmonton Journal-Calgary Herald poll, while the New Democrats polled at 17 per cent of decided voters. The Wildrose and Tories were polling at 33 and 35 per cent in Edmonton, respectively.

While the Wildrose campaign team is downplaying strategic voting as "Tory spin," leader Danielle Smith urged voters Thursday to vote with their hearts.

"It's very clear that the PCs are hopeful that the Liberal and ND support will migrate over to their party (but) I think people should vote on what they truly believe," Smith said, suggesting Alison Redford won the Progressive Conservative leadership last fall because she drew support from the more left-wing parties. "I think because it worked for her in the PC leadership, she's hoping it will work for her in the general election."

Earlier this week, a group of social activists and actors in their 20s created an online video called "I never thought I'd vote PC," featuring a handful of young people prepared, with regret, to vote for the Conservatives. "I would rather have my face eaten off by rodents" than vote for the Tories, quips one young man, before urging voters to choose anyone but the Wildrose.

In Edmonton, an advocacy group called ChangeAlberta.ca is trying to convince progressive voters in 42 key ridings to rally around a single opposition candidate rather than split votes among the Liberals, NDP, Alberta Party and EverGreens.

But even their efforts are being side-swiped by strategic voting aimed at staving off the Wildrose, organizer Alvin Finkel said. Combined support for the traditional left-of-centre parties appears to be shrinking in the polls compared to ballots cast in 2008.

That's surely a sign of Liberals deciding to vote Conservative, Finkel said, a trend that undercuts his group's efforts to elect progressive candidates.

Edmonton-Glenora may be one of the tightest races in the city. But with five high-profile candidates, making a "strategic" vote is near-impossible. Current cabinet minister Heather Klimchuk is running for the Progressive Conservatives, former MLA Bruce Miller for the Liberals, former school board trustee Sue Huff for the Alberta Party, political stalwart Ray Martin for the NDP, and former mayoral candidate Don Koziak for the Wildrose.

"I think people are really, really torn," Huff said. "It seems like the closer we get to the election, the more undecided people are. ... People are very, very afraid that, it's like, 'Well, I may just have to hold my nose and vote for someone I don't want because I really, really, really don't want the Wildrose in.' "

The Conservative candidate in Edmonton-Rutherford, Fred Horne, could potentially benefit from strategic voting in his tight race. But the current cabinet minister said no one is raising the issue on the doorsteps.

"I always ascribed to the notion people want to vote affirmatively, they want to vote for something," Horne said. "In the end, it's everybody's individual choice."

Liberal Arif Khan is trying to hold onto the Edmonton-Riverview seat won by former Liberal leader Kevin Taft against strong Tory candidate and police officer Steve Young. Worried that he could lose voters to the Tories, Khan put out a new pamphlet in the last week of the campaign showing that the Liberals have the best chance of beating the Wildrose in the south Edmonton riding based on voter turnout in the last three elections.

The NDP in Edmonton-Gold Bar are also taking a strategic approach in an effort to elect Marlin Schmidt in the riding formerly held by longtime Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald.

"New Democrats are generally not huge supporters of strategic voting," said campaign manager Lou Arab.

Still, he thinks Schmidt is a front-runner, though he has no riding breakdown of recent polls. "We've started putting out some information about where the polls stand in Edmonton, what we think is the shape of the race, which is very much that you can vote for Marlin Schmidt knowing that he has one of the best chances of any of the so-called progressive parties today."

Liberal candidate Josipa Petrunic can make a convincing case herself, however, as the strategic progressive candidate: Edmonton-Gold Bar has been held by the Liberals since 1986.

Cournoyer said people who talk about Alberta politics online — on websites, on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook — are already engaged in politics and have likely decided who they will vote for. Strategic voting may hold less interest for voters with less interest in politics.

"The big question is the people who aren't hooked into social media, and engaged in politics 24-7. How are they going to vote on election day?" Cournoyer said. "Are they actually going to think about strategic voting? Are they actually going to vote for who they want, or are they going to vote to change the government?"

Edmonton Journal, Thurs Apr 19 2012
Byline: Sheila Pratt and Trish Audette

The Alberta Federation of Labour is being investigated by Elections Alberta after conducting a provincial telephone poll decrying the Wildrose Party.

In a robocall telephone poll that called 1.54 million Albertans from April 17 to April 18, the federation asked "do you support or do you oppose the Wildrose plan to use taxpayer money to subsidize corporate, for-profit health care?"

If someone misses the call, a taped message is left by AFL President Gil McGowan pleading with conservative-minded voters that "if you care about medicare, Wildrose is not the answer."

Elections Alberta says it has received numerous complaints against the AFL about the calls.

And the Wildrose Party is alleging the poll breaks laws that require third-party advertisers to be registered with Elections Alberta. Violators of the law can face fines of up to $100,000 in court.

"We have opened a file and will determine if the AFL was in compliance or not in compliance," said Drew Westwater, a spokesman with Elections Alberta.

In 2008, the Progressive Conservative government imposed a gag order to stop organizations like the AFL — who represent several unions and employee associations — from advertising during a provincial election.

"Instead we conducted a poll, which is not prohibited under the legislation," said McGowan.

"It's our position that we did not violate the legislation because it clearly allows organizations such as ourselves to conduct polls."

McGowan said the poll showed 57% of the 27,000 respondents do not support the Wildrose platform for health care.

While the poll and voicemail message highlights the faulty policies of the PCs while advocating against the Wildrose, McGowan said they never state the non-partisan organization supports any party in particular.

But they do.

Prior to the election, the 29 union presidents represented by the AFL asked for a breakdown of each party's campaign platforms.

After that, it was determined the NDP platform was the most beneficial and the AFL decided to actively advocate for the election of NDP candidates on their website.

Elections Canada asked the AFL to shut down their website during the election because of their support for NDP candidates. The AFL refused, however, and McGowan challenged Elections Alberta on the issue.

"We think it's ludicrous that organizations should be forced to shut down their website during an election campaign," he said.

"It was an outrageous restriction of freedom of expression."

McGowan said the poll wasn't conducted on behalf of the NDP.

"We did it because we thought the Wildrose is getting a free ride in terms of their plans for the privatization of health care," he said.

"If Danielle Smith and her party get elected and move forward with the promises they made, it will be the end of medicare as we know it.

"For us, it's really important that progressive voters support parties and candidates who really believe in medicare and will go to the wall to defend it."

McGowan said they have received nearly 80 responses to their poll — half of which are complaints against the AFL for conducting the poll.

Audrey, a 73-year-old Riverbend resident who didn't want her last name published, said she received two calls from the AFL and doesn't think they have any business conducting a robocall campaign.

"They've got nothing to do with this election," she said.

"I'm sure their members can have their own opinion but I just don't think they should be involved in trying to find out whether you're voting for Wildrose or the PCs on the issue.

"They're not supposed to support parties or tell their members who to vote for."

The Wildrose said it will be filing an official complaint with Alberta's chief electoral officer.

Edmonton Sun, Thurs Apr 19 2012
Byline: Matthew Dykstra

Alberta Liberal candidate describes Wildrose candidates as 'homophobic,' PCs as 'corrupt/incompetent/bullying'

Wildrose candidates are "homophobic, climate change deniers" and "bigots" while the PCs are "corrupt/incompetent/bullying" and "senior neglecting," Liberal Leader Raj Sherman shot out to the Twitterverse this week.

His comments, re-tweeted by dozens of supporters but decried by others as feckless and overly negative, are the latest in an increasingly rough-and-tumble campaign that has other party leaders calling for a return to civility.

"It's really just silly and it's beneath Raj to do something like that," Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said Wednesday.

"We need to ratchet down some of the rhetoric and focus on what this campaign is supposed to be about. It's supposed to be a robust discussion about ideas and a big-picture discussion about where our province is headed."

No one from the Progressive Conservatives was available to comment on Sherman's tweet. But the Liberal leader did not back down from his 140-character assessments of both the Wildrose and PC parties, who he also said are hell-bent on privatizing education and health care.

"I could have written those tweets more eloquently," he acknowledged in an interview. But "do you think Raj Sherman has ever been one to mince words?"

"I challenge anyone to say what I said wasn't true."

Sherman's tweet comes the same week Edmonton Wildrose candidate Allan Hunsperger made headlines when a blog he wrote last year warned homosexuals they will suffer for eternity in a "lake of fire."

Calgary Wildrose candidate Ron Leech was in the spotlight for stating during a weekend radio interview he thinks he has an electoral advantage because he is "Caucasian" (he later apologized, saying the comment didn't reflect his true feelings on the matter).

Sherman has also criticized Smith for saying the science on climate change has yet to be settled, and has attacked the Tory government for its decision not to hold a full inquiry into physician intimidation.

His tweet is not unusual in the lawless world of Twitter, it's just not language usually heard from a party leader.

But with his party polling between nine per cent and 12 per cent in Calgary and Edmonton - traditionally strong centres of support - Rebecca Sullivan, a professor of cultural studies at the University of Calgary, said Sherman's comments are a "Hail Mary" pass.

"It's very unusual for the political leader to get their hands dirty," she said. "They usually have operatives do that for them."

Sullivan said as use of Twitter and other quick-moving social media in-creases, so will concerns about civility in political discourse. But she added Sherman's words will speak to some Alberta voters.

"This wasn't a 3 a.m. tweet that he then has to turn around and apologize for. It's a Hail Mary pass, and it's one that's grounded in a series of headlines," she said. "He may actually get some votes out of it."

Sherman's tweet follows Mayor Naheed Nenshi saying on Tuesday he was disappointed by Leech's comments. On Wednesday, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel also called on the Wildrose leader to "clearly refute" comments by her party's candidates about race and homosexuality.

"It's not representative of Alberta or Albertans," Mandel said.

In Calgary on Wednesday, Calgary Chamber of Commerce CEO Adam Legge said it's important the city be seen "as an open, welcoming com-munity."

"Anytime you exhibit or have a portrayal of yourself as being less tolerant, you have a potential to jeopardize economic competitiveness," Legge added. "We need to do everything we can to position Alberta in a positive light."

Calgary Herald, Thurs Apr 19 2012
Byline: Kelly Cryderman

CALGARY — As the Tories and Wildrose parties fire off accusations over how the other intends to manage public services, Alberta's unions are now dividing between those willing to endorse a party and those who are not.

Some groups, like the Canadian Union of Public Employees (backing the NDP) and the Calgary Police Association (behind the Tories) are making their views well known.

And the Alberta Federation of Labour has a telephone push poll on health care where president Gil McGowan scolds the PCs and warns against a Wildrose plan to "destroy medicare as we know it."

The automated calls are drawing ire of the Wildrose, which says it has no plans to privatize the system. It says it will file a complaint, and Elections Alberta is already looking into the poll for possible violations of third-party advertising rules.

But some of the province's biggest unions, including the large Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, are not endorsing a party or wading into the same type of antagonism, despite the heated rhetoric and one of most competitive provincial election in four decades.

The onrush of negative, union-backed advertising faced by Premier Ed Stelmach leading up to the 2008 election has not been repeated heading to the April 23 vote.

Mount Royal University political analyst David Taras said a combination of new, third-party advertising rules and a more cautious wait-and-see approach is making for a quieter union presence than four years ago.

"They're being very careful," Taras said. "There isn't this onslaught."

The Wildrose has pledged to cut the number of senior managers and push money into front-line services, something backed by the AUPE.

However, the union says the plan to freeze wages for all public employees until the province gets back into surplus is a non-starter.

The Tories have accused their Wildrose counterparts of planning to cap spending to the extent that health care and education will suffer.

But the PCs have faced scrutiny from the Alberta Medical Association, which has criticized some of Redford's health care plans.

Meanwhile, the NDP accuses the PCs of planning cuts of their own by privatizing certain services. The Liberals have said they want to slash wasteful spending.

AUPE president Guy Smith said he doesn't fear whatever government comes next, largely because the union is far better organized than when the public service got a bruising during deep cuts under former premier Ralph Klein in the 1990s.

But if the Wildrose wins, Smith said the party will need some time to get its feet wet in government, and is urging them to hold back on any purge of upper management at the civil service.

"If they clean those out, then there's going to be a lot of uncertainty and instability in the public sector in services already a little fragile, as it is," Smith said.

In this city, the Calgary Police Association has endorsed the Tories.

Association president John Dooks called PC Leader Alison Redford "gutsy" for introducing various legislation, including new penalties for drivers with a blood-alcohol level between 0.05 and 0.08.

"She's shown the courage to do what was right when (it) was needed, not just what was popular," Dooks said.

But he said it's difficult to gauge what kind of sway the endorsement might have.

In the 2010 municipal election, the association got behind Ric McIver in the mayoral race. McIver was ultimately defeated by Naheed Nenshi, who at one point in the campaign got into a spat with the police chief over policing costs.

The Alberta Federation of Labour is spending roughly $20,000 on an automated poll, where households are asked if they support the Wildrose health care plan.

If the listener indicates no, a recording of AFL president Gil McGowan tells listeners they may be "justifiably angry" with the PCs over of bed shortages and doctor intimidation, and warns against the Wildrose, which he said will only bring "major cuts" and "corporate, for-profit care."

It's the type of phone call that has peeved both Tory and Wildrose supporters, but McGowan said his organization only wants Albertans to "think long a hard" about supporting either party.

"We're medicare advocates and we're deeply troubled by the positions on public health care that are being taken by both of our province's conservative parties," he said.

The poll has drawn the attention of Elections Alberta, which is taking a hard look at whether it breaches any legislation.

"We just like to look at the facts, and the allegations, and see what contraventions, if any, there are to the legislation before we go into a full investigation," Elections Alberta spokesman Drew Westwater said.

Calgary Herald, Wed Apr 18 2012
Byline: Richard Cuthbertson

EDMONTON — No matter which party wins Monday's election, there's bound to be change in the ranks of the civil service — deputy ministers shuffled, bureaucrats transferred, positions eliminated, new people hired.

No surprise, then, that there's tension in the air in the office towers around the legislature and across the city, where public servants nervously go about their jobs while voters figure out who their bosses will be.

While some people are dusting off resumes, others are closely following campaign talk about wage freezes, cuts to civil services and unnecessary layers of management in Alberta Health Services — all wondering what it will mean for them.

The prospect of a Wildrose victory — the first change in government in 41 years — causes more uncertainty, raising the prospect of wholesale change in a bureaucracy that has worked under the Conservative party for decades.

"Everybody's pretty worried," said one front line worker, who declined to be identified for fear of losing her job.

"All parties have made so many expensive promises, will they balance the budgets on the back of the civil servants?"

While the Wildrose party has clear plans for a smaller bureaucracy, every new Conservative premier in the past two decades has brought change to the civil service.

Last October, with little public notice, new Premier Alison Redford let go nine deputy ministers, shuffled a handful and hired four new ones within weeks of taking over. Before her, Ed Stelmach had imposed hiring and wage freezes.

All that, of course, pales in comparison to former premier Ralph Klein's cuts in the mid-1990s, which saw 10,000 civil service jobs chopped as he set out to "re-engineer government."

The job losses had a major impact on the capital city, not to mention many families — though some workers were rehired by private companies when government work was privatized.

Guy Smith, president of Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which represents 21,000 government workers, said his union "will build a relationship with any new government." But he cautions the next government against moving in with "wholesale change."

The AUPE leader said he's pleased that Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith promises to hire more front line workers, specifically hundreds of nurses and 100 more RCMP officers. "She recognizes the front line staff has not kept pace with population growth," he said.

But the AUPE boss also wonders where the Wildrose will cut, and said he suspects, as the Wildrose appears to, that there's fat in the management ranks.

(About 8,000 public servants, mostly managers, are not members of AUPE.)

While the Tories and Liberals talk about "finding efficiencies" in the bureaucracy or eliminating unnecessary programs, Smith told the Journal a smaller bureaucracy is "absolutely" in the works if her party wins.

But the Wildrose won't use the Klein model of swift, across-the-board cuts, she said. "We have to be more compassionate."

"We happen to have an opportunity to do this because of demographics, with so many of the baby boomer generation retiring," said Smith. Under new management structures, those people won't be replaced, she said.

Smith said she's not worried about taking over a bureaucracy some say is Tory friendly after 40 years. She is not contemplating "wholesale kind of change," because the values of the two parties are not that different, she said.

"We're talking about measures people have come to expect from governments — balanced budgets, surplus to manage and maintain a low rate of taxes," said Smith.

"Government change happens elsewhere and there is expertise across the country where they have managed this kind of change. I have no doubt there will be a lot of people who can lend a hand."

In the end, the civil service will be happier, she said, with more support on the front lines.

In the days after the election, the most vulnerable will be the powerful deputy ministers, who are appointed by cabinet.

Gary Boddez, one of the career civil servants let go in Redford's reorganization last fall, said it make sense for senior civil servants to be nervous at election time. They are key appointments made by cabinet and new faces would help a new government put its stamp on things.

"Deputy ministers have to be prepared to be moved, it's just a fact of life," said Boddez, who spent 37 years in Alberta's public service.

Cabinet ministers want trusted deputies to help devise new policies and implement change, he said.

Redford's shuffle of deputy ministers caught the civil service by surprise, according to one government insider. It wasn't just about reducing numbers, since she hired four new ones.

While deputy ministers are highly qualified professionals, it can be tough for them to find new jobs in the private sector, said one bureaucrat. Many companies that do business with government would be reluctant to hire someone the government has let go.

On the other hand, some at the senior level speculate that a Wildrose government may not make big changes initially because it will need experienced people to back up an inexperienced caucus and cabinet.

Edmonton Journal, Wed Apr 18 2012
Byline: Sheila Pratt