[killer_carlson]

I think the Wildrose will still do very well. They peaked early, but it isn't like they are going away. They are trying to outflank the PCs from the fiscal right, which is the only chance a party will have to form government.

Snelgrove won't go to the Wildrose and they won't take him. He's better sitting as an independant and lobbing grenades at Redford, which I suspect he'll gladly do. He may endorse a bunch of wildrose policies though. The meeting with Smith, I suspect at least, was about trying to get some volunteers over.

It would be a BIG mistake to characterize the Wildrose support as ignorant hicks - it isn't. That's a tried and tested elitist liberal tactic to excuse the fact that overspending on social programs is a problem when you don't have the money to spend.

Where the Wildrose will suffer is in Edmonton. The party has done a real bad job up here, which is too bad, because a handful of the candidates up here had a good shot if there had been more inclusion from the beginning. Policy announcements should have been made here with the candidates getting notice. Candidates up here should have more opportunity to provide input on policy, which they are not getting. The Wildrose has earned the criticism in Edmonton.

They will have a lot of work to do to challenge for some seats up here, but there is still time to fix it. Hopefully there is a pretty frank discussion next week about how to get edmonton more engaged instead of the feeling of disconnect. There are too many seats and votes here to ignore.