April 23 2012: Alberta Provincial Election

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Flickered Flame

More comments from Ron Leech:
http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...ub=CalgaryHome

Seems pretty clear what his thoughts were there.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I gotta imagine Leech is done now. Danielle has to make the right move politically and get rid of him so the blowback doesn't hurt the party as a whole.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by Slava

I would refrain from saying that these people are incompetent though, its pretty simple to have things mixed up.

I was responding to Iowa's ridiculous statement that it was either a Wildrose conspiracy or the guy was lying. I was offering an equally inflammatory option.

[photon]

When a Punjabi leader speaks for the Punjabi, the Punjabi are listening but when a Caucasian speaks on their behalf everybody is listening.

Ahhh, now it makes sense, that's clearer as to what he's saying.

He's not racist, everyone else is so he as the white guy can represent the Punjabi to all the racists.

What's really interesting is usually there's enough wiggle room that someone can say "Oh what I meant was this" or say "I was trapped by a question and a reporter with an agenda", but in this case they didn't even try to rephrase or spin what was said. They said he "misspoke" (which is obviously not the case, he clearly intended to say Caucasian) but admit no wrongdoing, apologize but indirectly.

It's just a very odd reaction, not what you typically see in cases like this.

[zuluking]

Originally Posted by Slava

Seems pretty clear what his thoughts were there.

Everyone likes vanilla?

[kn]

Originally Posted by Flickered Flame

More comments from Ron Leech:
http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...ub=CalgaryHome

Oh, FFS. Wildrose can't defend this guy any longer...

[getbak]

He should just take over the Old White Man Says Twitter account from Community: https://twitter.com/oldwhitemansays

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by Flickered Flame

More comments from Ron Leech:
http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...ub=CalgaryHome

Brutal. He just doesn't get it. Well, Ms. Smith, did he mispeak again or are you going to actually condemn this nonsense?

[Senator Clay Davis]

Danielle has to condemn this. I don't wanna say the election is on the line if she doesn't, but it will show what a weak leader she really is.

[Slava]

Honestly though, Danielle Smith has a problem. If she cuts him loose, then people say "what about the others" and obviously if she leaves him there its a train wreck. I don't know though, maybe people will just be comforted knowing that they won't legislate on these kinds of issues?

[Senator Clay Davis]

Guess we know what you'll be talking about in your interview Slava.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Flickered Flame

More comments from Ron Leech:
http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...ub=CalgaryHome

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith spoke at a news conference in Calgary on Friday, reiterating that the Wildrose party is not racist.

Smith also said that Ron Leech's campaign manager is an Iranian immigrant and that if she found any evidence of Leech being racist, she would fire him.

Fair enough.

Does she not have evidence that certain candidates are homo-phobic? When will they be fired?

[First Lady]

This is a no win situation.

If Wildrose turfs him as candidate

= discrimination against Christians. Just like what the PC's did to Chandler.

= Danielle would be portrayed as a dictator disrespecting democracy.

[J epworth]

Originally Posted by troutman

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith spoke at a news conference in Calgary on Friday, reiterating that the Wildrose party is not racist.

Smith also said that Ron Leech's campaign manager is an Iranian immigrant and that if she found any evidence of Leech being racist, she would fire him.

Fair enough.

Does she not have evidence that certain candidates are homo-phobic. When will they be fired?

Because racism is still a bigger issue to more people that homophobia, unfortunately.

[nieuwy-89]

Originally Posted by Slava

I don't know if you've ever worked on a campaign, but mistakes are pretty easy. Most campaigns in general (on a riding level) are about a dozen core workers and the rest are basically those who give a night or two where they can. Its largely a volunteer effort though and pretty cool in that sense.

I would refrain from saying that these people are incompetent though, its pretty simple to have things mixed up.

Having worked on a number of local, provincial, and federal campaigns, I fully agree with this statement. I always chuckle about the notion that there is some master manipulator who is planning and calculating all of the works of a campaign. It is the local candidate, one or two of his/her trusted workers, and an army of volunteers who make 99.9% of the decisions on a day to day basis.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by First Lady

This is a no win situation.

If Wildrose turfs him as candidate

= discrimination against Christians. Just like what the PC's did to Chandler.

= Danielle would be portrayed as a dictator disrespecting democracy.

Its a no win situation now. She should have turfed him and Huntsperger earlier this week, but now its just a problem.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I really don't get why she didn't turf both of them in the first place. Did she really believe these to be isolated incidents? Its the same as when someone gets caught cheating or stealing: You really think the first time they get caught is the first time they did it?

[puffnstuff]

So, I'm gonna ask this question one more time in here.

What, if anything, has Danielle Smith said about her time on the CBE as a trustee during this campaign? It was the last time she was elected to anything (right?) and if she hasn't talked about it...why not?

[troutman]

I think WR is lucky the election is in 3 days, not 3 weeks. Things are unraveling.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by zuluking

Everyone likes vanilla?

You know, I was thinking for the best analogy to what his thought process is, and I think that's it.

If you have a bowl of vanilla ice cream and put chocolate sauce on it, you have a chocolate sundae; put strawberry on it and you have a strawberry sundae. On the other hand, if you put chocolate sauce on strawberry ice cream, or strawberry on chocolate ice cream, you'd have some weird chocolate/strawberry amalgam and the flavours would compete with each other.

Strawberry sauce on chocolate ice cream may taste like strawberries, but you know it's still really chocolate underneath.


I think this is legitimately the thought process that some old white men have. They're the vanilla ice cream, so they can represent any flavour you mix them with. The non-vanilla people will always affect the flavour of whatever they're mixed with.



I don't personally believe that, but having lived in a house with an old white man most of my life, and hearing some of his political opinions (and I have an uncle who goes to a whole other level), I think that's likely what many of them think.

I know that if my parents still lived in Calgary, there's no way my father would have voted for Nenshi, and probably wouldn't have voted for Higgins either, regardless of whatever either of their platforms were.


I'm actually glad Leech hasn't apologized because you know that this is what he truly believes and any apology would just be a hollow platitude. Let him live or die based on this.