April 23 2012: Alberta Provincial Election

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by c.t.ner

This is very odd. I think we're seeing a Barb Higgins-esque media meltdown now, by Smith and the Wildrose. For people just now paying attention, this really looks more like running and hiding then anything else.

I'm still hoping for something on par with Barb's infamous "cornflakes" remark.

At best I'm reading more into this, but it appears their trying to duck the urban media whom won't drop the contentious homosexual comments made by one of her candidates, this Globe & Mail article goes into details of yesterday's rocky outing, but mentions that her appearence in Camrose, Alta. was much smoother:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ontent=2404700

Later in the day, Ms. Smith spoke to a packed house in Camrose, Alta., falling back on her stump speech to overwhelming applause. In Camrose, just one of scores of rural communities forming a pillar of the Wildrose base, you didn't hear the name Hunsperger once.

With 6 days left in the campaign is the plan to play to the rural voter & avoid potential backlash in the urban centres?

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

That would be a fair bit more dangerous provincially as Harper was going up against two parties with no money and not enough funding coming in. He was able to force them into a longish minority situation because they simply couldn't afford to force an election for a couple years.

The provincial PCs still have a strong base. You risk going the way of Joe Clark if you try to bully them around.

Good point. This approach works if the PCs come out of the election too weak to fight again, like the Liberals were. That's not likely in this case until/unless a real and lasting gap exists between them and the WRA.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I was living in Victoria at the time of the municipal election. How was Barb's media meltdown?

Hilarious.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

I'm still hoping for something on par with Barb's infamous "cornflakes" remark.

At best I'm reading more into this, but it appears their trying to duck the urban media whom won't drop the contentious homosexual comments made by one of her candidates, this Globe & Mail article goes into details of yesterday's rocky outing, but mentions that her appearence in Camrose, Alta. was much smoother:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ontent=2404700


With 6 days left in the campaign is the plan to play to the rural voter & avoid potential backlash in the urban centres?

That seems like such an assbackwards approach. They have the rural areas locked down really, if anything they should not be wasting time or resources campaigning there. Avoiding Calgary and Edmonton cause you don't want to deal with the media (except the Sun likely) screams weak leadership.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

Word on Twitter is Danielle Smith has cancelled a number of media appearances today & the remainder of this week: CBC Eye Opener, Global interview tomorrow, & CTV interview Friday.

Odd move at this point no?

Unless she had a death in her immediate family, which is pretty obvious that it didn't happen or it would have been mentioned I would think, she is trying to avoid having to say something she might regret. I am the last person to think there is actually a 'hidden agenda' that is actually a real threat to Alberta, but this really can only been seen as a tactical move to avoid those questions.

What do some of our die-hard WRP supporters think? Is there a possible angle to this I am not seeing?

I was walking to work today and had actually decided to vote WRP - now this is causing indecision - who wants a leader who hides when things get rough.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

That seems like such an assbackwards approach. They have the rural areas locked down really, if anything they should not be wasting time or resources campaigning there. Avoiding Calgary and Edmonton cause you don't want to deal with the media (except the Sun likely) screams weak leadership.

Yup, @russfee really hit the nail on the head:

So much for cruise control this week! Somebody should mention to her that doing nothing is still doing something.

The duck & cover approach is really the wrong move at this point, I suspect it's an attempt at damage control, "well we can't stop the media from asking those questions, but we can control what we say directly to the voters, let's cut the media out of the loop here".

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Unless she had a death in her immediate family, which is pretty obvious that it didn't happen or it would have been mentioned I would think, she is trying to avoid having to say something she might regret. I am the last person to think there is actually a 'hidden agenda' that is actually a real threat to Alberta, but this really can only been seen as a tactical move to avoid those questions.

What do some of our die-hard WRP supporters think? Is there a possible angle to this I am not seeing?

I was walking to work today and had actually decided to vote WRP - now this is causing indecision - who wants a leader who hides when things get rough.

To be fair to Ms. Smith there may be nothing to hide but clearly there is a media feeding frenzy forming that can only hurt WRA no matter what they do. Avoiding is her least bad option.

[Edit] I don't condone it - she has an obligation to face the voters - but i can understand it from a strategy perspective

[Senator Clay Davis]

In Accounting Theory we always talked about bad news is better than no news. If a company has bad news, its better to release than do nothing because people make their own assumptions. By doing nothing, Danielle can't complain later on if people make assumptions about it.

[Bunk]

The Breakfast Television guy in Edmonton was just hammering away at her on the Hunsberger. She seemed to handle the question, and in fact brought him back to the discussion when he seemed to be moving on. I disagree strongly with her response, but she wasn't shying away from it in this interview. I'm a bit surprised she's now hiding from the media.

http://video.citytv.com/video/detail...anielle-smith/

[c.t.ner]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I was living in Victoria at the time of the municipal election. How was Barb's media meltdown?

Barb was on Breakfast Television for an interview. Each candidate did the same thing and there was a group of citizens (usually tied to a specific interest group) asking questions. This one happened to be The Art Vote Calgary group. Anyways, she was really grilled by the interview (drawing a blank on his name - Mike McCourt) and by the Arts Vote Calgary panel. She ended up coming of very testy and defensive, I think she was caught storming of set after the interview. Then after leaving she asked who pissed in your cornflakes this morning to panel.

Unfortunately for Higgins, all of the Art Vote panel was on twitter and it exploded. She never recovered from that point and that was the end of her campaign pretty much.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Ubut this really can only been seen as a tactical move to avoid those questions.

What do some of our die-hard WRP supporters think? Is there a possible angle to this I am not seeing?

The only tough questions to me are the anti-gay pastor and climate change. And I don't think they are that tough, she just needed to recite the company line that we won't legislate.

The only other angel I can think of is that she thinks she has the election in the bag and puts her campaign on cruise control.

If she makes all the other appearances just not the media ones, then the cruise control theory holds water. We shall see by the end of the day.

[edslunch]

I'm just looking at the list of current thread viewers and seeing a lot of familiar names. Man we're a sad bunch of political junkies.....

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by darklord700

The only tough questions to me are the anti-gay pastor and climate change. And I don't think they are that tough, she just needed to recite the company line that we won't legislate.

The only other angel I can think of is that she thinks she has the election in the bag and puts her campaign on cruise control.

If she makes all the other appearances just not the media ones, then the cruise control theory holds water. We shall see by the end of the day.

In the bag or at least at a high water mark, with nothing to gain from more exposure. Sounds plausible too.

[Senator Clay Davis]

It amazes me that Barb would be so bad with the media, and Danielle too for that matter. They are both experienced media members, you'd think they know to handle themselves a little better than that.

[GP_Matt]

I will reserve judgement until I she what she is doing with her time.
It could be that they need her to make an appearance in Fort Mac or something and the interviews will be rescheduled.
I can't imagine that she will avoid the media for the rest of the week.

[c.t.ner]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

It amazes me that Barb would be so bad with the media, and Danielle too for that matter. They are both experienced media members, you'd think they know to handle themselves a little better than that.

It's one thing to be good in front of the camera with a script and being in control of the message. It's another thing to be on the receiving end of criticism and having to respond to questions on the spot. Remember Smith isn't a sitting MLA at the moment, she hasn't had to respond to questions and debates in the legislature like the other leaders have.

Running from the media right now shows inexperience and plays in to the narrative of not being ready to govern.

[darklord700]

@ElectDanielle Day 6: In Calgary for 2 events & Herald editorial board meeting, Siksika Nation, then to High River for the 2nd Highwood debate. #wrp

Looks like she's doing a lot of other appearances. So far she only cancelled three media events. I would guess she has more than 3 media events scheduled the whole week so maybe cancelling 3 while attending the others isn't that big of a deal.

[zuluking]

Do not like Smith cancelling events. Subjected to escalating "booga booga WRP scary" comments from the left-leaning crowd on CP.

First Lady, pull some strings - get Danielle back on the air!!!!

[c.t.ner]

Smith is scheduled to be on AlbertaPrime time this evening.

http://www.albertaprimetime.com/Election2012/

I haven't heard of her cancelling that event. It also doesn't surprise me that she's still doing the Editorial Board meeting, as that is a quintessential can't miss event for any of the politicians.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by edslunch

I expect them to follow the Harper model....govern cautiously but without compromise and dare the other parties to bring them down.

I expect in a Wildrose minority scenario if the PCs want to re-establish themselves as the natural provincial ruling party they would prop up the Wildrose on ideological overlap issues, knife Redford in the back as leader in the interim, then elect someone as leader who's actually center-right ideologically.

From there they should proceed to defeat the Wildrose minority government in legislature, drop the concept in their ethos that since we made cuts 20 years ago (But have ramped up spending at an alarming rate the last 10 years) it somehow still justifies spending money like it's going out of style under the auspicies of 'infrastructure spending' (It's being used as a buzzword for some actually really stupid mismangement of spending and corrupt pork barreling), and then flat-out spurn any and all socially conservative fundies. Give the Liberals and dippers back the left wing 25% of the province who are essentially the softest of soft support for the PC's right now as they feel held hostage to prevent a Wildrose majority and then leave the Wildrose the 'home school gay bashing' fundies 10% on the extreme right.