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Tuesday, March 14, 2006

hello, i'm jim dinning...

I met Jim Dinning today.

For those of you who don't know, Mr. Dinning is considered the frontrunner in the race to replace Alberta Progressive Conservative Premier Ralph Klein when he retires (in a Chrétienian move, Mr. Klein announced yesterday that he will be retiring in October of 2007, but won't leave office until March 2008).

Though he seemed like a nice guy, I nearly drowned in the uninsipiringness of his presentation.


He talked a lot about "choices" and his vision for Alberta while staying fairly vague about most issues. It was really disappointing coming from someone with a Masters in Public Administration from Queen's and former Deputy Minister. Hopefully we'll see some more detailed plans from Mr. Dinning as the leadership campaign ensues. Though I suppose 20 years of political hackery will do that to someone. An unfortunate casualty?

I know I've mentioned this before, but he really reminds me of someone we are all very familiar with, though without the "isms."

I'm not sure whether it was the uninsipiring attitude of the near-dead crowd of frat boys loaded with questions starting with "Jim, in your vision for Alberta..." that killed it for me, or the fact that the future Premier of Alberta was only able to attract around 10 people (including at least 3 Liberal/ND voters) to hear him speak.

I did enjoy a small swipe he made at Ted Morton though - I can't remember what he exactly said, but it was a swipe at Dr. Morton's "More Alberta, Less Ottawa" slogan from his 2004 provincial election campaign in Foothills-Rockyview.


So, in conclusion: meh.

6 comments:

daveberta said...

actually it should be "Wll thy sur tak funn n Alber."

Geez. If you're going to criticize a blog post, at least do it correctly. I missed a letter, I didn't add letters.

Geez.

Anonymous said...

Well I really wouldn't expect him to say anything of substance really. He is the front runner to the PC throne, and due to Alberta's wacky one party electoral landscape he is essentially guaranteed to be the next premier. Why would he rock the boat with some of "da vision ting" when he can just babble off some meaningless platitudes and ascend to the premiership? :(

Allie Wojtaszek said...

You should have come to the evening event - it was much better and we would have loved to see you there.

We had fun though, regardless.

daveberta said...

Meany: Dinning trying to be everything to everyone will only hurt him in the end - or during the latter half of the leadership race when candidates like Ted Morton - who are very open about where they stand - are going to have the oppurtunity to pin Dinning as indecisive.

It's almost like Dinning is trying to pull a "Paul Martin" - the main difference being that Martin didn't have any real competition. Dinning does.

daveberta said...

Allie: I hear it was a fun event at Sherlock Holme's.

Unfortunatly, I'd filled by Conservative political exposure quota for the day. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Check out http://renewingtheonepartystate.blogspot.com/ if you'd like a few Ralph retirement opinions.