Former PC star candidate Arthur Kent doesn't like how the media treated him in the March 2008 Alberta provincial election. Kent, who was unable to unseat Calgary-Currie Liberal MLA Dave Taylor, has filed a defamation suit against CanWest Publishing for a column written by Don Martin on February 13, 2008 (in which Martin stuck Kent with the moniker "Dud" as opposed to the more macho "Scud Stud").
Kent has started a blog to chronicle his cause and has also used it to criticize his former leader and party:
Worse, the promise of a new, revitalized, results-oriented Progressive Conservative government has not been realized. The legislative session immediately after the March 3rd election will go down in history chiefly for one measure: the government’s enacting of pay raises for the Premier, his cabinet and the members of the assembly. With Progressive Conservative MLA’s occupying 72 of 83 seats in the legislature, it was an unseemly display of me-first politics, the opposite of public service-minded government.
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6 comments:
If Kent really wants to challenge Stelmach, maybe he should consider a run at the leadership of the Alberta Liberal party. Since he's a Progressive Conservative, this wouldn't be much of a stretch. Holding Stelmach and forty years of successively less than stellar conservative governments in Alberta would be a good challenge for Kent's abilities. I think democracy across the country would benefit from a solid challenge to the autocracy that is the Alberta conservative rule. And Kent might just be the right guy for that job.
Not a bad idea Deb, however the deadline for folks to join the Liberal leadership race has already passed. They (AB Libs) have to choose between Taylor, Swann, or Elsahy. So we already know the next election will be another wipeout for the Liberals. Their best bet is probably Dave Taylor and his efforts to move the party back to a centrist view (after Taft's disastrous NDP-light years as a left Lib). That said, I think Swann will win and the Libs will become even more of a redundant lefty option. So the Greens, NDP and Libs can continue to split the 25% of Albertans that think that way amongst them. Net result, a whole lot of seats for a terrible Ed Stelmach government.
He could be goaded into running for the Liberal leadership. The idea that he alone could rescue that party's faded fortunes fits well with his own inflated opinion of himself.
But I had better not name him. He might sue me too. For the record, I was talking about someone else
Does anybody know if "None of The Above" will be on the ballot?
"So the Greens, NDP and Libs can continue to split the 25% of Albertans that think that way amongst them. Net result, a whole lot of seats for a terrible Ed Stelmach government."
Does anyone in Alberta, beyond those with a grasp of the political spectrum, think the Liberal party federally or provincially is a "centrist" option? In fact, most Canadians view the Liberal party as "centre-left" which has little remaining evidence.
Unfortunately the notion of the "centre" has been shifted so far to the right that when the Liberal party (federal) can pose as "centrist" while pursuing a neo-liberal agenda. The Alberta Liberals have managed to remain a centrist party with people like Taft, with a sense of civic responsibilty at the helm that the Lougheed Tories once had.
I believe the French have a term for people like Kent.
Sac le Douche!
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