"...Dave Cournoyer isn't some obscure fat frat boy with a sticky-up haircut." - Neil Waugh (Edmonton Sun)
Because of financial reasons, the Alberta Liberal Party has delivered layoff notices for April 30 to its two remaining staff members.
I can be reached by email at: daveberta.ca@gmail.com.
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governing myself accordingly: edstelmach.ca premier stelmach threatens to sue alberta blogger over edstelmach.ca / day 2 / the daveberta conspiracy / day 3 / day 4 / day 10 / day 23
alberta election 2008: constituency profiles calgary-buffalo / calgary-currie / calgary-mccall / calgary-varsity / cardston-taber-warner / edmonton-calder / edmonton-castle downs / edmonton-meadowlark
2007 edmonton municipal election non-race for mayor / ward 1 / ward 2 / ward 3 / ward 4 / ward 5 / ward 6
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50 comments:
Whick MLAs are they laying off?
Wow. Does this mean they are shutting down the office?
That is sad. I actually mean it. I am never happy to hear that people have lost their jobs, especially people who are committed to a cause, and therefore, willing to work for less than they can make elsewhere. I hope those two individuals land new jobs quickly. Dr. Swann should make that one of his priorities.
Agreed. Although I support a different party, this is not a welcome development at all.
Looks like Swann inherited a bigger mess than he likely expected.
Any external confirmation on this? I take your word, but the news is a bit... wow.
Found some more good commentary at Gauntlet.ca:
I hear that fundraising is drying up. With no employees, one imagines the downtown office space is next to go. After that, it will likely be rural constituency associations that will atrophy and die for lack of support. Goodness only knows how many constituency associations have sufficient volunteer resources and experience to be able to continue functioning absent the support of a central party. One wonders whether or not they will even be able to maintain a membership list.
Sad. Both Michael and Tyler are great assets for the ALP. I hope Dr. Swann can help them find work elsewhere.
Is Swann going to put out a public statement about this?
This is a sad day for democracy, no matter which party you support. Our system of governance is predicated on the ability to hold the government to account through periodic changes in government. This has not been possible in Alberta for a long time, and this is just a further kick in the teeth for accountability and effective governance.
Shit. This sucks.
Nice try, Dave, but you'll have to try harder to capture some April Fools ...
It is true Werner. Fundraising has dropped off significantly since Taft was replaced.
For those interested, we're putting together a group to make fundraising calls in the Edmonton area. If you can help please email us at office@albertaliberal.com.
Tyler, I'm a Conservative, so I won't help. What I would say, however, is that if every single member of that Caucus doesn't show up to make calls, then they don't deserve you and your colleague. Good luck.
Too bad, so sad. It's like icing on the cake, except for the genuinely hard working people losing their jobs.
I know I and others were willing to do almost anything to help the party, but the offers were brushed aside. I guess it was more important for Dr. Swann to consort with kooky, former PC futurists.
The core of the ALP's problem is that they don't think they have been doing anything wrong. They feel some bizarre sense of entitlement. Well, here's the let-down ALP.
As a liberal supporter I do think the election of Swann was short sighted. A noble individual he is but for Alberta a bit too associated with a radical left here. His comments about ending the gas rebate during a recession was thoughtless and insensitive. If he gave it some thought he would realize that it won't 'save' energy as people already turn down the heat but it will hurt the masses. In Calgary we already pay inflated prices due to the o&g industry so at least this was a small way to share the wealth.
Sorry but he is the wrong man for these times. Taylor would be much more successful. Swann just doesn't have the image of a progressive.
It breaks my heart but hard to get behind someone who has yet to offer much in vision. The liberals here are flailing and I wonder that it doesn't know how to reach out to the greater public.
It's not just the MLAs having to make calls, David Swann himself has to make some. Kevin Taft did. And if they don't, make them run as independents next time, may be even make it a condition for every nominated candidate that should he or she win his seat, they would be expected to donate 10% of their salary on a monthly basis to the party.
Can't the Libs just dissolve and join the Tories and change that party from within?
Daveberta, you supported an absent-minded professor in the leadership and now you pretend to be just reporting on things as an observer. Hell, all of you Libs supported the Alberta version of Dion. Taylor is like Ignatieff in a way and may eventually come back to salvage things but it would be a lot harder for him, or anybody else at that point. Heard his pod, Tony Sansota, will run for President again at the AGM.
This is really sad, but is it all that different from how things were right after the 2001 election? I agree Taylor would have been a better choice, even Elsalhy had he kept his seat.
This is already a test for the Liberal leader Swann. He is failing. Being a noble person alone gets one no where in politics. Swann's image is dusty and dull. Look at Obama --people love him because he is noble but he is also savvy and hip. Swann is like Harper on the left. Sorry but the truth.
Swann doesn't resonate and he sure won't appeal to business men that want to see a Martin type of Liberal here that understands business.
We already have a party on the left --the NDP so hard to know where the libs are with Swann at the helm.
Alberta is left to a tory wasteland because the liberals made a poor choice for these times. I say this as someone not overly involved but thought Taylor had a broad appeal.
Elsalhy? Have you seen the work he's doing with that renewal committee and that so-called "survey" they created? If ever we needed more proof that it's amateur hour at the Libs.... How can serious people take that party seriously when that's what comes out of their big "renewal" effort? Oh wait...they don't.
Dave Taylor didn't win the Liberal leadership against Swann because he was only able to get 1600 peopel to vote for him. If he were as great as some anonymous commenters say maybe he would have been able to sell more than the 2400 that Swann did.
Taylor talks a good game.
I dont think it is all that sad. I feel for the people who will be out of work, but thats it. It should be a wake up call to the ALP at best.
If I own a store and nobody comes in and likes my product, I am out of business. Trying to sell the same unwanted product to the masses is killing the party. They have no customers ( donor base) and no product. A change is needed if they want to keep the shop open...if not, close up and move on.
Too Bad the "store owners" ego's are too big or they would make the changes required.
I am impressed, no comments yet that the Liberal parties failure is because Albertans are not educationally sound enough to vote and support Liberal.
I still do not have any reason to consider your cause, give me one already.
I once heard Mo say the alp was a party of champaigne liberals! I agree with him completely. All those armchair critics that are good for nothing except making fun of others or criticizing or annonymously replying to blogs. You see them at celebrations and election night events, but when you ask for their help, they're all important and busy with other things.
Amateur hour? May be, but the party needs volunteers and those ones are all they've got. I am sure if the alp had $25000 to spend on its renewal like the feds, things would look a lot more professional. If they had $25000, they wouldn't have had to let their staff go. Cut Swann and his team some slack and give them time.
I remember during the Leadership Contest Taylor wrote a really in depth paper on how to fix the party, and Swann's response was this embarassment of a renewal committee we're currently suffering through.
This, to me, highlights exactly why the party made the wrong choice. But don't blame me, I voted for Taylor.
This is Taft's mess, not Swann's.
Wrong: its Swanns mess. Its his job to clean it up, not Taft.
Swann put himself forward for the job of cleaning up the mess. The fact he can't still has to fall on him. I don't know if Taylor would have done better, but I know Swann gets a failing grade.
Dave, which 5 MLAs met David Swann's fundraising challenge and which bailed on him? Does anyone know?
It's very clear to me the leadership race never ended.....
For what it's worth, it's very clear to me that the leadership race has ended.
Any "Taylorite" who doesn't think so had best snap out of it and get on board with Swann, because he won, and he's our leader - that's the simple facts.
The Alberta Liberal Party will continue on, but in what form and how strong depends on the next few months. Anybody sitting on the sidelines will have only themselves to blame if it doesn't turn out the way they want.
So: a simple thought. If you want to change the party, go out and raise some money, sell some memberships. Raise the value of your opinion and push for the change you want.
But realize that setting aside the result of the leadership race or undermining the democratic will of the party is simply not on the table.
Corey's right, go next door and sell your neighbour a membership. After all there is no time like the present to double the membership in your own riding.
And when you get done please send the completed membership form to David Swann's home address. There are no more staff at the office we're selling to process that new member's form.
Very droll.
Of the 19 anonymous comments on this page, that was easily the bravest an most insightful.
Seriously guys, you can keep fighting yesterdays fight and lamenting the current situation, or you can roll up your sleeves and make things better. We are where we are, and despite this full display of internet wit, you're not going to undo that.
Only got one member in your constituency? Then absolutely, go out and double it. You gotta start somewhere.
No staff to process it? Send it to Swann, send it to me. Send it to any good volunteer. It'll be entered. But let's quit the "Hamlet: Act I" routine, and start moving this ball forward.
I agree that Dave Taylor would have made a much better leader. We need a progressive tough leader who is not afraid to shake things up. I strongly hope he runs again, if not for the liberals, then as a member of a newly formed party to challenge the pc's from the left of centre perspective.
This party for too many years has been acting out of fear. Instead of aggressively going after the pc's and acting like the party in waiting they were too afraid to lose the support they already have.
I agree with Corey that it is time to move on, but we need our elected officials to show the grit and determination needed to turn this around.
Many of us have donated so much of our time, money and emotion into this party for so many years, we need to see that our leaders will stop standing on the sidelines afraid to piss people off.
We need to stop whining about having no money and no staff. There are enough of us, who have and will always continue to work for the party for FREE, if the party needs me, or someone needs information, I am here, as are many others.
Did any of you guys and gals even donate money to the party upon hearing this news ? I did
Ironically the NDP hired their new Calgary based Southern Organizer today
Denny, that's not ironic. It's coincidental.
Yeah Denny, like rain on your wedding day.
One would expect the Liberals to have more staff than the NDP, so it causes amusement when the NDP hires new staff, while the Liberals eliminate their last staff members.
Seems like irony to me.
Though I guess Liberals may not find it amusing
It is extremely sad to see that Alberta's floundering government continues to hold office, in such a non-democratic way, when it would take so very little to topple it if some people with real political ability challenged it.
It's true that this is fundamentally Taft's mess. Too bad he can't admit it. Anybody know if Taft is fully behind Swann? Not that you want too much more help from a guy who obviously didn't know what he was doing - look at the mess at caucus Swann inherited.
Saint Albert Devil, you want to cut the Libs some slack? No, that's the problem. It doesn't take tons of dollars to make a little survey even semi-professional. All it takes is getting somebody who knows something about this stuff to look at it. There are lots of those people around. But judging by the parade of staff in and out of that caucus under Taft, and now this renewal effort led by Elsalhy, they don't understand what skills are needed to get a job done well.
I'm not nitpicking. This should be a critical moment for the Libs to really show that they have their act together and are the credible alternative. And you get this amateurish survey that's supposed to generate the information they're going to use to make decisions on the party's future. It doesn't inspire confidence. The only good thing is that the "Futility Faction's" White Paper was even worse.
Speaking of the futility faction, what ever happened to that? I heard Taft's wife is deeply involved....
Neither the Liberals or NDP are options. In the past decade neither of the two parties have proven to Albertans that they are either responsible or ready to govern Alberta. Thus the Tories continue to get elected by default.
A new, centrist, environmentally responsible, free enterprise friendly alternative to the Tories could flourish in Alberta. The Tories are corrupted with power and don't deserve to be re-elected. The Liberals or NDP aren't viable. Let's start something new.
LfO: I'm with you. Both the Libs or the NDP have no chance of convincing Albertans they can do better than the PC's. Time for something new and different! Where do we begin?
I wish someone would define " how I as an Albertan would do better" with someone other than the P.C. party.
I guess the ALP really is toast, who's gonna answer the phones now? Dave? Dave's not here. Dave? no man, Dave's not here.
I genuinely feel bad for the employees who have lost their jobs. However, this is what happens when you elect the wrong person to lead your party. This is what you get when you choose to elect a socialist to lead a liberal party.
How is a political party supposed to operate without staff?
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