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Thursday, January 10, 2008

not-edstelmach.ca

Here's a bit of a rundown of some of the political movement on the Alberta scene...

- The list of Alberta Provincial election candidates has been updated as Alberta Liberals have nominated Dick Mastel in Cypress-Medicine Hat and Dale D'Silva in Calgary-North West. For the New Democrats, former City Council candidate and two-time Edmonton-Manning candidate Hana Razga will be running in Edmonton-Whitemud against Tory Health Minister Dave Hancock and Alberta Liberal Nancy Cavanaugh. The NDs will also be running Mel Kraley in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo.

- The Battle for the Calgary-Egmont PC nomination is raging on. Don Middleton vs. Vicki Engel vs. Jonathan Denis. The victor will take on Alberta Liberal Cathie Williams, Independent-turfed-Tory Craig Chandler, Green Party Leader George Read, and New Dem Jason Nishiyama.

- Kudos to Elections Alberta for their swanky new website, it's a great improvement compared the previous design.

- Jimmy Ford will be running as an Independent candidate in the next Federal election in the riding of Edmonton-Sherwood Park.

- The campaign south of the border gets more interesting as New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has ended his bid as a candidate in the Democratic race. I'm still betting on Mike Huckabee for the Republican nod...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My prediction in the upcomig election

1 - Craig Chandler
2 - Cathie Williams
3 - Vicki Engel
4 - George Read
5 - Jason Nishiyama

I am hoping Cathie can beat Craig, but,he seems to have been campaigning longer.

Anonymous said...

TRUTH IN CALGARY EGMONT!

Calgary Egmont is being forced to go through another nomination, even though you already democratically chose your candidate. The last race between Craig Chandler, Jonathan Denis and Rick Smith was a heated one and bad blood in the constituency still remains, especially among those that supported Craig Chandler and Jonathan Denis. Our position is that a fresh candidate is in order to heal the rift in Calgary Egmont.

Craig Chandler - Premier Ed Stelmach has decided that Chandler will no longer be a candidate and we know this is very disappointing to many. Chandler will be seeking office in Calgary Egmont as an Independent.

Rick Smith - We have it on good authority that Rick Smith will not be running. This is very disappointing to us. As previous supporters of Smith, we do feel he would have made an excellent choice. If we initially chose Smith, we would not have the mess we are in at the moment. Smith had respect from both Chandler and Jonathan Denis supporters.

Jonathan Denis - If Jonathan Denis decides to run, it will further fracture this party and will have provincial wide ramifications. It is obvious to many of us on the Party's Provincial Executive Council that Jonathan Denis is not dedicated to our party but merely dedicated to himself.

Here is what we, as Provincial Executive members, had to deal with relating to Jonathan Denis:

Abuse of Membership Information – In his role as Membership Vice President, Jonathan Denis enrolled members through PCAA membership books from outside of the constituency. These membership books were withheld from the PCAA to ensure that only his campaign team could promote his candidacy. No other candidate was given access to these members (as stipulated by PCAA nomination rules); yet Jonathan Denis enjoyed full access to members signed up by the other teams. Further, Jonathan Denis used the membership list in advance of other candidates to personally visit members at their doors.

Harassment of Other Campaign Teams on Nomination Day – On November 17th, under instructions given by Jonathan Denis, his campaign team harassed members of other campaign teams. This harassment included verbal assaults on team members delivering voters (seniors), and photographing the activities of supporters.

Breached Support Agreement – On the evening of November 17, 2007, before the results were announced, all candidates were required to sign a form that stated they would accept the results and support the victor. Once Chandler won the nomination, Jonathan Denis started calling many of us on the Executive Committee with rumours about Chandler. This violates the agreement he signed.

Attack on David Crutcher – After the results were announced, Jonathan Denis threatened David Crutcher, the President of the Calgary Egmont Constituency Association. This threat was heard by several witnesses. This is another breach of the support agreement he signed.

Jonathan Denis Law Office Involved – On the day of the review of Chandler's candidacy, each of us on the Executive received a package that included: Land Title on Chandler’s house, Corporate Registry search on all Chandler's companies and a statement that Chandler voted in the race. Out of the 2.5 hours spent on reviewing Chandler's candidacy, we spent roughly 25 minutes discussing the information that Jonathan Denis brought forward against Chandler. We were very content with Mr. Chandler's responses and many of us were left confused as to why any of this was brought up and what it had to do with Mr. Chandler's candidacy. Yet another breach of the support agreement signed.

The only conclusion any of us could make was that Jonathan Denis would do anything, hurt anyone, and try to ruin anyone’s reputation just to get elected. Jonathan Denis is not the type of person we need to be an MLA in our caucus.

Conflict of Interest – Jonathan Denis's law firm was the legal counsel for Rev. Steve Boissoin and the Concerned Christian Coalition Inc in relation to the letter written by Rev. Steve Boissoin in the recent and well publicized Alberta Human Rights Commission ruling. The only link between Chandler and any of this was Chandler happened to be the CEO of the Concerned Christian Coalition Inc at the time. Chandler did not write the letter and left the organization some years ago.

You would think this would be a legal conflict of interest with Jonathan Denis dragging Mr. Chandler into this case? Jonathan has claimed Chandler is responsible because he was once involved in the Concerned Christian Coalition Inc, but at the same time his firm is representing the same organization. This seems unethical and self serving to us. Mr. Denis was trying everything to insure that he would have another opportunity at being the Alberta Progressive Conservative Candidate in Calgary Egmont. Jonathan Denis ran a negative campaign to serve his own purposes.

We have already been informed that there is, or will be an investigation into Jonathan Denis about whether he has breached the Canadian Bar Association “Code of Professional Conduct”. How do you represent someone in one case and then try to discredit them? The last thing we need is for this to be made public in the middle of the upcoming provincial election in March 2008.

Other Information - There has also been other information brought to our attention regarding a past relationship Jonathan Denis had with a former Stockwell Day staffer. If the information came to light, it would be extremely detrimental to our party.

We have also been provided with information that we will not put in print, but we urge you, as a voter in Calgary Egmont. to show up on January 19, 2008 at the Kingsland Community Centre located at 505 – 78 Ave SW and vote for anyone, but Jonathan Denis.

Do your homework on the other candidates and remember there is some serious bad blood between Jonathan Denis and Craig Chandler and we can not see a good campaign if Jonathan Denis is representing our party. We need a candidate that will be involved in an election representing our principles and policies not a dog fight. If Jonathan Denis wins, we lose.

Currently, our first choice would be for Don Middleton and his website can be seen at www.donmiddleton.ca. Our second choice would be for www.vickiengel.ca

If Jonathan Denis wins this nomination, there will be never ending conflict in Calgary Egmont. If Jonathan Denis wins the nomination, we will lose Calgary Egmont and other constituencies will be affected throughout the province.

Anonymous said...

Jonathan Dennis definitely has this campaign cinched, moreso by the party name but also by his hard work. Too bad, I'm voting Wildrose Alliance, Barry Chase. Chandler will be wiped out once and for all.