PHOTOS: Merry Christmas! Your blogger with a man who can penetrate North American air defences with ease. Russian President Vladimir Putin may not appear exactly as illustrated. (Joke.) Below: Political strategist Stephen Carter with the same blogger; Alberta pollster Janet Brown; Conservative strategist Alan Hallman, who is now associated with Jason Kenney’s Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership campaign; and former Alison Redford backer Ken Hughes, now a member of slaphead meat puppet and potential federal Conservative leadership candidate Kevin O’Leary’s “exploratory committee.”

Merry Christmas! Vladimir Putin has not yet hacked Christmas in Alberta, although he probably could, so there are political presents under the Yule tree for everyone, regardless of whether their orientation is to the right or to the left.

For our conservative friends, a new public opinion survey by Alberta pollster Janet Brown suggests that if an election were held tomorrow between a united right wing party and the NDP, the “conservative” option would win big regardless of whether the new political entity was headed by Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Jason Kenney or Wildrose Leader Brian Jean.

But the real surprise – at least if you’re a supporter of Mr. Kenney, the former Harper Government cabinet minister and inveterate Tweeter of mean-spirited commentary – is that Mr. Jean would apparently enjoy considerably more support as leader of such an entity.

Only those two leaders were offered as possibilities in the poll, which will surely make Richard Starke and the other largely forgotten-by-the-media candidates for the PC leadership feel grumpy and aggrieved. But the findings by Ms. Brown, who has a long history of accurate polling, should certainly concern the government of Premier Rachel Notley.

That said, this is hardly a lump of coal in NDP supporters’ stockings. After all, the NDP is phasing out coal in Alberta. What’s more, it will doubtless encourage Mr. Jean’s supporters to try to knock the wheels out from under the Kenney Kamp’s juggernaut, which has the potential to keep the right disunited.

Regardless of what happens there, Alberta’s right-wing parties are bound to shoot themselves in both feet many times before the general election expected in 2019. Accordingly, for our social democratic friends, a Calgary operative associated with Mr. Kenney’s campaign delivered an early present to the NDP in the form of a defamation lawsuit against political strategist Stephen Carter.

One of Mr. Carter’s most recent projects had been taking part in former PC MLA Sandra Jansen’s campaign for the party leadership. According to a CBC report yesterday, Conservative strategist Alan Hallman last month filed a statement of claim against Mr. Carter saying his reputation suffered “irreparable harm” when the Mr. Carter Tweeted that Mr. Hallman had used a gross obscenity to describe one of Ms. Jansen’s supporters.

Regardless of the merits of the lawsuit, in which Mr. Hallman is being represented by former Redford Government justice minister Jonathan Denis, it is a gift to the NDP, among whose Legislative ranks Ms. Jansen now sits.

Alert readers will recall how Ms. Jansen, subject to harassment and intimidation by people assumed to be associated with Mr. Kenney’s campaign, last month quit the leadership race, then the party, and then crossed the floor to join Premier Notley’s government. Many observers think Ms. Jansen will be asked to join Ms. Notley’s cabinet in the New Year.

Some social media commentary about Ms. Jansen attacked her socially liberal views in grossly misogynistic terms. Her complaints prompted a PC party investigation. However, as reported in this space earlier this week, the investigation commissioned by the party and conducted by a “third-party investigator” found that while the harassment happened, there was no evidence anyone in particular was responsible for anything.

Since it is highly probable Mr. Kenney will win the PC leadership vote on March 18 on the first ballot, the goal of the investigation was pretty clearly get the embarrassment under the rug as quickly as possible.

As blogger Dave Cournoyer put it: “The report was a way to end the story, and the allegation, that could tarnish the PC Party and Kenney’s leadership.”

Well, that won’t work now, thanks to Mr. Hallman’s timely lawsuit.

Mr. Carter Tweeted yesterday the lawsuit “is simply an intimidation tactic.” This presumably suggests he’s prepared to fight it.

This in turn, guarantees that all the embarrassment about the way Ms. Jansen and Donna Kennedy-Glans – the other female PC leadership candidate who dropped out of the race the same November day – will remain on public view well into the New Year, and perhaps longer than that.

This certainly benefits the coming New Democrat re-election campaign. It also helps the Wildrose Party’s Mr. Jean – whose hopes are also buttressed by Ms. Brown’s poll, which was conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 11 using TrendWatch Alberta, a monthly omnibus survey of 900 Albertans, aged 18 and over.

Finally, for aficionados of satirical news reports, there is the most wonderful present of all: word that Kevin O’Leary, doubtless emboldened by Donald Trump’s victory south of the Medicine Line, has “amassed,” as the CBC put it, a four-member “advisory team” on whether he should run for the federal Conservatives. Hosannas!

In addition to neocon has-beens former Ontario premier Mike Harris and former Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton, the slaphead meat puppet’s “exploratory committee” includes, from Alberta, former MP and MLA Ken Hughes.

After a lackslustre performance as an MP in the late ’80s and early ’90s before being beaten by a Reform Party candidate, the charisma-challenged Mr. Hughes became well known as the backer of such racetrack disappointments as Alison Redford and Jim Prentice, both of whom were premiers of Alberta for a spell.

Nowadays, Mr. Hughes’s profile is so low that the CBC didn’t bother mentioning his name in its report on his role with the O’Leary campaign. This oversight is certain to be remedied in the blogosphere, however.

As Santa Claus famously says every year on this night: Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

This post also appears on Rabble.ca.

Join the Conversation

4 Comments

  1. The year is ending well.

    This is perhaps the first time that I can say that I am very pleased with the selection of, and the performance of our Federal, Provincial, and Municipal leadership.

    Very thankful that we have Trudeau, Notley, and Nenshi working on our behalf.

    I don`t belong to any party but as a voter I am thankful that we have people of this caliber who are willing to accept the challenge of public office.

  2. Santa Claus PHSST!

    Free presents for all those moochy kids with no work ethic.

    I think Santa is an old stock Socialist. I suspect he overfills NDP supporters’ socks at the expense of nasty and naughty little neo-cons.

    Don’t even get me started about that hippie Jesus!

  3. Interesting how a person’s political outlook changes how he interprets a poll. The difference between Kenney and Jean is only 8 percent. The difference between a United right under Kenney and the NDP is 30% and the difference between a United right under Jean and the NDP is 40%. In both cases the NDP is in they lower 20 percentile. So much for Albertan’s getting on board with NDP agenda. What baffles me is if the NDP really wanted a second term, our Prime Minister gave them an out. Back off imposing the carbon tax until 2018, use the levels imposed by Trudeau and let him take the heat. As it is they have made it very easy for the right of center parties to go after their policies. Personally I like Brian Jean but I would much rather watch Jason Kenney and Rachel Notley duke it out whenever the next election is called. If I had a choice of existing politicians for Premier it would be Richard Starkey or Greg Clark. Unfortunately the good guys rarely finish first. Merry Christmas Dave and thanks for raising my blood pressure on a regular basis lol!

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.