PHOTOS: Yo, Jason! Voting so easy, you can phone it in from the Okanagan! Or not. Below: Progressive Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney and PC Referendum Committee Chair Casey DesChamp (Photo: LinkedIn).
Jason Kenney’s Progressive Conservative Party told members yesterday it has extended the deadline for members to register to vote on merging with the Wildrose Party from today until Monday at midnight.
An email sent to members gives the reason for the extension as “a deluge of membership purchases,” which Casey DesChamp, the party’s referendum committee chair, is quoted in the email saying is “expected to be more than 50,000.”
It’s not implausible that with registrations in such numbers the party could be experiencing technical difficulties processing voting PINs for new members and emailing them out, but it seems odd that the PCs would extend the registration deadline but not the voting period.
Ms. DesChamp’s claim could be interpreted as being at odds with Mr. Kenney’s boast in in the Calgary-area city of Cochrane at the start of July that the party’s voting technology was so advanced, and made voting to easy, that “you could vote on a boat in the Okanagan with a beer in your hand.” (Your blogger knows the person who made note of the PC leader’s remarks and is completely confident in the fidelity of this quote.)
A simpler explanation may be that Mr. Kenney is prone to hyperbole when he assumes he is among friends. Regardless, presumably only drunken sailors from Alberta will be allowed to vote in the referendum.
Whatever the reason, I suppose it’s best from Mr. Kenney’s perspective that the PCs do things as quickly as possible and organize a slam-dunk vote result – something the veteran political organizer should be quite capable of achieving – especially when many legacy PC members are bound to harbour lingering doubts about what appears to be a hostile takeover bound to lead to the destruction of the party they supported for many years.
Undoubtedly many members of both the PC and Wildrose parties have joined the other in order to be able to cast two ballots for or against unity. The smart money remains on the easy success of the double reverse hostile takeover engineered Mr. Kenney and his supporters.
PC Party memberships had to be purchased by Wednesday for new members to be eligible to take part in the unity vote, and Mr. Kenney is clearly doing his best to eliminate any possibility something will go awry on the PC side of the unity effort.
Across the aisle in the Wildrose Party, as reported in this space yesterday, party leaders who also support the unity effort on the grounds that in all but name the political entity that emerges will be their party seem to have put in place a mechanism to kibosh any last-minute rebellion by pure laine Wildrosers.
PC voting will begin one week from today and continue through Friday and Saturday. The Wildrose vote will be conducted on July 22 only.
Happy Bastille Day. Vive la France!
I see this as Step 1 in overcoming a NO win. Kenny is moving the goalpost.
You don’t have to be Nancy Drew or Sherlock Holmes to figure out what’s actually going on here.
Public threats of sabotage by disgruntled Wildrose members (led by founding member Marilyn Burns) have created the possibility of a strong “no” vote by Wildrose party members on July 22. The “no” vote force is snowballing and PC and Wildrose party executives, including leadership hopefuls Jean and Kenney, are starting to panic. The threat is so genuine that unprecedented means have been undertaken to ensure the success of the “yes” vote by party honchos.
The inclusion of a “force majeure” for the upcoming Special Meeting, as reported by Climenhaga yesterday, the “do or die” rantings of Jason Kenney while on the unity hustings and now the extended deadline for membership purchases likely means “sh*t-is-going-to-hit-the-fan” at the Wildrose unity meeting on July 22. I think we can safely say this is a volcanic bozo-eruption brewing — especially after threats of a brand new Wildrose party if the “yes” vote succeeds.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/unite-the-right-alberta-wildrose-1.4202434
Jason learned a long time ago how to game the voting system under the master manipulator in Ottawa. Why would anyone think he would change just because he invaded Alberta looking for new opportunities? After all, living off the taxpayer is a way of life for these grifters.
Ah but can you vote from a jet ski in the Okanagan? It is funny how that event keeps coming up, now how does one get the image of Kenney in a wet suit out of ones mind..
Jason Kenney sure seems to like beautiful BC. He headed off to help the BC Liberals in Vancouver in their recent May election and now he is encouraging his PC members to head off to the Okanagan to vote in the Alberta UCP vote. This all reminds me just a little of another Alberta PC with an affinity for BC and in particular the Okanagan – Stockwell Day. Day went from the Alberta PC’s to the Federal Reform/Alliance/Conservative Party and was supposed to be so great, but he turned out to be a bit of a dud. Perhaps the Federal Conservatives have now decided to return the favour to the Alberta PC’s by sending us Kenney.
I wonder if Kenney will also be showing up to a press conference in a wet suit on a Sea-Doo to promote his vote in the Okanagan idea and if he eventually plans to relocate there like the great Conservative icon Mr. (or was it Doris?) Day. I expect he does know that BC has a carbon tax and an NDP government now too, so it might feel just like Alberta.
When you need to extend the deadline for unity registration it’s usually a sign there’s disunity in the ranks.
Agreed!
Like when people say it isn’t about the money, it’s the principle involved. That’s a sure indication it’s really about the money.
This is the next step toward making Kenney premier and returning Alberta to the right wing province that we truly are! Here comes right to work legislation, tax cuts, balanced budgets. Kenney is our Savior and will rule us like a king!
Yes, keep living in your delusionary right wing wet dream.
“… right wing province that we truly are!”
A true right wind province that elected an NDP government in a landslide -Yeah sure!
Maybe Alberta isn’t as right wing as right wingers would have us believe?
Maybe Horace is having us on.
Stockwell Day became a laughing stock. And rightfully (pardon the pun) so.
If Kenney ever becomes Premier I believe that he will follow the same fate. He won’t be able to help himself. It comes from being a small fish in a big pong and then becoming a big fish in a small pond. It will make his big head even larger.