Tory leadership frontrunner Jim Prentice: Yeah! That’s it! I’ll give away memberships! Below: Candidates Ric McIver and Thomas Lukaszuk.
Holy Cow! Not only does Alberta Tory leadership frontrunner Jim Prentice admit his campaign has been giving away free memberships, but he says the idea’s OK with him and he intends to keep on doing it!
Here’s what Mr. Prentice told the Calgary Herald a day after his leadership campaign was busted handing out free membership cards to would-be supporters: “There will be free memberships.”
Seriously? I confess I didn’t think it was possible for the Progressive Conservative leadership campaign season to get any stranger than it has, and that’s when it did with this startling revelation.
Mr. Prentice – a former federal cabinet minister, well-connected corporate lobbyist and banking executive – phoned up the Calgary Herald yesterday told its reporter that, yeah, everybody does it, so why not him too? (Children, do you remember what your Mama told you you when you tried that argument on her?)
“My perspective on all of this is we want as many people taking part in the democratic process as possible,” Mr. Prentice advised the no doubt dumbfounded Herald reporter, according to the story the publication rushed into print last night. “They need to have a membership card to vote and what I want to see is as many Albertans as possible taking part.”
Well, what could be more democratic than that? I’ll buy the votes, and you cast ’em!
And while this may or may not be a common practice in some leadership races, it’s not true that everyone’s doing it in this particular race, if only because candidates Ric McIver’s and Thomas Lukaszuk’s campaigns don’t have the money.
In fact, Mr. McIver, a Calgary MLA and former minister in fired-premier Alison Redford’s cabinet, was quick off the mark, accusing the frontrunner of buying votes for $10 each. Mr. Lukaszuk, an Edmonton MLA and former Redford minister, was a little less inflammatory, telling the paper he intends to continue selling memberships and hopes the others do too.
Even the party’s spokesperson, executive director Kelley Charlebois, obviously found the practice a little hinky. “The party doesn’t condone the activity,” he told the Herald. “I certainly personally don’t believe it is a successful way to go, but it’s not breaking any rules.” (Emphasis added.)
Mr. Prentice is the candidate with the deepest pockets, thanks to his support in corporate circles. So does that mean it’s finally become acceptable practice to do what, hitherto, only tinfoil-hat-wearing lefties like me have been claiming goes on? That is to say, just using corporate dough straight up to buy votes outright!
About the least you can say is that if Mr. Prentice wins the race, as is widely expected, the outcome will be tainted in the minds of many Albertans.
It also blows to smithereens Mr. Prentice’s benchmark, set back in June when he opened his Edmonton campaign office, of 100,000 new memberships. So what if there are 100,000 new memberships? The obvious question for a cynical public will be how many of them were bought directly by the Prentice campaign, and not paid for by real supporters.
And it sure sounds as if all three candidates together haven’t sold anything like the number of membership they need to make it look as if the Tories are still the Natural Governing Party of Alberta. Indeed, I’m starting to think my prediction of 45,000 memberships sold by the race’s end was wildly optimistic.
This also raises some interesting questions for those of us who don’t support the PCs, and never will.
Do we phone up the Prentice campaign and ask for our free membership – and then vote for the candidate that has the best position on, say, public service pensions? As of yesterday, that would be Mr. McIver, so be careful!
Do we sign up 20,000 leftward leaning Albertans and colonize the party, or at least tell its leadership candidates what they have to do? You’ll recall that progressive voters were accused of doing just that when Alison Redford was elected, although her subsequent policies should have laid that notion to rest.
It’s hard to imagine that this sudden and unexpected revelation – when claiming the giveaways were just a mistake by a junior staffer might have made much more sense – is going to help Mr. Prentice’s campaign, which up to now was coasting to an easy victory.
So here’s a conspiracy theory for you – just wait a sec while I put on that tinfoil hat … Is it possible Mr. Prentice wants to lose, and this is the only way he can think of to do it now that it’s too late to pull out of the race?
This bizarre announcement does, in all seriousness, change the dynamics of the race, possibly considerably. And every day another news story breaks about former premier Redford’s spending habits, the leadership of the PC Party becomes less of a prize.
Maybe this was the only thing Mr. Prentice could think of to get out of Dodge before the new sheriff rides into town?
Will he be giving refunds to those who already paid their $10?
I saw McIver doing the same thing during the Calgary Stampede.
Joe, Did not……….
Harper is no Conservative, what-so-ever. However, we do know how he so called, *won* the last election. The so called Conservatives have never worried in what way, they *win* their elections? Just as long as they, so call *win*.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/08/13/albertas-temporary-foreign-worker-program-debate-should-go-to-ottawa
I found this article quite interesting. Apparently Jim Prentice wants to restart the old TFW program and considers this the “biggest issue on the ground”. That tells me all about Diamond Jim that I need to know and who is backing him, a lot of wealthy businessmen who care very little about the average Joe Albertan. Out of curiosity why no articles on Alberta’s diary about Diamond Jim’s love for temporary foreign workers?
If I were Mr .Prentice, I would want to lose and bow out too. Prentice really should have ran for the WR and now he has to carry the burden of this floundering coalition, hel up with corporate donations, not by individual donations, like the WR. If it were me, I would have kept my lucrative career as a banker, without all the messy politics. Politics is a step down for the smart Mr. Prentice. Looks like they were desperate and able to inflate and sell this whole hairbrained idea to him, against his better judgement. He may have to take it as it comes, even if it means being the leader of the opposition. But if he wins, he will keep the status quo, he can’t and won’t change a thing. The past will keep repeating and reaffirming itself and he might reminisce and miss those fun days in the corporate world.