Alberta MPs courting voters in the 905

In case anyone in Alberta is wondering what their Conservative MP is spending their constituency budget on.... I'll give you a hint: it sure isn't on working hard to serve you or earn your vote!

Comments

[Mark T.]

It's especially effective to have the Alberta MPs use their 10% seeing that each MP represents about 100,000 voters whereas the PEI MPs represent about 33,000.

Could be worse though.... my MP spent the first three weeks of the 2006 campaign in rural Ontario instead of here in Macleod. I guess with 75% support, you can be a little cocky.

[katy]

Wow, this is weird...

I keep getting these things in the mail too except I live in Surrey, British Columbia and the flyers I'm getting are from various Conservative MPs. They are the same stupid crap described in the article-check off an answer and send it in.

Until I came across this post I hadn't looked up their names. I thought about it but didn't get around to it. I figured they must be from this area at least but this I'm only half right! I've probably had at least 4 in the past few weeks but I got 2 this past Thursday. One is indeed from a Vancouver MP, Mark Warawa and says
CHOOSE ONE
GST
5%, 7%
Inside it says Harper lowered the GST to 5%, kept his promise blah blah. On the other side it says Stephane Dion is threatening to raise it back up to 7%
Then it says
CHOOSE ONE
__I support a 5% GST.
__I support a 7% GST.

The other one is from an MP in Saskatchewan! Gary Breitkreuz
Your $1,200 Child Care Benefit
On the right side:
KEEP IT
with a photo of Harper underneath

On the left side:
LOSE IT
with that way overused photo of Dion shrugging his shoulders underneath
Inside it asks
What do you think?
I want to:
__ Keep my child care benefit
__ Lose my child care benefit

ugh.

At this point even *I* think of that damned shoulder shrugging photo of Dion and him saying "do you think it's easy to make priorities?" and I support the LIBERALS so I can just imagine what all this crap has done to someone undecided or someone who doesn't mind the Conservatives too much. Dion really needs to start communicating with us who he is and what his vision is. As things stand I don't feel optimistic.

[ch]

Mark T. - I hear you: Edmonton happens to be home to some of the young-all-star-go-getters (at least from the party's perspective) of hte Conservative caucus, like Rona Ambrose, Rahim Jaffer and James Rajotte. All three of these MPs were curiously MIA from the local campaigns at various points during the last federal election.

Katy - Thanks for sharing that info, I guess it's clear you live in one of the Conservative's priority ridings. On the bright side: at least your vote actually counts for something!

Spending time outside the province during federal elections makes it pretty clear that Albertans' votes are taken for granted. I mean how many of us have actually seen an ad for any political party on TV during an election campaign? If you're lucky you might see one, but it's nothing compared to the multiple series of ads released in Ontario and Quebec.

[Rhys Courtman]

ch;

Spending time outside the province during federal elections makes it pretty clear that Albertans' votes are taken for granted.

I agree with that. I've said the same thing since the past election, when a number of Conservative Party candidates in Calgary didn't even bother to show up to all-candidates forums.... instead opting to campaign out-of-province in central BC or Ontario.

You'd think that'd send up some red flags. But it would appear that Albertans are very much creatures of habit when it comes to a ballot; I've noticed that, for a number of folks that I've spoken to (at least in southern Alberta) there is no "real" alternative to the federal Tories that they can support with their vote.

Oh, well....