On things election

I've been off busy on the campaign trail and so haven't had a lot of time to blog. With a few moments available, I can now put out some observations that I've been meaning to commit to electrons for a bit now.

My first observation is a simple one about the leaders' debate. One has to wonder about Ed Stelmach's performance if commentators in the media are calling the debate a win for Stelmach because expectations for him were so low. That's a bit like saying a hockey team that lost 1-5 won the game because it was a bantam team playing an NHL team. Yes we didn't expect them to do well, but a loss is a loss. If you're leader is so weak that you have to call a lackluster performance a win, you're getting desperate. Second observation. I'm a candidate for the NDP in the riding of Calgary Egmont. Now after some door knocking I've come to a couple of conclusions. First, the northern end of the riding is far more willing to hear the NDP message than the south part of the riding. I evidence the complete lack of slammed doors while campaigning in the northern part of the riding, versus slammed doors in the south. People in the north part of the riding were also as a whole polite and often welcoming, even if they disagreed with the NDP. In the south generally the best I can hope for at the doorstep is the person and the door being civil. Which brings me to my second conclusion. Given that the south part of the riding is more conservative and Conservative, it would seem that the conservative voter is a very hateful person. Why is this? You'd have to ask them, but good luck, they're likely to slam the door in your face.

My final observation is on the media. Now there are a variety of media outlets in Calgary. Most of them tend to the conservative part of the political spectrum. For the most part, these outlets have called or emailed to ask everyone questions before publishing or airing their riding profiles. Heck QR77, home of the ultra-conservative Rutherford show actually interviewed me and then aired the interview, which I'm told by co-workers who listen to the show sounded pretty good. Then there's the CBC. Now normally I'd count on the CBC to present a view that's more centrist and balanced, given the skew of the Alberta media towards the conservative and Conservatives. That was until the hack job the reporter who did the Calgary-Egmont profile this morning on the Calgary Eyeopener presented. After gushing over Craig Chandler, the Tory and the Liberal, the other three candidates, myself, the Green and the Wildrose Alliance didn't get mentioned. Well to be fair, the reporter in a "by the way" fashion at the end of the "story" she did mention that the NDP, Greens and WA had candidates in the riding as well, giving the impression that she was to lazy to even look up our names on CBC's own website. I've phoned and emailed my displeasure to both the Eyeopener and the CBC ombudsman. A copy of the letter is in my "Letters" topic on this blog.