Danielle Smith is the leader of the Wildrose Party in Alberta, but she is getting noticed well beyond the boundaries of the province, and not for her party's policies.
The picture to your left of Smith on her campaign bus has gone viral for its placement of the rear wheels of the bus.
According to CBC News, Shannon Stubbs from the Wildrose campaign says the design was an oversight on the part of the campaign.
Not that we doubt the statement from the campaign, but nobody accidentally makes that mistake. Plenty of places to put a picture of your candidate on a bus. This isn't a case of a 18" replica of Stonehedge, like in "This is Spinal Tap."
Smith's tweet summed up the party's likely intent in the matter: "Glad to see everyone is so interested in our bus. : ) Guess we'll have to make a couple of changes huh?"
We are less than a week from having a provincial election called. Though the Wildrose Party (think more conservative than the ruling Progressive Conservative Party) didn't win any seats in the last provincial election, the party has picked up 4 seats. Amazingly, 4 seats puts you 3rd in the province. The Progressive Conservatives have 65 seats and the Liberals have 8 seats in the 83-seat legislature. For the 2012 election, 87 seats will be up for grabs.
Just as an aside, I got a chance to meet Alberta's new premier, Alison Redford, at a reception last month. She was very delightful and down to earth. Redford was chosen as the new party leader, and therefore, the premier on October 1, so this is her first election. The party has lost 7 seats since the 2008 election, but still has a commanding lead.
The Wildrose party needed to make a name for itself. Here at CanadianCrossing.com, we aren't prudes. However, given that the province has its first female premier, though the province hasn't elected a female premier, the timing is really bad, especially with the attacks on women by Republicans in the United States.
A degrading angle shouldn't be necessary to gain attention. Then again, it worked. Wildrose Party spokesperson Stubbs told CBC News it wants the campaign focused on "ideas."
Big ideas are always welcome in any political campaign. The Wildrose Party needs to make up for lost time; those ideas better be pretty big. Or at least bigger than a pair of wheels of a tour bus. Then again, for the electorate, quality is better than quantity.
photo credit: Ed Kaiser/Postmedia News
Your American readers should know that here in Alberta, we call ourselves Texas North. We're down to earth, approachable and conservative. The PCs were once like that but no more - their governing philosophy is that they know better than us. That's why the PCs who were winning with 60% of the vote will see that support go to the true conservatives, the Wildrose.
I suggest before saying that the Wildrose don't have any big ideas, you go to our website wildrose.ca - You'll read bottom-up policies that ordinary people like me put forward as members of the party.
Posted by: Canbuhay | March 22, 2012 at 12:10 PM
When you are a relatively unknown party, as Wildrose is, the first impression you make shouldn't be awkwardly placed wheels on a bus. The upcoming election will show what ideas Wildrose has, and whether PC voters will switch over. Picking up 4 seats since the last election is a sign of some interest.
Posted by: Chad | March 22, 2012 at 03:35 PM