Coming to you live from the Braeside Community Centre, the Calgary Glenmore nomination contest between Corey Hogan and Avalon Roberts.
7:30 – A cavalcade of sign waving Corey Hogan supporters enter the room chanting “We believe in Hogan, We believe in Swann” and disperse into the surprisingly crowded room. I would say that there are well over a hundred people in the room. It’s definitely a higher turnout that people expected, as they had to keep bringing out more and more chairs.
7:35 – Registration closes. The die is cast. As soon as the candidates do their speeches, the voting will begin.
7:39 – Nothing much happening right now. I do notice that MLAs Kent Hehr and Dave Taylor are here, standing over near the refreshment table. Both of them are Hogan supporters, and were on top of the Hogan material that was left all over the chairs. I have to say that the Hogan political machine is impressive to the point of being overwhelming – there are signs, buttons and a billion and one posters that are stuck on the walls. By comparison, Avalon had a word processed letter and a large sign featuring a giant Martin era Federal Liberal logo.
7:43 – Nothing happening yet… Someone in the crowd starts clapping in hopes that it will get the meeting to start.
7:44 – Apparently it worked. John Roggaveen takes the stage and the meeting begins. He gives an overview of the voting procedure. The total number of registered people was 201, 100 ballots were distributed. I don’t really get this, but c’est la vie.
7:47 – The nominator and seconder for Dr. Avalon Roberts have come forward. Avalon has accepted.
7:48 – Now is the Hogan nominator’s turn. Corey had his father nominate him, which is a nice thing for father’s day. Candidates now have 15 minutes to speak. The coin toss was won by Avalon, even though the chair ended up dropping the coin.
7:50 – The Avalon Nominator is up. We apparently have a nominator who can speak for the rest of the people of Alberta. The lead in here is to Health Care, which Avalon is more qualified to speak on than Corey, by virtue of having been involved in health advocacy for years.
7:52 – The seconder speaks. I would call her speech somewhat… robotic, but more informative than the first, giving a bit of the history of her candidate.
7:53 – Corey’s nominator’s are up now. Dr. David Hogan gives some of his son’s history, growing up in Alberta, and wanting to be PM when he was a kid.
7:55 – The seconder speaks, briefly noting that cores is “110% Liberal”.
7:56 – Dr. Roberts. I don’t know the lyrics of the song, but it’s be a good one for her if she wins. The chorus, at least.
7:57 – Avalon talks about how this is the largest nomination meeting she’s ever seen, and goes on to talk about the need to forge links with business.
7:58 – She’s talking about PSE. She wants to reduce tuition rates and cap them, and wanted to create an educational endowment fund.
7:59 – Health care – I won’t go much into this, aside to say that she is eloquent, knowledgeable and articulate on this topic. I do like “The conservatives like to talk about reform when they really mean reaction”.
8:01 – She also wants to make sure that the “PharmAbuse” program is ended. There is a fair amount of technical talk here, but it does make sense.
8:02 – Cancel the Superboard! WOOO!
“We have endured three re-disorganizations of health care”
8:04 – Talking about the foolish quotes by Iris Evans, and how mental illness is not caused by education. However, she mentioned that this all covered up the fact that Evans was there to beg for operating loans for the provincial government.
8:06 – Why should we vote for Avalon? I have been in the public system my entire life. I have learned the ropes during campaigns. I have the energy to do this, and have connections in the community.
8:07 – Applause!
8:08 – Corey takes the stage, and wants to tell people why he’s running. I feel that the best way that I can build a better Alberta is to run.
8:09 – Beating up on the Tories.
“It’s disgraceful that the same people that we buy peppers and onions from are the people that we have to rely on for proper health care.”
8:10 – Bill 44 – It’s ridiculous that we’ve made education optional.
8:10 – They pit the economy against the environment, the middle class against the lower class, urban against rural. They devide, but we can conquer.
8:11 – Talking about the reasons why he would be a better candidate than Avalon, mentioning that only in Calgary Glenmore and one other riding did the Liberal vote decline between 2004 and 2008.
“I’ll be hitting the doors tomorrow if you elect me today.”
8:14 – More about campaigning skills. Corey has defiantly built more applause lines in his speech.
8:15 – Voting begins. More in a half hour…. Oh, wait. They can’t find the ballot box. OK, they’ve got it now.
“Only 110 ballots should be cast. If there are more, we’re in Tehran.”
8:44 – A speaker gets up. He’s some party functionary, but a good speaker. Please give anywhere between five and fifteen thousand dollars. There are only a couple of minutes left to vote.
8:55 – I think they’re counting ballots now.
8:59 – David Swann arrives.
9:10 – Avalon Roberts wins!
9:11 – David Swann is speaking. Stupid twitterfox is killing my internet. That’s what I get for piggybacking.
And now for another view of last night’s Calgary Glenmore nomination meeting…..
As you know, the two steps which are the keys to success at a nomination meeting are to sell memberships and then persuade the people to whom you sold memberships to attend the meeting and vote for you.
The selling of memberships:
Rumour has it Corey’s team sold approximately 20 memberships. Rumour has it Avalon’s team sold approximately 80 memberships.
As well, let’s analysis which campaign did a better job of connecting with the existing membership. One that told the members they were out of touch and didn’t know what they were doing, and that their opponent was a ‘n-i-c-e’ woman? Or a campaign of friends and neighbours who appreciated hard work and loyalty over the years and encouraged them to do better?
Support at the nomination meeting:
The vote speaks to this point.
However, a number of people came undecided and decided for Avalon because she clearly understood the issues and had worked for many years as an aide, as a nurse, as a doctor, as a psychiatrist to improve conditions within the healthcare system and then also as an activist.
Secondly, perhaps most importantly, Avalon presented herself in such a way that the voters could understand her and support her. This crowd was not interested in swag and pizzazz… or old style politicking!
No doubt about it, Corey is an impressive young man and clearly committed to politics and the Liberal Party. He has contributed much already and, with broader mentoring and more experience and education, will be able to realize his dream of being an elected politician.
PS. Matthew, 201 people were eligible to vote in Calgary Glenmore for their Liberal candidate last night. Only 100+ registered for ballots. That means that many more Liberals support the party but were unable to attend or decided not to attend the nomination meeting. There were no unused ballots floating around!
The fact is that the Alberta Liberals were the only party that had either enough interest and/or courage to run two excellent candidates for the nomination in Calgary-Glenmore. Corey is an exceptional person and a new generation of Liberals that will most certainly be welcomed and embraced by the party. Avalon is as sincere and respected as they come. Corey has so much to offer still and the party likely wants to roll out the red carpet in the future for such a promising candidate. It’s a shame that one had to be chosen over the other–but there will be plenty of other opportunities. The Libs need plenty of good candidates like Corey going forward. The Tories are shooting themselves in the foot all over the place and the opportunity for a real change is coming.
Ha! What a crock from socialite Frances Wright.
If Avalon really outsold Corey 80-20, and only won 65-44, then Avalon really, really shit the bed.
The party should be ashamed.
Of you, Frances.
Frances, much as I love unsubstantiated ‘rumours’ (which to me sound more like unwarrented and specious statements), I’d ask you to state your source prior to being as unnecessarily rude in a public forum, admittedly one as unread as this blog.
Actions such as these are the reason that people are uninterested in joining the Alberta Liberal Party. If they are going to be greeted by derision, they just won’t come. Avalon already won, there really was no need to go bashing people after the fact, especially when Corey made such a classy gesture in moving to make the vote unanimous after losing.
I would bet that the condensed timeframe for selling memberships was more of a factor in Corey’s loss than anything you mentioned. Avalon certainly had more roots in the constituency, and that is inherently going to give her an edge. Had the contest extended into July, I would bet that things would have shown a tilt in Corey’s direction.
According to your numbers, either Avalon had a hard time getting her sold memberships out to vote, or many of them were sold a membership by Avalon and voted for Corey. Corey was right in saying that we would be asking people to change their minds – Avalon Roberts is the only two time candidate in the Calgary region that saw the Liberal vote share decrease election to election. I would not be surprised to see this trend continue.
Now, with people like yourself going out of their way to trash Avalon’s nomination opponent, I would think that there is going to be a much harder time finding volunteers from the Hogan camp to help you in Glenmore. It’s reasons like this that the Alberta Liberals don’t ever win elections. With Liberal supporters making divisive comments like this, the Tories wouldn’t even need to run a campaign for their candidate – they could just sit back and watch the Liberals defeat themselves.
Mattthew,
I thought the purpose of a blog and, more specifically, a political blog was to discuss, to consider different points of view, to repond, to engage and perhaps, to learn.
Therefore, I find it perplexing that my comments are considered rude whilst your comments are considered neutral and factual. Both are simply our own perspectives from what we have heard and seen.
Help me understand — If one doesn’t want to engage in a discussion, then why does one go public? Why does the comment of one person necessarily reflect on a group? Is it the unspoken rule of certain blogs to only receive comments which agree with the host?
I agree wholeheartedly that Corey is indeed a very classy guy. He would make an outstanding MLA and I have encouraged him to run again. Corey had a wonderful group of young supporters who like other supporters/members come and stay involved because of the person who connected them and their own commitment to improve the quality of life through peaceful political discourse and action.
Corey is fulfilling his responsibility as a political leader. He is going to help in a major way with the Calgary Glenmore campaign and has asked all his supporters to do likewise. To rise to the occasion…
Amongst other things, I’m going to go doorknocking on a regular basis and I hope you will, too, Matthew. You obviously have other skills, too, which you can contribute so that Corey’s vision of a Liberal MLA in Calgary Glenmore is achieved.
I in no way consider this blog to be neutral. That would defeat the point. I do, however, try to state my sources. To that end, I challenge you to say where you got your information regarding membership sales and present evidence to back it up, or retract it.
Debates have two sides, and if you don’t want me to respond to your comments, they probably shouldn’t be made. If I wanted to censor my comments, I could and would, but I don’t – I prefer to engage in debate. I considered your comment rude because you were basically going after an opponent of your candidate after he was defeated – accusing him of ‘old style politicking’, for example – kicking a man when he’s down, so to speak. I felt that your comments were counterproductive.
I should point out that it’s not that I don’t want Avalon Roberts to win – very much the opposite. I hope that any of the Alberta Liberals nominated carries their seat. In Avalon’s case, it’s that I don’t think that she will – the cards are stacked against her, which makes party unity all the MORE important. I’ll be doing that which is in my capacity to help her win, make no mistake about that (mind you, I live in Vancouver, so that probably won’t be too much).
Frances, your posts have shown very little political tact. I’m sorry, but very unclassy to twist the knife as it were.
[quote]Rumour has it Corey’s team sold approximately 20 memberships. Rumour has it Avalon’s team sold approximately 80 memberships.
As well, let’s analysis which campaign did a better job of connecting with the existing membership.[/quote]
Plus this above part is illogical. With the vote total being 65-44, if the sales number is true, it shows that Corey connected more to the existing membership base, not the other way around.
To claim it was a battle of ideas in one part, then a battle of qualifications, and then to attack a young gentlemen for representing ‘old style politics’ compared to a multiple time candidate is pretty specious.
It’s interesting that much was made of Corey’s age, but not much made of Avalon’s. I didn’t realize until I checked her Wikipedia article that she was born August 18, 1945! That makes her almost 64!
Won’t she be a little old come the general election expected in three years?
There are two reasons why this wasn’t brought up. The first being that it was easier to make a point of Corey’s age in a room full of seniors than it would be to bring up Avalon’s age in a room full of people at or above her age. The demographics of the people attending we’re not representative of the riding or of Alberta and I think the Liberal Party should be concerned about that.
Beyond that though, and the larger of the two reasons, ageism either direction is wrong. Avalon’s age doesn’t play a factor in her ability to represent the riding anymore than Corey’s would have. Just because someone chooses to stereotype a group doesn’t provide the other group with a by on good sense to stereotype back.
“It’s disgraceful that the same people that we buy peppers and onions from are the people that we have to rely on for proper health care.”
Can someone provide some context as to what this is talking about?
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Calgary+keep+prostate+laser/1649566/story.html