Nice Guys Really Do Finish First
So it was quite a Saturday here is Alberta. A new Premier and a new leader of the federal Liberal party chosen on the same day. Almost a Super Saturday, if you will.
And in both races, there were two polarizing candidates, and the race was won by the nice guy running third - and he ran right up the middle of them both.
Ed Stelmach is the new Alberta Premier. Ed who?, I hear you ask. He's known as "Honest Ed" to his friends. He's been in Cabinet since 1997, but not in any really high profile portfolios. Apparently though, everybody likes Ed. And the same couldn't be said for Jim Dinning and Ted Morton. Everyone outside Calgary hated Dinning, and saw him as one of the Calgary corporate elite. And when you think about it, he was the guy in charge of the slash and burn deficit and debt-cutting strategies of the early to mid-1990s. Hindsight has shown that to be a rather facile policy choice, as our scramble to upgrade and build new infrastructure at horribly inflated prices right now attests. And Ted Morton? Well, everybody in Calgary and Edmonton is afraid of his right-wing, neo-con, Bush-lovin' policies. So Steady Eddie seemed the best choice to the majority of Albertans who voted (and that was only 4.5% of the population - admittedly up from the 3% who voted in the first round.)
And the federal Liberal leadership race followed the exact same narrative. Two polarizing candidates in Rae and Ignatieff (former college room-mates and in all probability former friends after this race) with a nice guy running third. Dion steamed up the middle, with a little help from Gerard Kennedy, and won a tight race. I still think Ken Dryden would have been the best choice for leadership if the Liberals were thinking pure winnibility. Hockey icons would do well in Canadian elections, if you ask me.
One big different between Stelmach and Dion. Stelmach is a farmer, while Dion is an academic.
God help the Liberals.
And in both races, there were two polarizing candidates, and the race was won by the nice guy running third - and he ran right up the middle of them both.
Ed Stelmach is the new Alberta Premier. Ed who?, I hear you ask. He's known as "Honest Ed" to his friends. He's been in Cabinet since 1997, but not in any really high profile portfolios. Apparently though, everybody likes Ed. And the same couldn't be said for Jim Dinning and Ted Morton. Everyone outside Calgary hated Dinning, and saw him as one of the Calgary corporate elite. And when you think about it, he was the guy in charge of the slash and burn deficit and debt-cutting strategies of the early to mid-1990s. Hindsight has shown that to be a rather facile policy choice, as our scramble to upgrade and build new infrastructure at horribly inflated prices right now attests. And Ted Morton? Well, everybody in Calgary and Edmonton is afraid of his right-wing, neo-con, Bush-lovin' policies. So Steady Eddie seemed the best choice to the majority of Albertans who voted (and that was only 4.5% of the population - admittedly up from the 3% who voted in the first round.)
And the federal Liberal leadership race followed the exact same narrative. Two polarizing candidates in Rae and Ignatieff (former college room-mates and in all probability former friends after this race) with a nice guy running third. Dion steamed up the middle, with a little help from Gerard Kennedy, and won a tight race. I still think Ken Dryden would have been the best choice for leadership if the Liberals were thinking pure winnibility. Hockey icons would do well in Canadian elections, if you ask me.
One big different between Stelmach and Dion. Stelmach is a farmer, while Dion is an academic.
God help the Liberals.
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