Quite a bit of polling going around Alberta right now, where a provincial election is scheduled for next week - the 23rd, specifically.

Most of this polling is showing a slip in Ralph Klein’s popularity below the 60% level, and in the Conservative’s popularity to below the 50% level. This happening in a province which pracitically bathes in Conservative cologne so that its citizens can carry the stench of Conservatism with them everywhere they go.

This quote from today’s Globe & Mail (who’s website is slipping increasingly into uselessness):

What I can’t remember, is when Ralph did take an election seriously?

I suppose from Alberta the view may have been different, but from the rest of the country Klein has never seemed to take the premier’s jobs too seriously. This has its benefits and its drawbacks: self serious, over-earnest politicians can be kind of annoying. On the other hand there’s real work that goes into governing a city/province or country and it needs to be taken seriously: Larry Campbell, are you listening?

Ralph has been around for a long time, and he’s probably finally worn out his own welcome. For a while now, he’s appeared to be struggling to come up with something interesting to say; his Conservative leanings have long since moved past the point where most Canadians could support them, and Alberta’s surplus is just a joke: why is the country’s richest provincial government the only one advocating that they get out of the health care business? If anybody can afford it, Alberta can.

Do the right thing Ralph: win this one for the gipper, and then pass the torch. You don’t want your Conservative party to slip even further do you?

Posted by skooter at 7:12 AM This entry is filed under Politics.