The Alberta election is in its last week and it’s been an angry and desperate one for the PC Party of Alberta. At the outset of the campaign, polls showed that party and their chief rivals on the right — the Wildrose Party — neck and neck. And then there was an errant tweet from a staffer in the Premier’s office slamming Wildrose’s leader Danielle Smith for commenting on family policy while have to the audacity of doing so while being childless. Wildrose rode a tide of incredulous disbelief at the callous and personal nature of the PC gaffe and found themselves a clear 10+ points ahead of the PCs.
The campaign has focused a spotlight on Smith and her party which threatens to dislodge a party that has enjoyed 41 years of uninterrupted rule in Edmonton. And in the last week, a desperate effort to stop the bleeding. It’s kitchen sink week for the PCs in the Alberta election campaign and the main strategy has been to play the downtown Toronto Liberal strategy of demonizing conservatives that worked up until 2006.
Indeed, some of the very same campaign workers putting in extended hours for Alison Redford’s PCs have borne the same attacks themselves and against their political heroes from Preston Manning to Stephen Harper. The success of the current government in Ottawa was largely built on the legacy that came from Canada’s cradle of conservatism: Alberta. Today, those campaign workers are gritting their teeth as they retweet and share Warren Kinsella’s articles accusing their conservative cousins in Wildrose of having a “hidden agenda”.
I had (jokingly) remarked earlier last week that we should soon expect to see a “Soldiers in Our Streets” style of ad as the PCs flail desperately to recover and pull out all of the stops to stop the Wildrose momentum. Here is the latest (unsigned) offering that reeks of PC Alberta desperation (UPDATE: source explained here):
The ad doesn’t suggest that soldiers will occupy the streets of Calgary, however, it does have a militaristic drumbeat at the end. The piece is offensive to Albertans, Canadians and conservatives on a number of fronts.
“oil worshipping, old guard, right-wing, gun-toting, old-school Albertans”
in a mock country/redneck accent “Hi, I’m from Alberta!”
“I don’t want to paint [Wildrose] all the same, cause I’m not like that (but I am, so here goes!)”
“BFFs with Stephen Harper!”
“Danielle Smith thinks The Flintstone’s is historically accurate”
“Danielle Smith… I heard her bus has tit wheels”
“So, fuck it. I’m voting PC. Latino-ass me is voting PC”
“Separation Party… vote for them [if Wildrose doesn’t have a chance in your riding, else vote PC]”
If you’re a conservative and you’re supporting PC, it’s pretty clear that the braintrust behind this ad still regards you as worthless. Were you annoyed when Stockwell Day was the subject of an attack that smacked of religious bigotry, you rube? Did you support the elimination of the gun-registry, you hick? Are you BFF’s with Stephen Harper, you mouth-breather? You’re worse than dirt according to this professional video that is encouraging you to vote PC.
The Progressive Conservative Party has lost their right to call themselves “conservative” as they are clearly running against those that hold conservative values. This “progressive” party and/or their supporters think that sexism is fair game if it’s against a conservative woman running for Premier. Tit wheels! Hilarious. She doesn’t have children either! Latinos are also on notice that the left thinks that their group casually swears in a streetwise manner (yo), votes in a block, and doesn’t think like individuals informed by their own values. In conservative circles (we’ve been well trained), we call that racism.
Alberta is on the cusp of electing its first libertarian Premier. What a refreshing concept that is in a province whose elites are losing their minds at the prospect of losing power to someone who believes that everyone should be free of others telling them how to think.
Take a look at the PC Party of Alberta’s new ad featuring their leader Alison Redford. In the ad, there’s a featured shot of an oil production facility with the words “Leading the Nation”.
Here’s a still from the video:
Video producers take stock video from stock video websites in order to make ads. This video is from Canada-based iStockphoto. You can see the video on the website here.
The title of the video? “oil drill platform sailing under sky”
Uh oh! How many sea-faring oil platforms does the coastal province of Alberta have?
UPDATE: iStockphoto search tags for this video include the term “Yellow Sea” which is a body of water just off the coast of China. If you view the Redford ad in HD, you can even see the Chinese flag on the oil rig:
“Leading The Nation”?
Redford’s stock video of “Alberta” comes from just off the coast of China. In an ad that seeks to illustrate the Alberta economy, this is an odd clip to use.
UPDATE: The Redford video has been made “private” by PC Alberta meaning it is unviewable on their account for now. Luckily I had the relevant part of the video stored in my browser cache. I have re-uploaded the first part of the video to YouTube. Here is the controversial part of the ad that the PC Party presumably doesn’t want you to see:
