I don't know how many of you follow politics. This is a political and policy blog, so assume a few of you do. For those that do, there's a series of by-elections going on in Alberta. Four of them, to be precise. Last night, Gordon Dirks, the as-of-yet unelected Education Minister and the only member of the Progressive Conservatives running to actually attend a debate so far failed to show up for the debate among Calgary-Elbow candidates at Mount Royal University.
Premier Jim Prentice, who is also seeking a seat in this by-election in Calgary-Foothills was replaced by a pumpkin at an earlier debate, and the Edmonton-Whitemud candidate Stephen Mandel, a former Mayor of Edmonton who should know a thing or two about optics in the political arena failed to show up for a debate on October 20th. He has since committed to attend a debate on the 22nd. Mike Ellis has stated that he won't attend a debate scheduled for Calgary-West, but insists he would debate in any all-candidate debates held by community associations.
Right now they are saying they are out meeting "Real People" by door knocking instead of debating. That is fair, but a debate allows constituents to see all candidates at the same time, and compare side-by-side. And those who attend debates, I think are "real people" too. Especially the PC volunteers who are essentially fed to the wolves when they show up at these debates and their candidate isn't even there. Every time the PCs are brought up, everyone in the audience kind of eyes that table grudgingly. I have absolutely nothing but the highest of respect for those volunteers. Their candidates clearly matter to them. How much do they matter to their candidates?
So maybe there's another reason the PCs haven't been attending debates. With that, I bring you a list of reasons the PCs have not been attending debates:
- Candidates have locked themselves in their cars and don't have OnStar (TM) or couldn't get a hold of AMA on time. (thanks to @GerryBrant via Twitter for that one)
- They were worried there wouldn't be any seats left due to the vast amount of students who could afford post secondary tuition for the MRU debate.
- They intended to attend but the market corrected itself by removing them from the debate.
- Their budget projections missed the mark again and they couldn't afford gas.
- They were filling in at the legislature for all the MLA's who missed work to volunteer on their campaign.
- They honestly thought they were at the debates but couldn't tell the difference between their candidates and a pumpkin.
- They were so impressed by the pumpkin they hired it as a debate coach. The pumpkin, having no legs or pulse, never showed up at their office. The candidates thought the pumpkin was coaching by example
- They didn't think Mount Royal University could afford the debate until the next set of "market modifiers" gets approved.
- They were trying to sell airplanes to someone who contacted them via Kijiji (TM)
- Partying with Ke$ha
- Kicked to the floor by Ke$ha for not looking like Mick Jagger.
- Programmed their GPS with Stephen Harper's voice. Ended up in Syria.
- After a long day of campaigning, had to spend a long night fundraising.
- To help raise funds, the candidates agreed to test out new cloaking devices. They were actually there, and suffice it to say, the devices worked.
- To save costs and fulfill promises, Gordon Dirks was busy building a school by hand, Mandel was busy building a Hospital by hand, and Prentice was busy tearing down the Sky Palace and any trace Allison Redford ever existed within the party by hand.
If you have any more, tweet them with the hashtags #whypcaawontdebate or #wherespcaa
You can follow me on twitter at @nkirk4homeless
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