Ladies and gentlemen, I'm about to make a bold proclimation I thought I'd never say. I'm going to do something I thought I'd never do.
I'm going to buy a membership in the PC Party of Alberta.
Now, I know. Right now, you're shocked and horrified. I've never been a fan of the Tories, never like Ralph Klein, so plese, before you click away, let me explain myself.
As I'm sure you heard, Klein turned in his letter of resignation. The leadership race (which has actually been running since February) has now officially begun. And, being a news hound, all the official news releases from the PC Party came across my desk today.
So here I"m reading the rules of the game. I quote the news release directly:
"We will be conducting a leadership election on the same basis as the one in 1992...one member, one vote! ...we will hold a formal election quite similar to a provincial general election."
Sounds great, don't it? Then I read this sentence. And this is how I came to my decision.
"Any Albertan who meets voting requirements and purchases a PC membership will be able to vote!"
Right there. If you want to vote for the next premier of Alberta, you have to be a member of the party.
I've actually been thinking about this for a while now. About a month ago, I read the statistic in the Edmonton Journal. When you add up all the people in Alberta who are actually members of the Tory party, and factor in voter turnout and voter apathy and all that, do you know how many Albertans will be chosing the next leader of this province?
3%
3% of the people chosing our next leader.
(Well, I don't remember the exact statistic...but I do remember it was a single didget.)
And I don't know about you, but I want to be part of that 3%. I want a say in how my government is run.
So that's why I'm going to be dropping my $5 and joining the Tories. Just for this one election.
And then when a real provincial election rolls around, I'll vote...NOT Tory.
So, please forgive me. I want my vote.
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