New poll finds Wildrose outpacing Stelmach Tories in Calgary
As Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach prepares for a leadership review vote in Red Deer this weekend that could well botch his immediate political plans, and as he steadies the province’s initially very wobbly stand against H1N1, which included news the province somehow doled out doses of the vaccine to the Calgary Flames even as kids and pregnant women waited in line, this can’t be welcome news. A poll finds that the Stelmach Tories have sunk to their lowest level of support in 16 years, barely keeping pace with the upstart Wildrose Alliance Party and, indeed, slipping behind that party in Calgary. Conducted between Oct. 19 and Oct. 31, at the height of Alberta’s swine flu fiasco, the poll finds the Tories would be the first choice of 34 per cent of decided voters were an election held today, compared to 28 per cent for Wildrose’s new leader, Danielle Smith. “In Calgary–long seen as Tory bedrock–the Wildrose party has surged to first with 34 per cent backing,” adds the Calgary Herald‘s Jason Fekete, “followed by the PCs at 30 per cent, Liberals at 20 per cent, and NDP and Greens at eight per cent.”