On Saturday, NDP Leader Jack Layton made a stop in Edmonton on his election campaign tour. While Layton was in Edmonton, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was in Iqaluit and I do not believe that he is even coming to Edmonton this election. (Please correct me if I`m wrong on this fact.) This makes me kind of mad because I think that he is just expecting Alberta to be all Conservative again, which I do not think is true. There are two NDPs and one Liberal in Edmonton who I think could possibly break through the Tory blue. Those are:
Linda Duncan (NDP) for Edmonton - Strathcona http://www.electlindaduncan.ca/
Ray Martin (NDP) for Edmonton - East http://raymartin.ndp.ca/en
Jim Wachowich (Liberal) for Edmonton - Centre http://jimwachowich.ca/
Everyone waited at the Winspear Centre for Jack Layton to come walking down the isle formed of tape as they listened to a band play to open the speech up. When Layton finally did come, he was accompanied by two bodyguards and a ring of television camera as he tried to shake everyones hand.
He then got up on his podium and began to speek. At the beginning he talked about the environment and the northern Alberta oil sands. Then he jumped into an unexpected topic. He spoke long about taking a stand against gang violence and banning weapons. For me I found this a bit unusual as he took up almost the whole last half of his speech with this topic. This dissapointed me because, while he was talking about this, he didn`t say one word about the arts, which I think is another important topic to talk about! But I guess he was just trying to appeal to maybe the more Conservative people who were listening to his speech on the radio or watching it on TV.
If you would like to see pictures of the event, please look at the side column.
4 comments:
I saw the pictures the other day - they looked great. Was that Mel Hurtig in all of the photos before Jack Layton showed up? And I'm glad you said it was at the Winspear - it looked so beautiful and I could tell it was at Churchill Square, but I couldn't figure out where it was.
I understand your concern about Layton focusing so much on crime and gangs. I think that, while those are legitimate concerns, politicians and the media blow these topics out of proportion and play on people's fears. I would be disappointed if the NDP followed along in the "tough on crime" tactic. Unless he was talking about other ways of dealing with crime - like maybe an national anti-poverty strategy? Might be nice to hear a politician talk about that...
I heard one prediction Harper may come as soon as Tuesday to help Jaffer in Strathcona, but I'm not holding my breath (actually I think it would be ironic if Harper came on Thurs and forced Jaffer to skip his constituencies all-candidates forum - it would show his true colours at least).
Harper will be in Edmonton on Thursday October 25.
you see harper in edmonton at the ramada on the tv today
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