Why did Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart lose so badly in Monday’s byelection?
Pundits have their theories but one of the biggest clues is probably found in this blog post by the Herald’s Renata D’Aliesio :
"I have no comment on the Wildrose Alliance party. I don’t know much about them at all" [Colley-Urquhart] said.
She added she didn’t know why a majority of voters in the byelection gravitated toward the party choosing it instead of the long-ruling Tories and the established Liberals.
Wow. Colley-Urquhart was actively campaigning for over a month almost a month and didn’t bother to learn about her opponents? It sounds unbelievable but the sad thing is she’s probably telling the truth — she probably doesn’t know much about the party because she thought she had this thing clinched.
Her campaign was characterized by this kind of Tory arrogance. Colley-Urquhart said she’d resign her council seat then changed her mind . Presumably she thought voters would be okay with that. Amazingly she wouldn’t even give her municipal constituents the benefit of an explanation refusing to comment on the reversal.
She eventually did comment saying she was staying on because community leaders asked her to. A lame decision justified with a lame explanation.
One thing’s clear after Colley-Urquhart’s crushing defeat: The I-can-do-whatever-the-hell-I-want-because-I’m-a-Conservative-in-Alberta attitude doesn’t fly anymore.
