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By now most of you likely know Paul Hinman is the MLA elect for Calgary – Glenmore and will be heading back to serve in the Legislature. It was an exciting evening as we watched the results being posted on Elections Alberta’s website. And poll after poll Paul was ahead.


Today, reading some of the articles, I had to chuckle a little bit as they reported it as a “slim win” with Paul squeaking past the second place Liberal by 276 votes. Given Paul first won Cardston-Taber-Warner by 139 (2004), then lost it by 39 (2008); a spread of 276 is certainly more comfortable.

The Liberals did not really change their base in Glenmore; it has been in the mid-30’s (percentage) in 2004, 2008 & now 2009. The PC’s on the other hand have taken a huge hit, dropping from 50% down to 25%.

What I found odd last night is that we learned of the other candidates conceding defeat through rather odd means. First was Diane Colley-Urquhart (PC) who “Tweeted” congratulations to Paul; then we learned of Avalon Roberts (Lib) conceding defeat via a “Tweet” from the Calgary Herald. What happened to picking up the phone and making a call to the winning candidate?

Anyway, glad the campaigning is over; please see my previous post for election thank-you. Now we can start concentrating on our other upcoming activities.

Namely the Leadership forums;

September 16, 7:30pm, Calgary
Blackfoot Inn

5940 Blackfoot Trail SE



September 17, 7:30pm, Lethbridge
Balog Cow Palace

Just south of highway #4 on the east side of Lethbridge


Please arrive early to avoid disappointment; space is limited. Memberships will be sold at both, but it is not a requirement to attend.

Audio from the Edmonton forum is available on the party website; scroll down left column to “Listen: Leadership Forum”.

Calgary Glenmore By-election Night Celebration

The Calgary Glenmore by-election night celebration with Paul Hinman will be at:

Carriage House Inn
Victoria Room

9030 MacLeod Trail South

8:00 PM and onward

By-election thank-yous and Leadership ballots

It seems the busy times in our office our never ending. Once again I find myself very thankful for the skills and dedication of Heather, our Office Administrator.


Events of the past week included two Leadership Candidate forums (Grande Prairie & Edmonton) and an all candidates debate in Calgary Glenmore. This coming week will bring two more Leadership Candidate forums (Calgary & Lethbridge) and of course tomorrow is voting day in Calgary Glenmore. With all this on the go Heather is still happily processing new memberships and putting the finishing touches on the Leadership ballot mail out. I will get back to this in a moment.

First I would like everyone to join me in congratulating Paul Hinman on his amazing dedication and his tireless work in Calgary Glenmore. He has covered a lot of turf and only missed one day of campaigning (to attend a funeral of a family member). I believe it will be a tight three-way race and it is incredibly difficult to make any predictions.

Special thanks to RD, Julie and Mick; they have been with Paul every step of the way. To the sign crew; Cory, Jamie, Derrick, Doug, Mike S, Chris and many others. To the office crew; Matt, Travis, Chantal and countless others who passed through the doors. To Blaine Maller who graciously let us use his office until we finally found space in the constituency. To all the financial contributors which allowed us to run an amazing campaign.

I am looking forward to Monday night’s results. I am quite confident Paul will have a very strong showing and am of course hopeful that he will once again take a seat in the Legislature.

Our office will be closed on Monday (September 14) to allow all staff to take part in Election Day events. After that we will be back, going full steam ahead towards the Leadership Convention. Late this week we will take delivery of the ballots. Based on our current membership numbers and projected sales between now and October 2nd we have ordered 10,000 ballot packages. (One ballot per package)

Ballots will be first mailed to members in our common database and lastly to members in the candidates' databases. If you have not yet joined I highly recommend you do it sooner rather than wait until the deadline of October 2nd to avoid potential mail delays and disappointment.

Not Worth the Paper It's Written on...

Press release from party;

For Immediate Release

The Stelmach PC’s, (Pick and Choose), have announced they are going to unilaterally break the contract they have with the teachers they signed just over a year ago. At the same time, they choose to deliver a golden parachute severance to one former Health Board Executive at the expense of an ailing health system. (Incidentally, the total cost of the severance pay is approximately equivalent to the cost to operate a laser prostate machine for 8 years.)

This is but another example of the PC’s picking and choosing winners and losers. They signed a contract with the Teachers. They broke that: losers. They had contracts with the energy industry. They broke those: losers. They promised to get spending under control every budget. They increased spending every budget. They campaigned on transparency and accountability. Then they gave themselves pay raises and golden parachutes: winners.

Paul Hinman commented “These are examples in the trail of bread crumbs towards the house of deception. When are they going to break the contracts of the nurses? Albertans believe in handshake deals and that someone’s word is their bond. It seems for Premier Stelmach and his government a contract doesn’t mean anything unless you are a PC, (politically connected). Albertans need the right to recall their MLA’s when they fail to work for the people they were elected to represent. It’s time to Send Ed a Message. Breaking contracts is not part of the Alberta Advantage.”

The Wildrose Alliance believes in respecting contract law. The Party believes in allowing voters the ability to recall their elected representatives when they start representing themselves rather than the people that elected them.

Remember Guy Boutilier?

August 28, 2009

Remember Guy Boutilier?

For Immediate Release

Calgary-Glenmore residents need to remember what happened to the last PC MLA who tried to speak publically and passionately about the needs of their constituents.

Though Diane Colley-Urquhart’s musings about revisiting the question of health care premiums are surely well intentioned, would Premier Ed Stelmach tolerate such outspokenness from her in the legislature? Particularly when she speaks out against her own government’s policy?

Remember Guy Boutilier? Today Paul Hinman remarked; “Sometimes people at the doors tell me they really like Diane but can’t vote for her because she would get “Boutiliered” and it would send Ed the wrong message” Guy Boutilier is a long serving MLA representing Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, a former cabinet Minister, and mayor of Fort McMurray and now a former Progressive Conservative MLA.

Guy was punted from the PC Caucus for calling out the Premier on a broken promise to build a long term care facility in the constituency of Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo. The Premier and Health Minister broke that promise and when confronted publically, the Premier disciplined his PC MLA for speaking up for his constituents.

Calgary-Glenmore constituents could understandably be suspicious whether another PC MLA (there's 70 already) would result in a different course of treatment, and with polls indicating a 12% drop in the likely PC vote, a Wildrose Alliance surge of support, and approximately 25% undecided voters, it seems Calgary Glenmore constituents indeed are gathering behind Paul Hinman and are ready to send Premier Stelmach a message.

Paul Hinman said, “This by-election isn’t about whether Diane Colley-Urquhart would make a good MLA or not, it’s about not wasting the opportunity to send Ed a message. Elected representatives have to be able to openly and publicly represent their constituents and that means they must be able to openly and publically speak out against bad government policy”

Paul Hinman, Wildrose Alliance Interim party leader and candidate in the Calgary-Glenmore by-Election.

For more info contact the Paul Hinman Campaign:
Phone: 403.252.5550
Fax: 403.984-3622
Email: sendedamessage@gmail.com
http://www.sendedamessage.ca/

Notes from Paul Hinman Calgary Glenmore Campaign

I have recieved the following from Paul's volunteer coordinator.

We are pleased to announce that we have settled into our new campaign office at 208, 8408 Elbow Dr. SW; on the southeast corner of Elbow Drive and Heritage Drive. There is underground parking and additional parking across the street. Feel free to drop by for a visit.

Our literature drop last Saturday was a great success, so great in fact that we have decided to distribute another piece and do it all over again this Saturday, August 29th at the office starting at 10 AM.

The campaign has been going very well thanks to the great effort of many volunteers. I hope you will join our team and I look forward to you joining our team!

We have been very busy and could use additional volunteers for the following tasks:

- Outbound calling, various shifts from 1 PM to 9 PM

- Reception (incoming calls), evenings and Saturdays.

- Sign placement, best to have a vehicle for this task.

If you can help in any of these areas call me at 403-252-5550 or simply drop by the office.

On Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8 AM to 10 AM Paul will be in attendance. Let's put our best effort forward to "send Ed a message"!!!

~Julie Huston

Volunteer Coordinator
Calgary/Glenmore

Paul Hinman, Calgary Glenmore Kick-off a HUGE success.

It was a beautiful day in Calgary; perfect for the first large volunteer effort on Paul Hinmans campaign. We met at 10:00 AM and the workers were eager to go. We managed to snap this picture of the first 35 volunteers.

By 10:15 they had their packages and spread out like busy ants throughout the constituency. CTV stopped by to do a quick interview with Paul and then he was on his way too.

By 11:00 AM we had late arrivals signed in, along with another half dozen from each the Mark Dyrholm and Danielle Smith campaigns. Bringing our confirmed number to 55!!

With so many hands we covered all the targeted areas without having to over work any of your dedicated members. We reconvened at the Boston Pizza at Southland Drive and 24 St.SW.



The management welcomed us with great hospitality and the staff did an amazing job creating a vast selection of their finest pizzas. The food was delicious and was perfect for those who had worked up an appetite.



All in all, it was a great day, it went smoothly, we accomplished our goal; it was a HUGE success.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who came out.

In the coming days I will be posting an invite to visit at our campaign headquarters. For more information you can also visit Pauls website.