Previous Profiles
Dave Hancock
Lyle Oberg
Mark Norris
Ted Morton
Ed Stelmach
Gary and Victor
Today, I finish up my series on the PC leadership candidates, to be followed up in the next day or two with an overall prediction of the race.
In 3 words or less: Think Paul Martin.
Jim on Emissions: Wants to set “aggressive targets” for reducing emissions in Alberta within 18 months. Wants tradeable emission permits and seems to put a big focus on researching new technologies to capture carbon. To his credit, Dinning seems to be the only candidate who even has an idea of what he wants to do here and he, along with Hancock, toped this environmental ranking.
Jim the unifier: Dinning went on to compare the Queen Elizabeth II Highway to a bar linking the two ends of a dumbbell: Edmonton and Calgary. He then quoted a rural resident he’d met, who’d said: “If only we could get those two dumbbells to listen to the rest of us, we would have a much better province.”
Jim’s War Chest: Reported to be well over 3 million dollars. Since he won’t release the names of his donors, one wonders if a certain former Prime Minister has returned the favour and cut Jim a cheque.
Jim’s Backers: Rod Love (think Karl Rove), pretty much the entire caucus.
Can He Win? It would take an act of God for him to lose this race but with church members being signed up en masse across the province, I don’t think an act of God is too unlikely. My guess is Jim gets 40% on the first ballot and cruises to an easy win during the second vote.
My Take: As frequent readers of this blog no doubt recognize, I really dislike Jim Dinning. But, in fairness, his adversity to taking risks means he won’t do anything too scary and won’t rock the boat vis-a-vis Ottawa when he gets in as Premier. But his no risk power lust will eventually catch up with him. It likely won’t be before the next provincial election but five or ten years from now this man will fall from grace and it’s going to be a delight to watch.