www.ChrisLaBossiere.com

Jane Morgan, a recent Executive Director and CFO of the Wildrose Alliance Party, and in her own words "vocal supporter and member", went way out of her way this weekend to throw some mud on the Alberta Party "re-launch" from last Friday. Her words and tone were largely fueled by a lack of information and then several incorrect assumptions on her part, but it is important to our party that we are not labeled as anything other than what our actions will demonstrate.

Here are the titles, links and some excerpts from the three posts that she made since Friday. In every case she is plain wrong. Beyond that, she is borderline disrespectful as well, assuming we were ignoring the constitution of the party. Of course we were not.

Post #1  -  Interesting Way to Operate a Political Party

"All I have read about the two progressive (read: frustrated liberals) groups indicates that they support democracy. A very honorable stance; yet they have choosen to totally disrespect it when it came to the Alberta Party. How can they say they have "united", when it clearly is more of a hostile takeover."

Post #2   -  Take your constitution and Shove It! (I love the title, even though it is grossly innacurate)

"The AP held their last AGM in October 2009 and I can confirm there was no motion to "remove all policies". Nor has there been any "assembly" of the members since then."

Post #3  -   Alberta Party the Plot Thickens

 "Let's take a tally. So far they have:

- Ignored the constitutiion by "suspending" policies without a majority vote from the members.

- Ignored the fact that they already have principles embedded in their constitution and are using the principles of the "Renew" group.

- Ignored the constitution by appointing new board members where no vacancy exists and appointed members who don't meet the requirements.

So, my summary of Ms. Morgan's posts. WRONG, WRONG, and WRONG.

Jane has been a fun and admired debater on Twitter and within these very blog posts, and I have even given her her due when I made a mistake one blog post about the Wildrose not releasing the names of their party donors, when I had meant to say that their leader Danielle Smith has refused to release the name of her leadership sponsor/supporters.

But I expect that she should now write an apology, not unlike how I have in the past, stating that she was incorrect. I don't expect her to apologize for her tone and attitude, because we all fall for that from time to time. I must confess however that I was offended when she stated in one of her comment replies, that she felt the people involved were naive. We will admit to being human and we will make mistakes, but it could also be argued that writing three completely incorrect blog posts about a meeting where you supposedly attended part of and have the minutes of, could also be argued as being naive.

THE TRUTH

In short, and not to bore you with pages of resolotions and meeting minutes, the bottom line is this. The Alberta Party at their own AGM this last fall, was visionary enough to recognize that their constitution and their principles must be respected, but they also recognized that if they wanted to break out as a mainstream party, may have to make changes to their policies and constitution as required, and in between annual meetings. These changes could be made by the Board of Directors as seen fit, and then ratified at the next AGM. This created an Omnibus Resolution that allowed just that.

This forward thking piece of resolution, was actually moved and seconded by two long-standing party members, and not any of the new Alberta Progress Party board members, or of course any new director since that meetng. You can read the comment that our President Charles Relland has posted in response to Ms. Morgan's posts here, and this should sum up the issue:

Ms. Morgan,

Thank you for your interest in the Alberta Party – an interest that brought you to the first portion of the Annual General Meeting of the party last October in Red Deer.  Unfortunately, your recent blog entries are factually incorrect and it is important that I set the record straight:

First, Mr. Erickson ran on a platform that clearly stated that he wanted to bring the Renew Alberta team into the Alberta Party.

Second, the portion of the Annual General Meeting that you walked away from saw the presentation of my Omnibus Motion #10-24-09-20, overwhelmingly passed by the party membership who were in attendance at that meeting, and who represented more than 40% of the total membership of the party.  This motion completely negates the points you have made in your blog postings.  For your reassurance, and for the information of your readers, I quote two pertinent portions of this motion: 

Whereas the Constitution can only really be applicable to our Party after we sustain some growth, to work in practice, (and the Party, since 2005 is trying to follow it in principle), we have to admit to ourselves that we have to concentrate on growth with our secondary objective [that] of making the Constitution workable…"

And

“… That the Provincial Board may make any operational policy, between General Assemblies, to regulate the provincial affairs of the Party, including, but not limited to the bylaws and sections of the Party Constitution…"

The party constitution and the omnibus resolution give the board clear authority to suspend the party policies. (should also read appoint new directors, as this is within the same resolution)

Third, and most significant, the board of the Alberta Party proceeded with this course of action because traditional policy development simply doesn't work.  Clearly, we intend to be a new type of party.  We are inviting the involvement of all Albertans.

I suspect that your vehement opposition to the Big Listen is based entirely on the fact that you have no interest in seeing the Alberta Party broaden its base of support and actually listen to people who may disagree with your own point of view.  Fortunately for you, there is a party (in which you apparently hold an official position) which will accommodate your narrow minded, old-school political perspective.

Yours truly,

Charles Relland,

President

Alberta Party

An Afterthought: It is not my intention to get into a mud-slinging debate here. But I felt that these were very serious alegations that must have been responded to, so the Alberta Party was not unfairly labeled for something that it is not.