Alberta Tories shrug off Wildrose's gains in poll

'Bloom will come off the rose,' Snelgrove says

Jason Fekete and Renata D'Aliesio, Calgary Herald

Published: Thursday, November 05, 2009

CALGARY - Provincial Tory cabinet ministers shrugged off Thursday new poll results showing the Wildrose Alliance is nipping at the heels of the governing PCs and has passed the Conservatives in Calgary as party of choice.

Ministers said they believe support for the Wildrose Alliance will quickly fade once voters get to know the upstart party and their policies a bit better. They also argued the survey results won't affect Premier Ed Stelmach's leadership review this weekend at the Progressive Conservative convention in Red Deer.

"I'm not worried about it," said Treasury Board president Lloyd Snelgrove. "I got a hunch the bloom will come off the rose," he said about the Wildrose party.

"I'm not worried about it. It's got nothing to do with the leadership (review)," said Treasury Board president Lloyd Snelgrove, one of Stelmach's top lieutenants.

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Solicitor General Fred Lindsay said the only poll that matters is Stelmach's leadership review Saturday.

"I firmly believe that the premier will get the support he deserves, which is fairly positive," he said.

The poll, conducted Oct. 19 to 31 by Environics Research Group and provided exclusively to the Herald, reveals the governing Tories have sunk to their lowest popular support in 16 years, barely ahead of the Wildrose Alliance.

The telephone survey finds that 34 per cent of decided voters would cast a ballot for Stelmach and his Conservatives if an election were held today, compared to 28 per cent for the fledgling Wildrose Alliance and new leader Danielle Smith.

"These guys don't have a vision and people are looking at what's going to solve our problems," said Wildrose Alliance Calgary-Glenmore MLA Paul Hinman. "It's just not working for Albertans."

David Swann's Liberals are in third with the backing of 20 per cent of voters, followed by Brian Mason's NDP at nine per cent and the recently delisted Green party at eight per cent.

"This is an indication that the Conservatives are breaking apart," Swann said, acknowledging the Liberals have work to do. "We have to connect with people across the province."

The Environics survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 95 times out of 100. In the regional breakdowns, the margin of error is 6.2 percentage points in the major cities and 5.6 for the rest of Alberta.

jfekete@theherald.canwest.com

© The Calgary Herald 2009