Alberta Election - The Last Word - Wildrose set for Sweeping Majority - Poll

Despite the influx of the national media, in an attempt to change the outcome of the Alberta election, Albertans seem to have thumbed their nose at progressives in Toronto and Ottawa.  Danielle Smith and her Wildrose Party are set for a sweeping majority on Monday, according to a Forum Project Inc poll conducted late Saturday. The results of this latest poll confirm the findings of a Sun News poll published on Friday. 

The poll, which shows the Wildrose Party with 41%  over Alison Redford's Progressive Conservatives with 32%, while the NDP has 13% and the Liberals at 10%.  The NDP and Liberals are strongest in Edmonton, where they are at 23% and 14% respectively.

The Forum Project Inc poll was conducted with a total of 2010 responses gathered Saturday evening by automated phone response.  

The polling firm president Lorne Bozinoff said that the win is enough for Wildrose to capture 62 of the province's 87 seats.

“We expect to welcome a new majority government to the provincial scene on Monday night,”

Alison Redford's approach was that she wanted to change the character of Alberta.  Most Albertans think that the province's character is just fine.  In addition to this there have been attempts to fear monger against the Wildrose Party, almost to the point that it was described as scary and intolerant.  Yet Redford had enough problems in her own party.

 Despite passing a provincial budget prior to the election, Redford has made all kinds of additional promises and the list keeps piling on.  The question is how it would all get paid for.  Excessive spending has consequences.  One only need to look south of the border to the U.S. with its $16 Trillion and growing deficit.  Sooner or later the chickens come home to roost. 

Alberta is headed for change.  A change that returns the province to fiscal responsibility, property rights and free speech.   A change that will be refreshing.

Demonstrations in Russia - Against Putin's Russia?

Tens of thousands assembled in Moscow today for a protest against misuse of power and election fraud.  It seems that the neat little plan for Putin to continue holding power is falling apart.  The chickens have come home to roost.

Dimitry Medvedev, who befriended Putin during his time as a campaign manager and advisor for St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak.  Medvedev fit neatly into Putin's plan, when Medvedev was elected President in 2008.  There seems to have been a Putin plan all along to take power in Russia again in 2012.

It seems however the chickens have come home to roost.  After the December 4th election, Putin's United Russia Party received just under 49%, although it is enough for Putin to push his agenda.  There have been widespread allegations of ballot box stuffing and election fraud.  The OECD alleged that that the election was  fraudulent and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Russia to hold fair and free elections.

Russians shed their fear of the state power and took to the streets, initially with protests on December 5th and 6th, where Russians took to the streets shouting "Russia without Putin". The protests resulted in hundreds of arrests.

Not discouraged, protests were organize for December 10th and tens of thousands of Russians took to the street, with up to 50,000 riot police deployed ahead of the protest.  Demonstrators are demanding a rerun of the election and and end to the Putin era. 

There were protests throughout Russia, according to BBC

• Protesters in the Pacific port of Vladivostok waved banners with slogans like "The rats should go!" and "Swindlers and thieves - give us our elections back!"

• In Kurgan, on the border with Kazakhstan, police dispersed an unapproved rally after between 200 and 400 protesters gathered on a square in freezing weather

• Some 3,000 people braved temperatures of minus 20C for a two-hour rally in Novosibirsk
• At least 3,000 people rallied in Yekaterinburg to chant "Freedom to political prisoners" and "Russia without Putin", with one protester waving a large teddy bear - the symbol of the United Russia party is a bear - impaled on a stick.

Whether or not Putin will listen remains to be seen.   Is this Russia's Arab Spring?

Update: 

The protests appear to have had some success.   After massive protests yesterday, which saw very little interference by police and were broadcast on Russian media, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev ordered an investigation into allegations of polling violations during last Sunday's parliamentary election.