Dinning Releases Donor List and Won’t Run Again
March 23, 2007 · By Greg Farries
Rick Bell pores on the love for Jim Dinning in his recent article, “Jim Dinning hands out list of campaign donors, then walks off into sunset as Good Ship Tory drifts under leadership of Unsteady Eddie.” Bell can barely contain his contempt for Stelmach and does his best to prove his point with his trademark one sentence paragraphs:
Jim Dinning, the best-qualified but ultimately unsuccessful Tory leadership hopeful, reveals his list of campaign donors to the Sun.Jim promises to bring out numbers by the end of March and the former treasurer, who put together the plan to balance Alberta’s books in the ’90s, does just that.
And he actually produces a complete list of donors, unlike the premier who keeps 15% of his donations secret since the donors want it that way.
Then, to prove his point that Dinning would have been a better provincial Premier, Bell starts dropping names like a giddy little schoolgirl –
Scanning the big donors you see Gail Asper, the daughter of the late media mogul Izzy Asper.There are also a lot of law firms and oil and gas companies, including some of the bigs, such as EnCana and Petro-Canada.
There’s Cowboys bar and Woodridge Ford Lincoln and two Flames owners, Harley Hotchkiss and Doc Seaman, along with ATCO Group and Jim’s old boss, TransAlta.
On the under $5,000 list is everybody from former premier Peter Lougheed, who publicly backed Jim, to the Chinese Masonic Club and the Centre Street North Liquor Store. There are 1,544 individuals and companies.
Wow Gail Asper donated – I’m impressed! Finally, Bell points out what most of us already know, Dinning was more interested in being Premier than serving Albertans in Edmonton.
“Putting my name on a ballot is not in my future. This is the end,” says Jim, of a campaign where he was the frontrunner, had the backing of most Tory MLAs and lost.
Jim’s donor list contains a good profile of the three-piece suit types — many from outside the province — that ordinary Albertans all along suspected would be the case with Dinning. And that’s why he was never a shoe-in. Another cocky elitist bites the dust.
You need to know where Bell comes from to understand his current state of mental well-being. As he loves to mention his roots are in the North End of Winnipeg, this speaks volumes about his socialist leanings.
Unless you see the population in that area, and their normal voting pattern (NDP), it’s hard to understand how he can be such a dick.
I guess if you can employ Sheila Copps, you could employ Pol Pot.
Bell has never changed he has been a dick since day one in Calgary. I think he fancies himself as some super cool anti establishment hero.
I’ll have you know Dinning is a stand up guy, he may of had corporate donors but who doesn’t in the end? I guess I just can’t think wrong of a guy who personally calls up my mother to see how her hospital stay was, and Im just the son of a cop…..not of the cheif either…but Beaton is a great guy too on that topic.
To be fair, I wasn’t criticizing Dinning for his corporate donors, but rather his lack of commitment to Albertans – he only wanted to be the leader of the province, being an MLA obviously wasn’t glamorous enough.
Also, Rick Bell’s cheer leading is getting a bit old, isn’t it?
Holy cow, Bell wrote a whole column on Albertan politics without slagging Ted Morton!?