Liberals for Linda

Unite for Change.

Wednesday. 3:30 pm. Edmonton. Last week.

I'm sitting in a friend's office looking at a stretch of downtown, and across Collins Road to where I live. Lots of Blue signs dotting that way...

And I wonder. How could we possibly continue electing Rahim Jaffer?

I mean, as a community we're progressive. The federal Strathcona riding is a large one, true, much larger than it is provincially. Bordered by the North Saskatchewan at the north and west, Whitemud Drive at the south, and the city's edge at the east, the riding takes part or most of the provincial constituencies of Riverview, Strathcona, Gold Bar, and Mill Creek.

And of course, of the four seats, three of those are held by non-Conservative parties provincially.

It's become very clear to me that progressive people residing in the federal riding of Strathcona must cast aside their party allegiances in order to defeat Rahim Jaffer.

And more and more people I speak to agree: the NDP's Linda Duncan has the best shot of taking the seat and breaking the Tory blue hold on Alberta in this election campaign.

The conditions are ripe for an upset.

Some notable local bloggers have characterized Liberal candidate Claudette Roy as weak, at best.

Others have speculated that, in fact, her selection as the Liberal candidate in S'cona was a deliberate attack on votes of the right, intentionally leaving the left-leaning Liberal vote to Linda, thus defeating Jaffer.

Meanwhile, due to Duncan's rather lengthy credentials as a champion for environmental issues, area Green Party voters and activists are actively championing her cause, in turn. In this case, a former Green candidate states rather unequivocally that "in this riding, the best environmental candidate on the ballot is Linda Duncan."

An excellent blog here went so far as to say that "the only legitimate anti-Jaffer vote is a Linda Duncan vote."

The blogger, Conrad of GreenEdmonton.ca, has built a visually stunning graphic showing that 2006 Duncan was within striking distance of Jaffer (left).

Duncan's credentials have been well cataloged elsewhere. But suffice it to say that her hands-on work for Lake Wabamun, her policy work as the Assistant Deputy Minister for Renewable Resources for the Yukon, and her international work for countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh and Jamaica on environmental enforcement, leaves many of us duly impressed.

Wow. We need this woman as our MP.

That brings us up to the present. Myself, as a Liberal voter, some friends, as Liberal activists and candidates, are uniting for change with Linda.

We're hoping that if you consider yourself to be a progressive voter and you live in Edmonton Strathcona, you will cast your ballot for Linda Duncan too.

For the environment. For health care. For Strathcona - or for 'Anybody but Jaffer'. For all of us. Liberals for Linda!