ALBERTA: Provincial Elections!

[Sheilbh]

Instead it's the behind the scenes networks of political lobby groups and think tanks.  Just as my own example in university I came out to Calgary to receive a few days training from a US-based conservative think-tank.  It was the early 90s so there was a very uneasy mixture of PCs and Reformers, and I think one loon from Christian Heritage.  In order to preserve right-wing unity we decided that we would all be BC SoCred members for the weekend (BC SoCred had been defeated and was clearly waning, but had a few delegates as well).

I understand the national Conservative Party has hired political consultants from the US from time to time.  Various Canadians have been hired in the US for political positions, then returned to Canada.  David Frum is the poster child for this phenomenon.

This is fair.  But I still think the links between movements on the left are bound to be weaker at the minute than those on the right simply because of the collapse of the Liberals and rise of the NDP and I imagine in general the informal relations follow in the channels of the formal ones.

It also appears that the NDP Socialist Caucus has extensive links to socialist movement internationally.  A good reminder that the old enemy still lurks.

So does the Labour Party.  Blair occasionally went and spoke to Socialist International and sang the Internationale.  It's a broad church

Another factor is that Michael Foot was good friends with David Lewis (they were comrades in Oxford).  I imagine the NDP were out of favour in Labour for a long time after that