XPost: can.politics, ab.politics, edm.general   
      
   Followup on the 'restraining order' guy involved:   
   _________________________   
     Postmedia News | April 29, 2015   
      
      
   Don Braid: Alberta Tories diverted by family quarrel as election day nears   
      
      
   The Progressive Conservative party is suddenly beset by restraining orders,   
   family legal squabbles   
   and snotty text messages — all the hallmarks of the modern dysfunctional   
   family.   
      
   This scandal is a huge distraction as the PCs try to get traction on a   
   campaign that seems to be   
   slipping away from them.   It not only bruises their already wobbly image but   
   could cost them two   
   ridings: Chestermere-Rocky View and Calgary-Acadia.   
      
   And all because of a candidate scorned, Jamie Lall, who decided to run as an   
   Independent and then   
   seek vengeance on the PC machine at a key moment in the campaign.   
      
   Lall was famously disqualified as a candidate for the PC nomination in   
   Chestermere-Rocky View only a   
   few hours after Danielle Smith, and two other ex-Wildrosers, lost their   
   nominations on March 28.   
      
   Lall was a loyal PC, a party veteran at a young age. But the PCs obviously   
   wanted Bruce McAllister,   
   a floor crosser, as their candidate in the riding he won for Wildrose in 2012.   
      
   As early as Jan. 31, PC executive director Kelley Charlebois told Lall in a   
   text message: “Don’t   
   want you in Chestermere.â€� A couple of weeks later he said: “I think it has   
   more to do with who   
   you’re running against than you.â€�   
      
   That would support the common view that Lall got the boot for purely political   
   reasons; the PCs   
   didn’t want yet another ‘crosser to lose a nomination.   
      
   But Premier Jim Prentice has always insisted there was good reason for   
   Lall’s disqualification. It   
   was Lall’s subject to discuss, if he cared to, the premier said.   
      
   Lall didn’t reveal anything. But then, after he released the text messages,   
   out it popped,   
   confirming a rumour that’s been circulating for weeks.   
      
   A court restraining order was granted against Lall in 2007 by an   
   ex-girlfriend, who claimed she got   
   incessant calls and felt threatened after they broke up.   
      
   At this point it’s a case of he-said/she-said in Toryland.  The PCs perhaps   
   don’t grasp that in a   
   brawl like this, every attempt to win only makes everybody look worse.   
      
   The restraining order emphasizes, for instance, that while Lall can’t run as   
   a Tory, former justice   
   minister Jonathan Denis remains the candidate in Calgary-Acadia after leaving   
   the cabinet post   
   because of a legal dispute with his wife.   
      
      
        Suddenly, a lot of political people are nervously checking their text   
   message strings.   
      
   A three-hour court hearing was held on that matter Tuesday, with everything   
   under a publication ban,   
   a sideshow in the PC circus.   
      
   Prentice, without noticeable enthusiasm, says he still backs Denis as a   
   candidate. “We press on,â€� he   
   said.   
      
   If there’s a collateral victim in this mess, it’s Denis, who sent texts to   
   his friend Lall   
   supporting him as the party tried to strip away his right to run in   
   Chestermere-Rocky View.   “Buddy   
   you are being set up,â€� he wrote, after Lall said the party had a private   
   investigator after him.   
      
   When Lall said the party told him the P.I is used to screen all candidates,   
   Denis replied “BS. BS.   
   BS.â€�  He advised Lall to get a lawyer.   
      
   Denis isn’t talking, but associates say he sent other text messages,   
   pointing out to Lall that he   
   endorsed Bruce McAllister. Those weren’t released, they say.   
      
   They also note, correctly, that Denis publicly backed McAllister as early as   
   Feb. 20, more than a   
   month before Lall was kicked out.   
      
   So there are questions about whether those texts are the full story, but Denis   
   lost his cabinet job   
   and then unintentionally embarrassed his party.   
      
      
   Suddenly, a lot of political people are nervously checking their text message   
   strings. Friends   
   aren’t forever in that game.  Nor is privacy.   
      
   This whole mess stems from lingering poisonous fallout over the December   
   floor-crossings that have   
   gone disastrously wrong for the PCs.   
      
   Smith herself might have got it right when she said: “The anger that was   
   directed toward me when I   
   got defeated in my riding, I think it ricocheted … that anger had to go   
   somewhere, so I think it   
   just sort of ricocheted back onto Prentice and the PCs.â€�   
      
   Jamie Lall sure was angry, with some reason.  He ran for the PCs in unwinnable   
   Calgary-Buffalo in   
   2012; he mediated riding factions as president of the Calgary-McCall riding   
   association.   
      
   But when he wanted to run against an ex-Wildroser — one of the PCs’ most   
   savage critics only months   
   ago — his party punted him.   
      
   So he decided to ricochet, no matter who got hit.   It’s a mystery why the   
   PC party didn’t see that   
   coming.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)