Alberta Tory Leadership - Jim Dinning

In my second of three parts looking at the frontrunners in the race to succeed Premier Klein, I've turned my attention to Jim Dinning.

Mr. Dinning is the current frontrunner in the race. So, I went to his website: http://www.jimdinning.ca to take a look at what he's been up to lately.

Dinning is the biggest mystery of the candidates. He's been out of elected office for quite some time. His last elected position was as Provincial Treasurer where he conquored the deficit in Alberta. An accomplishment that he is to be commended for, for sure.

So, the question becomes, what does he think now. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. In the section Jim on the Issues there is a selection of quotes from Dinning on a variety of issues. I guess it's to be expected that a front-runner will avoid controversy, this section seemed to be nothing but meaningless platitudes like "I will lead a government that respects all of Alberta..." and "The best way elected officials can connect with their voters is to deal with the issues that count and show results." "We can balance the pressures of competing demands. But only if we think it through deliberately." "And the need to put real solutions on the table to combat real problems."

Overall, I see only one proposal to this point. He's promising to cut Alberta's tax rate in half for those under 30. While I'll never complain about taxes going down, this would, according to his figures, only account for 1% of provincial revenues. I think there's more room than that for tax relief.

Hopefully we'll see more details and proposals from Dinning in the coming months. For the present, I'm skeptical to say the least.