OK, so I guess this happened a couple weeks ago.  What can I say–Alberta political news travels slowly in the Land of Ford.  But I can tell you, if I still lived in Northwest Calgary, I would’ve broken out the bubbly the weekend before last upon the news that Rob “Sleepytime” Anders lost his riding’s nomination for next year’s federal election.  After all, I had the displeasure of living in his riding for eight years…

Mind you, Anders has been the representative for Calgary West for nearly twice that long.  He first took office in ’97 after some young punk named Steve Harper decided to leave the House of Commons and head up the National Citizens Coalition.  And since the only close electoral race in Calgary is between the provincial Progressive Conservatives and the further-right Wildrose Party these days, Anders looked like he was gonna be an MP for life.  Until they re-did the electoral map for 2015, that is.

Never thought I’d say this, but hooray for gerrymandering!  Although the house I grew up in won’t be a part of the redecoupaged Calgary Signal Hill riding, I was nevertheless quite happy to see such a much-needed overhaul.  I mean, VoteOutAnders.com has been online for nearly a decade–and sadly, hasn’t been updated in a while–and I certainly recall its unofficial campaign posters depicting Robbo with a Hitler-style mustache.  OK, so maybe that was taking it a little too far, but hey, he is the self-proclaimed “one of the more conservative members of Parliament who ever sat.“

So not surprisingly, he tried to turn the race for the Conservative nomination–which in Cowtown, is far more important than the actual election–into a “Red Tory” vs “Blue Tory” street fight, even turning to that most Conservative of dirty tactics, the dreaded robocall…

Or should we say Rob-ocall?  OK, so I couldn’t understand most of that, but it was apparently so bad that Anders threatened to sue his opponent over it.  Wait, what!?

Said opponent, Ron Liepert, was actually the MLA from Calgary West for eight years, seven of which were after I left town.  So while I can’t vouch for him personally, he did hold two cabinet posts in the Alberta government over that time–two more than Anders has held in his life.  In case you didn’t know, Rob’s only job before taking office was as paid heckler in Oklahoma.  Again, not making this up! Alas, Liepert allegedly won in a landslide, making him a virtual lock for Parliament.  I mean, I’m sure he’s got a winner with this campaign slogan:

“Hey, at least I’m not Rob Anders!”