Mo Elsalhy for Alberta Liberal Leader

And a heartfelt thank you to all of you who supported and voted for me, worked on the campaign, or contributed financially. I truly appreciate your trust and encouragement and want to reassure you: I am not going anywhere. On the contrary, I have pledged to work closely with our new leader to rebuild the party and expand its presence and appeal.

Ours is a great product and Alberta deserves nothing less.

Please feel free to write to me

• by snail mail at:

P.O. Box 78021
Callingwood RPO
Edmonton, AB. T5T 6A1

And we will continue to accept donations until the end of January '09. A third of every donation will go to the party so give generously. Thanks a lot for an exciting leadership race, merry christmas and a happy new year to all.

Dear Alberta Liberals,

The leadership race is in the home stretch. Ballots have been mailed out and members like you have started voting. This is a quick reminder that you have to return your ballots, in the envelopes provided, by no later than 4:00 pm on December 12th for your vote(s) to be counted.

All along, I have maintained that while I have the utmost respect and admiration for my two colleagues who are also running, I am of the opinion, however, that we can't continue to do things the same old way and hope to somehow miraculously win. I believe that I am the best candidate to lead our party forward and to rebuild and renew our organization. I am not one who’s big on making blue sky statements or platitude observations. Instead, I have been described as a ‘nuts and bolts’ kind of guy, a systematic mind, one whose strength lies in the mechanics of getting stuff done, making plans and executing them to fulfilment.

My approach from day one on the campaign trail was to highlight opportunities or openings, identify growth markets in which we are going to expand. These are:
1. The youth, and at 37, I am closer to their age, I understand their issues and speak their language,
2. Immigrants, and I can tell that story as well and tell it convincingly being an immigrant myself,
3. Migrants who move here from different parts of Canada and are, for the most part, open to considering alternatives, and
4. Our First Nations community, a group that desperately needs to be reached out to and engaged.

The mechanics include doubling our current membership and establishing functional and stable constituency organizations in all 83 constituencies over the next 3 years. Over the next 4 years, we will have fully eliminated our debt and started building a war chest, in time for the 2012 election. And in terms of financial support, I will base our party’s finances on the contributions we receive from individuals and small businesses. This way our revenues will be predictable and sustainable and we would be sending a clear message that ours is a true grassroots party.

I want to have candidates nominated early. I want to expand caucus meetings to regularly include constituency presidents and/or candidates so they can share with caucus what’s on people’s minds in their local communities, and in return, caucus arms them with the latest research and policies. And I want to, as Leader, spend the bulk of my time, from now until the next election, supporting our local candidates and marketing our brand on the door steps and at community events throughout Alberta.

Yes, we have challenges but we also have a tremendous opportunity. We need to change and renew, but more importantly perhaps, we need to be seen as evolving. Part of the success experienced by the democrats in the recent US election was that regardless of the outcome from their primaries, choosing a female candidate or a young man of colour, they were sending all of America a clear message they were ready for change and they were starting from within. We can send a similar message here too and challenge Albertans to “take a serious look at us.”

Help me lead this renewal. Please mark a “1” next to my name and send in your ballots ASAP. Thanks and regards.

These are my answers to a comment and a question from party members, the first came from Red Deer when we had our debate there a couple of weeks ago, and the second came from Edmonton-Gold Bar when I met with that constituency association at their AGM on Thursday.

=> I like your plan for renewal and agree with all you say but think you're a bit young for the job at this point. We all know, however, who the next leader is going to be next time around.

With youth comes energy and creativity. What we need is a combination of the experience and insight offered by those party members who have been around for a while and the enthusiasm and inventiveness of the newer generation.

I am interested in leading the party today, not in 4 or 8 years. We need to rebuild and renew now and I know what it takes. My youth also affords me the time to do things right, I won't be as rushed. Lastly, it's definitely going to be a draw if we're serious about attracting young Albertans to our party. I am closer to their age and understand their issues and the language they speak.

Peter Lougheed was 37 when he led the PCs to victory against Social Credit. Brad Wall, Saskatchewan's young Premier, was the same age when he became leader of his party which later went on to topple the NDP government in that province. My age is an asset, not a liability.

=> I hope I won't offend you but can you please explain how you can effectively lead the party without a seat in the Assembly? Are you going to ask a colleague to step down to force a by-election?

First, there are precedents. Stephen Harper became leader of the Reform/Alliance party without having a seat in Parliament and now he's Prime Minister. Laurence Decore did it as well in 1988 when he quit municipal politics to run for leader. At least I prove I was electable in a big way when I took on former Economic Development Minister, Mark Norris, in 2004, and despite the disappointing result in 2008, I was one of very few Liberals in the entire province whose vote actually went up, not down.

Second, I have a lot of confidence in the 9 MLAs we have in the House. They can all carry the legislative load quite effectively and perform those duties more than adequately. This then allows me the freedom and the time to do what successful campaigners do which is to focus on reaching out to Albertans and listening to their ideas and concerns. What we do in the Legislature is important of course but remaining visible, marketing our ideas and showing Albertans we actually care about their issues is the only way we can improve in popular support. This also involves spending time supporting nominated candidates on the ground in their local communities.

Lastly, we only have 3 MLAs in Edmonton and they're all strong and capable. I will not seek a by-election and hope all three of them finish their terms and indeed run again. Instead, I will contest the next general election, in my own riding of Edmonton-McClung, and hope to win it back and re-join and lead an expanded and stronger caucus.

12 days till November 7th (membership deadline). My challenge to every single party member is to try to recruit/renew 11 other people before the deadline, or one a day. We do that, we do really well in 2012.

Click here to download a membership form or to renew/activate online.