St. Paul

The CBC has done some good work on northern Alberta politics today, unearthing, among other things, a $500 payment from the Town of St. Paul to a golf tournament in support of the constituency association of cabinet minister Ray Danyluk.

I arrived in St. Paul this afternoon. The vibe here is quite a bit different from Denver which was a big rolicking political carnival. Here the energy is serious, even grim. The hurricane in the Gulf Coast has set a serious tone. Bush and Cheney’s speeches have been canceled along with the rest of the evening program. Parties are being turned into fundraisers. Cindy McCain and Laura Bush showed up at a breakfast for the Louisiana delegates and gave them moral support. A McCain campaign plane was sent to help evacuate the families of Gulf Coast delegates. All the boxed lunches that were prepared for delegates were apparently sent for disaster relief in the Gulf.