Local News

After a public back and forth between the leaders of the Alberta NDP and the Alberta Liberals, Brian Mason and Dr. David Swann finally met Monday to discuss Alberta's progressive chances towards the next election. But they won't be heading there together.
 

At least not officially.

It was a meeting that had been pushed by Liberal leader Dr. Swann over the social networking site Twitter.

And NDP's Brian Mason responded by tweeting 'I told u (months) ago am happy 2 meet if u have specific proposals Knock off ads & tweets and pick up the phone'.

That meeting finally took place Tuesday, but as Dr. Swann tweeted afterwards '... (Brian Mason) and I didn't come to a decision, but the door is open to future meetings.'

Speaking to 630CHED after the meeting, Mason says he's ruling out a formal political coalition with the Liberals, but says he's open to a looser arrangement.

''Now whether or not there's some means for some mutually beneficial cooperation, that's something we're still waiting to hear from the Liberals on,'' Mason says.

That cooperation could be an arrangement between the two party's campaign teams to work together on their campaign strategy during the next election, which Swann describes as ''... some kind of electoral planning around where we have the best chance as different parties to win the campaign.''

''Also, where we could share some resources or communications,'' Swann says.

In the meantime, both Leaders haven't ruled another meeting between them as their respective parties continue to struggle to gain a popular foothold in the electorate.


(jl)