Internal Conservative Battles

Whispering in the Wind (WITW 26) April 23, 2014

In politics, what is considered positive action in the short term can have negative, if not disastrous consequences in the longer term,  It all comes down to short term decision making and assessing the impact those decisions will have on the electorate, at election time.  Rarely do politicians consider the longer term implications of decisions and when they do, they are considered leaders with vision.  Albertans will be going to the polls in the spring of 2016 which seems a long way off but the Alberta PCs are in such disarray there is the question of political survival.  At the federal level, Mr. Harper’s Conservatives are facing a national election in the fall of 2015 and they too are dealing with some confusion and dysfunction within the Conservative Party.  The big question facing both the Progressive Conservatives in Alberta and Mr. Harper’s Conservatives in Ottawa, are they election ready? 

Alberta PCs Need Help

The Alberta Progressive Conservative Party seems to be floundering with no sense of direction and not having a leader to take them into the 2016 election campaign.  Premier Hancock calls himself an “interim” premier and that in itself severely restricts his ability to offer direction to the party, showing any creative imagination in rebuilding the party’s base and formulating a winning election strategy.  To make things more complicated, a good number of potential leadership possibilities are sitting within the present PC caucus (and within the governing PC cabinet) and that reality further weakens the government, a government that cannot put forward a unified front to party supporters or the general electorate.  One name that has emerged as a possible candidate for the Alberta PC leadership is Jim Prentice.  Should Mr. Prentice enter the leadership race, the contest between the PCs and the Wildrose could become interesting, it could be a game changer for the beleaguered PC party.  Mr. Prentice is a former cabinet minister in the Harper government (held portfolios in Aboriginal Affairs, Industry and Environment) and is well respected amongst Calgary’s oil and gas elite.  Should Mr. Prentice take on the leadership of the Alberta PCs he will only have one major challenge:  he must clearly define and distinguish the Alberta PCs from the Alberta Wildrose Party – and that’s the winning election strategy for the PCs.  As to whether Jim Prentice runs in the September leadership contest is still an open question, so watch for the answer on May 6 when Mr. Prentice introduces Premier Hancock at a PC gathering..

Mr. Harper’s Election Strategy, Gone Wrong

I’ve concluded that Mr. Harper sketched out “his” party’s election strategy about 18 months ago – dispose of any contentious issues early on in the campaign which if achieved would allow “his” conservative movement to fight the 2015 election on “his” management of the economy and “his” country’s economic performance since 2003.  Unfortunately for Mr. Harper, things did not go as he had planned and “his” credibility suffered badly, to the point that some observers are now suggesting that it is time for him to move on to other things.  There is a long list of Harper initiatives that have gone wrong in the last few years, but I feel there is one initiative that has to be considered the core wrong doing – an experiment that has gone bad.  The experiment was the fusing of the Reform-Alliance movement with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. In the short run the “unite the right” initiative appeared to be a good idea if the right wanted to defeat the long standing Liberal governments and it worked with Steven Harper at the helm.  Today observers are seeing a clear rift within the Conservative Party of Canada with two factions emerging; the more progressive Red Tories and those further to the right, the Blue Tories.  The Conservative nomination meeting in Calgary Signal Hill two weeks ago clearly demonstrated just how deep the rift is within the federal conservatives.  Ron Liepert, considered to be a more progressive Red Tory won the nomination over Rod Anders.  The question for Mr. Harper, is this nomination in Calgary the start of a wave of discontent with his leadership or is progressive wing of the party simply saying the “unite the right” experiment just didn’t work out?         

Quote, Worth Thinking About: 

Noted poet and novelist Charles Bukowski said:  “The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.”