Monday 1 January 2018

2017; the Year of the Leadership Races

2017 was an exceptionally exciting year in Alberta provincial politics; not only were two political parties buried (one without so much as a brief eulogy) but Albertans were treated to FIVE leadership races.  Launched in October of 2016 but maintaining air space in the first quarter of 2017 was the PC Leadership race, easily taken by Kenney and his merry band of Wildrose supporters on March 18.  Next in line came the Alberta Liberal Party race which saw their fears of an acclaimed leader evaporate when Nolan Crouse, the only declared candidate, decided not to run.

By April, David Khan and Kerry Cundal signed up and shook the Liberal base with a little controversy to deliver more excitement than the party had seen in years. The Wildrose/UCP leadership contest began immediately after the unity vote on July 22 and managed to attract enough contestants with very, very deep pockets to start the party off with almost a half-million dollar pot.  The Green Party of Alberta snuck in their own leadership race and announced Romy Tittel as their new leader in November a mere week before Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark surprised members and non with his resignation which triggered the fifth, and final, leadership race of 2017.

In March of 2017, delegates from around the province overwhelmingly chose to euthanize the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta by electing Jason Kenney.  The party that was once most recognizably the party of the fiscally and socially responsible Peter Lougheed has since been recreated in the image of one of their more controversial leaders, Ralph Klein.  Klein led the province from severe austerity to tax decreases and showering citizens with rebate checks affectionately, or offensively, known as "Ralph bucks".  He also paid off a sizable portion of the provincial debt, though not all, so it would seem as if some of Ralph's worshippers are just happy about the pretty sign.

The Alberta Liberal Party race revealed, yet again, a push to "unite the centre".  Former leader Dr. David Swann had reached out to the Alberta Party in 2010 to form a united front against the left and right wings but was unsuccessful.  Laurie Blakeman, a Liberal MLA in Edmonton Centre, proposed the idea in 2015 and was also unsuccessful.  As the outcome of the 2017 leadership race would suggest, almost half of the Liberal membership believe there should be a united movement for the moderate conservatives in Alberta.  And since we're talking about moderate conservatives, Brian Jean should have had their votes in the Wildrose/UCP.

There were a lot of people who believed Brian Jean had a real chance against Jason Kenney in the UCP Leadership race.  Brian Jean went from being a relatively unknown backbench MP for the Conservative Party of Canada to a household name in Alberta politics.  Brian Jean was the backbone of the moderate-conservatives in the Wildrose party.  Former PCs who were tired of the entitlement, and previously afraid of the Wildrose social conservatives, found in Brian Jean someone they could trust. Brian Jean stood steadfastedly against Kenney's social conservative base; at first.  In a strategically daft move, Brian Jean tried to entice Kenney's more right wing voter base which likely alienated his support.

Jason Kenney won the UCP leadership with slightly more than 60% of over 60,000 votes.  Brian Jean then declined a Party role and has hardly been seen in the legislature since which has caused rumblings of speculation that he will resign early in 2018.  Rounding out the year in leadership races was the Alberta Party whose race had hardly begun by the end of December with only one declared candidate, Kara Levis.  A little birdy told me today that another is about to declare shortly so we will have much to talk about by the end of the week.

Happy New Year to all you political observers; may you have fortitude, inspiration and wit to stay politically engaged throughout another year :)