Another Week, Another Move Toward Unity

It feels like "hurry up and wait".  On the left we have the governing NDP making good use of their time and stature holding meet and greets.  We have the Alberta Liberal Party's new leader David Khan who has begun an "87 constituency tour", Jason Kenney on a similar path to garner support for Unite the Right and Brian Jean has been reaching out as well.  Derek Fildebrandt has also stated he will join the race if the parties merge.  The former Progressive Conservatives and Wildrose members will vote on unity July 22, 2017.

Meanwhile, the Unite the Centre initiative has enjoyed a publicity boost from the acquisition of Katherine O'Neill, former President of the Progressive Conservative Party.  O'Neill has recently accepted the position of Director of Alberta Together, a political action committee that, according to their website was "started to help shape and support a growing fearless, focused and forward thinking centrist political voice" in Alberta. "It is a not-for-profit organization that puts public service, pragmatic centrist principles and province-building at the top of its agenda."

http://albertatogether.ca 

Back in April, the first Unite the Centre meeting was held in Red Deer.  People were invited based on the organizers' knowledge of the invitees' political leanings.  Each of the invitees were asked to reach out to others within their communities to bring as many voices to the table as possible.

At that time Kerry Cundal was running for the leadership of the Alberta Liberal Party and though she did not speak on behalf of the party, she attended.  Had she won the leadership, she would have known what these conversations were about and how or if her party could benefit from taking part.

The NDP's connection with its federal party will continue to be a tough shadow to cast off. With the latest announcement from the federal NDP leadership candidate Jagmeet Singh that he and his party will oppose both Kinder Morgan and Energy East, the AB NDP are left holding a bag. As much as they would like to move centre, their federal counterparts seem intent upon making them look like Greens on steroids. Add to that the slim-to-none chance of Wildrose or Kenney's party or the UCP quieting their socially conservative, death threat making, immigrant hating, refugee bashing, homophobic members to appeal to a centrist base... and you have just two parties in the centre.

As O'Neill said on Ryan Jespersen's show last week, "there are two parties in the centre; the Liberals and the Alberta Party... what is the best option for 2019?"  Greg Clark will be in the room but I believe David Khan is restricted to maintaining the status quo.  Seems we'll find out where the conversation leads on Saturday.

If you would like to be part of these discussions, or just want to have lunch and listen, tickets are available for the Alberta Together event on June 24, 2017.  The event is scheduled to run from 11:00 am (registration opens at 9:30) until 3:00 pm at the Black Knight Inn in Red Deer.

Zero Days Without Incident

It was a simple task. Send out an email invite to the screening of a movie that is controversial enough to get their name in the paper and have everyone talking about them. Ideally, they were probably hoping for a censorship backlash that could have resulted in a "free speech" fight with the University. 

That's what could have happened when they hit "send" but it's not what happened. Instead, the Wildrose faction of University of Calgary students found themselves in the centre of another debate; Women's Equality.  While there are numerous ways to get your name in the paper, this is not the favoured route, even for the Wildrose. However, as Derek Fildebrandt so eloquently stated "Hyper-sensitive, politically correct, victim as virtue culture is creating a leadership class of wimps." (Nov 12, 2016).  Though Fildebrandt insists he is not a social conservative, it's the company you keep.

I mean, in 2012 when the Wildrose did not form government after so many polls said they would, many pointed to the "Lake of Fire" story and claimed it contributed to their loss.  In April of 2015, Rick Strankman, MLA for Drumheller-Stettler took some heat for staying out of the kitchen when a "volunteer" circulated an invitation asking attendees to "Bring Your Wife's Pie".

Add to this the new Maxime Bernier meme featuring double-downer Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt and referencing the "red pill" which he circulated yesterday and you have a full-blown blow back. Especially when the tweeter of said meme claims to have no knowledge of the more modern interpretation of "red pill". If a reader is so inclined, they can google it - I won't link to such garbage.

For a political party that has seen their fair (or unfair, if you swing that way) share of controversy since becoming the Wildrose, this doesn't help.  Personally, I don't see this doing any harm to their brand.  This is, after all, their brand.

And if Jason Kenney is successful in winning the PC leadership, dissolving the PC party, getting Wildrose to agree to dissolve their party, and creating a new conservative party, people will forget the Wildrose Party of Alberta ever existed. Which, really, is nothing but beneficial for them in a modern world.

Nothing has Changed for Wildrose

It was standing room only at a crowded town hall at the Strathmore Legion planned by the local MLA Derek Fildebrandt. "How many of you are PC members?" He asked.  One lone gentleman raised his hand.  The topic of this meeting was uniting the Conservative vote and it would probably help if other conservatives would attend.  Sometimes though, an echo chamber is all you need.

"I have a lot of respect for Conservatives in the PC Party" he said.  "There are some very good members who are strong Conservatives but the PC Party was hijacked by a faction of liberals who are scared they're going to have to go back to the liberal party."  The crowd chuckled so this might have been a joke.  He told a story about  walking to the legislature with Sandra Jansen and said she asked him if there would be room for liberal-minded people in a united conservative party.  He beat about the bush and told the crowd that any person who is for free enterprise is welcome in a united conservative party.

The people who attended were overwhelmingly in agreement that the conservatives should unite (with the exception of the aforementioned PC member).  Recall that this town hall took place in a rural riding, most of which, across the province, are stark conservative ridings and currently represented by a Wildrose MLA.  In these areas, they see the issue for what it is; the cities are more liberal than they are and their party won't form government without the cities.  Why do they want a united conservative party?  Because they don't have to give anything up.

The PC party has had success in the cities as well as the rural areas.  You don't get 44 years of one-party rule without assistance from the largest cities in the province.  To rural Wildrose supporters, there's only one way to win government; remove the progressive conservative faction.  When this was brought up by an audience member, Fildebrandt referred to the federal vote.  "More than 60% of voters chose the Conservative party federally".  Some, though, say that people vote for different things at different levels of government.

Does a united conservative party have a chance to beat out the NDP in 2019?   Of course they do, but progressive conservatives are still thinking about what this means for them.  They didn't support the Wildrose in the last election and some have no intention of supporting them in the next one.

Do the Wildrose want to take over the PC party?  Certainly.  Remove the vote split, one and one equals two and all that.  Looking at both sides of the debate, it's definitely not a worry for the Wildrose supporters; they're strong and they're united.  For them, nothing has changed.