CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR RAINS ON DAY OF UNITY
Starke could be seen as rallying point for a PC revival, or simply last of a dying party
Brian Jean was first off the line Monday, running hard. The boss of the party formerly known as Wildrose announced his leadership run for the United Conservative Party.
This is strange business. Technically, the two old parties still sort of exist, and the new one sort of doesn’t exist.
But Jean’s campaigners are determined to establish him as the de facto leader, the inevitable voice of the UCP, even before the “legacy parties” are officially amalgamated.
Jason Kenney isn’t expected to announce until Saturday, in Calgary and Edmonton. He’s a deliberate fellow and his campaign isn’t as fully formed as Jean’s.
Jean’s people aren’t mistaking that for weakness. Kenney’s organizing skills have been obvious for many months. Nobody underestimates him.
Before Jean spoke at an Airdrie golf course, the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative caucuses met in Edmonton’s Federal Building.
As expected, the 29 MLAs picked Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper as interim UCP leader, to serve until a permanent boss is chosen Oct. 28. Cooper is barred from running in the leadership race.
Don’t expect much excitement from his corner. Cooper is a solid, well-liked parliamentarian whose main job is to keep the Wildrose and PC MLAs at peace in the same tent.
Cooper will be a member of the UCP’s interim joint board, but isn’t allowed to vote. He gets to pick an MLA from each “legacy party” for the interim board.
They can’t vote, either. Nobody wants any Ric McIver overreach here.
Despite all the planning, the first big post-vote day did not go smoothly.
MLA Richard Starke, the PC who ran for the leadership and lost to Kenney, announced he won’t join the UCP caucus. He’ll continue to sit as the lone Progressive Conservative in the legislature.
Starke feels moving over to the UCP would betray his constituents in Vermilion-Lloydminster. They elected a Progressive Conservative, he says, and they should still have a Progressive Conservative.
“That’s why those people voted for me. They know who I was running for and what I stood for.”
He doesn’t think it’s right to follow his caucus mates into a new party he sees as very different — far more right-wing.
Starke doesn’t exactly accuse his old caucus mates of mid-term floor-crossing — they’ve all been friends — but the implication is there nonetheless.
Starke now sets himself up as the lone PC on the legislature floor, a one-man show like Greg Clark of the Alberta Party and the Liberals’ David Swann.
He could even become a beacon for other PCs who hate this merger, a rallying point for revival.
And that made people nervous. The UCP types don’t want an elected PC outrider to pick away at their new creation.
There was some talk in UCP ranks of kicking Starke out of the PC caucus. That would be an extremely odd thing to do, since there is no longer supposed to be a PC caucus to kick anybody anywhere.
It would also be seen as vindictive.
“How could they do that?” Starke asks. “I’m not the one who’s changing. I’m just staying what I was before, doing what I was elected to do. How could they tell me not to?”
Legislature Speaker Bob Wanner told Starke he can sit as a PC. That status would only change if the party is de-registered. There are no immediate plans for that, although both Wildrose and the PCs will eventually be wound up.
In Airdrie, Jean prepared the ground for a culture war over issues in education and other areas.
“The NDP have threatened parental choice at every step,” he said. “They pretend that the government knows better than parents how to raise their own kids and treat our students like guinea pigs in the classroom.”
He called the government “secretive and dishonest.”
The fusion of conservative parties so far seems fuzzy and even clumsy. The Starke affair is momentarily embarrassing.
But conservatives and the NDP both know this is a bigger stampede than the one that ended July 16.