Alberta PCs careen down the tracks to leadership vote

Between Kenney, his leadership rivals and the Wildrose, there is no shortage of drama

If you want a better idea of what’s happening in the race for the leadership of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative party, think of it as a runaway train filled with dynamite that’s rushing down the tracks toward a bridge that’s on fire — and everyone on board is having a fist fight.

It might not be quite that entertaining in real life, but you get the idea. In five weeks — on March 18, to be precise — delegates to the PC leadership conference will choose a new leader after a divisive and controversial race.

At this point, it seems the unite-the-right candidate, Jason Kenney, will emerge victorious in his quest to take over as leader and drive the PC train over a cliff as part of his plan to build a new conservative party from the wreckage. That has anti-Kenney forces searching desperately for ways to stop him.

This week, party member Jeff Rath, who’s also a lawyer (and a fundraiser for leadership candidate Richard Starke), filed a detailed complaint with the PC executive. Rath argues Kenney should be expelled from the race because he’s violating internal rules dealing with protecting the party brand.

“He’s running to destroy the party so that he can then form a new party that he’s going to run and become leader of,” Rath told reporters, stressing he filed the complaint on his own, not as part of the Starke campaign.

Put in runaway train terms, Rath wants the executive to pull the emergency brake and kick Kenney off.

The executive members will discuss Rath’s complaint on Sunday at their weekly meeting, and then they’ll politely reject it.

At least, that’s what they should do. If the executive members wanted to kick Kenney off the train for endangering the party brand, they should have done that last fall when the race began.

Kenney’s plan is well-known. He wants to become PC leader, open negotiations with the Wildrose for a merger, blow up both parties and form a brand new conservative party.

Simple. Well, maybe not simple, but it’s not a secret.

It’s also no secret Kenney’s campaign has hit some selfcreated bumps, including being fined $5,000 for breaking the rules at the first delegate selection meeting. Some of Kenney’s supporters and advisers have been aggressive to the point of being jerks, but Kenney himself has been treading carefully.

To kick him out of the race now would make the PC party look weak and scared. If “progressives” in the party want to stop Kenney, they best do it by organizing delegates to vote against him on March 18.

It’s worth noting that if Kenney wins, the party won’t suddenly melt away with the spring runoff. The executive will have to hold a party meeting to change the constitution to allow the party to be wrapped up.

Ironic, eh? And potentially problematic. Wait, there’s more.

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean tossed a monkey wrench into Kenney’s well-oiled machine a few weeks ago when he announced he is open to a merger, but with a catch. Jean wants PC members to join the Wildrose party, which would change its name and hold a leadership race this summer. It’d be Wildrose Party 2.0, not Kenney Party 1.0.

Jean will put that plan to a vote of members at his party’s convention in June. This might be a win-win for Jean. If the PC party is dissolved by then, Jean will set the agenda for the leadership race of a new party.

If the PC party isn’t dissolved, Jean could just tell his Wildrose members: “The PCs are in disarray, yet again. Let’s forget them and push ahead under the Wildrose banner with me as leader.”

However, what if neither Jean’s nor Kenney’s plans work and both parties are beset by internal wrangling over a merger for months and months to come?

In that case, here’s another scrap of speculation making the rounds: Premier Rachel Notley calls a snap election for the spring of 2018 to take advantage of the political fist fight in the opposition. As if Alberta politics couldn’t get more interesting.