WHERE DOES UCP STAND?

The as-yet sole declared candidate for the leadership of the United Conservative Party released an economic policy announcement on Tuesday. It was heartening to see — and that’s not a comment on the merit of the first few planks of Brian Jean’s campaign platform, including a proposed cut in small business tax and a new child tax benefit.

Usually, a candidate’s campaign promises don’t elicit much excitement. But in this case, the whiff of anything close to policy discussion from anyone associated with the UCP is encouraging. Now that the race to win the top job of the party has started in earnest, it’s imperative to see much more of the same.

Albertans who are considering joining this amalgamation of the now-defunct Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties deserve to know what the party stands for. On a higher level, those thinking of backing the UCP as the next election looms in two years’ time need to know exactly what they might get in return if it wins.

So far, there isn’t much to go on other than the party’s burning antagonism toward the NDP government and the oft-repeated commitments to reverse its policies.

Condemning the government is expected in politics, but so is developing and disseminating your own policies. Currently, based on comments from the party’s major players, Albertans may have an idea of what the party opposes but know precious little about what it proposes.

Even Jean’s otherwise earnest campaign announcement included a requisite promise to repeal the provincial carbon tax and yet more NDP-bashing, as if detailing his own ideas weren’t enough.

For his part, Jason Kenney, who will almost certainly run against Jean, can no longer leave people wondering where he stands on the issues of the day. That’s exactly what he did after he won the PC leadership in March. Beyond uniting the right and repealing various NDP programs, in more than four months he failed to share any ideas of his own or put his policies to the test in a byelection. Kenney’s vision for the province remains mostly a mystery.

While there will likely be a policy convention, now, with an absence of details on where the party stands, Albertans are making their own assumptions about the UCP, rightly or wrongly. Even some members of the two parties that joined to form the UCP — moderate PCs and far-right Wildrosers — are left guessing. They either don’t know what to expect of the new entity or have already concluded they won’t be welcome.

Keeping people in the dark is no way to run a party or a province.