MENDING THE RIFT ON THE RIGHT
Winner of UCP leadership vote must heal decade of animosity
A decade since they first split up, Alberta’s conservatives are officially back together as one happy family.
Well, happy-ish.
There is still a leadership vote to get through and a decade of political — and sometimes personal — animosity to overcome.
When the first leader of the fledgling United Conservative Party is announced Saturday, expected to happen at 5:30 p.m. in Calgary, candidates, their teams and supporters are going to have to grin and bear it.
The three men left standing are former Wildrose leader Brian Jean, former PC leader Jason Kenney and Calgary lawyer Doug Schweitzer.
Members have been voting since Thursday morning, but the virtual process has experienced some controversy.
Before it even began, Jean said the setup was riddled with problems. Even Kenney told supporters at a town hall last week it was more complicated than it needed to be.
On Friday, a day into voting, Schweitzer’s campaign took aim at Kenney over “suspicious behaviour” around location-blocking software. Jean’s camp issued a concern, too.
There have also been complaints PINs haven’t been delivered to members, preventing them from voting, and there has been long waits contacting party headquarters to resolve the problem.
By Friday noon, the UCP reported 70 per cent of registered members had already cast a vote.
It also declared it had reviewed complaints and could find no security or rule breaches around voting.
MENDING THE RIFT
Whoever ends up with the UCP crown has a monumental task ahead of him — welding the party securely back together.
It will take the political equivalent of the crumb coat on a wedding cake — the leader will have to catch the stray morsels of discontent, sticking them to the icing before the UCP fondant can ever be smooth.
Some conservatives don’t want any part of it, such as Calgary South East MLA Rick Fraser, who left the UCP caucus to sit as an independent.
Similarly, former Tory cabinet minister and leadership candidate Richard Starke, MLA for Vermilion-Lloydminster, told the Speaker of the house he’ll be sitting as a PC when the fall sitting convenes Monday, thank you very much.
Both men cited the polarization of politics in Alberta as the reason for their departure. Starke also threw in the fact he doesn’t think his ideals will have room in what Jean, Kenney and Schweitzer have labelled a “big tent” party.
But the remaining former PC and Wildrose MLAs have already been working together as the official Opposition since July, under the direction of interim leader Nathan Cooper.
Come Monday, when the fall session begins, the physical gap separating the desks of the PC and Wildrose camps on the floor of the house will no longer exist.
For conservatives in the province, Saturday may well signal the end of a long few years of casting ballot after ballot.
Since 2014, there has been an average of one provincial leadership race per year.
Throw on top of that the 2015 provincial election, this year’s municipal election and the unity vote — plus a byelection, depending on where you live — and Alberta is dealing with the risk of voter fatigue.
If Jean wins Saturday, he’ll be tied up in the legislature, heading up the party on the floor of the house.
If Kenney or Schweitzer comes out on top, the party leader will be free to traipse around the province fundraising and meeting with Albertans in the lead up to 2019, drifting back into Edmonton only when they feel like it.
With a new leader installed, the UCP will soon hold a founding convention to iron out policy and its constitution ahead of the 2019 election.