MANDEL THE OBVIOUS CHOICE FOR ALBERTA PARTY LEADER
But is Edmonton’s well-known former mayor tomorrow’s man or yesterday’s?
The good news for Alberta Party members is they have chosen a new leader who is experienced, well-known and enjoys the support of veteran politicians.
The bad news is their new leader is a political re-tread, lost his seat to the NDP in the 2015 election, and is supported by veterans of the old Progressive Conservative government.
Welcome back, Stephen Mandel.
Mandel’s overwhelming leadership win Tuesday night was hardly a surprise. Of the three candidates he was the best known, best organized and, we presume, the best funded. He won 66 per cent of the 4,600 votes cast.
And he can give a good speech. “The Alberta Party is not just here to be an alternative,” Mandel said after the vote. “We are not here to be an also-ran. We are not here to talk about 2023. We’re here to earn your vote and in every single Alberta community and to be the first choice for a government in the next election. Winning in 2019 means winning the hearts and minds of Albertans in every corner of our province.”
Mandel was an effective and popular Edmonton mayor in his three terms from 2004-13. He retired from municipal politics on a high, but hit a new low after returning to politics in 2014 as part of Jim Prentice’s short-lived PC government.
Mandel was health minister, but he, along with every other PC candidate in Edmonton, was flattened by the NDP juggernaut in the 2015 provincial election.
He popped up again in 2017 as part of the political action committee Alberta Together, which sought to make the Alberta Party a new home for disgruntled “progressive” conservatives.
Mandel was an effective proponent for retooling the Alberta Party as a rallying point for middle-of-the-road voters who thought the New Democratic Party government was too left wing and the United Conservative Party official Opposition was too right wing.
But should he have run for leadership?
At 72, he is arguably yesterday’s man and his position in the now-defunct PC party ties him to yesterday’s government.
But he was also the best choice of the three in the leadership race.
Calgary- South East MLA Rick Fraser was a credible candidate, but he is pretty much invisible beyond his riding.
Kara Levis, a Calgary lawyer and first-time candidate for anything, deserves applause for having the courage to be the first to enter the race before Christmas.
Levis kept the race from being the punch line to a joke after nobody entered the race following the sudden resignation of party leader Greg Clark in November.
Clark stepped down (or was pushed) on the presumption the leadership race would attract a litany of well-known, energetic and game-changing candidates. It didn’t.
The race became something of a snoozer.
The party’s membership has grown from 1,000 last March to 6,500 now.
An impressive rate of growth, but not exactly an impressive total.
The party caucus has three members including Clark. Fraser jumped ship from the UCP in January after being elected as a PC in 2015. Karen McPherson was elected as an NDP MLA before crossing the floor last fall.
So, what impact on provincial politics will the Alberta Party have with Mandel as leader?
Only a fool would answer that question.
So, let me try.
It is difficult to imagine the party making any kind of significant splash with only a year to go until the next election.
Besides having a muddled history, the party also has a confusing identity. What exactly is the Alberta Party?
Mandel and many of his supporters are former PC members. The NDP will be quick to label the Alberta Party as just another conservative party.
It’s not.
For one, caucus member McPherson is a former NDP MLA.
For another, the party’s former PC members are from the “progressive” side of the old party. To say the Alberta Party is a right-wing movement because its new leader is a former PC cabinet minister is to say the NDP government has right-wing affiliations because one of its ministers, Sandra Jansen, was once in the PC cabinet.
The Alberta Party will go after progressive votes, not conservatives.
But it looks less like a political movement and more like a political spoiler that threatens to siphon votes away from the NDP in Mandel’s backyard of Edmonton and thus inadvertently help the UCP in next year’s election.