Alberta’s last Progressive Conservative MLA calls it quits

The last remaining Progressive Conservative politician in the Alberta legislature is calling it quits.

Richard Starke announced Wednesday that he will not be running in the spring election.

The two-term member for Vermilion-Lloydminster said it’s time to move on to new challenges and perhaps resume his veterinary practice.

Or perhaps write about the current troubled state of politics in Alberta.

“I might write a book. I’ve already got a title picked out. It’s going to be ‘That’s just Stupid: A Look Behind the Scenes at the Alberta Legislature.’”

Starke said he is dismayed at the hyper-partisan nature of politics that he believes is overriding good policy decisions.

“Albertans would be dismayed if they knew just in some ways how dysfunctional this place is. And how party politics and the emphasis on winning that next election supersedes the need to provide good governance.”

He said the parties could start by sending more work to legislature committees that could dig deeper on bills and get more information to make better decisions.

Starke has been sitting with the Independent members in the legislature. He declined to join the United Conservatives after the Tories voted last year to merge with the Wildrose to form the new party.

Asked if he regrets that decision, he said: “Zero regrets. Absolutely zero regrets. And ... for me at least the correctness of that decision has been confirmed time, and time, and time again.

“I wasn’t welcome in the new party to begin with, and it was very clear that had I made the decision to join the new party, I would be very, very uncomfortable with a lot of what they were pursuing.”

Prior to the merger, Starke ran and lost against current UCP Leader Jason Kenney in the race to become leader of the Progressive Conservatives.