Voter support proves fragile for Wildrose
Disappointed Smith ready to build on gains
With grassroots growing just under the surface of Alberta politics since 2004, the Wildrose has finally burst into the sunlight.
Feisty and articulate Danielle Smith will lead a huge contingent of Wildrosers into the legislature and put her floral brand on Alberta politics.
The party that failed to elect a single MLA in the 2008 election is now in a position to have a major influence on the direction of the province.
But it couldn’t make the full stride into power.
“Well tonight we found out change might take a little longer than we thought,” Smith said last night from her campaign headquarters in High River.
She said she was disappointed, but not discouraged.
“The growth of Wildrose has been nothing short of remarkable,” she said.
Rod Love, former Ralph Klein chief of staff, said the Progressive Conservative brand still cuts a wide swath in Alberta.
“The PC brand, after 41 years, can still withstand a lot of hits, but the loyalty of Albertans to that brand is amazing,” said Love. “The attachment to the brand runs deep.”
Love, who dropped by Smith’s headquarters in High River, said when everyone thought the PCS were going to lose in the 1993 election with Klein at the helm, it was the brand that saved the day.
“I congratulate Premier Red- ford and the PC party on a strong race. I guess the polls played jokes on all of us,” said the Wildrose’s Rob Anderson, who was leading in the riding of Airdrie at press time.
“The people of Alberta have spoken, but maybe the fearmongering worked better than we thought it would.”
Former Tory cabinet minister Lyle Oberg, who came onto Smith’s team as an adviser, said the attacks on the Wildrose over the intolerant views of some of the party’s candidates devastated it’s base of support.
“What it shows is the Wildrose vote was very fragile. And those last couple of issues in the last week just flipped the voters over.”
Oberg said he does believe the change is because of the controversial social issues raised by Wildrose candidates Ron Leech and Allan Hunsperger.
“I think it was a run campaign with the exception of a couple of things and I think that was enough just to flip the voters, I really do.”
Wildrose campaign chairman Cliff Fryers said there were a number of factors that contributed to a changed political landscape during this election.
“What we ran was a campaign that was designed to be in the media’s face every single day. It was to get out our messages in a very strong way. We coordinated every single activity with that.”
Fryers, Preston Manning’s former chief of staff during his time in federal politics, said the Wildrose did run a better campaign than the PCS, but “their campaign was probably still at a higher level than also had ever been seen. They had to be more on their game.”
Ryan Sparrow, a spokesman and adviser for the Wildrose said the movement grew “from basically nothing a few short years ago to electing Danielle Smith.”
“I think Albertans have demonstrated throughout this campaign that they certainly want a change, and regardless of the outcome tonight, there certainly will be at least a very distinct opposition in the legislature.”
Love noted this was the first election since 1993 in which the outcome was unknown when the polls closed.
“There’s obviously two competing visions about what it means to be a conservative right now and I frankly think it is healthy,” he said. “There is a great big noisy debate going on in Alberta tonight about the direction of the province and that’s always a good thing.”