Go figure — he scolds yet he still gets the support

Most Progressive Conservative MLAs support Jim Prentice for the PC leadership. It’s not clear, though, that Jim Prentice supports the PC MLAs.

Prentice told the Herald’s editorial board Wednesday that if he becomes leader and premier, he’ll sit down to talk with every member of the government caucus. He left the strong impression that he’ll encourage some not to run again.

Prentice didn’t name names, but the future of some ministers seems dubious.

It’s doubtful that Fred Horne will continue as health minister, or that Doug Horner has a future in finance, or Jeff Johnson would get a green light for education.

And will former premier Alison Redford run again in Calgary-Elbow? Really?

But Horne and Horner both support Prentice, even though the candidate is sharply critical of Horner’s budgeting, and almost brutal about over-centralization of Horne’s baby, Alberta Health Services.

It’s a remarkable thing — Prentice scolds the government virtually every day, but nearly everybody in the government supports him.

When he launched his campaign in Calgary, for instance, he blasted the PC record on energy regulation. Energy Minister Diana McQueen stood at the back of the room, gazing at her shoes. And yet she supports him. On Wednesday, Prentice told the Herald that if he’s premier, he’ll review every single appointment of private citizens to various boards, commissions and agencies.

Just this week, cabinet met and approved more than 40 such appointments. You might see that as flipping the bird at Prentice.

But no, almost the whole cabinet wants him to be premier.

Such is the power of a threat to the PC regime. Tory MLAs shudder at the prospect of giving over power to an alien party. The thought of retirement with no pals in government makes them cringe.

Prentice, with no formal ties to the PC record, is free to flog and scourge them — and they put up with it, hoping to be purified before the electorate.

This dynamic is now so entrenched that Prentice can escalate his criticism of the government he hopes to run.

On Wednesday, he said the PCs haven’t performed well for the past eight to 10 years. By that measure, the rot started toward the end of the Ralph Klein years, and ran right through the eras of Ed Stelmach and Redford. Prentice implies that every current and past MLA bears some responsibility.

He was more specific Wednesday, teeing off on the failures of the climate-change policy detailed in the latest auditor general’s report.

“It’s clearly not a good situation,” Prentice said. “Alberta has been off its game on this for a long time.

“If we’re going to have international credibility, we’re going to have to be back on our game, we’re going to have to have the science that we require, we’re going to have to have concerted policy to achieve them. And we haven’t had that.”

The auditor general said the government had failed since 2008 to monitor and report progress on its own emissions reduction targets.

Prentice noted that governments all over the world have failed to meet climate change targets (including Canada’s), but also criticized Alberta’s enthusiastic billion-dollar gamble on carbon capture and storage.

“I’d move away from those investments,” he said. “It’s not a panacea, it’s a science experiment. It has not progressed at the pace that people have thought.”

It goes on like this day after day.

The cabinet and caucus members say, “Hit me, Jim.”

And he does.