Counting days until PC’s leadership ‘kickoff’
Schweitzer’s recent decision not to run is good news for Kenney
Let the countdown begin.
In just one week, Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives will launch their leadership race with an official “kickoff party” in Lethbridge.
For those who follow Alberta politics, it’s a bit like counting down the days until Christmas.
Just seven more sleeps and we’ll start to unwrap the asyet-undeclared candidates.
Of course, already sitting under the tree with chainsaw in hand is Jason Kenney.
After spending the summer criss-crossing the province while still a member of Parliament, the Calgary MP resigned his federal seat this week and tweeted, “No going back now.”
That’s great news for those who support Kenney’s campaign to unite the right but it sends a chill up the spines of PCs and Wildrosers who don’t want the two parties amalgamated under Kenney’s direction into one anti-NDP conglomerate.
There’s an anti-Kenney faction in both parties and they are still hoping PC officials will trip him up at the starting line by excluding him from the race because his stated goal is the dismantling of the PC party.
However, party officials likely realize the only thing worse than allowing Kenney in their race is keeping him out — which would see Kenney and his supporters branding the PC party as weak, fearful and undemocratic.
The smart move by the party would be to allow him to enter the race — and let members decide his fate.
The only other person to publicly declare an interest in running is former PC MLA Donna Kennedy- Glans. There will be more.
PC MLA Sandra Jansen received a boost, of sorts, this week when political operative Stephen Carter announced he would help run her campaign if she finally declares.
Carter is something of a rainmaker in Alberta politics, having helped underdogs Naheed Nenshi become Calgary mayor and Alison Redford become Alberta premier.
However, the downside is a Carter-run Jansen campaign might look like Redford 2.0.
Other names are popping up: PC MLA Richard Starke; former PC cabinet minister Stephen Khan; Edmonton lawyer Harman Kandola; and Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson.
And then there’s Doug Schweitzer. He’s a well-connected Calgary lawyer who helped run Jim Prentice’s successful leadership campaign in 2014. He conducted his own low-key cross-province tour of Alberta this year before announcing he’d be running for the PC leadership.
Sources say he was set to announce his candidacy on Wednesday of this week. But on Monday he suddenly declared he was not running.
In a muddled letter to supporters he didn’t really say why except for some vague comments complaining about the race rules.
His page-long statement is confusing. It’s almost as if he had a speech ready to kick off his campaign but then decided to morph it into a farewell address.
“We need a ‘New Blue.’ My team and I believe this opportunity cannot be realized while defending the status quo — we have to reach higher,” said Schweitzer.
He had a “team” ready to go. And then he dropped out.
You could take his “New Blue” comment as an endorsement of Kenney’s plan to unite the right. It’s certainly vague enough to have sparked some conspiracy theories within the PC party by members who point out Schweitzer works for the international law firm Dentons.
That’s the same firm that announced on Sept. 12 it was forming a partnership with Stephen Harper — the former prime minister who publicly endorsed Kenney’s PC leadership bid in July.
Why is Schweitzer not running? I don’t know. I haven’t been able to get a hold of Schweitzer to ask him.
If nothing else, the withdrawal of a promising political star who wanted to bring optimism to the race is bad news for the party and good news for the man who is bringing a chainsaw.