Last PC standing won’t seek re-election
EDMONTON The last bastion of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative party, MLA Richard Starke, says he won’t be running in the 2019 election.
“This is a job you can’t really do half-heartedly,” he said at a Wednesday news conference.
Starke was elected as the MLA for Vermilion-Lloydminster in 2012. He ran unsuccessfully against Jason Kenney for PC leadership in 2017.
When the PC and Wildrose parties merged to become the United Conservative Party, Starke refused to join and decided to remain under the PC banner. He said he has “zero regrets” about that decision.
“In my view, the new party ... has in fact combined the worst features of both of the legacy parties,” he told reporters. “That’s going to be a struggle for Albertans.”
He added that had he joined the party, he would have been “very, very uncomfortable with a lot of what they were pursuing.”
Starke was appointed minister of tourism, parks and recreation in 2013 under then-premier Alison Redford. It was during that stint, which lasted until September 2014, when he had his lowest point in politics, he said.
He took a helicopter flight over places including Kananaskis Country and Drumheller after the devastating floods in June 2013.
“I just (felt) physically, emotionally whipped, to see the degree of damage,” he said.
His favourite moments during his political career included resolving issues for individual constituents, he noted.
As the last remaining PC MLA, Starke was courted by both the Alberta Party and MLA Derek Fildebrandt’s Freedom Conservative Party, he said. He considered his options, but ultimately decided not to join another group.
“I was elected as a Progressive Conservative ... to switch would have been to move away from that,” he said.
But Starke said among existing political parties, it’s the Alberta Party that has a “hopeful and optimistic” vision of governance.
“They’re centrist,” he said, describing the NDP as a left-wing party and the UCP as a “far rightwing party.
“You have a large block of Albertans in the centre who are moderate and take a balanced approach to things,” he said.
Alberta Party house leader Greg Clark said the party would take Starke in a heartbeat.
“We’re going to miss Richard in the legislature, he is a gentleman parliamentarian in the truest sense,” he said.
Starke also used his announcement Wednesday to take a swing at the state of Albertan democracy.
He said Albertans would be dismayed if they knew how dysfunctional the legislature is.
“And how party politics and the emphasis on winning that next election supersedes the need to provide good governance,” he said. “That has been a huge frustration for me.” He joked the title of his book on politics — if he writes one — would be But That’s Just Stupid.
He doesn’t see a grim future, though.
“I think we’ll have a number of new MLAs in the next election ... and I hope they bring to the table a willingness to work very hard and have an open mind,” he said.