Prentice was a good leader at the wrong time
In politics timing can be everything. When the right candidate appears at the right time and personifies people’s hopes and expectations such a candidate can keep on winning for a long time.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi is one such example. Alberta premier Ralph Klein is another. And so is Justin Trudeau . . . so far. They appear on the political scene just as cultural and political norms are shifting in their favour.
For all his admirable qualities and his skill as a politician, former Alberta premier and federal cabinet minister Jim Prentice, whose life ended far too soon when he was killed in a plane crash in southern B.C. last week, rarely had the luck of good timing on his side.
But he soldiered on anyway, always ambitious for a bigger role in public life but also principled, determined to do things his way.
The first time he ran for public office, in 1986, he lost to a provincial NDP candidate, in Calgary no less.
Prentice returned to his Calgary law practice and bided his time.
He was an old-style Progressive Conservative in the style of Peter Lougheed and Joe Clark. He was comfortable with bankers and oil industry CEOs but he didn’t restrict himself to those circles.
Mayor Nenshi recalled that it was Jim Prentice who represented the Calgary Sikh community more than 25 years ago as they faced stiff opposition over their plans to build the city’s first gurdwara.
He was deeply respected by many First Nations leaders for his efforts to move toward reconciliation, long before it became a buzzword.
In 2002 he was nominated as a unitethe-right federal PC candidate. But then Stephen Harper, the new leader of the Canadian Alliance, decided he wanted to run in the same Calgary riding. So Prentice stepped aside.
He ran against Peter MacKay for the PC leadership but lost. He ran for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance but dropped out in the middle of the campaign.
He finally garnered electoral success in 2004 when he was elected Conservative MP for Calgary Centre-North.
Eventually, he served in Harper’s cabinet as minister of aboriginal and northern affairs, industry, and environment.
Prentice was often talked about as Harper’s natural successor but he could never quite get out from under Harper’s thumb. He was genuinely interested in tackling environment and climate change issues but Harper would have none of it.
In 2010 Prentice once again left the political arena and was appointed a vice-president of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Toronto.
Maybe he was biding his time until Harper left politics.
But then he got what turned out to be a siren call from Alberta.
The Alberta Tories were in a shambles. Premier Alison Redford had been hounded from office and there was no likely successor for the 43-year-old dynasty.
Party heavyweights pleaded with Prentice to come home and run for the leadership.
He easily won the PC leadership contest and instantly became premier.
But almost as soon as he moved into the premier’s office the price of oil started falling . . . a fatal situation for any Alberta premier. Prentice started warning about the need for budget cuts and tax hikes to make up for lost government revenue.
But Albertans weren’t buying it this time.
When he enticed almost the entire Wild Rose opposition to cross the floor and join the PCs, both PCs and Wildrosers were infuriated.
And then Prentice made the mistake of calling an election when he didn’t need to. He could have waited another year.
Prentice and the PCs were trampled by a stampede to Rachel Notley’s NDP.
I was at PC headquarters that night in May 2015 when Prentice conceded defeat. He was wounded and deeply embarrassed. He immediately resigned from the PC leadership and the seat he had just been elected to and virtually disappeared from public life.
But what if he hadn’t answered that siren call from Alberta?
Would he now be in the perfect position to take on the leadership of the federal Conservatives?
And possibly been just the right Conservative leader at just the right time?
For all his admirable qualities and his skill as a politician, Jim Prentice rarely had the luck of good timing on his side