Whether or not the Progressive Conservative (PC) leadership race can reinvigorate the party depends on whom they select, according to former cabinet colleague and Bonnyville Mayor Ernie Isley.
“I think it has everything to do with damage control for the party,” said Isley in a phone interview with the Journal. “Eddy resigned for the sake of the party.”
The former minister of agriculture does not think any of the current candidates can turn the party around.
Regardless of who wins the leadership contest, Isley said he could not be persuaded to rejoin the PC party to which he was previously loyal. Now an advocate for the Wildrose Alliance, he will not even use his life-long right as a former PC MLA to cast a ballot for a leadership candidate.
Stelmach started his tenure as premier with a large majority of support and now faces a fractured caucus, he said, adding that part of his problem was being too loyal to his friends and rewarding them with cabinet posts when some were not capable.
Candidates’ rundown
In Isley’s view, candidate and former cabinet minister Rick Orman does not carry the political baggage of other candidates.
Isley described candidate Doug Horner, who has received endorsement from local MLA Ray Danyluk, as the most popular candidate in the north, but added “he’s been very loyal to Eddy so far, and that’s going to haunt him.”
Horner has the least “garbage” with him compared to other candidates because he was not on cabinet when it wiped out the regional health boards and created Alberta Health Services, Isley said.
While former cabinet minister Gary Mar has been touted by many, Isley called Mar the “first guy to start screwing up health,” as health minister.
Isley said he’s heard candidate and previous Justice Minister Alison Redford described as a sharp candidate but as someone who has “very little understanding of rural Alberta.”
“The thing that is really going to haunt them is those land bills they’re trying to defend,” said Isley. While former Finance Minister Ted Morten raised concern about Bill 50, he introduced the Land Stewardship Act (Bill 36) and that will hurt his leadership chances, said Isley.
If unchanged, the land bills will be the biggest issue of the next provincial election in rural Alberta, said Isley.
While candidate Doug Griffiths is an “intelligent young guy,” Isley does not think he stands a chance of winning the leadership.
‘Party of entitlement’
Voters will have to decide whether the candidates’ changed views are a true conversion or just political opportunism, said Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith in a phone interview with the Journal.
“Over the past 40 years it has slowly become a party of entitlement, a party of arrogance, and a party of political expedience, and I think people see through that.
“It doesn’t seem like any of (the candidates) are catching on,” Smith said. Smith travels the province year-round, about 20 speeches worth a month, and has not observed serious interest in the campaigns.
“This is an issue for the PCs to sort out. I think Albertans are increasingly coming to the same view we are, that the party is unfixable, that just changing the leader is not going to change the culture of the party, and that it is time for something new.”
Smith joked over Twitter she would offer honourary Wildrose memberships for leadership candidates who have issued statements she said sound a lot like the Wildrose Alliance.
Orman was in cabinet in the Don Getty days “when we were being driven off a cliff again by a premier who wasn’t prepared to accept the fact that royalty revenues had declined,” she said. “I think that Mr. Orman suffers from some of the same credibility issues.”
Orman would repeal the Land Stewardship Act. “This legislation is another embarrassment that is at odds with several of our principles including fiscal and economic responsibility, a free enterprise society and accountability to Albertans,” Orman posted on his website.
“Following our lead is not an indicator of a true leader,” said Smith.
Mar was health minister when the system deteriorated dramatically, she said. Mar was not open-minded to suggested reforms in the Mazankowski report in 2002, which, if implemented, would mean a very different health care system today, she added.
Morten holds responsibility for the two biggest budget deficits in Albertan history and the Land Use Framework, which Smith described as the “biggest property rights grab in or province’s history. It’s not enough to say you’re conservative, your actions have to dictate you’re a conservative.”
While not very familiar with Redford, Smith said she holds some responsibility for Bills 36, 50, 19 and 24, as well as changes to the royalty framework and the health superboard, for being at the table when the decisions were made.
While Doug Horner attempted to persuade Progressive Conservative party faithfuls to elect him to leader of the party and premier of the province last week in the Lakeland, Smith said Horner stands for the problems associated with Ed Stelmach’s years as premier.
“It seems to me Mr. Horner is most closely aligned with Mr. Stelmach, and most supportive of the direction the government took over the last five years,” said Smith.
While saying the leadership race could have been an opportunity for party renewal, local Wildrose candidate Shayne Saskiw said he does not see anything in candidates’ platforms to indicate a new policy process for the membership.
“I haven’t seen one candidate that has been campaigning on renewal … I haven’t seen much excitement for that matter either.”
