| Alberta’s outgoing Liberal leader is dismissing the New Democrats’ attempts to woo Liberal supporters, saying major caucus changes and the party’s lingering debt won’t render the party toothless in the next election.
Earlier this month, the Alberta New Democrats started courting supporters of the provincial Liberals after Liberal leader Ken Nicol announced his intention to resign his post to run as a Liberal MP in the next federal election. As well, three of the other seven Liberal MLAs, Debby Carlson, Bill Bonner and Don Massey, have announced they won’t be seeking re-election.
New Democrat MLA Brian Mason says the fact that four Liberal MLAs, including the party leader, will be leaving the party before the next election indicates the party won’t be able to offer a viable alternative to voters in the next election.
"We need to build a party that’s capable of taking (the Klein government) on," says Mason. "The Liberal party’s not capable of taking them on."
Mason also points to the Liberal’s lingering $1-million debt as a sign of Liberal party weakness.
"Our party is growing and we’re raising more money than the Liberals. I think there are a lot of people who are neither Liberal nor New Democrats but are interested in a progressive alternative… I can say we’re in a stronger position to form a strong Opposition."
Mason says the New Democrats have stopped short of calling for a merger of the two parties because "our membership takes the position that they’re in the NDP, they’re not Liberals."
University of Calgary political science professor Anthony Sayers agrees that the New Democrats and the Liberals don’t share a common ideology and it would be a difficult merger. But without a merger he doesn’t see the political landscape shifting much in the province after decades of Tory dominance.
Sayers describes the NDs move to try and steal Liberal supporters as "like the chickadee swooping down on the eagle," because the Liberal party has traditionally been stronger than the New Democrats.
Sayers agrees that the Liberal debt will impact the party in the next election, and he says Nicol’s resignation in the same year as an election could be called will likely hurt the party.
However, with the NDs only holding two seats in the legislature, Sayers says it has a long way to go before becoming a political force.
"It’s easy to be on the move when it’s you and someone else on the motorbike. It’s not a train," says Sayers. "Alberta political culture has not been very receptive to left-wing parties."
Outgoing Liberal leader Ken Nicol says he doesn’t believe the New Democrats will have much success at stealing votes from the Liberals.
"They’re just playing politics," says Nicol of the New Democrats’ recent move. "They are not a viable alternative across the province… The Liberal party is the only real alternative in Alberta."
Liberal party president Jim D’Andrea says he’s been getting calls from "a number of candidates" who want to run in the next election and also from people wanting to make donations to the party.
"I think our supporters will remain our supporters and I think we’ll get a bunch more," he says. |
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