| It’s a historic moment in Alberta. Within a few days we will have a different premier and a different image in the rest of Canada. Ralph the good ‘ol boy will no longer represent us on the national stage. But who will? And what will he do for our reputation?
The Conservative leadership race has come down to three — Jim Dinning, Ted Morton and Ed Stelmach. And Albertans who consider themselves Conservatives, or simply want to have a say in who the next premier will be, have only a week to figure out who should run this one-party state.
The results of the first ballot point to deep divides within the party as to which direction the province should take. And there is a nasty split between urban dwellers and those who live in smaller communities outside Calgary and Edmonton. The party seems rent in two: on one side the Lougheed wing, or Red Tories, and on the other the extreme right wing as represented by Ted Morton. The Lougheed wing would of course prefer to see Calgary’s Jim Dinning as Premier. Peter Lougheed himself even came out in support of Dinning in the last few day before the first ballot.
The Lougheed Tories see themselves as a benevolent sort of elite that has the intelligence and experience to guide the province much as a CEO or chairman of the board would guide a corporation. Dinning himself has buckets of experience in both government and the private sector and would no doubt make the suits feels a lot more comfortable than either Morton or Stelmach. His style is definitely more urbane than Ralph’s; he’s not likely to toss coins at homeless people or drink at the St. Louis. But let’s not forget that Dinning seemed quite at home in the early days of the Klein regime. As provincial treasurer he designed the deep cuts and the propaganda that went along with them. He was one of the masterminds that dreamt up utility deregulation. And as chair of the Calgary Health Region he backed Klein’s health care privatization plans. Has Dinning changed since then? Or has he painted himself as a red Tory during the last few months in order to get where he wants to go? Was it simply a good career move? Dinning’s always been good at that.
Ted Morton took the opposite tack. Rather than present a more generous and reasonable Alberta as Dinning did, Morton would have us retreat behind walls of intolerance and selfishness. He comes straight out of the Reform party closet. The closet where all the nasty and narrow-minded live. He delights in getting church-goers all riled about same-sex marriage and abortion. He practically wants Alberta to become a separate state: our own police force, pensions, health care plan and immigration policies. Ted’s Reform roots are deep. He was a member of Stockwell Day’s inner circle when Day was leader of the Canadian Alliance. And he was among a small group of ticked off Albertans who penned the infamous "firewall letter" after Day and the Canadian Alliance went down to defeat at the hands of Jean Chretien.
The Liberals and the NDs are praying for a Ted Morton victory on the second ballot because they figure he will be easy prey during the next provincial election. They are probably right: one can’t imagine that city dwellers (or heathens as Ted would likely dub them), would warm up to his narrow-minded, preachy ways. Nevertheless, he does have a strong following among rural voters and churchgoers who believe everyone should behave as they do. He’s running a homey, down-to-earth sort of campaign, that is itself pretty funny given that in his former life he was an academic ensconced in an ivory tower.
If Dinning is the party careerist and Morton is the party pooper, Stelmach stands out as the conscience of the party. It’s no accident that he’s called Steady Eddie. He’s been a farmer and a public servant in many different capacities almost all his adult life. He has an old-fashioned sense of community that many rural and city folk yearn for. He’s navigated difficult waters as both a county reeve and an MLA and managed to maintain a basic decency. But I have a question. How could he remain silent during the Klein years? He was in cabinet after all, when all the big decisions were made — the ones that created chaos in this province. Why didn’t he speak up then?
In the last leadership race (1992) only 52,000 party members voted in the first ballot. There were nine contenders: Nancy Betkowski beat Ralph Klein by one vote. But Klein trounced Betkowski on the second ballot. It didn’t matter that all the other candidates had lined up with Betkowski. Ralph’s team simply went out and signed up more party members.
This time around almost 100,000 party members voted on the first ballot. How they will vote on the second ballot is anyone’s guess. The Tory party is up for grabs, and so is Alberta.
(Gillian Steward is publisher of Alberta Views)
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