There’s no question that opposition forces were devastated after the last provincial election. The Liberals were reduced to nine seats, the NDs two, and the Greens barely registered. Even the right-wing Wild Rose Party was eliminated from the legislature.

Since then stunned party stalwarts and other activists have been trying to figure out how they can break through in Alberta. No easy task since 60 per cent of eligible voters didn’t even bother to cast a ballot.

At first there was talk of uniting the ND and Liberal parties into a new party, but that went nowhere. There is just too much bad blood between them. The NDs aren’t much of a factor in Calgary, but during elections in Edmonton they get into such nasty fights with Liberals that many observers are left wondering if they hate each other more than they do the Conservatives.

And most Liberals are still furious about ND leader Brian Mason’s repeated assertions during the election campaign that the Liberals were raking in money from the corporate sector. The Libs no doubt wished it were true, but to be slagged for something that wasn’t true really got their goat. Liberals are also angry that John Chan ran for the NDs in Calgary North Hill against Pat Murray because the combined Chan/Murray vote would have easily defeated the Conservative candidate.

For the Nds’ part, they simply don’t believe that the Liberals, if they ever came to power, wouldn’t be as anti-union and business-friendly as the Conservatives.

Once the idea of a merger was dead and buried a number of people explored the possibility of starting up a new party that would attract disaffected Liberals, NDs, Greens and Conservatives. A party that would drop all references to federal parties and become a distinct Alberta party, like the Saskatchewan Party in our neighbouring province.

Meetings were held in Calgary and Edmonton. People talked and talked about policies and plans. I went to one myself but didn’t hear any new ideas; no overriding message; no one person who emerged as an inspirational leader. Calgary Liberal MLA David Swann was one of the movers behind that idea. He talked openly about perhaps leaving the Liberals to start a new party. But in the end the whole thing fizzled out. Apparently, no one felt emboldened enough to take the first few steps.

Then last week Swann announced that he was seeking the Liberal leadership. He also said in response to a question from the media that he would consider changing the name of the party because the Liberal name is such a hard sell in Alberta. Political junkies are no doubt a bit confused at this point. First Swann muses out loud about wanting to leave the party, and then he wants to lead the party and perhaps change its name. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the Liberal party.

Another Calgary Liberal MLA is also seeking the leadership. Dave Taylor, who represents Calgary Currie, is definitely a different kind of Liberal than Swann. He would take the party further to the right, and in many ways sounds like he would rather be a Conservative. Taylor doesn’t have the large following that Swann has. I’ve even heard people who have worked with him grumble about his abrasiveness. But Taylor does have experienced political operatives such as Donn Lovett on his team, the kind of people who know how to get out the vote when it counts. The fact that he was able to defeat star candidate Arthur Kent during the last election speaks for itself.

Swann is working with mostly idealistic neophytes who see him as a hero because of his principled stands on a number of issues, particularly the environment. He has been able to attract Liberals, NDs and Greens to his campaign team, but whether there are enough of them to matter remains to be seen.

In addition, a former Liberal candidate who feels let down by party operatives is looking to start a party that would be progressive and conservative and is hoping to attract a star from the oilpatch to lead it.

The Liberals have nine seats in the legislature, five of them in Calgary. So far only one Edmonton Liberal has declared interest in the December leadership race — defeated MLA Mo Elsalhy. So it is quite likely that leadership of the party will shift to Calgary. But the victor won’t exactly inherit a thriving enterprise. The party is in debt and has only about 4,000 members.

Liberal party antics aside, there is also another group of activists meeting regularly to discuss the possibility of endorsing one progressive opposition candidate in each provincial constituency so the opposition parties don’t split the vote and let the Conservatives slip up the middle. Everyone at the meeting I attended agreed that given the turnout in the last election, getting voters to pay attention to any of the candidates is a formidable task. Some wonder if they shouldn’t put all their effort into building the Alberta Greens.

Anyone who cares enough about the state of democracy in Alberta to go to a meeting and discuss it, in the middle of the summer no less, deserves to be commended. Many of the people there are the same people who have been active in opposition circles for a long time. They are frustrated; looking for new strategies and tactics. They are genuinely worried about the future of this high-handed one-party state.

Given the fact that the Stelmach government can pretty much do what it wants for the next four years, mounting effective opposition seems like a hopeless task. But for the first time in a long time, Calgary is poised to become the centre of resistance rather than Edmonton. And that in itself could make for interesting times.

Gillian Steward has been covering Alberta politics since the Lougheed days.