DEN TANDT: “Wildrose victory in Alberta election would hardly be surprising” (Times Colonist, CA)

Published in the Times Colonist, Michael Den Tandt for Postmedia News argues that the ascent of Wildrose leader Danielle Smith and her party in Alberta has been predictable if not inevitable.

With a week remaining in the current election, Wildrose is leading in polls and Smith is on the verge of ending the Progressive Conservative’s 41-year reign as the governing party. Den Tandt notes, however, that the incumbent PC’s are not the party that Peter Lougheed brought to power in 1971. Instead, they are the party of Ralph Klein, a leader who was freewheeling, straight-talking, fiscally austere, and effortlessly populist. Premier Alison Redford and her predecessor, Ed Stelmach, represent a much more progressive branch of conservativism than Klein. Their policies have ended the era of fiscal conservatism and permitted the return of budget deficits. Further, Redford’s years of national and international work do not impress Albertans, who tend to be more parochial in their outlook. In appearance, tone, attitude, and substance, Redford thus could not be more different than Klein. Smith, in contrast, has never worked outside Alberta and could not have better small-c conservative credentials. This is evident in Wildrose’s five bedrock policies: balanced budgets, back-to-basics in education, shorter medical wait-times, unqualified support for the oil industry, and accountability. Den Tandt notes, therefore, that Danielle Smith and the Wildrose party are Klein’s true successors. Their emergence in the current election thus should not come as a surprise. (link to article)