The Fall of the Progressive Conservative Empire

Today’s ratification of the merger of Alberta’s provincial Alliance and Wildrose parties might be looked upon by future Albertans as one of a series of historical events which led to the end of the Progressive Conservative era.

Once an unthinkable concept, Alberta’s ‘natural governing party’ has found itself in unfamiliar territory with low public approval numbers. With the formation of deep divisions within his own party, along with the pressure to call a spring election, Premier Ed Stelmach must be wondering just how ‘lucky’ he really was to unexpectedly win the leadership race.

Being in power since 1971, the party has managed to morph itself several times in order to keep the support of the people. Successive leaders have made their mark, with their different styles and policies reflecting on the times. The young Peter Lougheed and his Progressive Conservatives represented fresh change and new ideas as opposed to the old, tired, multi-decade Social Credit government (could we be going through political déjà vu with the new Wildrose Alliance?).

The Lougheed era was defined by the economic boom of the 1970’s, along with the real sense of pride Albertans had for each other and their province. This was never stronger than when the Alberta Premier and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau faced-off over the federal governments socialist economic rape of the Albertan economy through the National Energy Program. Resulting in a shattered economy and long-standing resentment by many Albertans towards all things federal, the Lougheed era ended in the 1980’s when the party took a turn at rebirth.

Don Getty took control of the government and led a new team of up-and-comers who the media couldn’t get enough of. The ‘new blood’ meant more of a progressive slant with Jim Dinning, Rick Orman, and Nancy Betkowski, and others. Things didn’t go smoothly, however. It’s always tough to follow a fan-favorite, and Getty’s public image wasn’t comparable to that of the dashing and trustworthy Lougheed. Stumbles and idiotic sound bites courtesy of Getty on the campaign trail made life tough, and the 1989 election was a closely-contended and hard-fought battle.

The Getty government’s biggest mistake was continuing the spending levels the government had when the economy was booming a decade and a half earlier. Debt and the deficit were out of control during the NEP-led recession and fallout of the ‘80’s. Public confidence in the P.C.’s was falling fast. By the early 1990’s Getty was out and the governing party was looking for a new leader. Enter the man who saved the party.

Ralph Klein had already written an unlikely and beyond amazing political story. A local reporter, he ran for mayor of Calgary almost as a lark. The voters were immediately taken by his charisma and his everyman persona. He went on to win more civic elections, setting a record for the percentage of votes received. Without question, he was the most popular mayor in Calgary’s history. Now, after one term as a provincial M.L.A., Klein gathered his team and made a run at the leadership of the party. Again, he wasn’t given much of a chance against the ‘new blood’ team that threw its energy behind candidate Nancy Betkowski. Again, Klein won.

Threatened by division within the party, Klein made a brilliant move and asked Jim Dinning to lead the province’s fight against the debt demon. This pacified many of the progressives (although Betkowski did leave the party, changed her name and party affiliation, became leader of the Liberals, ran up her party’s debtload, led her new party into an embarrassing and crushing defeat at the hands of Klein, lost her own seat, and then left quietly out the back door). The Klein government, with Ralph in front of the cameras and Dinning & Co. doing the legwork, turned the economy around and reminded many of us how good it was to be Albertan.

By the time Klein’s final term in office was underway his party had once again become stagnant. The economy was humming and life was good. So naturally, his own party knifed him in the back. This event was definite evidence to the voting public that the governing Tories had lost their perspective. They were way too comfortable, and it seemed some M.L.A.’s had developed outrageously overblown concepts as to how powerful and popular they really were. (Lyle Oberg for leader? My God…)

After Klein was pushed off the plank, the party transformed itself into some sort of Lord of the Flies for the leadership campaign. The race divided the party. Dinning was the favorite choice, until the far right of the party labeled him as ‘liberal’ and jumped behind Ted Morton. By choosing to turn their backs on the man responsible for keeping the party in power and slaying the debt during the 1990’s, the membership ultimately picked the method of their political suicide: Ed Stelmach.

The Alberta Progressive Conservative party has become a victim of its own arrogance. Being too confident in success and believing that they have some sort of ‘right’ to govern Alberta has clouded their judgment and their policies. The way that Albertans used to feel towards the ever-in-power federal Liberals is now the way we look at the Stelmach Tories. It’s time for a new empire.