**Guest Post by Canadian TAM Flaggman**
After two years of great election results all accross Canada, and with the pollsters projecting a huge victory for the upstart Wildrose Party right through to election day, I was all prepared to write another celebratory post about our the ongoing populist-conservative revolution in the Great White North after last night’s Provincial election in Alberta. Alas, every revolution has its setbacks, and yesterday’s was a reminder of just how difficult it is to unseat entrenched political interests.
Alberta is Canada’s most conservative province by nature. It has oil and gas reserves rivalling Saudi Arabia, and a rugged Western independent attitude similar to that of the nearby states of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. It has an entrenched political class, however, in the form of the Progressive Conservative Party, which has now held Majority power for 41 years and counting. At times an effective free-market, limited-government force, the Alberta PCs used the convenience of their oxymoronic monicker in the past few years to lurch leftwards, handing over its leadership to a dreary UN-lawyer-in-a-pant-suit, Alison Redford. Stepping in to the conservative breach was the newly-formed Wildrose Party, led by a dynamic 41-year-old named Danielle Smith, who promised balanced budgets and an oil-and-gas royalty regime modelled after – you guessed it – Sarah Palin’s Alaska.
Surging to a strong early lead in the 28-day campaign, Smith and the Wildrose cruised to election day with, according to every pollster, an insurmountable lead. Sadly, though, it seems that two things combined to flip the polls on their heads and deliver the PC’s another four-year majority mandate. First, it seems that the PC’s fear-and-smear campaign against the untested Wildrose Party supressed turnout and convinced many voters to switch back to the familiar old name. Accusing Wildrose candidates of being homophobes, bigots, sexists, and “grumpy old men”, they lifted themselves up with familiar left-wing hate tactics. Second, it seems the decades-old PC electoral machine kicked into high gear and worked like a charm, with a professional, organized, disciplined “ground game” that gave it an advantage that no upstart party can match. (As some of us have speculated, this second factor may be exactly what convinced Governor Palin last fall that, no matter the grassroots enthusiasm, a Presidential run at this time against the Republican machine would have been an exercise in futility).
The good news is that Ms. Smith is the real deal – an idealistic happy warrior who promises to be an effective right-of-center opposition leader, with four years in the legislature to prove herself as worthy of being the next Premier of Alberta. She will have her work cut out for her. The winner, Ms. Redford, reached out to the environmental left and the labour unions to secure a winning electoral base. What can American patriots learn from this result? That RINOs dig in hard and never surrender, and that eventually, big-government liberals invade and consume every political host, creating the need for new political parties. In the meantime, we’ll have to be satisfied for now with a Conservative majority in the federal government, a budget-cutting populist-conservative mayor in our largest city, and a new title-holder for “most conservative province” – Saskatchewan.
For more read:
National Post: What happened in Alberta?
Edmonton Sun: Albertans have spoken loud and clear
-Neil Flagg is a Toronto-based businessman, blogger, Conservative Party of Canada member, and TAM. You can follow him on Twitter @NeilFlagg
Aww, that’s too bad Flagg. Dangit, she sounds really good. Let’s hope her party just keeps getting stronger and that eventually she and the WildRose Party will triumph. I’m praying this doesn’t happen to us in October/November with all the negative campaigning that the dems will create. She’s also very attractive which doesn’t hurt, but let’s hope next time, albeit in 4 years, will bring a victory.
“…the Progressive Conservative Party..?”
Is that another name for a RINO party?
BTW, wish she won.
Yes, Radar, that really is the name of the party! It would be very funny, if it weren’t true. The biggest part of this conservative revolution in Canada has been eliminating that stupid RINO Progressive Conservative party. Stephen Harper removed “Progressive” from the name as a condition of his joining the party. Wildrose was trying to replace that party entirely. That happened in Saskatchewan as well, and it is happening in British Columbia now, where a new Conservative party is usurping the old Progressive Conservatives. In my stinkin’ province of Ontario, though, there has unfortunately been no move in that direction yet, which is why our Liberal Party rules essentially without opposition.
Maybe they should have named the party “Wild Irish Rose” — conjures up thoughts of a “fun party.”
Sorry Smith lost, but, as you say, flaggman, there are always setbacks. She looks like she has a bright future.
Flaggman, thank you so much for your post! Great reminder of how much North Americans are alike. You reminded us of the solid similarities that Canadians & United States citizens have in common. I grew up in Minnesota so spent more time in Manitoba & Ontario than other parts of your beautiful country. I can tell from your post that Alberta & Saskatchewan & I’m sure Canada’s other provinces have the same progressive vs conservatives as in the USA. So glad Tammy attracts army members of like minds from such a huge geographical map. We TAMs are here with you Flaggman & your fellow Canadians. Thank you for expanding our prospective.