I had a run-in with a card-carrying member of the United Conservative Party prior to election day in Alberta – a sensible, establishment, man-in-good-standing type.
“Like who?” I asked. Oh, someone like Travis Toews, he suggested – Mr. Toews, who managed to lose to Ms. Smith on the sixth ballot despite garnering three times as many endorsements from caucus. He has since stepped down from politics and didn’t run in Monday’s election.that That conversation happened before Ms. Smith won a comfortable majority. Alberta’s conservatives are riding the dragon now, and most of the moderates within her caucus fell off its back on Monday night. Ms.
The great civil war that has torn the conservative movement in Alberta asunder for the past 15 years must now be declared over. Wildrose won. That rural-libertarian faction is now directing the foot soldiers in the big conservative tent. The party is led by a former Wildrose leader, surrounded by a Wildrose brain trust, and energized by a cadre emboldened by the zeal of victory.