Alberta Conservative Party Soul-Searching

By Keith Edmund White
Editor-in-Chief

A quick news-blurb and short primer on the fascinating party politics of Canada, which should stir the interests of U.S. political watchers--not to mention political comparativists.

The National Post reports on a Alberta Conservative Party motion to strip federal MPs of automatic voting privileges at provincial party meetings.

Why the intra-party tension? Well, in Alberta, while the Progressive Conservatives still run the Legislative Assembly, the official opposition is the Wildrose Alliance Party. And what does the charismatic leader of the Wildrose Party have to say about the Progressive Conservative Party:

[Danielle] Smith said the motion on federal Tory voting privileges is “reflecting the reality that there a lot of federal Conservative MPs who are conflicted about which party is the true voice of conservatism (in Alberta).”  [Source:  The National Post]

Mount Royal University professor Duane Bratt explains the distance between the federal Progressive Conservative Party, which now leads Canada's national government under Prime Minister Harper, and the provincial Progressive Conservative Progress of Alberta, which still leads the right-leaning province, but with some significant heartburn:

"So my sense is that a majority of Albertans, perhaps even a larger majority of Albertans, don't like the policies that Wildrose is promising, but it doesn't matter, because they want to throw the Conservatives out of office and they have a nice, likable, smart woman leading their party." [Source:  CBC News]