I came, I saw, I left: the death of the Liberal Party?

While Alberta's monolithic media has been blasting bangs to accompany Jason Kenney's anointment, the whimpers have been left to the common man to provide if they even discover that Alberta's oldest political party, the Liberals, is clinically dead.

Today, on the eve of the deadline in that party's unstoried leadership race, their one and only candidate, St. Albert mayor Nolan Crouse, withdrew his name "for personal reasons." The Calgary Herald provided no front-page coverage; the Edmonton Journal barely a mention.

In passing, let us remember that this party ruled Alberta from 1905 to 1921, first under Alexander Rutherford, then Arthur Sifton, and lastly, Charles Stewart. They walked in the politically wilderness for decades as Alberta became dominated in turn by the United Farmers, Social Credit, and then the PCs. After 70 years of irrelevance, Laurence Decore nearly restored them to power in the 1993 election. They never stood a chance thereafter, but until 2012 the Liberals still regularly received 25% of the provincial vote.

The final collapse of the party has been curiously timed. One would have expected, given the acrimonious take-over of the PCs by the hard right, that the Liberals would have benefited from renewed interest. It is no secret many former PCs have no interest serving Jason Kenney's agenda. I think many more Albertans will probably feel the same in short order as they realize the PCs have utterly vacated the political centre and anything within throwing distance of it to merge with the big-C Wild Rose Party.

So what finally killed the ailing Liberal Party?

It's easy enough to say that the NDP beat the Liberals at being the centre-left. This is obvious. It may also be fair to say that up until two weeks ago, the PCs had been out centre-righting them, too. Fear of a Wild Rose government pushed traditional liberal supporters right, and then in 2015, the other way.

This needn't have been the case, but unlike the NDP, the Liberals coasted for years under the illusion that they were the logical replacement once the province realized how dissatisfied they were with the PCs. This took longer than they thought, and they proved incapable of dealing with the rise of the Wild Rose Party. Ultimately, the solid but ordinary David Swann lost out big time to a much more extraordinary Rachel Notley.

I can only imagine that in the end the numbers killed the Liberal Party. They had been burdened with high debt, limited activity, and terrible polls. While never anywhere near as dependent on corporate donations as the PCs, their banning hurt them too. They undoubtedly expected a bump in membership and donor support following the PC convention. This likely did not materialize. While this is hypothetical, I really supposed it had to be the realization that the party had lost its remaining vitality.

This final embarrassing collapse instead yields a rather significant amount of room for the Alberta Party to grow. Don't be surprised if a number of high profile Albertans start giving their support to this party in the near future. An Alberta Party successfully integrating the residue of the Liberal Party and the left-wing of the PC party could prove to be very powerful, especially in rural northern Alberta and Calgary.

Thanks for reading.

While writing this article, the CBC reported that two people have stepped forward to claim leadership of the Alberta Liberal Party. Such a late competition gives me little reason to believe this event in any ways contradicts the essence of what I've just written - Adam

By-election Time!

Well, Spring Break looms, so it looks like I finally have time to write what's on my mind. The world weeps. Coincidentally, today I can also vote in the advance polls for one of Calgary's two by-elections. To be honest this year I'm having an awful lot of difficulty choosing who I should vote for.

First of all, a shout-out to the Christian Heritage Party's Jeff Willerton (the "Real Conservative!") for putting out the most interesting campaign advertisements of this election. His posters were big, colourful and sturdy, and always left me wondering just where the CHP got all that money from. His brochures were also entertaining, and really helped my wife and I make up our minds. "Why did you keep this? Just to make me mad?" she asked of the brochure that came in the mail. I'm sure we'll be voting for someone else.

As regards the (fake?) Conservative Party, turns out one of my friends knows their candidate, Bob Benzen. Apparently he's a real nice guy, but just doesn't know anything about politics. I got the same impression from his campaign brochure. Also, I don't want to vote for a leaderless party, especially one so full of clown-shoe candidates like the Conservative Party's. This also excludes the NDP, I guess, though I must admit I know next to diddly about their folks. Go figure.

I even checked out the website of the "National Advancement Party of Canada." They have a lot of policy positions, and I went on to read a bunch of them, before I though, "what's the point?"

So, the Liberals or the Greens. Who to chose?

I generally agree with the Liberals the most, historically, and I know voting for them would make my dad proud. However, they already have a majority, and to be honest, while I understand why the new budget was the way it is, I'm still unimpressed. Deficits until 2055? No new taxes? Differed military spending? Let's be real here. The Liberals could have brought the GST back up to 7% and brought the government back into surplus by Christmas. They could have eliminated some BS-tax credits that only help the super-rich, but nope, not today! Now, I would be afraid of Trump, too, but I still think they could have done more, and better. Their candidate in my riding, Forsyth, doesn't seem to have many public positions beyond supporting the government, a trait I hated when the local conservatives ran under it and still do with everybody else. Having ideas like an individual should be a natural part of being an MP.

So, do I vote for the Green party? Honestly, I just might. I read their platform in its entirety back when I was in the army (wow, recent!) and honestly it impressed me. I sympathize with their issues, and really, they probably are on the right side of history on most of their opinions. I don't really know much about their candidate - I don't even remember her name at the moment - but I do know she spent years learning about Indigenous Canadians. I believe our relationship with our indigenous people is possibly the most important national issue in the country today, so this is a good thing. Lastly, Elizabeth May has been one of the best MPs in recent memory. Ultimately, maybe it's time I finally reward the Green Party with my vote.

What do you think? Thanks for reading!