This says it all bout Canadian Politics this weeked.Everybody's second choice rises to top
It was the case for both the Federal Liberals and for the Alberta PC's.
Ed Stelmach Is Alberta's New Premier
And I think Iggy from the dejected look on his face yesterday, as the Liberals forced him to wait ten minutes and another ten miuntes till prime time news in the East, knowing the outcome in advance of his defeat and Dions victory, sat grimacing thinking probably this same thing....A defeated Dinning regrets counting Stelmach out
It was all about party unity for both the Federal Liberals and for the Alberta PC's
It was the rejection of the backroom boys, the outsider and of extreme shifts to left or right. It was the acceptance in truly Canadian fashion of stay the course politics, the politics of the mushy middle, of Canada's realpolitick; liberalism. Whether in Montreal or Alberta. Regardless of political labels Canadians are really 'conservative' social democrats.
In Alberta it was stay the course politics as Steady Eddie continues the old Ralph Regime. Which means he is a lame duck premier. The extremists on the right who rallied behind Morton will move to the Alberta Alliance. The back room boys in Calgary who made Dinning their candidate, will now move to their natural home, the Alberta Liberal Party. And the next leadership race will be to turf Taft, to put in their boy.
The days of the PC's ruling the One Party State are numbered. As I said Ed Stelmach = Harry Strom. The similiaties of their backgrounds and their leadership victories are no coincidence. Despite Edmonton Journal Legislature pundit Graham Thompsons assurance that this isn't true, it is.
Ed Stelmach, a soft-spoken farmer and cabinet veteran, has come up the middle to become the leader of Alberta's Progressive Conservative party and his province's 13th premier.
Stelmach never put forward a dynamic platform, matching his own undynamic personality. He promised to reach out to Albertans and listen to what they want him to do.Some of Morton’s supporters had dismissed Stelmach as the next Harry Strom, a mean-spirited reference to the bland Social Credit premier who went down to defeat 35 years ago at the hands of Peter Lougheed.
Strom took over an exhausted Social Credit party that lost to an energized and new Conservative party.
A stay the course Party is a party in entropy. It was the downfall of Social Credit under Strom it will be the defeat of the PC's under Stelmach.
See:
Liberal Leadership Race