Conservative Party Afraid of Change

Change is good. Unless, of course, you happen to be a Conservative Party convention delegate. On November 7, 2009, 77 per cent of Conservative convention delegates cast a vote in favour of keeping Premier Ed Stelmach in power by voting against holding a provincial leadership election. I was shocked at the results. I shouldn’t have been. Of course the Conservative Party stood by Stelmach. To do otherwise would be to turn their back on their party, their policies and their political belief systems. However, by supporting an ineffectual, uncharismatic and increasing unpopular premier, the Conservative Party has turned its back on the province of Alberta. The Conservative party may need Stelmach, but the citizens of Alberta could certainly do without him.

Voting to hold a provincial leadership election would have been the same as Conservatives admitting that their party is in trouble. If Conservative Party delegates had turned their back on Stelmach, it could have been the kiss of death for a party that is in desperate need of a face-lift. If the Conservatives had chosen to vote for a chance to elect a new leader, they would have confirmed what the rest of us already know: that the government of Alberta is broken and in desperate need of change. That much-needed change could have potentially come from the Conservative Party if they had made the brave choice to elect a new leader. However, since Stelmach remains at the helm of the Conservatives, it is Danielle Smith, the new leader of the Wildrose Alliance Party, who will have the opportunity to be the change Albertans desperately crave. Smith is charismatic, young and bold; in other words, everything that Stelmach is not. Conservative convention delegates chose to save the Conservative party rather than please voters by getting rid of a party leader few people are happy with. Ironically, this may lead to the demise of the Conservative party in Alberta anyways. Many Albertans may vote for the Wildrose Alliance Party simply because they want a government that is different from the current one, much like when Americans overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama in 2008 because they wanted a leader who was different from George W. Bush in so many ways. Is this a smart voting strategy? Perhaps not but it is what will happen come election time.

Conservative party members knew that if they did not show their support for Stelmach, it would send a very strong message not just to their party leader but to all Albertans, along with the rest of Canada. If the Conservatives do not believe in their leader, why should the rest of Alberta? But Conservatives did choose to “believe” in Stelmach and they will need to live with the consequences of that decision, as will the rest of us. We will all have to deal with the fact that we live in a province that chose to give H1N1 vaccination shots to professional hockey teams before all high-risk citizens could be vaccinated. We will have to accept that we have a premier who did not ask for the resignation of Alberta’s Health Minister Ron Liepert but allowed two Alberta Health Services staff members to be fired for something that was likely not entirely their decision. We will have to settle for a health care system that is falling apart and a disorganized health minister that cannot settle on a clear vaccination plan for Albertans.
Albertans put their faith in Stelmach and the Conservative Party during the 2008 provincial general election. Less than two years later, many Albertans are questioning Stelmach’s leadership capabilities and the shelf-life of the Conservative Party in Alberta. Any party that has been in power in one place for 38 years risks becoming stagnant and inefficient. Younger, hipper government parties always have the opportunity to swoop in and steal the hearts and votes of citizens. Between the recession, the deficit, H1N1 and the global climate crisis, the Conservative Party (and all political parties) certainly has some major hurdles to jump over gracefully in order to prove they deserve our support.

The Conservative Party chose to keep Stelmach in power; this we cannot change. But thanks to democracy, freedom of choice and rational thought, we can choose to end the madness in 2012, during the next provincial general election. Of course, plenty can change in two years. If the Conservative Party wants to retain power in Alberta, those changes must include booting Stelmach and finding a party leader with a little more panache.