Local members of the Alberta Liberals are warm to the idea of co-operating with the NDP and other parties in the next provincial election, but one political analyst says the idea is likely a bad one.
Over the past weekend, delegates of the Alberta Liberal Party passed a motion to co-operate with the NDP and other parties in the next election, in an effort to unseat the ruling Progressive Conservative government.
Members of St. Albert’s Liberal Constituency Association discussed the idea at a meeting Monday evening.
“We felt it was a good idea. There was concern about how you can inject co-operation into a political culture that is consumed with getting into power,” said vice-chair Wilf Borgstede.
“I certainly do support it and I think it’s something worthwhile pursuing. How successful it’s going to be is another question,” he said.
A story in Tuesday’s Calgary Herald had Alberta Liberal leader David Swann saying the party may not run candidates in some long-shot ridings come election time. However, the paper also quoted NDP leader Brian Mason as being completely disinterested in co-operating with the rival party.
Local Liberals didn’t discuss whether the parties should combine to run just one candidate in St. Albert, Borgstede said. That wouldn’t have helped in the 2008 election, when the PC’s Ken Allred earned 608 votes more than the combined total posted by the Liberals, NDP and Greens.
Political analyst Keith Brownsey of Mount Royal University, who has been critical of Swann’s leadership, said the resolution is a wrong move that does little good for the party.
“It dilutes the Liberal brand and perhaps will chase away some more of the, shall we say, business-Liberal vote,” Brownsey said.
He suggested that the Liberals have little in common with the NDP, and said that forming an association with that party risks alienating the right wingers in the Liberal camp.
“There’s already been some trouble there with Dave Taylor,” Brownsey said. “It seems a desperate move to gain votes.”
Calgary MLA Dave Taylor left the party in April saying he had no confidence in Swann’s leadership.
The other weakness of the motion to co-operate is the fact that it’s being rejected outright by the NDP.
“There are a number of Liberals who would, if Swann talks about this too much more, simply stay home and not vote,” Brownsey said.
The government is vulnerable due to the strength of the Wildrose Alliance on the far right of the political spectrum and the Liberals could do a better job of exploiting this opportunity by unrolling some of its own policies, to show what it would do if it were to achieve power, Brownsey said.
Swann told the Herald that he wants to attract Conservative supporters by adopting policies that are appealing to progressive Tories and others in the centre-left part of the political spectrum.
