This weekend’s PC convention will have the first debate among leadership candidates and will hopefully bring some insight into what direction the party is hoping to go in the next election.
The unite-the-right movement has made headlines since the last provincial election that saw the NDP win a majority government. But so far only one PC leadership candidate has supported a merger of the two right wing parties – Jason Kenney.
There is no doubt that both the Wildrose and PCs want to defeat the NDP in the next election and the idea of a merger is more palatable to many than another NDP government.
A recent poll from the Citizen Society Research Lab at Lethbridge College found two-thirds of Albertans support a merger of the two conservative parties. But the same poll found the PC Party currently has the most support in the province.
Wildrose leader Brian Jean is skeptical that the PCs are conservative enough to join with the Wildrose.
“Let's let them decide who they are because I clearly don't think they – the PCs – have been conservatives for the last seven or eight years and I would suggest most Albertans agree with that,” Jean said in St. Albert last month.
Though Jean’s statement references the past, this sentiment might still be reflected in the current party.
Outside of Kenney, none of the five other PC candidates (Sandra Jansen, Donna Kennedy-Glans, Stephen Khan, Byron Nelson, Richard Starke) has spoken favourably about a merger.
“Mr. Kenney has a plan that I don’t think is going to put us in the best position,” Khan said at his leadership announcement Thursday night. “I also think it’s a very dangerous path, if we morph into this ‘small-c’ right-wing party, all we are doing is conceding the centre political spectrum to the NDP. I think we’ve always been better when we’ve been a fiscally-conservative centrist party.”
St. Albert resident and former Edmonton-Castledowns MLA Thomas Lukaszuk said to the Gazette in October that he will wait until this weekend’s convention to decide whether he would seek the leadership, because he isn’t interested in joining with the Wildrose.
“I have not ruled-out running. However, I want to be certain that PC party's current membership want to maintain their moderate progressive conservative values as opposed to compromising on what's the essence of the party in favour of unifications of convenience thrust upon them,” Lukaszuk said in an email.
After finishing third in the last election, the PC Party needs to find a way to appeal to voters. Do they join with the Wildrose to grab the majority of right wing voters or try to convince people who voted NDP last election and appeal more to the ‘progressive’ in the PC name?
This question won’t have a final answer until March, but the party would be better off to make up its mind this weekend. It won’t do much good to set party policy that could be undone if they choose a leader with a different outlook or plan.
If there isn’t an appetite among Progressive Conservatives to unite with the Wildrose party, it would be better to have that decided, less the topic become a major distraction for the leadership route and potentially a lot of hard feelings once a leader is picked. If the PCs want to win the next election they have to unite their own party first and this weekend’s convention in Red Deer is a good place to start that process.
