Albertans spoke out loudly last week, giving previously unelected Jim Prentice a resounding victory with four byelection wins; for himself, for his previously unelected health minister and education minister in Edmonton and Calgary respectively, and a fourth seat in Calgary for police Sgt. Mike Ellis.
The byelections gave the opposition parties, particularly the Wildrose party, a chance to eat into the PC majority, a chance that ended up fizzling out as Prentice’s strategic announcements and campaign carried the day. In the wake of the losses, Wildrose leader Danielle Smith announced she was putting her leadership to review. However, her fellow MLAs unanimously voted to withdraw the review, and put their support behind Smith.
While local MLA Shayne Saskiw was unavailable last week to discuss results from the byelections, a few lessons can be learned from the Wildrose’s losses.
Firstly, one shouldn’t underestimate the challenge opposition parties have in deconstructing a more than four-decades-old dynasty of PC governments, which have had the joy of presiding over a resource-rich province. Voters in provinces with fewer resources and/or less wealth can be much more fickle, as they have to mull which party can do the most with stimulating a moribund economy.
Secondly, each time the PC party has chosen a new leader in the last decade – from Ed Stelmach, Alison Redford and now, Prentice – it seems to revive PC supporters’ faith in the party and given the party a new lease on life.
The collective wisdom out there states that the Wildrose has to appear more positive, disposing of the attack ads and the constant criticism, to look less like an opposition party and more like a government in waiting. Perhaps that’s true, but the Wildrose’s criticisms have definitely been part of its success and the needed role of an opposition party. If Albertans only had toothless and non-critical opposition parties, then a Redford-led government might still be in power.
It remains to be seen what the PC government under Prentice can deliver. So far, he’s smartly listened to opposition parties’ criticisms, whether it was scrapping the government’s fleet of planes or tossing out redesigned license plates. If Prentice can avoid the missteps and excesses of Redford and maintain a healthy economy, based on the results of last week’s byelections, there’s no reason to believe he won’t win another term and another four years for a PC government.
