12.16.2014 08:55 AM

RIP, Wildrose

As she contemplates The End, Danielle Smith should give Peter MacKay a call. He might tell her what happens to your political career when you let the other guy dictate the terms of surrender.

18 Comments

  1. Tiger says:

    You get a tour of the top cabinet posts during the next decade in government?

  2. Christian says:

    It all kinda reminds of the waterhole story (or proverb). So long as the water hole is full, all the animals are united and happily drinking in as much as they can. But once the water level drops, they turn on eachother.

    Is it any surprise that with $55 oil, the WR is imploding? What would be a genuine surprise would be for the Alberta Liberals and NDP to take note and themselves merge to provide Albertans with a REAL opposition alternative. Sadly, I don’t think that is going to happen.

  3. Westguy says:

    The price of oil had nothing to do with this.
    Under Stelmach and Redford, the PC party was starting to move to the left of the political spectrum. That created a space on the right where the WR started up. At that point, there was enough of a difference between the two parties to make for a valid choice. But when Redford resigned and Prentice took over, the first thing he did was move the PCs back to the political right. That effectively crowded out the WR. With incumbency on their side, the PCs would have probably wiped the floor with the WR. (The NDP and Libs would have gotten the same seats they always get, but few – if any – more).

    • Christian says:

      Sorry. Gotta call bullshit on that. I lived in Alberta for 15 years. The price of oil drives EVERYTHING in Alberta; politics, the economy and the culture (the NEP STILL gets pulled out like it happened yesterday). The WR really got going after Stelmach’s royalty increases. The Good Ol’ Boys down at The Club on 5th Ave. S.W didn’t like that. Redford was just outright incompetent.

      • Joe says:

        I guess your 15 years didn’t include the time Special Ed shut down the ‘patch’. I knew guys who were used to earn &100,000.00 a year laid off and working at &15.00 per hour day labour jobs. The problem the WR had is that they decided early on to be trendy instead of smart. They picked a pretty face/empty dress leader in hopes that Albertans would fall all over themselves and elect their first female premier. Guess what Albertans elected their first female premier who happened to be a PC because the leader the WR picked couldn’t lead ants to a picnic. Then when it was shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the first female premier was also the most corrupt premier in Alberta’s history the PCs gave her the boot and picked Prentice. Then came the byelection debacle. 4 byelections all very winnable by the WR were all lost by the WR because the WR couldn’t enunciate a coherent set of policies. The WR got trounced by the Alberta Party?!?! finishing third in two of the four byelections that had WR win written all over them?

        The WR should have fired Smith after the general election debacle. Failing that they should have demanded her head following the byelection disaster. Instead they decided the pretty face who never won was the face of the party and now that face is joining the WR’s nemesis. BTW this is not like the merger between the old federal PCs and the federal Conservatives. When that merger took place both parties hopelessly mired in perpetual opposition with the only hope of becoming government was to merge and put forward a united front. The PCs don’t need the WR to win anything and the floor crossing MLAs are simply opportunists.

    • !o! says:

      I think it has more to do with the fact that Prentice et al. actually seem to be capable. The rural grassroots don’t care too much about shades of right/left. Wild Rose were good at rallying the grassroots and talking about issues that mattered to them. Redford/Stelmach relied on incumbency and…. that’s pretty much it. Prentice hasn’t really blundered yet, doesn’t come off as angry/entitled/out of touch, and probably most importantly, has the right behind-the-scenes friends (hence defections and talks about mergers– this wouldn’t even be a topic for talk if there wasn’t an existential threat to WR, and the threat isn’t from opinion polls). Can the average person pinpoint the ideological/policy differences between Stelmach or Redford and Prentice? No.

  4. T. McNamara says:

    Right on the money Warren. Age and treachery will always win over youth and good intentions.
    Wild Rose will fall due to a bunch of lackluster MLAs who simply didn’t have the right stuff to defeat the Porcine Party. The trough will just get bigger.

  5. Richard Besserer says:

    I’ll give this to Ernest Manning—he stuck with his party even after he admitted publicly it had no future. He remains the only Socred ever to sit in the Senate.

    Smith has to know she looks like an opportunist. Of course, that may be all she ever was.

  6. Elisabeth Lindsay says:

    Danielle will do just fine. She tried her ve!ry best, but the wackos (extremists) in her party did her in. Jim picked up some good people.

    Alberta is back in some excellent capable hands. Much needed in these turbulent times.

    I look at it as an excellent cull. Well done Danielle and Jim

    • MgS says:

      “Back in excellent hands”? Seriously? With no opposition to speak of? Uh-uh. If Smith and her other floor crossing cronies wanted to do Albertans a favour, they would have sat as independents on the opposition benches. Alberta has not benefited from these super-majorities.

  7. smelter rat says:

    So which party is official opposition now?

    • davie says:

      I think both Wild Rose and Libs each have 5 seats. Notley and her NDP have 4.

      • smelter rat says:

        So basically another oligarchy then.

        • Joe says:

          Actually its up to more than Gene the Zwoz, It also hinges on Joe Eglin who was kicked out by Darlin’ Danielle. He may ask to rejoin the WR and the WR may take him back giving the WR one more seat than the Liberals. I suspect though that the Zwoz will stick with the status quo.

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