Monday, June 11, 2007

Alberta has an Alliance of unaligned Albertans

The Western Standard reported in its "Can Alberta's further right unite?" article that the Alberta Alliance, Alberta of 1986 and Social Credit of 1935 parties have been in off and on merger talks since 2002 to put up a united conservative front to oust the Progressive Conservatives in the next provincial election. All basically agreeing on the same principles as to what needs to get done, just agreeing how they get there seems to be the deciding factor on unity, which hasn't been solved as of yet. With the addition of the conservative leaning Albertan Independence movement, it would seem the rules of Albertocracy would be in full effect, allowing the protest vote to actually mean something this byelection around. However, as those three provincial political parties and one growing movement look to make their mark, one must not discount a chance that Alberta is returning to its original autocratic roots.

That province originally brought into Confederation, did so under Premier Alexander Rutherford, who was appointed as such by Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier when it entered in 1905, he would win many massive majorities with gerrymandered electoral ridings until his involvement in the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal became a factor which forced his equally elitist backup Arthur Sifton to come up to the top and take over the crown. After the very next election, they would jam through another very controversial bill greatly expanding the size of the legislative assembly and the government itself, plus with the continued electoral gerrymandering as it were, maintained the situation of old that wasn't ideal for any of the citizens at large, he kept doing it until he left for the bigger and better federal scene. This put Charles Stewart in charge of the caucus to continue the cycle for the 19 year old governing Liberals, however they and the official opposition Conservatives would be routed by the upstart United Farmers, who after 14 years were replaced by the Social Credit, who then after 36 years were rased by the Progressive Conservatives.

This brings us now today, where another 36 years has come, the past ones of Progressive Conservative fame have gone, yet its successor is now in doubt, as the Alliance, Social Credit and Alberta parties do agree on the same ideals, how honestly hard would it be for them to create an Alberta alliance that united them all under one agreement in principle, yet created separate caucuses for the three different associations as they are elected in the legislature. Albertans will reject the Progressive Conservatatives of today, just as they have rejected the Liberals of yesterday, yet embrace a brand new politics that regions like Québec have now and Ontario have yet to fully emerse themselves into as this political ideological transcendency via realignment takes hold regionally across the nation. It really is a new way of thinking politcally that doesn't wait hand and foot on political scientists or economists turned politicans like Preston Manning, Stephen Harper or Ted Morton who seem to want change and choice yet continue to support the same-old and status-quo, which also leaves them to blames as leadershipless leaders of a region needing leadership in its post-boom and pre-bust economic state. Unless Morton pulls a René Lévesque on Ed Stelmach's Jean Lesage, where he demands the Alberta Agenda and its Independence issue be on the agenda of debate at the next policy convention for the Progressive Conservatives, or like Lévesque leave the Liberal convention as he did back in 1967, after they refused to speak of his Option Québec and its Souveraineté Association issue, where you create your own Alberta alliance of independent Albertans, if not then Alberta's only political recourse would be to forget its leader, decide amongst its own grassroots citizens to create its own Alberta alliance of unaligned Albertans to change the system.