Big Day in Canadian Politics

Christmas has come early for Canadian political junkies like me. Both the Federal Liberals and the Alberta Conservatives are holding leadership elections this weekend. I'm still confident Bob Rae will win the Liberal Leadership for pretty much the same reasons as I had back in September.

In the Alberta race, I just can't call it. It looks to be a two way race between the centrist former Provincial Finance Minister Jim Dinning and the eloquently conservative Ted Morton. Jim Dinning led slightly in the first round of voting, but hopefully his lead won't be enough to see him through.

Ontario Conservatives had a similar choice to make, when Mike Harris, the very successful premier who came to power using a clear and principled election document called the Common Sense Revolution. After successive majority governments, the party started to drift and it became clear that it was time for the premier to retire. Unfortunately Ontario Conservatives took the easy way out and voted for a 'centrist' former finance minister, Ernie Eves, who was a disaster as leader. The party was rightly booted from power and has been in opposition ever since.

I sincerely hope Alberta Conservatives learn from the past and rejuvenate their party with a man with fresh Conservative principles, like Ted Morton. Voting for Jim Dinning is doubly bad for those who want a conservative government; at first it will mean liberal government under a Conservative banner and later after a brutal election, liberal government under a Liberal banner. Alberta, Vote Morton.