There was a tragic irony to the two recent conservative weekends in Alberta.
The old generation met April 30 under the banner of Alberta Can't Wait to form a new party. The new generation met May 7 at the Progressive Conservative annual meeting to begin the renewal of their old party.
The tragedy for conservatives is that there are now three right-of-centre parties in Alberta, Progressive Conservative, Wildrose and Alberta Can't Wait, splitting the centre-right vote.
All three parties want members of the others to acknowledge it speaks for the true conservative faith and unite the right by joining it.
In the power struggle that is about to unfold, there is one certainty – a second term in office for Premier Rachael Notley and the NDP.
It's not just that conservative parties can't collaborate together that impedes the unite-the-right movement.
In fact many Albertans can indeed wait.
Premier Notley has earned the respect of many conservatives outside the partisan walls of the PC and Wildrose parties. And she has gained the affection of the politically unaffiliated under-50 urbanites.
In the words of a stalwart Progressive Conservative who was a party volunteer from the Lougheed years onward, “(in the 2015 election) Albertans decided they had enough of the old PCs and the young voters decided to get involved.
“The fact that they did, and effected change of significant magnitude, will prompt them to ‘do it again' before they surrender their idealism for practicality in the third round vote around 2023,” he emailed me last week.
There is one thing that conservatives in Alberta do not have.
A leader with charm, style, focus, youthfulness, energy, a high political IQ, and an articulate, electronic communication style that builds bridges.
Not Ric McIver. Not even Brian Jean, as effective a leader and as good a retail politician as he is.
A new leader willing to spend a term in opposition in a party will back her or him redefining conservatism into a 21st Century governing brand.
A conservative Rachel Notley.
A reincarnated Peter Lougheed.
Frank Dabbs is the editor of the Didsbury Review and a veteran political and business journalist. He has authored four books and edited several more.
