The western Canadian province of Alberta is a lot like Texas, only covered by snow six months of the year. People wear Stetson hats and cowboy boots, even in city boardrooms. They talk about three things: oil, beef and when are the Oilers going to win something. And they drive pickup trucks, just like the blue one that Jason Kenney drove into Government House (metaphorically speaking) in yesterday's provincial election.Jason Kenney? Who he? Haven't we heard that name before? Yes! Click on the tag at the end of this story and you'll find several posts from the years when he was a cabinet minister and key player in the federal government of Steve Harpoon. He wisely jumped ship well before the election of 2015 and went home to Alberta to lead the provincial Conservative Party.
In the ensuing election, conservative Albertans made the classic mistake (Republicans take note!) of dividing their votes between the official Conservative Party and the even more rightist Wildrose Party. Result? A win for the socialist New Democratic Party, who promptly embraced the save-the-environment-and-to-hell-with-oil polices of Just-in Trudeau's Liberal federal government. Result? A new carbon tax, but no new pipelines, and four years of stagnation in the oil patch. And yesterday was the day of reckoning.
The 2019 campaign was, from the outset, a two-way fight between the pinko Kneedippers and Mr Kenney's United Conservative Party. Note the new party name. Having learned the hard way not to divide your forces, conservative Albertans supported the 2017 merger of the Conservative Party and the populist/rightist Wildrose Party and put all their blue eggs in Mr Kenney's basket. Result? A hyuge win for the UCP. As I write, with a couple of ridings still in doubt, the UCP is elected or leading in 63 seats, the socialists in 24. "Hope is on the horizon," Mr Kenney told a crowd of cheering and whistling supporters in Calgary, adding that "Alberta is open for business!"
Yesterday's vote was often framed, especially by Canada's lamestream media (Hello, CBC!) as a choice between economic priorities and social values. Since the deteriorating economy was a huge millstone around the neck of the NDP, the (now outgoing) premier, Rachel Notley, and her media sycophants (Hey, she's the last female premier!) tried to sell Albertans on her ethics, pointing to several festering scandals that dogged the UCP on the campaign trail and promising spending on health care, child care and education if her party was re-elected.
When that didn't work, she dove into the gutter, trying to portray UCP candidates as racist, Islamophobic, anti-LGBTQ, and the latest pejorative "white nationalist". Result? Didn't work! Mr Kenney continued to back one candidate (an evangelical pastor) who compared homosexuality to pedophilia in a 2013 sermon. Mr Kenney also refused to kick out candidates who questioned the "science" behind climate change. Apparently Albertans, unlike the wimpy denizens of Toronto and Ottawa, aren't overburdened by white guilt, and are sick of being hearing lectures on environmentalism and "inclusivity" from the likes of Ms Notley and her turban-wearing federal counterpart Jugmeat Singh.
Lessons for conservatives on both sides of the world's longest (and sadly) undefended border: Support each other, and stand united! And don't be afraid to show your true colours. Even in Canada, there are hundreds of thousands of voters who have not yet taken leave of their senses, and can still tell the difference between the lefties' promised utopia and the strong and free society in which decent, hard-working people can live a good life, free from the rule of Big Brother!
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