In just under a week, Westlock residents will get to ask questions of the three candidates jockeying to helm the "sinking ship” that is the Wildrose Party. That's what we're all thinking, right? After Danielle Smith and the other eight MLAs crossed the floor to the Conservatives, the Wildrose Party was effectively gutted. This "leadership race” is tantamount to fighting over who gets to keep a room in the middle of burning house.
In just under a week, Westlock residents will get to ask questions of the three candidates jockeying to helm the 'sinking ship" that is the Wildrose Party.
That's what we're all thinking, right? After Danielle Smith and the other eight MLAs crossed the floor to the Conservatives, the Wildrose Party was effectively gutted. This 'leadership race" is tantamount to fighting over who gets to keep a room in the middle of burning house.
Now, if you're a supporter of the Wildrose Party, you might have read the above sentence and already be dialing the Westlock News. But hold on here, we actually have a point to make.
Yes, there's no bones about it: Danielle Smith's defection in December hurt the Wildrose Party, perhaps irrevocably. There's no denying that.
But the question of who leads the Wildrose Party is an important one, simply because there is a need for a strong (or at least, stronger) Official Opposition.
Don't take this as an endorsement of the Wildrose Party's policies or even their effectiveness as the Opposition. The Wildrose Party's approach to the latter was basically to complain about everything the Conservatives did.
But a Liberal or an NDP Opposition seems only slightly less unlikely than a Liberal or NDP government in this province, at least for the foreseeable future.
Whether or not you agree with the Wildrose Party's politics, they're the best option for keeping the Progressive Conservatives at least somewhat accountable.
Let's not forget that the PCs have had a turbulent past few years, and judging by the vitriol aimed at premier Jim Prentice this week over his comments about how 'we're all to blame for this financial crisis," that isn't ending any time soon.
Again, this isn't intended as a knock against the Conservatives. But the fact remains, when any party has held on to power as long as the PCs, they tend to get a little, shall we say, complacent.
If anything, the blow that the Wildrose suffered in December might be a good thing. Now is the time for the party to reinvent itself and perhaps question how they went from the party to beat to the party that was beaten.
