I'm With Danielle Smith

I didn't see that one coming.  The Danielle Smith Party merged with the Jim Prentice Party.  I've thought it over quite a bit now and I can say without a doubt that I'm a supporter of the Prentice/Smith Party.

The PC Party?  WildRose?  No I don't really like either of those parties anymore.  Allow me to explain.

The Problem

There's a problem with the conservative insurrection in Alberta.  It's past due.  We had our window and that window is now closed.  Not just because of recent developments.

I've found it increasingly awkward to be pro federal Conservative and anti Alberta PC.  PC, CPC, and WR all fish from the same pond.  I felt it door knocking in Canmore recently.  We should not be fighting anymore.

The Federal election is coming this year.  Like it or not Jim Prentice is a Harper Conservative.  The two brands are inextricably linked.   I know this only too well.  I volunteered for Jim Prentice when I lived in his Riding.  Deepak Obhrai endorsed Jim Prentice and I also volunteered for Deepak and served in his EDA.

There just isn't any room for a conservative civil war in the next year, even if its only in Alberta.  We just can't spare the oxygen.  Trudeau is the biggest threat we have faced yet.  Martin, Dion, Ignatieff were not easy opponents, no matter what people might say in hindsight.  All of them are eclipsed by Trudeau.  We know it's not rational but the Liberals aren't appealing to reason in the next election.  It's an incredibly dangerous time for our country.  We can't afford this squabble between friends anymore.

I'm not talking about making up with Allison Redford, but with your neighbors and co-workers who all support Stephen Harper.

WildRose

Oh Wildrose.  You had so much potential.  The hated Allison Redford conspired with the left and the media to fatally destroy the WildRose brand in the last general election.   They exploited Wildrose's greatest weakness, social conservatives, and used them to unfairly smear the party that truly deserved to win.

It would take 10 years to undo that kind of damage.  A tough and thankless slog that would be.  Enduring the skills of Jim Prentice for a decade with only the hope that the arrogance and entitlement of the post Klein years would blight Alberta once again.  No thanks.

I didn't want to face that.  In a way I wrapped all of Alberta politics in a package in my mind and marked it "Do not open until 2016".  Perhaps the situation would change by then?  Yikes did it ever change.

Surprisingly, I think it changed for the better.

I was signed up for WildRose by two cranky geologists.  These guys resembled the critics from the Muppets.  They were exacting in the their standards and merciless with their criticism.  Of course, they got my name wrong on this supporter list they were drawing up.  That took years to fix, but I had a lot of patience for the WildRose.  I believed in the movement.  We had a mission to get Alberta back on track.  But I only really started to believe when Danielle Smith was nominated for the Wildrose leadership.

I put up signs.  I made calls.  You know the tragic story.  We'll never recover what Allison Redford and her leftist takeover cost us Albertans.  What a colossal waste and squandering of precious booming times!

Then those times changed.

The by-elections showed that people did not blame the PC Party but Allison Redford personally.  I wasn't really paying much attention.  I did however wince at the WildRose campaign slogan.  "Send the PCs a message!"  What message will they send if they vote PC?  Danielle Smith got the message eventually and here we are.

Progressives

I detest progs and their sugar coated lies.  I despise their smug self congratulating entitlement.  Justin Trudeau is your typical prog but so is Allison Redford.  Redford could not have done what she did alone.  There are people inside the PC party as liberal and corrupt as Dalton McGuinty.  We are on their side now.

That has to be the worst part about this move to the PC Party.  Thomas Lukaszuk said Allison Redford "is Alberta."  Doug Horner lied to all our faces about the deficit.  Dave Hancock led the plan to remove Alberta's plate slogan to punish the Wildrose.  On and On.  There was that clown MLA badmouthing our Oil Sands and such.  All these goons are still there.  All those back office leeches and schemers?  Still there.

It's going to be war when Prentice leaves.  long may he rule.

Jim Prentice changes a lot of things.  He's alleviated all the sore points the PC's have created when the scum bags ran the party.  I think the former banker and federal Environment Minister may have the exact skill set that Alberta needs to succeed in these challenging times.  I want to help him succeed.

Loyalty

The minute that any of us becomes a liability or an embarrassment to the party we are shown the door.  It doesn't matter who it is or how much good was done before.  Every party is like this.  Everyone should treat their political party like this as well.  It's only fair and should work in reverse as well.  Don't stick with a party because you're stuck with them.  If something better comes along you've got to move.  Its democracy.  It keeps the parties on their toes.  It makes the parties beholden to you and not the other way around.

I'm not going over to the PCs for Prentice even though I think he's pretty good.  I would have already jumped.  I'm going to the PCs because that's where my leader, Danielle Smith, is going.  Shes a smart and brave woman.  A lot of people see this as a betrayal but I don't.  I'll go where she goes.  PC or Alberta Party even.

Danielle Smith is being a leader.  She made a bold move.  A move that I couldn't even anticipate.  I respect that.  Smith and the others aren't going to wait quietly in a box until the coast is clear to attack Jim Prentice.  We are going to do everything we can, for ourselves, for our parties and for our province and country to defeat Justin Trudeau.  -and we are all going to need each other should we fail.