Cleaning Windows
It’s the residue of a tired, underachieving government, a political party that has been in power for far too long, forty years and counting.
The PC party machine is ring-fenced by appointees and patronage seekers, a network of dependants whose blind allegiance insulates the party leadership, cabinet and caucus from the dreams and everyday needs of Albertans.
This website doesn’t claim to have all the answers for our so-called “democracy deficit.”
But we can do a little window cleaning.
Could there be a more fitting time to encourage this discussion?
The PC leadership has imploded, with Premier Ed Stelmach announcing he’s stepping down and three top cabinet ministers resigning their posts to run for his job. More are expected to follow.
With their unabashed sense of entitlement, the party’s top echelon and backroom fixers will determine the succession.
After four decades of uninterrupted power, the PCs believe there’s nothing untoward about telling Alberta’s 3.7 million citizens:
“Don’t call us, we’ll call you, just as soon as we’ve anointed a new leader, and given him time to get cozy before calling the next election.”
Which is where we pick up the narrative: how does the Alberta Tory hierarchy approach the practice of electoral democracy?
We believe the cases we profile in these web pages provide plenty of insight in that regard.
If you wish to follow the story from the earliest days of litigation, and the election that witnessed the abuses at issue, turn to the first posting in our archive on October 20, 2008.
Or start with “Welcome to the Machine” from October 27, 2008 for a sequential telling of the story of this candidate’s experience on the campaign trail with the once-great Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta.
And keep an eye on our home page for all the latest developments as litigation proceeds before Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench.