Quote:
Originally Posted by mrdeeds
Very good question. I think there will be some Eastern discontent in the party should the Convervatives fail to win a majority and calls for a leader that does not call Alberta home.
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To win a majority, the CPC doesn't need a non-Albertan leader, but they do need a leader whose political roots aren't from the Reform/Alliance parties. For many in Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic Provinces, the CPC is just a re-branded Reform Party, which, as we all know, was a Western protest party. It's not much of a stretch to call the Reform Party the Western Canadian equivalent of the Bloc Quebecois (minus the sovereignty aspirations).
So it shouldn't be any surprise that non-Westerners still don't feel comfortable voting for the CPC while the bulk of the party leadership are old-guard Reformers. It has absolutely nothing to do with Harper's province of residence and everything to do with Harper's past political affiliations. When Joe Clark (who represented the riding of Calgary Centre) was leader of the PCs in the 2000 election, his party had no trouble attracting supporters East of Manitoba despite having an Alberta-based leader.