I think it was becoming obvious there is some discontent within the tory camp. I was surprised with the low level of support. I figured Klein would probably get something in the neighborhood of 60-65%.
The vote isn't a sign that tories are fed up with Klein. They just don't want to see a protracted leadership race that could take 2 years. Look what happened to the federal Liberals when Jean Chretien took forever to leave. Nobody wanted to see that here. That kind of drawn out leadership race has the potential to create some ugly and very damaging rifts within the party.
And you get the sense that Klein's heart isn't really in it anymore. Remember years ago he said he would leave when he no longer had the "fire in his belly". Well the fire is apparantly out or has been reduced to glowing embers.
I think party delegates did the right thing for the party. But Albertans shouldn't forget that Klein was able to accomplish what he set out to do many years ago.
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