Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
No, the most important thing was to stop slitting one anothers throats at the voting booth.
I was part of that thing from early on and it was individual party members that OVERWHELMINGLY voted to merge because there was just not enough difference for the two parties to continue on as separate entities. WR was 95% in favor and PC was 85% IIRC...could be wrong on numbers but it wasn't even close.
So to claim there was "substantial" differences between the two is patently false. The membership would never have agreed to the merge otherwise. There were small factions in both parties that wanted nothing to do with one another, no question, but average jane certainly was not part of that.
The majority of the Liberal part of the PC party departed and went to the AB party (and there were more than a few of those kind), and the majority of the hard core right wingers are part of Fildebrandts tire fire now. Its just that simple. This province doesnt need two large conservative parties nor does it need two "centrist" parties, though i dont think either one of them are truly "center", particularly the Liberals.
The Liberal brand is toxic in Alberta so I do not understand why it continues on the way it does...which is why amalgamating under a different (Alberta Party) banner makes way more sense than not, but nope. Continue to split the 6-10% of popular vote they get combined (though i expect that to surge up to 15% this time) and accomplish very little.
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Losing a single election was enough to abandon a 50 year old party in favour of an amalgamation that would 'win'.
To me, that's Craven political opportunism.