While there are no Progressive Conservatives at the federal level any more and Stephen Harper seems quite happy to operate without that progressive tag hanging over his head, there are Progressive Conservatives in Alberta and a new man is in charge.
Jim Prentice won the leadership race on the first ballot over the weekend and will become premier of Alberta once he wins a seat in the legislature in a byelection, which will likely happen this fall.
During his days as an MP from Calgary, Prentice served in Stephen Harper's cabinet, taking on difficult ministerial jobs with Indian and Northern Affairs, Industry and Environment, yet Prentice shouldn't be labeled as a stick-in-the-mud hard-core Conservative in the Harper mold. Rather, Prentice is like most Albertans, in that he sees no contradictions between being a progressive and a conservative. In fact, he seems proud of his progressive stripes and has, at times, even gone against his more conservatives colleagues to stand up for a bigger cause.
In 2005, when the Liberals were still in power in Ottawa, Prentice defied Harper and the vast majority of his conservative colleagues by supporting a controversial Liberal bill that endorsed same-sex marriage.
"I believe in the rights of individuals, including the rights of communities of faith," he said. "There's a duty to balance and protect the rights of everyone."
That is not the view of social conservatives, nor of Harper, whose disdain of the Charter of Rights and Freedom was made clear when he ordered millions spent on bicentennial celebrations for the War of 1812 (which one was that again? who did we fight?) and didn't even acknowledge the 30th anniversary of the Queen signing the Charter into law.
While Harper is an economist, Prentice is a lawyer and, based on those comments, he clearly admires the Charter as a defining document in Canadian history for the legal power it grants individuals. Yet Harper respected Prentice enough to still appoint him to cabinet a year later when the Conservatives formed government. While Harper and many conservatives want the clock stopped and then rolled back to a time when institutions, not individuals, held sway in the public arena, Prentice is a conservative man who believes in slow, steady and careful progress in all areas, including social issues.
A classic PC man could be just what Alberta's ruling party needs to reinvigorate itself after former premier Alison Redford resigned in disgrace this summer after revelations about her sky's-the-limit spending habits and travel practices came to light. With the rise of the Wildrose party, Alberta's Progressive Conservatives have been drifting to the right but Prentice might be the oneto restore the Peter Lougheed lustre to the PC brand.
Under Lougheed, the PCs built their political dynasty with prudent management of the economy, the province's incredible natural resources and the wealth those resources generated, but also with smart investments in public and social infrastructure. There was no room for parties on either the left or the right to make much headway.
That changed under Ralph Klein and, in many ways, Alberta's PCs still haven't recovered from the Klein hangover, brought on after his 14 years in power. Klein laid off nurses, closed hospitals, took away the funding for arts groups and seemed to relish in turning his back on the kindler, gentler conservatism that had been the hallmark of Lougheed and Alberta's PCs.
With his strong progressive credentials, Prentice could should reject the Klein legacy and take the Alberta PCs forward, progressing in the right direction in a conservative manner, just as the party name indicates.
He only has 18 months until the next provincial election so Prentice doesn't have much time but harkening back to a time when balanced books and generous social spending were both desirable and compatible goals in a wealthy province will ring loud and clear with voters.
