An open letter to Conservative media elite in Alberta

Sometimes all that hard work only looks like success.

Catching up on thought pieces this morning, I was fabulously inspired by one that mentioned Tom Flanagan’s advice in Winning Power. Mr. Flanagan published his book in 2014 and drew on the success of upstart parties like the Wildrose and Reform. While I wouldn’t deny that these parties did see marginal success, neither of them saw the ultimate success of actually being palatable to a majority of voters; at least, not until they took over established parties.

Mr. Flanagan concluded that upstart “centrist parties” would not find success. In 2014, however, both Canada and Alberta still had “centrist parties”. In 2015, the Liberals under Justin Trudeau outflanked the NDP to the left and formed a majority government. NDP leader Tom Mulcair ran a campaign that was successful in moving to the centre, but it wasn’t the space that Canadians were looking for the next government to fill. I remember this one in particular because I cast my vote for whomever it was in my rural Alberta riding that was representing Mr. Mulcair. I was ready for a change from Mr. Harper’s CPC too, but not as much change as what Mr. Trudeau was offering.

That same year, Alberta also underwent a seismic shift as the 44-year dynasty of the Progressive Conservatives — arguably a centrist or centre-right party — cratered to the non-upstart, but certainly from the margin, NDP.

Over the following four years, I argued that the NDP had easily stepped into the shoes of the PCs and kept walking. I also saw that this new reality was detrimental to the other parties in the middle; the Alberta Party and the Alberta Liberals. It was also detrimental to the PCs who had been reduced to just 11 seats.

During the NDP’s term, I saw little change in their governance styles, and even less change in their policies to really differentiate them from their predecessor. I certainly wasn’t the only one. Then-radio host Danielle Smith had also written that Rachel Notley was the “inheritor of the Lougheed legacy”. Former advisor to Stephen Harper Ken Boessenkool noted Rachel Notley’s “conservative disposition” outshone Jason Kenney’s, and Allan Warrack, a former PC MLA said that Rachel Notley led like Peter Lougheed.

Yet, despite many believing this to be true, it didn’t move voters enough to return the NDP to government. Rachel Notley herself was more respected than the NDP name, especially with the party’s federal namesake seemingly going out of their way — with complete disregard for provincial timelines — to remind Albertans that their federal cousins were anti-oil.

The federal NDP was really the gift that kept on giving to conservatives in Alberta and allowed political and media narratives to paint the provincial party into a corner.

It’s why, when I read the following excerpt, I was inspired.

Advisor to the early Reform and Wildrose parties, Tom Flanagan, wrote about the challenges facing new parties in his 2014 book, Winning Power. He made the case that new parties must "invade from the margins". That is, they need to offer voters something clearly distinguishable from what the established mainstream parties have on the menu.

The "middle" is already the most fought-over political turf. In Alberta, the UCP and NDP throw the bulk of their time and resources at a handful of swing voters located in suburban Calgary and Edmonton.

Derek Fildebrandt, Western Standard; July 3, 2025

‘Berta

In their bid to renew the PC party, former UCP MLAs the Hon. Pete Guthrie and Scott Sinclair have chosen to attack from the widening chasm that opened up between the NDP and UCP.

I'll use a geographical analogy: it's like Canada and the U.S. sharing a long-standing undefended border in North America where the U.S. sits between Mexico and Canada. Canada is safe from Mexico because there's no way they're managing to reach the Canadian border over the U.S., and vice versa. For the United Conservative Party, their "left" flank is as vulnerable as an undefended border but as safe from invasion by anyone on the other side of the vast territory between.

That undefended border, however, is not safe from the giant that sits beside it and that is the space within which Mr. Guthrie and Mr. Sinclair are attempting to build.

The UCP and NDP are perfectly safe from the other, but neither is safe from the space between.

As Tom Flanagan insisted, the successful "new" party needs to come from the margins; what we cannot ignore is the fact that in our current two-party system, a Progressive Conservative party can do exactly this -- thanks mostly to the careful, but oh-so consistent, setting of the stage by conservative media types who have spent the past ten years painting the NDP as a socialist scourge rubbing their hands together in anticipation of getting access to those record surpluses they weren't able to lavish on public services the first time they were in government.

Without this painstakingly repetitive messaging within the media and thought bubble that exists within Alberta, voters could have mistaken the Alberta NDP for a more moderate version of their peers. Even, dare I say, a more “conservative” version than those found elsewhere. Voters might have come to the conclusion that the Alberta NDP was nothing more than PC 2.0; a bare shift from a centre-right party to a centre-left.

Alas, no.

Pushing the envelope

Such a mediocre change would certainly not have had the power to mobilize warring conservative factions so completely as to convince them each to burn their own houses down and move in to a hastily- constructed straw house together. The threat to their beliefs, their way of life, and their very identity, had to be bearing down on them.

And so, the ink was spilled like that of blood on a battlefield. The Alberta NDP was pushed further and further to the left. Alberta, conservatism, nay, everything was under attack.

Why stop at socialism? These were nothing more than Marxists; communists, even. What's worse than a communist? Anti-business, anti-capitalism... anti-Albertan.

With a united party, the conservatives easily won the 2019 election.

The victors could have accepted their return to government graciously. They could have shaken hands with their opponents and tipped their hats.

But again, no.

Jason Kenney repealed all the NDP’s legislation in an attempt to erase it — and the memory of a non-conservative government — from existence. Unless it was useful, but then it could be brought forward as conservative legislation.

In the next election it was a stalemate.

None could be convinced to find their way to the other side for the trek was simply too far. And so, they stayed, each to their sides, and the "right" team won. But again, grace eluded the victors. There were still more punishing words yet to be written.

More and more ink was spilled on the opponents; "far-left", "radical", and "woke".

On and on it went, pushing the opposition steadily further until there was so much distance between them that the scribblers and keyboard warriors were assured the NDP could no longer be a threat.

And so successful were they in their mission to push the two apart that they created a void where another party — one that could claim to be a unifier of both the left and right — could claim the space between.

In their determination to paint the NDP into a “far left” corner, and their willingness to support the UCP’s lurch right into separatism, they have created the perfect conditions for a centrist party to indeed “invade from the margins.” From the conservative flank of the NDP to the progressive flank of the UCP; because they had been moved so far apart that neither was going to successfully launch an offensive against the other.

To the conservative media elite in Alberta, I believe the term I’m tap-dancing around here is: "schadenfreude".

Please enjoy responsibly :)

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