On October 17th<\/span>, the Wildrose<\/span> Alliance will be picking a new leader. As I said last week, these guys need to be taken seriously<\/a>. Especially given the rumours up to 10 Tory MLAs<\/span> are considering crossing the floor<\/a> (re-tweeted by Danielle Smith, so she’s not trying to downplay them). That’s right, MLAs<\/span> are considering leaving a party with 70 seats who have been in power for 40 years, for a party with 1 single MLA<\/span>. What can I say, Alberta politics has always been a little weird.<\/p>\n To recap, the race is now a battle between Danielle Smith and Mark Dyrholm<\/span>. This, after Jeff Willerton<\/span> pulled out<\/a>. Willerton<\/span> is the author of “Fix Canada<\/a>“, a book his own website describes as so simple “a twelve year old or even a retired grease monkey like me could understand it<\/em>.” I don’t think I’m simplifying things by saying that his solution to fixing Canada is to get rid of the Liberals. Consider his leadership website<\/a>:<\/p>\n My objective in running for the leadership of the party is of course to promote better government provincially, but it’s more than that. It’s also to promote a better federal outcome by keeping the Liberals out of office – and it can be done.<\/p>\n I’m not a separatist, but like most Albertans I am anti-liberal,<\/strong> and frankly I believe we should go to the polls to reconsider our options in Confederation – each and every time a Liberal government is elected or reelected in Ottawa. We can’t tell people how to vote, but if the east insists on having a Liberal government they need to know they might have it all to themselves at the end of the day. Again, my objective is not to break up Canada – it’s limited government – which is impossible under a Liberal government.<\/p>\n When I sign my book, excerpted at www.fixcanada.ca and of which I have sold almost 20,000 copies in this province, my normal salutation is “Toward a better, liberal-free Canada!”<\/span> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, to recap: Willerton<\/span> was running to become Premier of Alberta because he dislikes the federal<\/em> Liberal Party. And he’s not a separatist, but <\/strong>he believes Alberta should hold referendums to separate<\/em>…every time a Liberal government is elected federally.<\/p>\n I include this about Willerton<\/span>, only to emphasize the self-evident problem the Wildrose Alliance Party is going to face. Maybe it’s not self-evident to a 12 year old or to readers of Fix Canada, but I think most people here will be able to figure out what that problem is.<\/p>\n a) Media savvy and well spoken Smith has picked up a slew of endorsements<\/a>, including one from Ralph Klein’s father, who she seems to have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with – up until today, the top two stories<\/a> on her website over the past week and a half have dealt with Ralph’s dad dumping on Stelmach<\/span>.<\/p>\n Browsing through her policies, she’s proposing to hold a referendum on whether or not to hold referendums<\/a>. And although many of her ideas<\/a> are decidedly libertarian and right wing, she’s not afraid to say words like “environmental safeguards” or “alternative energy”.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_L6NW1UySEKs\/Sr0LHChVnkI\/AAAAAAAABX8\/GUK_7RLkS1k\/s200\/willerton-small.jpg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_L6NW1UySEKs\/Sr0LKq3nxII\/AAAAAAAABYE\/SQ_rOM8tfcM\/s200\/dryholm.jpg\")
<\/a>Moving on, Willerton<\/span> has thrown his considerable influence behind Mark Dyrholm<\/span>. If you visit Mark’s website<\/a> and manage the dodge the exploding pop-up ads showing his support for Paul Hinman<\/span> (for the by election which was held two weeks ago), you’ll see that he starts his bio off by declaring “Mark has a solid education”. Mark also has solid policies<\/a>, although I could see a few of them being problematic in practice, notably his pledge to call an election if his government doesn’t bring forward a balanced budget, and a promise to have all major expenditures approved by referendum.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_L6NW1UySEKs\/Sr0LD_ch0bI\/AAAAAAAABX0\/cPULvsgSA1Y\/s200\/daniellesmith.jpg\")
<\/a>So that brings us to media darling Danielle Smith. Despite having the blandest slogan in the history of leadership races (“Activist. Analyst. Albertan.<\/em>“), Smith has been able to generate a lot of buzz around her candidacy, due to her being:<\/p>\n
b) Not unattractive<\/a>
c) Not crazy<\/p>\n