... and this explains why Alberta's right wing, federalist, political chameleons continue to superficially reinvent and rebrand themselves.
For over 20 years, Reform Party members in Alberta have been trying to establish a provincial political party to displace the heathen Tories. A small number of right wing Albertans (maxing out at about 14% of the population) have shown some affinity for this sort of political movement, but the Reformers have never really managed to slither out of the right wing swamps and gain broad provincial support. Various forgettable politicians have been behind these efforts, and several provincial parties have been formed, only to eventually implode in a paroxysm of religious intolerance and personal conflict. The Representative Party, Alliance Party, and Alberta First Party have all vanished. The Alberta Party is still officially around, although it only has one member, and is on the fast track to extinction.
The Alberta Alliance and Wildrose Party are the most recent entrants into the fray. Both have managed to attract a few hundred members, but these members really consist of the same old group of chronic whiners, religious fanatics, and single issue axe-grinders that always show up at right wing gabfests. Notwithstanding all of their efforts, the Reform chameleons in the Alliance and Wildrose were forced to face the fact that Albertans didn't like them very much, and, with an election looming, something drastic had to be done. But what? You guessed it - another exercise in political skin-shedding.
So, it's goodbye to the Alberta Alliance.
Goodbye, Wildrose Party of Alberta.
Hello, Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta!
What a clever bunch.
Since the chameleons have gone through another cosmetic change, I have decided it is necessary to start a new blog to reflect the change.
Why?
Well, unlike the chameleons, who are motivated solely by opportunism, I actually have a valid empirical reason for making the switch:
Both Alberta Alliance Watch and The Wildrose Report were given a special ranking by Google Blog Search that placed them at the top of all search results for searches of the phrases "alberta alliance", and "wildrose party", respectively. Try it:
Search "alberta alliance" on Google Blog Search
Search "wildrose party" on Google Blog Search
I want to replicate this feat for searches of "wildrose alliance", hence the need for this blog.
Alberta Alliance Watch and The Wildrose Report will stay up, and I may make the odd post on each, but, for the most part, all further postings concerning the addlepated right wing federalists who comprise the Wildrose Alliance will go here.
As far as the politics of this blog go, I can advise that the issues remain the same, and the political direction of Wildrose Alliance Watch is therefore obvious. It is vitally important to the interests of Albertans that a provincial Reform party not establish itself as a viable, electable, provincial political party.
In a way, I am quite pleased that the two leading provincial Reform parties have joined into one. They are all together now, so the nuttiness, extremism, and incompetence of any of the members, will have the effect of staining all of them.
In other words, those of us who oppose Canadian federalism can concentrate on a single opponent, and focus our efforts on draining a single political cesspool. If successful, we will take all of the Alberta Reform reptiles out in one go.
