Say it ain’t so, Danielle! Your blogger with … Progressive Conservative Deputy Premier? … Danielle Smith. Below: Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Tout le monde political Alberta was abuzz last night with rumours the entire Wildrose caucus is on the verge of walking over and joining Premier Jim Prentice’s Progressive Conservatives, perhaps as soon as today.

The Wildrosers will be briefed at today’s caucus meeting, then the Provincial Government of Petroleum Unity will be formed, or so goes the universal rumour.

This makes so little sense that, this being Alberta, it’s probably true. Certainly it will be close to unprecedented in the annals of Canadian politics for an entire opposition party just to surrender and join the government holus-bolus, but there you go.

Certainly it would effectively bring to an end one of the most entertaining and interesting periods in Alberta political history.

Perhaps there will be a few holdouts, perhaps not. If this happens, the Wildrose Party’s furthest right true believers will feel abandoned and furious, but what do they matter? They haven’t been part of the Wildrose brain trust’s political calculus for a while now, as its members felt increasingly anxious to return to the comforts of governing, whatever that took.

An anonymous blogger of some variety of small-c conservative bent reported Opposition Leader Danielle Smith is leading the charge, begging her caucus to come with her to the PC benches.

Perhaps Premier Prentice will reward Ms. Smith for her past hard work and good sense with the post of deputy premier – don’t look at me, that’s part of the rumour too!

Calgary Sun Columnist Rick Bell reported in tiny paragraphs that he has seen a copy of the “reunification document.” He quotes it as saying: “In this time of declining oil prices and economic uncertainty it is imperative we come together as conservatives.”

The Calgary Herald said Wildrose movers and shakers like Ms. Smith, Rob Anderson and party president David Yager are refusing to comment and not returning their phone calls – always a sure sign something is up.

Remember, when the kid cried out to Shoeless Joe Jackson, accused of throwing the World Series, “Say it ain’t so, Joe!” Joe had nothing to say in reply.

Say it ain’t so, Danielle!

Speaking of Joes, it seems to have been Independent MLA Joe Anglin, a former Wildroser, who tipped Albertans to the fact something was brewing.

As they say over at the mainstream media, “more to come…”

For the moment, just remember this about politics in Alberta: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”

This post also appears on Rabble.ca.

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8 Comments

  1. ‘The Conservative Man’ is a funny guy, especially his reference to Ms. Smith as ‘Prentice’s Poodle’. Personally, I would go with ‘The Homecoming Queen’.

    Rick Bell of the Calgary Sun asks a good question: ‘What [the hell] was the Wildrose all about [anyway]?’. (and the only other Rick Bell I’ve heard of was the piano player on the ‘King Biscuit Boy’ cut ‘You Done Tore Your Playhouse Down (Again)’):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrWUIerfdPg

  2. Gee Dave, if Danielle and the other Wildrosers are going to bolt for the Prentiice PC’s, why don’t you join the fun too? You’d be a great MLA and bring a voice of sanity into their neo-con world. That beautiful pic of you and Danielle playing embraceable you leads one to think they might want you in their caucus room rather than running around loose poking fun at them from Albertadiary. How’s about it, Sir?

  3. Wonder if we’ll see Danielle being touted as the next “premier in waiting” when Jim Prentice decides to retire.

  4. I predicted in the comment section of this blog a few weeks ago that Wildrosers were dead.

    if i were Prentice, i would let them wither on the vine rather than take them in and run the risk of having them infect the rest of the caucus. At this point they aren’t the enemy. They have been vanquished. Let them fade away and never speak their name again.

    It’s a mistake to take them in, and if he does he will regret it later.

  5. Well well. I thought the mighty Wild Poseur prairie schooner was listing to far ultra starboard but then their captain spun a hard port rudder. Oops! Good sailors never panic, but I have to forgive our madam captain credit for knowing when to hit the lifeboat on her very own Exxon Valdez! Prime Minister Prentice will likely make her Minister of Accountability.

    The upside is Rachel who is looking better every day, has two simple choices. Tack ersatz center or take the center on social policy and the left with honest tax policies and government repatriation of enough oil and gas, utilities, and telecom infrastructure to keep the robber barons honest. The market for resources and the companies we’ve empowered to steal them, is down so even though it would be much easier if we had a Trillion $$$ in the bank like Norway (those poor suffering souls in that herring besotted, socialist hellscape) there are some newly cheap players in the oil patch. Just ask Spain. Or maybe we could get Statoil to buy some out and we could rent to own. Hell, why not just cross the floor to foreign stewardship of our province! We’re obviously too pathetically gullible to run it ourselves…

  6. Wow! When the going gets tough, the tough….give up. Well, that’s politics, Alberta style. I guess the bank account in downtown Calgary marked “money to buy a government” just moved across the aisle.

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