PC nomination isn't what it once was

Progressive Conservatives are currently in the process of selecting a candidate for the new Airdrie constituency in anticipation of a provincial election this spring.

In past years, the PC party nomination has been a golden ticket directly to Edmonton: You win the PC nomination, you become the next MLA.

That is no longer the case.

For the first time in a generation, whoever wins the PC nomination will have a real race on his or her hands.

The candidate must go up against an incumbent, and Wildrose party house leader Rob Anderson is no small fish. He has proven a steadfast defender of right wing values and consistent critic of the government. He opposed the north-south power lines before the government backtracked on the issue. He fought against the practice of politicians setting their own pay long before the Progressive Conservatives even paid lip service to the issue. More importantly, he’s fought for new schools and opposed the government’s crazy assault on the local ambulance system for years.

No matter who is named the PC party candidate in Airdrie, they are going up against a candidate who has knocked on more doors, talked to more voters and pleaded Airdrie’s case more vigorously.

Can the right candidate defeat Rob Anderson? Yes. No politician is invulnerable.

But it will take more than star power. It will take a candidate who can explain why the provincial government has taken an anti-Airdrie stance over the past four years. It will take a candidate who can explain why he or she supports the party that tore apart our city’s integrated fire and ambulance system. It will take a candidate who can explain why they support a party that withheld schools to punish a floor-crossing MLA, effectively holding local students hostage.

It will also take a candidate who can look themselves in the mirror when they do it.