The biggest news out of this weekend’s Alberta Liberal Party convention and annual general meeting was the passing of a resolution on “Cooperation with Other Political Parties.” I watched with a great deal of interest as both sides of the debate made their points and counterpoints. It was a very passionate and fascinating discussion. Contrary to some media reports, I abstained from the vote, as I wanted this question to be decided by the members of our party. I will follow the wisdom of the majority, who decided in favour of the motion.
What the resolution actually says, is not very specific. The contentious part of the resolution that laid out specific instructions was removed following an amendment by one of our longtime Liberal members. The resulting amended resolution was clearly more palatable to the majority of our members in attendance and this is what we will be working with in the coming weeks and months as we prepare for the election.
This is clearly a COOPERATION resolution calling for us to work with progressive parties and voters, including progressive Tories who are leaving the Progressive Conservative party of Alberta in droves, seeking an alternative.
We ARE that alternative. We ARE the ONLY centrist party in Alberta with policies in place and a structure out there in all 83 ridings across the province. It only makes sense that we would be the party to extend a hand and offer to work together.
It’s often said that I’m not a typical politician. I would like to suggest to you that this makes me the ideal person to introduce a new way of doing politics in Alberta, as urged by the resolution this weekend. It is a less confrontational kind of politics, one that puts the interests of the citizens of this province ahead of narrow partisan interests.
The Alberta Liberal Party under my leadership will work in earnest and with the full and open involvement of our membership, to bring people together so that we can form a new kind of government for this province, one we can all be proud of. This is what cooperation means and this is what any good government does.