More chatter on Alberta politics

For political junkies, nothing rocks more than leadership politics. Which is why Alberta is going to be such a hot item of discussion for the next while.

Which brings us to two new items. First, Klein failed to appoint Ted Morton to his new cabinet. Second, he brought back Rod Love as his chief of staff. Seemingly unrelated, these two developments are strongly intertwined and good news for the leadership aspirations of Morton.

Observers were generally suprised that Morton was not appointed to the cabinet. Klein’s approach to independent-minded MLAs has generally been to busy them with ministerial responsibilities (think Jon Havelock). But to give Morton a portfolio would have raised his profile among the general public considerably, a situation much to be avoided by the current Tory elite which is eager to sandbag Morton and bring about the coronation of Jim Dinning, who may or may not have been spotted somewhere in Calgary sometime during the course of the past eleven years.

But this is only half the story. Expect Klein to saddle Morton with significant committee work, which will keep him busy but out of the public eye. Trouble is: Such work will allow Morton to build valuable relationships with fellow Tory MLAs, gaining endorsements and cooperation with local party machines in the constituencies. And not being a minister will allow Morton to cultivate stronger relationships with other back-benchers, as well as the ability to tour the province on his own.

Point number two: Rod Love is back as Klein’s chief of staff. Big deal, except that Love is the biggest name to yet throw his support for leadership behind Jim Dinning. The real significance of Love’s return to the Leg is that he is now the conduit between the existing party-in-government and the Dinning leadership campaign, a handy way to facilitate coordination.

Smart planning on the part of Dinning and Love? Hardly. During his time in Edmonton, Love was well-known as a major hard-ass, ruthlessly restricting access to Klein and generally playing bad cop to Klein’s amiable character. MLAs fumed about his tendency to not return phone calls and his treatment of backbenchers and other lesser mortals as general garbage.

In other words: While Dinning’s known emissary in Edmonton is treating MLAs as said garbage, Morton has the wide-open opportunity to cultivate popularity among the party caucus. In contrast to the obnoxious Love, Morton is more like Klein in his ability to empathize, listen, and make allies. He should be counting his lucky stars that Klein has freed up his time and that Dinning has sent the human personification of unpleasantness to build relationships among the party.