The biggest threat to the governing Progressive Conservative party will not come from Kevin Taft's Liberals, but from Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier, says Edmonton leadership candidate Mark Norris.
Norris warned yesterday that if the Tories aren't successful in renewing the party with a youthful new leader, their hold on power will be threatened by Calgary's mayor.
"I don't see Kevin Taft as the threat," Norris told the Sun's editorial board. "He's a nice man, but he doesn't connect with people. The real threat is the mayor of Calgary."
Norris, 44, cites as evidence the ongoing sniping between Bronconnier and Calgary leadership candidate Jim Dinning.
"If we can't come up with a young, dynamic leader to take on their dynamic leader, we're done," he said.
"As nice a man as Ed (Stelmach) is and some of these gentlemen that are running, there's a real threat to our party and it's not the Alliance party."
Norris said Bronconnier, 44, who was elected mayor with 80% of the vote, is a "young, fresh, dynamic face," while 53-year-old Dinning dates back to the Peter Lougheed era.
"If we can't show we changed and we've wiped out all the party backroom boys and all the consultants and all the hangers-on, why wouldn't people want to change?" Norris said.
The warning amused Taft, who plans to lead the Alberta Liberals into the next election.
"Dave Bronconnier is not even in provincial politics," he noted. "What did he mean by that?"
But Taft, 51, said the Tories are slipping in their traditional homebase of Calgary.
"I can feel their support in Calgary being eroded. I have no doubt that the ongoing scrapping between Dave Bronconnier and the Tories is part of that."
As the Tory leadership vote comes down to its final week, Norris said he wished he had emphasized more heavily that the party has to change dramatically to survive the next election.
"It's going to be a massive change or we'll go onto the dust pile of history," he said.
