Lee Richardson has been a conservative for about just as long as he’s been anything at all. Executive assistant to John Diefenbaker at 25, chief of staff to Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed, deputy chief of staff to Brian Mulroney, then, federal Progressive Conservative MP for Calgary Southeast, Richardson is as closely associated with Alberta Conservatism Classic as anyone in the province. In the May 29th provincial election, he will be voting NDP for the first time. He conducted the following email Q&A with Policy on that choice on May 18th.

Policy: Why won’t you be voting for Danielle Smith? 

I am a Conservative, a Progressive Conservative in the Peter Lougheed tradition. Danielle is not a Conservative.

Sadly, she is not the Danielle Smith I first knew and admired 30 years ago. She was President of the U of C campus Progressive Conservative Club and a hard-working Progressive Conservative volunteer in my ‘93 federal election campaign. She was then bright, thoughtful, and driven – always challenging herself to get over her fear of meeting people, something she’d have to do, to someday get elected herself.

Over the intervening years, a clear vision or consistent political ideology or party loyalty would not impair that goal. As her political career ebbed and flowed, her self-professed libertarianism gave way to grievance politics and tactical populism. Danielle’s Tucker Carlson-inspired radio talk show provided the vehicle for the resurgence of her political following while stoking division, hate and fear in listeners, with negative rhetoric, culture wars, and conspiracy theories. The more provocative, outrageous, or extreme were the views expressed, the higher the ratings. Lost were the traditional Conservative values of integrity, ethics, respect for our institutions, authority, the rule of law, and the norms of a democratic society.

Policy: Is this a permanent shift to the NDP or just for this election?

I think moderate voters are just focusing on this election. They are making their decisions based on the leaders and their local candidates. Many former Tories who are uncomfortable with Premier Smith prefer Rachel Notley but are still reluctant to vote for the NDP. Among that group there is a growing trend to “hold their nose and vote NDP” rather than stay home, or as former mayor Naheed Nenshi suggested last week, “lend your vote to the NDP”. Those voters will decide the election outcome in Calgary.

It also happens that the NDP candidate in my riding of Calgary-Elbow is a fantastic guy, highly qualified, named Samir Kayande, a successful engineer and energy consultant, Carnegie-Mellon MBA. A person of quality and character who will be an asset to the Legislature in Government or in Opposition.

Policy: How many more Red Tories/centrist/moderate conservatives feel the same way?

A growing number with each new Smith revelation. There is increasing concern with the growing list of shocking statements, comments or musings on eroding our democratic institutions, privatizing health care, selective enforcement of Canadian law, replacing the RCMP with an Alberta Police Force, taking our pensions to create an Alberta administered plan, selling off provincial parks, permitting open-pit coal mining in the Rocky Mountains, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, equating vaccinated people to followers of Hitler, and to calling people who chose not to get vaccinated against COVID, “the most-discriminated group that I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

And it’s not just former Progressive Conservatives who share a concern that Premier Smith panders to, and is overly influenced, even controlled by those Jason Kenney has described as, “unhinged conspiracy theorists” — some of whom I named in the November/December issue of Policy magazine.

Prominent among third-party groups, Take Back Alberta (who claim 30,000 members), take credit for removing Jason Kenney as UCP leader and premier, electing Danielle Smith leader, and infiltrating the UCP Board of Directors to encourage the selection of TBA candidates in the election. Take Back Alberta Leader David Parker publicly claims to control the UCP and Smith. The Globe and Mail reported that Premier Smith “attended his wedding to a reporter from a right-wing media organization on March 18.” Parker says he has barnstormed the province over the past 18 months, spreading his message of “religious freedom” in community halls, churches and farm shops. His stump speech frequently includes the line, “You can vote your way into socialism. You almost always have to shoot your way out.”

Policy: How do things look on the ground, 10 days before election day?

Danielle Smith wrote in the Calgary Herald in March, 2019:

“I’m going to ask you a question that I think may be a decent proxy to figure out who you are likely to vote for in the Alberta election of April 16. Who was the best Premier of Alberta –Peter Lougheed, Ralph Klein, or neither? If Lougheed, I bet you’re voting for Notley… Notley is, without question, the inheritor of the Lougheed tradition.”

That was a good bet then and it’s a good bet today.

Ten days out, it’s too close to call — evenly divided among decided voters. The campaigns will focus on swing voters, the undecided, and getting out the vote.

But if the ballot question on May 29 remains, “Which leader do you trust?”, the answer will be “Rachel Notley”.

The Alberta provincial election will be held May 29th. For information about how to vote in your riding, go to Elections Alberta.