The premier Premier

The Institute for Research on Public Policy ranks Peter Lougheed as Canada's best Premier from the last 40 years. Rounding out the top 5:

1. Peter Lougheed
2. William Davis
3. Allan Blakeney
4. Frank McKenna
5. Robert Bourassa

I ran a similar "best Premier" contest among blog readers back in 2007, March-Madness Style. Lougheed came out on top of that one as well, edging out Oliver Mowat in the final.

On This Date In History

It was 40 years ago today that Peter Lougheed's Progressive Conservatives swept to power, ending Alberta's third political dynasty, and starting its fourth. Lougheed's slogan was 3 letters long ("NOW") and his message was simple - as recounted in Rennie's Alberta Premiers of the 20th Century:

These times of turmoil - of protest - of change - of confrontation - require a government party NOW where members place people before party... We also look to the future convinced this province could be doing very much better... It needs a party of the future, not of the past... The Socreds convinced themselves that Alberta's development has been due to their efforts, not due to the fortunate presence of natural resources of the province.

The first half of that speech is mostly platitudes, but 1971 was certainly not the first nor the last time a young and charismatic leader got elected on platitudes. Lougheed showed energy, bouncing from door to door, racing children in the street, and drawing large enthusiastic crowds. Quite simply, he promised change at a time when the electorate wanted change.

Since then, the house Lougheed built has only come under siege once - in 1993, when Liberal Lawrence Decore would likely have won had he not been up against one of the most talented politicians in Alberta's history, Ralph Klein. Danielle Smith may give the PCs another scare next year, but the smart money has the dynasty Lougheed built living well into its 40s.

Of course, one wonders what Lougheed truly thinks of the state of his party today. After all, take one more look at that line of Lougheed's I posted above - "The Socreds convinced themselves that Alberta's development has been due to their efforts, not due to the fortunate presence of natural resources of the province".

That one likely hits a little close to home.

Best Premier Update

After the predictable wild ride in the Douglas/Lougheed shoot-out, I thought this would be a good time to give an update on the Best Premier contest. First, the clash of prairie titans.

Lougheed and Douglas were locked in a tight battle, with Tommy holding a slight lead up until mid-afternoon today when legions of Peter Lougheed fans descended upon this site, sent here by Small Dead Animals. No doubt energized by this article on the Globe and Mail site where Lougheed slams Harper for not holding first ministers meetings and trashes Ed Stelmach and Ralph Klein for neglecting the Heritage Fund, Tories from coast to coast cast a moral vote in support of Lougheed's criticism.

Then, around dinner time, the Douglas vote started to climb. Hitting refresh on my computer, I literally saw it jump by about 20 votes a second. While it is possible that NDP members saw the latest SES poll and concluded this might be their only chance at electoral victory in a long time and voted en masse, some snooping around has led me to conclude that this was computerized vote rigging. I was all set to DQ Douglas on this one, but a late surge has pushed Lougheed back in front and on to the next round, where he will meet yet another NDP Premier in Ed Schreyer.

Here's how the other quarter-final battles have turned out so far:

Rene Levesque (16) over Angus MacDonald (1): 51% to 49%

WAC Bennett (14) over Alex Campbell (3): 55% to 45%

Oliver Mowat (12) over John Robarts (5): 59% to 41%

Ed Schreyer (7) over Dave Barrett (10): 74% to 26%

Louis Robichaud (4) over Joey Smallwood (13): 66% to 34%

Peter Lougheed (2) over Tommy Douglas (15): 54% to 46%

The final two quarter-finals matchups will be posted tomorrow, with the semis getting underway this weekend.