Opposition leaders doubt Jim Prentice's lack of interest in federal politics
Jim Prentice says he's "not interested" in being the leader of the federal Conservative Party when Stephen Harper retires, but some of his political opponents are doubtful that he’s completely ruled it out.
On Feb. 23, after five months in the third floor office at the Alberta legislature, Prentice told CBC News that he "loves being the premier...and I've got my hands full."
However, it has been a little more than four years since Prentice`s sudden resignation as Harper`s minister of environment. At the time, he told CBC News he was "closing the door on life in politics" and moving on.
With a senior executive position at CIBC already negotiated, Prentice added that he had given 100 speeches where he vowed the length of his public service would be no more than eight to ten years.
"I'm now just celebrating the ninth anniversary and so it is time to leave," he said then.
Similar comments were printed in a number of newspapers.
Prentice's promises questioned
The leaders of the province's three opposition parties say Albertans should remain skeptical about whether Prentice intends to stay on the sidelines of any race to replace Harper.
"You never say never in this game," said Heather Forsyth, leader of the Official Opposition Wildrose party, from behind her desk in the legislature annex building.
Forsyth knows how true a statement that is, having served as a Tory MLA and cabinet minister for 17 years before crossing the floor to join the Wildrose for the last five years.She says Prentice isn't living up to commitments he made just within the last year.
"He clearly said last summer, when he was running for the [PC] leadership, he assured Albertans...’we have a fixed election date, I will not be calling an election, I will abide by the law of the land,' " she said.
The premier has said he isn't ruling out calling an election in the coming weeks, suggesting he needs a mandate to guide Alberta's economic future through troubled times.
Alberta Liberal leader David Swann says trust is going to be a big issue in a spring election if one is called. He thinks Albertans are still wondering if Prentice wants to be more than the premier of Alberta.
"He said he wasn't interested before. Suddenly, he got interested six months ago, he's now the leader of the economic driver of the country,” Swann said.
“Hard to believe that he's not interested in a national position."
The leader of the provincial NDP, Rachel Notley, said she has been struck by the number of issues the premier seems to have changed his mind about.
"I don't think that anything this premier says is ironclad. I think he thinks there's always a new situation which ought to give him an excuse for a new position," she said.
She said Prentice has backtracked on promises of restoring education funding, and appears to be willing to call an earlier provinfcial election than the legislated fixed date had called for.
"This is not a guy whose statements are something you can take to the bank, not even his old bank."
Province was in 'crisis mode': Olesen
PC MLA Bruce McAllister is familiar with political surprises.
He was one of the nine Wildrose MLAs who crossed the floor to the Tories in December. All of them credit Prentice's leadership as key in their decision. McAllister says the premier returned to public service for a good reason.
"Things change, circumstances change and I guess you react to those," he said. “I can't speak for the premier, but my suspicion is he saw Alberta in a situation that needed some leadership."
Sherwood Park Conservative MLA Cathy Olesen puts it in even starker terms.
"We were in crisis mode and he has a very big heart and he wanted to fix the party and fix the province, and it was motivated by an act of kindness really.
“ He gave up a really huge salary and he saw the need and he stepped up."
Infrastructure Minister Manmeet Bhullar argues Prentice doesn't have time to mull over federal possibilities. According to him, the Alberta cabinet and caucus members are solely focused on the work ahead of them reacting to Alberta's economic downturn.
"In decades to come, the people of Alberta will see that the changes that Premier Jim Prentice has made will serve people for generations.”
Premier stands by statement
Prentice’s office stands by the statements he made earlier this week about having no plan to jump back into federal politics.
"I love what I'm doing and we have some tough issues ahead of us in Alberta. We're pulling together, we're going to pull together as a province and I'm going to be the premier to do that," Prentice said.
An aide in his office said they have nothing further to add, but talk of Prentice running federally is nothing but false rumours and innuendo.
Still, Forsyth is predicting Prentice will jump into the federal Conservative leadership race whenever it gets underway.
The two worked together nine years ago - at the time Forsyth was children’s services minister in the Ralph Klein government while Prentice was Canada's aboriginal affairs minister.
"I've known him a long time and aspirations are interesting in people."
