Jim Prentice launches Alberta PC leadership bid

Is Jim Prentice destined for political greatness or is he the second coming of former Prime Minister Paul Martin?

To much fanfare, Prentice launched his campaign for the leadership of Alberta's Progressive Conservative party, on Wednesday.

"I’m running because I believe Alberta has before it right now an opportunity to achieve great things," Prentice said at a morning event in Edmonton, according to CTV News.

"It’s going to take discipline and it’s going to take focus, but we will do this."

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Not surprisingly, Progressive Conservatives in Alberta are almost giddy.

Prentice has great credentials: he is high profile, popular, a great fundraiser and has a good balance of private sector experience and public service. He is a slam dunk to win the PC leadership and gives the party their best chance to reverse dwindling poll numbers and win the next general election -- whenever that may be.

There will be some challenges, however.

Since winning the 2012 election, the PCs have been plummeting in the polls.

While many of their struggles had to do with the ineffective leadership and alleged spendthrift ways of former premier Alison Redford, the party does have some other significant challenges — not the least of which is that they've been in power for such a long time and come with a lot of baggage.

While a new leader may be able to reverse the fortunes of an unpopular political party in government, more often than not, a tarnished political brand remains tarnished.

See Kim Campbell, John Turner and Paul Martin federally, Frank Miller and Ernie Eves in Ontario and Ujjal Dosanjh in British Columbia — all new leaders who failed to reverse the dwindling fortunes of their parties.

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One thing Prentice does have going for him is that he was never a member of the PC caucus in Alberta. That, according to Insights West's Mario Canseco, could prove to be significant.

"He could come in as a sort of outsider and steer legislation through for two years, trying to chip away at Wildrose’s popularity with actions and not words," the pollster told Yahoo Canada News, noting that Danielle Smith, the leader of the official opposition, currently has an approval rating of approximately 60 per cent.

And, as for those comparisons to Paul Martin, Canseco says that it's too soon to tell.

"Prentice is a well-known figure for those of us who live and breathe politics, but when you have 60 per cent of Albertans saying they are “not sure” on whether he would make a good leader, there is a lot of room to grow, but also to falter."

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