Conservatives in Alberta aren't speaking the same language. And that's a problem for the UCP
CBC
This column is an opinion by Alberta farmer and blogger David Cymbaluk. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ. About a year ago, I wrote that Alberta's United Conservative Party was fracturing along ideological lines that had been papered over by Jason Kenney's choice to unite two conservative factions.
Since then, Kenney lost a leadership vote in May on a nearly perfect split of the party and Danielle Smith was elected party leader earlier this month with a bare majority of votes.
And, as UCP members gather for their annual general meeting this weekend in Edmonton, it is difficult to see how the party survives, going forward.
The two factions within the party simply do not speak the same political language and as has become clear during the recent leadership race, they don't speak the same social language either.
In my original piece, I identified the two factions as conservatives and republicans: conservatives being aligned with traditional Canadian conservatism, republicans being aligned with the ascendant philosophy within the Republican Party in the United States.
The philosophical divide between these groups is not unlike the divide between astronomers and astrologers.
A millennium ago, there was no difference between astronomers and astrologers; it was a single intellectual pursuit.
Today, the two groups do not speak the same language.
Smith became leader earlier this month with the backing of the republican faction within the UCP.
The apologies she has made in her first week on the job are instructive about the current divide between the republicans and conservatives.
Anti-vaccine and pro-Putin sentiments are not controversial within the republican faction; these are views that are commonly expressed within that community. Conservatives, on the other hand, find both views appalling (as a generalization).
This is because the republican faction, either directly or indirectly, consumes media from the alternative information ecosystem.
Within the alternative information ecosystem, anti-vaccine and pro-Russia sentiments are widely tolerated.
If a view is not accepted by the general public, that is considered an endorsement in the alternative information space. It is a contrarian social space.
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