Alberta’s change of leadership

Oil industry wins battle for influence in Alberta; international needs come to fore

IN ANOTHER political realm, the Canadian province of Alberta might be seen as a benevolent autocracy. Over the past 76 years, it has been governed by only two parties – Social Credit from 1935 to 1971 and Conservative since then, with both separated by only slight shades of blue. Now Alberta is embarking on its sixth change of premier, heading off indications of upheaval within government circles, which forced Ed Stelmach to start winding down his four-year tenure and return to his true love, farming in the north of the province. Universally accepted as a decent man from a Ukrainian background, he stunned even his own party by winning the Conservative leadership as the compromise candidate,