Where, oh where, is the Albertan Barack Obama?

According to Liberal Party election worker and blogger Jason Morrison, the energy-renewing charisma that Obama generated for the Democrats south of the border is just the stuff the Liberal Party needs if they ever want to win an election here.

The 31-year-old new father yearns for a leader who will represent Alberta’s future and manage the province’s resources for the next five generations—someone fresh, young, and inspiring. In other words, a dream candidate and leader.

Ever since the dismal election results trickled into their desultory campaign offices on March 3, the Liberal Party has been discussing their future both internally and publicly—with some members questioning whether there should even be a party at all. As soon-to-be former leader Kevin Taft has said several times over the past couple months, “Everything is on the table.”

Taft officially announced last week that he would step down as Liberal leader by January 2009. Now the party must decide not only where they want to go, but also who they want to take them there.

“Much more is on the table than in a traditional leadership race,” says Lethbridge University political science professor Harold Jansen. “There’s an opportunity to pick a new course for the party.”

Policy wonkery and retail political strategy all get debated behind the scenes, and frankly, they’re not as important to voters as the image the new leader creates, says Morris.

“The fact of the matter is, people are buying on brand,” he says. “The Liberals don’t have... brand loyalty. They have to have a product to sell, and the product is the leader. It has to be someone that people can see themselves in. They have to connect on a personal level.”

But what would such a leader look like? Jansen, Morris, and others offer seven magical traits the next Liberal leader will need to possess.

(1) Fresh Face

A new leader will allow the Liberals to rebrand, says Jansen, and the party could do well to look outside the tight circle of well-known MLAs—or even outside the party.

The closest the Liberals ever came to pulling off a real resurgence was with an outsider, says Jansen. Former Edmonton mayor Laurence Decore was a fresh face in 1993 and the party landed 32 seats.

An outsider beating out well-known MLAs with established support networks within the party for the leadership is an unlikely scenario, he admits, but it could do the party good. The Liberals need a leader who has a completely new style and new ideas, and is someone the media can get excited about.

Morris agrees, saying that in order to be successful, the Liberals need to generate public fascination.

“The way you get there,” he says, “is with a person who represents something new, something Alberta has never seen before.” After all, the American Democratic nomination race was so exciting for voters because it was creating history. With a woman and a black man running, no matter what happened, the results would change the face of politics.

Obviously, in Alberta the optics are a bit different. Women have led political parties here, including Nancy Macbeth of the Liberals and Pam Barrett of the NDP. So what will engage Albertans? That’s difficult to answer, Morris says, but he suggests that finding someone with a new understanding of the province’s resources and environment, someone who could change the current resource narrative from what the province gets now to what future Albertans can enjoy, would be a good place to start.

2) Calgary-Centric

With more Liberal MLAs hailing from Cowtown than the traditional opposition stronghold of Edmonton, electing a leader from Calgary makes sense, Jansen says. Even Taft has noticed the opportunity for gains in Calgary. At the news conference announcing his intention to resign, he said he senses that Calgarians are frustrated with the Conservatives. Perhaps a Liberal leader with Calgary connections could turn Cowtown into a new Liberal power base.

(3) Media Savvy

Communications skills are basic tools for any politician, says Jansen.

“We need a storyteller,” Morris says. “Someone who can take what the policy wonks say we should do and tell the public a story that will convince them that that’s what we need to do. If they can’t do that, then all the policy in the world doesn’t make any difference.”

Whether the Liberals choose to change their name, form a new party, rebrand and redefine their policies, or choose a new direction that hasn’t yet been discussed publicly, Jansen thinks the new leader must represent the new structure and be able to communicate that new stance clearly to the public.

(4) Willing To Travel

The cities of Edmonton and Calgary get a lot of face time with leaders, but Alberta is a big province.
“We need a leader who is known,” says longtime Liberal member Siegmund Walisser. The 90-year-old says he hasn’t seen a party leader make an appearance in his riding of Dunvegan Central Peace for years. Unless the new leader is willing to log some frequent-flyer miles, generating excitement across the full breadth of the Liberal Party could be difficult.

(5) Deep Pockets (...Or The Ability To Attract Others With Deep Pockets)

“If there was one factor in the election that made a huge difference,” Taft said at his press conference, “it’s that we went into the election with zero dollars, and the Conservatives went in with millions.”
That’s a fair complaint, says Jansen. Alberta lacks election-spending rules, so the Conservatives can far outspend the debt-ridden Liberals. Thus, fundraising skills are key for any hopeful leader.

(6) Centre-Centre Values

Jansen says Albertans are not more socially conservative than in other parts of the country, regardless of popular perception, and so veering too far right won’t help the Liberals.

“I think they need somebody who is socially liberal but fiscally conservative,” he says, “because I think the Conservatives are vulnerable there. They haven’t done a good job of managing the money from the oil boom.”

(7) Availability

Finding anyone willing to take on the job who also has all the above traits is probably more fantasy than reality, Jansen says. “It’s kind of a thankless job,” he concludes. “It’s not the most attractive position, so the kind of people that have that skill set aren’t going to be clamouring to sit on the opposition benches.”