Are Alison Redford’s sights on PM’s chair?

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Premier Alison Redford is smart, articulate, bilingual and ambitious. (DEAN BICKNELL / POSTMEDIA NEWS ARCHIVES)

EDMONTON — There was no cussin’ and no horsewhipping and nobody pulled out a gun.

The pre-Stampede meeting last week between Alberta Premier Alison Redford and Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Calgary was predictably cordial and uneventful. At least, we think it was.

We still don’t know what they talked about, but it’s a safe bet they exchanged details of their respective trips to China.

They probably didn’t talk about the recent email unpleasantness where federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney referred to Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk as a "complete and utter asshole."

That was an embarrassing moment for both politicians, and everybody involved would prefer to forget it — except, of course, for journalists, opposition politicians and anyone who enjoys watching government politicians squirm.

The email fed speculation about ongoing friction between the federal and provincial Conservatives in Alberta, a relationship strained by the fact many federal Conservative MPs are supporters of the provincial Wildrose party.

Providing more fodder for the speculation was a revelation this week that, even though Redford and Harper were meeting, there would be no joint meeting of the federal and provincial Conservative caucuses, something that has happened with some regularity during Stampedes past when politicians from across the province gravitate to Calgary.

Redford says there simply wasn’t time to get everybody together and she expects they’ll have a joint caucus meeting in the fall.

That only led to growing suspicions about just how bad relations are getting between the federal and provincial caucuses.

Much of the speculation is no doubt overwrought. Redford and Harper seem to have a good, if not warm, relationship and sources in both caucuses say they get along well enough on a professional level.

But the speculation keeps on turning, partly because it’s based on evidence, partly because it’s so wonderfully juicy and partly because it’s July heading into August.

We are approaching the dog days of summer. Politicians are heading off to the cabin and the Stampede, leaving behind a vacuum that journalists and observers are happy to fill with hunches and guesswork.

Such as, for example, talk of a Prime Minister Alison Redford.

How’s that for speculation? This, I should point out, is no idle speculation; this is speculation that is working hard. It has been working as diligently as Redford who, ever since winning the Progressive Conservative leadership last October, has been travelling the country to meet with other premiers to win support for Alberta’s oilsands. Same with her trips to Washington, D.C., and to Beijing.

She is opening a provincial office in Ottawa and she convinced Lee Richardson to quit his job as a Calgary MP to become her principal secretary.

These are all things a sophisticated premier would do to help build better relations with the federal government, with other provinces and with the governments of the U.S. and China.

These are also things a sophisticated premier would do if she had her long-term sights set on becoming prime minister.

Sources close to the premier say they have never heard her discuss an interest in federal politics.

But there are plenty of sources inside the PC party who think there are simply too many clues to ignore. They even think federal MPs such as Kenney see the same clues.

That, they say, helps explains Kenney’s email rant where he argues against a meeting between Alberta’s Deputy Premier and the federal caucus. He obviously doesn’t like Lukaszuk, but his animosity is also directed against the Alberta government led by Redford.

Many federal MPs from Alberta don’t like Redford because they see her as a Red Tory, a closet Liberal and not a true conservative.

They also share political roots with the Wildrose party that stretch back to the Reform party founded by Preston Manning, a political enemy of former prime minister Joe Clark, one of Redford’s friends and former employers.

The only thing that irritates federal Conservatives more than having Redford as premier of Alberta is the thought of her taking over the federal Conservatives.

Just as Harper as prime minister was a victory of sorts for Manning and the Reformers, having Redford one day become prime minister would be a victory for Clark and a reverse takeover of the Conservatives by the Progressives.

It is not a particularly robust threat at this point to MPs such as Kenney, but it is something of a burr under their saddle.

Redford is smart, articulate, bilingual and ambitious.

Her regular forays to other provinces, and other countries, are helping raise her profile back home.

And if Alberta really is the engine of Canada’s economic growth, she has her hand on the throttle.

When Harper decides to quit, Redford might be ideally positioned to take a run at his job.

At least, that’s the speculation.

Graham Thompson is a columnist for the Edmonton Journal.

—Postmedia News