By the end of this week Alberta may have a new premier as the PC Party prepares to hold their leadership vote on Friday.
However, some experts said the deal may already been done.
“Prentice is certainly the establishment candidate,” Bob Murray from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy said.
“He has the backing of the party apparatus, the party hierarchy and to date it really seems like everything is being done to ensure a Prentice victory, even from the party side.”
In the end, there is doubt that any of the candidates offer significant change.
“What you have had is a situation in which a white knight rides in to save the Conservative Party and renew the government of Alberta and through the process of the leadership crawl he has been reduced to a better-than-average, second-rate, back bencher,” political scientist Jim Lightbody told CTV News.
“During the course of this leadership campaign it seems that there has been one issue after another involving suspect behaviour.”’
Lightbody said he believed the PC Party had a good chance of being voted out in the next provincial election.
Something that Murray agreed with.
“They are really not used to having to defend themselves and having to defend their record and be able to build an active, enthusiastic voting base because they have been in power for so long.
“If you have a low voter turnout going into next weekend from within their party it just speaks volumes about how your key supporters are no longer really interested in getting out to vote for the party.”
With files from Nicole Weisberg
