Exit Stanfield, Enter Clark

There are two main topics of conversation here: the surprisingly warm winter, and the surprisingly warm response given to Joe Clark at the recent Tory leadership convention. The 36-year-old redhead from tiny High River with only four years’ experience in Parliament has taken over from Robert Stanfield as leader of the opposition and, polls suggest, is getting ready to take over from Pierre Trudeau as Prime Minister.

Since OPEC raised the oil price, Alberta has been resentful that its political power in Canada has not been commensurate with its economic power as Canada’s biggest oil and gas producer. Although Alberta has voted monolithically Tory in recent years—both federally and provincially—it has not had the same muscle in party affairs as Ontario, led by Premier William Davis, or as the Maritimes, represented in Parliament by Stanfield.

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Donald Coxe

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There are two main topics of conversation here: the surprisingly warm winter, and the surprisingly warm response given to Joe Clark at the recent Tory leadership convention. The 36-year-old redhead from tiny High River with only four years’ experience in Parliament has taken over from Robert Stanfield as leader of the opposition and, polls suggest, is getting ready to take over from Pierre Trudeau as Prime Minister.

Since OPEC raised the oil price, Alberta has been resentful that its political power in Canada has not been commensurate with its economic power as Canada’s biggest oil and gas producer. Although Alberta has voted monolithically Tory in recent years—both federally and provincially—it has not had the same muscle in party affairs as Ontario, led by Premier William Davis, or as the Maritimes, represented in Parliament by Stanfield.