WI: Harper, Prentice, Klein not in politics.

Without Klein, Decore might be able to take the Tories down in the late 80s. He was the former mayor of Edmonton, was fairly popular and managed the largest opposition to klein for a long time. But, Jim Dinning might get involved in provincial politics earlier and he was fairly popular and very smart.

My bets are on the Liberals eking out a victory over the Tories in the late 80s, but having a Tory resurgence after 5-8 years.

Because of all the changes, it's literally impossible to say with any certainty where provincial politics goes.
 
Jim Prentice

If Prentice never goes into politics, or at least doesn't make the jump to provincial politics in the wake of the Redford fiasco, then the Tory leadership MIGHT go to Tom Lukaszuk, a socially liberal Edmontonian with a street-tough image, even less sellable to rural and southern Alberta than Prentice turned out to be.

Or, someone else in the conservative political/business establishment might be cajoled into taking the PC leadership, and might have the good sense NOT to try to bribe(*) the main opposition party into folding into the governing party, or launch his campaign with a Nickelback song about getting drunk and violent, or make dumb comments about math during the debate. This possibly saves the dynasty for another four years.

(*) Get your libel-lawyers off speed dial, I realize no one was literally bribed.
 
What if Jim Prentice, Stephen Harper, and Ralph Klein never entered politics?

The earliest change is that someone else becomes Mayor of Calgary in 1980. (The 1988 Winter Olympics may or may nor be held in Calgary.) After that the biggest visible change is that Betowski succeeds Getty in '92. She offers more of the same and Decore sweeps to power in '93. Alberta still gets a leader who can clean up the mess, make the hard choices and turn things around, though Decore's success is short lived. His premiership ends suddenly in '98 when he's diagnosed with terminal cancer. His successor may or may not be up to the job. Decore is remembered in the same vein as Lougheed and Manning.

Someone carries the Reform Party banner in Calgary in '93. (Who knows, maybe it is Jim Dinning.) Someone else, be it Dinning, Kenney or MacKay reunites the Conservatives at more or less the same time as the public has become fed up with the corrupt Chretien/Martin Liberals. Also, someone else serves in that Tory government, and he likely as not doesn't step down before the decade is out to have a go at provincial politics.
 
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