It started in question period in the Alberta Legislature Thursday afternoon. Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean was chastising the NDP generally — and Premier Rachel Notley specifically — over comments embattled federal leader Tom Mulcair made the night before to the CBC’s Peter Mansbridge. Mulcair admitted that if it was the will of the weekend convention that the oil stay in the ground forever, he, as leader, would do whatever he could to execute that mandate.

Thursday night, as the delegates were beginning to arrive in Edmonton, Premier Notley took to the airwaves — mainly to brace Albertans for a tough budget this coming Thursday. She also used the opportunity to remind Albertans of the importance of building pipelines to carry resources to tidewater — and the importance of federal politicians supporting that infrastructure.

The curtain rose on the third act Friday, when Alberta Environment Minister Shannon Phillips was dispatched to the NDP convention to call the so-called ‘Leap Manifesto’ — the document spearheaded by activist Avi Lewis which calls on governments to retool the economy to pull it off fossil fuels in a hurry — a betrayal of Albertans who voted for Notley and the New Democrats. Phillips addressed the NDP caucus in a private session. In what was apparently a well-received interaction, the minister encouraged the NDP not to view the resource sectors “from their downtown Toronto perch”.

Alberta Caucus Chair Heather Sweet and close to a dozen Alberta NDP members were actively working the convention, pleading with delegates not to sabotage what the Notley government has been trying to do for the past eleven months.

Saturday afternoon, in a packed room full of energy, Premier Notley pushed the point home. She implored the delegates to think about the 60,000 energy workers who have lost their jobs in Alberta, reminding them that the party is supposed to defend working people. To a partial standing ovation, she pointed out that pipelines are built by Canadian workers using Canadian steel.

In a surprise move, the premier took a not-so-subtle shot at the Leap Manifesto itself, arguing for “detailed, principled, practical plans you can really implement by winning an election.”

This weekend was an utter disaster for Notley and the Alberta NDP. Now that the national delegates have endorsed a document which calls for an immediate cessation of pipeline construction and the phasing-out of fossil fuels within a generation, her conservative opponents will have a field day reminding voters of what the New Democrats actually stand for now.

The delegates are leaving Edmonton not knowing who the leader will be tomorrow, this Christmas or next. The fractures are deepening. The delegates are leaving Edmonton not knowing who the leader will be tomorrow, this Christmas or next. The fractures are deepening.

(That, by the way, is the luxury of being a provincial party unaffiliated with any federal party. Neither the Alberta PCs nor the Wildrose have any official links to the CPC or anybody else. The provincial branches of the NDP, on the other hand, are all fully integrated into one big family.)

It’s challenging, in a country as large and diverse as Canada, to come up with one-size-fits-all political positons. Notley is an obvious rockstar in the NDP and she offered the delegates a pragmatic choice: “In electing a progressive NDP government last spring, there is no climate change-denying, science-muzzling regressive Tory government here any more.”

She’s right, in a way. By offering moderate policies of the left, she was able to convince a fairly conservative electorate to give her a shot. She’s legislating incremental climate change policies (phasing out coal, a carbon tax, a methane reduction strategy) — all of which could be wiped out now that she’s been tagged as a member of the Leap Manifesto Party.

Stephen Lewis, party elder (and Avi’s father) doesn’t agree. Although he’s mindful of Notley’s predicament, to him climate change is an existential crisis that requires an immediate and radical action plan. And the displaced workers need not worry; to the supporters of the Leap Manifesto, renewable energy is the greatest job creator ever.

The faultlines in the party are spreading — and LEAP isn’t the only one. The other interesting schism simmering on the convention floor is in organized labour.

In pre-convention interviews, Canadian Labour Congress President Hassan Yussuff openly called for the replacement of leader Tom Mulcair. Alberta Federation of Labour head Gil McGowan agreed. But a number of the affiliated unions, including several building trades, questioned the CLC, openly reminding Yussuff that support for his continued leadership could be jeopardized.

Yesterday, Robyn Benson, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, joined in the call for leadership “renewal”. The fault lines largely — but not entirely — follow the divide between public sector and private sector labour. The latter unions, especially the powerful Building Trades Council, have thousands of members employed in industrial energy sector construction and maintenance. Don’t expect to see them jumping on the Leap Manifesto bandwagon.

The party was split almost evenly on Mulcair’s continued leadership (52-48 against). This means a leadership contest — but since the delegates voted to suspend the requirement that this occur within a year, the party could opt to allow Mulcair to stay on for up two years. The delegates are leaving Edmonton not knowing who the leader will be tomorrow, this Christmas or next.

The fractures are deepening. The partisan spinners issue statements stating that debate and dissent is good for democracy. And so it is; the party survived the Waffle in the early 1970s and the New Politics Initiative of the early 2000s. It will weather the Leap Manifesto’s attempt to force a sharp turn to the left.

But as Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau know, electoral success is premised in part on strong leadership and unity of vision. You have to know what you stand for before you can sell that vision to the voters. A loose association of freelancers will never be able to sell an incoherent message to the electorate.

Mulcair said at the outset that it was imperative that the NDP leave the convention united. Given how this weekend went, the party must be disappointed — maybe not with the process, but certainly with the result.

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