For anyone whose heart is in the West, the question tomorrow is which (or perhaps, whether) any candidate or party sufficiently represents Western interests to deserve their vote.In the following, the Western Standard’s Editorial Board examines the parties and makes its recommendation.If, as a Westerner, you consider the last ten years to have been destructive for Canada as a whole and to the legitimate aspirations of Western Canada in particular, neither the Green Party nor the NDP has anything for you.With environmental extremism built into its founding documents, the Green Party is institutionally opposed to Western Canada's principal industries, energy, resource development and intensive farming. Pass..The NDP meanwhile, has been the consistent accomplice of the Liberal Party in its ongoing quest to first reach 'Net Zero' carbon emissions at the expense of Alberta's energy industry, before destroying it altogether. To its further shame, it kept the Liberal ministry alive long after it would have been in Canada's best interests to see it put out of our misery last fall. No great principle was upheld; it was purely to serve the NDP's own narrow interest in avoiding for as long as possible an election it couldn't afford to fight. The idea that it was forcing the Liberal government to adopt progressive policies that it would otherwise spurn, was always understood to be a polite fiction. The sum total of the NDP's effort last fall was that a handful of people from a narrowly defined demographic, got dental work for free.Rachel Notley bravely now tries to present that as the Second Coming of Medicare, but she fools nobody. And in any case, the Liberals of the last ten years have never needed encouragement to lurch further to the left. Let's face it, the NDP isn't what it was in the days of Tommy Douglas. They have behaved like grifters. It is April, and they are a shower. Pass. .What then of the Liberals, the party that seemed doomed six months ago, but which is now apparently the favourite of those prepared to talk to pollsters. How that came about has been discussed elsewhere. But this is not complicated. What matters is that Alberta is all about oil, gas and ranching and Mr. Carney has proudly spent most of the last 20 years campaigning against oil, gas and lately, flatulent cows. More precisely, he has campaigned against the CO2 emissions generated by the energy industry and all those irresponsible cows, all of which is in his view likely to warm the atmosphere to the point of global disaster. It is up to Canada, he believes, to show the world a better way. The world is not listening, and thereby renders its judgment on the worth of Mr. Carney’s grand idea. But as the UN's Climate Change Ambassador, Mr. Carney nevertheless campaigned tirelessly against the energy industry. Further, prior to his engagement at the UN, he did the same thing as governor of not one central bank but two, from the pedestals of which he warned the boards of energy companies that the market would soon depreciate their assets, even as he urged lenders to refuse loans to oil and gas companies. In other words, a self-fulfilling prophecy. .And for several years, he tried to guide his youthful predecessor, Justin Trudeau. The latter being by turns incautious, incompetent and injudicious, finally proved also so incapable of taking advice — Carney may not be wise but we're not saying he doesn’t know more than Mr. Trudeau — that he became sufficiently unpopular that he was persuaded to resign. In a move that could be compared to installing an O/S update, where none of the information on a hard-drive changes except the operating system itself, Mr. Carney was then installed as prime minister. And so it is that the old Liberal gang that includes the environmental nutter Steven Guilbeault and the outwardly sane but as wretchedly-persuaded Jonathan Wilkinson, is once more offering itself to a public that against all fact and reason, thinks it's getting a fresh team. Bottom line, these are the people who years ago speculated gleefully about getting rid of the oil sands, think solar and wind are a realistic way to generate power on a dark and windless night, want to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035 and all this while demanding net zero emissions also by 2035. Also, they would have us eat less meat, see above. .The other Liberal calling card is that Mr. Carney is the man to stand up to the imperialistic president of the U.S. This too, is spin. Mr. Carney may go ‘elbows up’ all he wants and talk a good game. In the end however, Canada has no cards to play and will fold to American demands when President Trump presents his final. This is not to imply a weakness of character in Carney, only that a realistic reading of the power balance between the US and Canada admits of no other result. But before leaving that subject, Westerners should keep in mind by whom Mr. Carney is surrounded in the East. He is hearing from people who think using Western oil and gas as leverage is a good idea. That is, impose an export tax against Alberta oil. Voters should also remember that Canada's economic problems did not start the day that Donald Trump was sworn in as 47th President of the USA.If you are a Westerner, the Liberals are not your people. Pass. .Which leaves the Conservative Party of Canada led by Pierre Poilievre, and Max Bernier's People's Party of Canada. In including them in the same sentence, we do not wish to imply equivalence. The party of Poilievre is huge, generously funded and notwithstanding peevish criticism from Ontario's semi-Tories, has fought an intelligent, well-organized campaign. Message discipline was tight. Thus, barely distracted by so-called bozo eruptions, they focussed effectively on kitchen table concerns — expensive rents and groceries, helping young people get established in a job and a home, public safety and a refreshing new commitment to Canada's honourable history and national symbols. There is a refreshing sense that they believe their own rhetoric, that what you are seeing, is what you will get. Perhaps that's part of the reason Poilievre has been rewarded wherever he goes with enormous crowds, including one near Edmonton said to be the largest political rally in Canadian history. For Mr. Poilievre’s Conservatives, in Western Canada the love is real..The People's Party is not big and not powerful. It is fielding just 247 candidates out of the 343 seats in Parliament, and since leader Max Bernier lost his Beauce (Qu.) seat in 2019, the party has not been represented in the House of Commons. However, the PPC is not irrelevant. Whether through earnest conviction on Bernier's part or his sly recognition that there's an unhappy constituency looking for a place to park their conservative vote, his party offers a safe harbour for the truest of blue votes. Among the most important things to this group are pro-life issues — they want either an abortion ban or at the least, severe restrictions in the late term. And while they recognize the power of the dairy lobby, they hate supply management and don't care to vote for anybody fighting for the right of Canadians to pay more for eggs. Or milk, or cheese. In 2021, there was an additional factor. Under Erin O'Toole's leadership, the Conservative Party in addition to supporting abortion and supply management, also supported carbon taxes. Many people threw up their hands at that point, voted for Bernier and consoled themselves that at least they had not compromised their conscience. The PPC thus drew a not-insignificant 5.1% of the popular vote from a voting pool that the Conservative Party of Canada considers its exclusive franchise. The Tories could have used that 5.1%. Electoral mathematics is not as simple as adding the PPC vote back to the Conservative vote, to guess what would happen if the PPC hadn't been fishing in the Conservative pool. However, the PPC might still have cost the Conservatives as many as 20 seats in 2021. With margins as narrow as they are said to be, that’s something to weigh carefully in 2025. .At the Western Standard, we are principled conservatives. We therefore understand the priority of conscience and that when a party invites our support for their march to electoral office, we expect those pledges to be kept and that power to be used for the good purposes promised. And so, we also understand the dilemma of conscience that Max Bernier and the PPC present. Respect for life — at both ends of our allotted years — defines the worthiness of any society, and in the end, its durability. People who believe this have judged wisely. We are therefore uncomfortable urging them as they vote, to set aside what is truly foundational to favour some less fundamental priority. Nevertheless, the Liberal Party is the author and encourager of the thing pro-lifers and many PPC members loathe most. A man or woman wishing to run for the Liberal Party must declare themselves pro-abortion. Mr. Carney himself says so, as did his predecessor Justin Trudeau. So, the pro-lifer dilemma is this. One can take a vote from a Conservative who is personally pro-life or at the least benevolently indifferent, and then give that vote to the PPC. The PPC is spectacularly clear on the matter but will never — ever — be able to do anything about it. And so that voter has by default helped elect a militantly pro-abortion Liberal. What have they accomplished? We cannot make that call for them. And so, to judgment. There is no doubt in our minds that the interests of Western Canada can never be served by the Greens or the NDP. Neither have they ever been served by the Liberal Party of Canada. Therefore, while the Conservative Party of Canada does not perfectly represent Western aspirations, the party of Poilievre has nevertheless demonstrated its resolve to support the industries that make the West great. Further, as articulated by Mr. Poilievre, its priorities are prosperity and security for ordinary people... in all of Canada to be sure, but not at the expense of Western Canada. It is a party of good will to the West. In the Conservative Party of Canada and its leader Pierre Poilievre, we have confidence. And we therefore recommend to our readers, that they vote for its candidates.