The Hook

A blog that claims to be run by Conservatives with no official ties to Tory Environment Minister Jim Prentice is suggesting Prentice would make an ideal replacement for Stephen Harper if his government falls.

Prentice, the Conservative M.P. from Calgary-North, was industry and Indian affairs minister in previous cabinets.

The blog founders call themselves “Conservatives for Prentice” and claim, “We are a group of grassroots Conservative Party of Canada members -- the kind of grassroots members on which our party was FOUNDED -- who believe that Jim Prentice should be the next Conservative Leader and Prime Minister of Canada. We will be staying anonymous as we recognize that our position might not be popular right now. But, we think it is still the right thing to do.”

On Saturday, the blog published a post titled “Why Now” that laid out the group’s reason for withdrawing support for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and throwing it to Prentice. As the prospect of a coalition government ousting the Conservatives looms, says the post, “we believe the Conservative Party has no one to blame but itself. Scrapping public welfare for political parties was the right thing to do, but Stephen Harper made a mistake and underestimated the opposition parties.”

If that mistake leads to Tories losing power, “we cannot keep Harper on through another term. We have failed to get a majority government on his watch. And now his mistake could make Stephane Dion the next prime minister, every Conservative's worst nightmare.”

The post goes on to say that Harper “has been a good and capable leader” but “the problem is that there is something keeping more Canadians from supporting him” including some of Harper’s past statements denigrating Canada.

“We believe that Jim Prentice has none of these handicaps and would perform better at connecting with the average Canadian.”

A more recent post on the site Monday morning is headlined “Prentice reaches out to environment critics” and states “If the government had acted more like this while still advancing the Conservative agenda in a less aggressive way, we might not be staring into the abyss!”

David Beers is editor of The Tyee. Tyee contributing editor Charles Campbell tipped off the Hook on this one.