After 44 days, Liz Truss steps off the 'Glass Cliff' making her the fourth Conservative prime minister of the UK in six years to leave office..Her term will earn Truss the title as the UK's shortest serving prime minister, ever. She will also have held the shortest term among all women heads of government.. Danielle Smith AGM 22 Oct 2022Danielle Smith, pictured at the United Conservative Party annual general meeting, October 22, 2022. .In our own Canadian backyard, parallels with women leaders who bump their heads on the political glass ceiling seemingly unable to make it beyond a single term can also be found. Kim Campbell comes to mind, Canada’s only female prime minister. During 1993, she served a mere 132 days as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. And as far as women first ministers go, we are accumulating a longer and longer list of flash-in-the-pan provincial premiers..There have been 15 female premiers across the country since 1991. We seem to rinse and repeat electing women to the premier’s office and then they fumble, stumble and tumble out of public life before earning a mandate to serve beyond one term..Not once in the history of Canadian provincial or federal politics has a woman earned a re-election to form government. Christy Clarke came the closest in 2017, but lost a confidence vote preventing the BC Liberals from forming government. In Alberta, Conservatives should ask: what did she do wrong, or perhaps, what did she do right to almost carry the ball across the line.. Christine Cusanelli .Somewhere in the answer to these questions may very well be the silver bullet for Premier Smith to build a strong enough foundation and become the first woman in Canadian politics to form government a second time. This may sound premature to strategize for a moment in time that's many years away. However, as a woman who understands the swords and daggers of being a female politician, I know what the thud that awaits many of us off the edge of that proverbial glass cliff feels like..I would like to see Smith become the first woman to do this. She captured my imagination after making a comeback from political death. It was clear to me as I watched her gain momentum during the leadership race that she was laser focused on what it takes to win. She earned enough trust to be given a second chance. This feat alone garnered my respect and should be seen for what it is — she took responsibility for mistakes of the past and provided a provocative vision for Alberta’s future. She can’t be accused of being out of touch. After all, her provocativeness often led to her stumbling on her own tongue for sharing a thought that is perhaps not quite varnished yet..Conservatives might well keep in check our survival of the fittest mentality and focus our efforts towards standing behind our newest leader. She will need a collective force to win a general election with so little runway ahead of us. There is no time for divisiveness or to get carelessly snagged on wedge issues. To the victor belong the spoils, and between Notley and Smith both are evenly poised to collect..Two things are needed to bolster Conservative chances of forming government next spring..First, to recognize the traits of female leadership and, like we did in the leadership race, show support for women who are not afraid to make mistakes. As a woman, it’s damn hard swimming in the political shark tank and we don’t often get second chances. Smith earned hers..Second, we can no longer afford to squander away our solidarity. No one is giving away votes. As those who have lost an election by only a handful know, every vote counts. If we splinter our party, thinking we aren’t right-wing enough or moderate enough, we may find ourselves adding our new leader to that growing list of women first ministers who're edged out before they’ve even had a chance to form a solid foundation..At the end of the day, it’s not really about gender bias, and it’s not really about where you sit on the spectrum of Conservative politics..It’s about common sense..Former MLA Christine Cusanelli is a Calgary-based government relations consultant. Between 2012 and 2015, she represented the Calgary-Currie constituency.
After 44 days, Liz Truss steps off the 'Glass Cliff' making her the fourth Conservative prime minister of the UK in six years to leave office..Her term will earn Truss the title as the UK's shortest serving prime minister, ever. She will also have held the shortest term among all women heads of government.. Danielle Smith AGM 22 Oct 2022Danielle Smith, pictured at the United Conservative Party annual general meeting, October 22, 2022. .In our own Canadian backyard, parallels with women leaders who bump their heads on the political glass ceiling seemingly unable to make it beyond a single term can also be found. Kim Campbell comes to mind, Canada’s only female prime minister. During 1993, she served a mere 132 days as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. And as far as women first ministers go, we are accumulating a longer and longer list of flash-in-the-pan provincial premiers..There have been 15 female premiers across the country since 1991. We seem to rinse and repeat electing women to the premier’s office and then they fumble, stumble and tumble out of public life before earning a mandate to serve beyond one term..Not once in the history of Canadian provincial or federal politics has a woman earned a re-election to form government. Christy Clarke came the closest in 2017, but lost a confidence vote preventing the BC Liberals from forming government. In Alberta, Conservatives should ask: what did she do wrong, or perhaps, what did she do right to almost carry the ball across the line.. Christine Cusanelli .Somewhere in the answer to these questions may very well be the silver bullet for Premier Smith to build a strong enough foundation and become the first woman in Canadian politics to form government a second time. This may sound premature to strategize for a moment in time that's many years away. However, as a woman who understands the swords and daggers of being a female politician, I know what the thud that awaits many of us off the edge of that proverbial glass cliff feels like..I would like to see Smith become the first woman to do this. She captured my imagination after making a comeback from political death. It was clear to me as I watched her gain momentum during the leadership race that she was laser focused on what it takes to win. She earned enough trust to be given a second chance. This feat alone garnered my respect and should be seen for what it is — she took responsibility for mistakes of the past and provided a provocative vision for Alberta’s future. She can’t be accused of being out of touch. After all, her provocativeness often led to her stumbling on her own tongue for sharing a thought that is perhaps not quite varnished yet..Conservatives might well keep in check our survival of the fittest mentality and focus our efforts towards standing behind our newest leader. She will need a collective force to win a general election with so little runway ahead of us. There is no time for divisiveness or to get carelessly snagged on wedge issues. To the victor belong the spoils, and between Notley and Smith both are evenly poised to collect..Two things are needed to bolster Conservative chances of forming government next spring..First, to recognize the traits of female leadership and, like we did in the leadership race, show support for women who are not afraid to make mistakes. As a woman, it’s damn hard swimming in the political shark tank and we don’t often get second chances. Smith earned hers..Second, we can no longer afford to squander away our solidarity. No one is giving away votes. As those who have lost an election by only a handful know, every vote counts. If we splinter our party, thinking we aren’t right-wing enough or moderate enough, we may find ourselves adding our new leader to that growing list of women first ministers who're edged out before they’ve even had a chance to form a solid foundation..At the end of the day, it’s not really about gender bias, and it’s not really about where you sit on the spectrum of Conservative politics..It’s about common sense..Former MLA Christine Cusanelli is a Calgary-based government relations consultant. Between 2012 and 2015, she represented the Calgary-Currie constituency.
