-Rob Breakenridge, Calgary Sun

The six people running for leadership of the Tories may not agree with me, but they owe a debt to the Wildrose Party. Voters do too.

With just five days left until first-ballot votes are tallied to see who gets the privilege of cleaning up the mess left by Ed Stelmach, more people are paying attention to the race, and what the candidates are saying about where they want to steer the ship Lougheed built.

And for that, we have to thank Danielle Smith and her ragtag team of small-c conservatives, who likely used to be big-P, big-C Progressive Conservatives.

Without the threat from another right-wing party, led by someone far more 2011 than Ed Stelmach, we wouldn’t have had the resignation of the premier to begin with, or a leadership race that has people talking about revitalizing a 40-year-old brand, more so than in the 2006 race.

This time around, we have a province burning through its savings to cover deficits, facing potential crises on some of its key files, and an opposition party that has been able to rouse potential voters from the slumber of Tory electoral monopolies.

It goes without saying the results of this weekend are important for the future of the PC party. And there is no doubt that the Wildrose has had an impact on how each of the six candidates have presented themselves.

Fiscally prudent, defenders of public healthcare, but willing to explore some private options, heroes to land-owners, staunch supporters of open and transparent government — all of these are among policy areas the Wildrose party has staked claim.

But you’re also hearing it from the Tory candidates. To varying degrees, the six contenders are trying to reclaim territory the Wildrose has taken root in.

For one of the candidates, Ted Morton, he has admitted in the past that save for a couple of differences, his policies and the policies of the Wildrose are not that different.

He even urged the disaffected Tories now backing Smith’s crew to come back to the Tory mothership, lest vote splitting on the right lead to dire consequences.

Now, when pressed at a recent Sun editorial board meeting, he couldn’t quite pinpoint who would be the benefactor of this vote splitting.

But he did blame federal Liberal governments, and NDP governments in Saskatchewan, as the result of vote-splitting on the right.

So the right in Alberta needs to be united, just as their federal cousins did, to end this threat from the left.

But sadly, judging by the shaky Liberal leadership contest, and their own existential crisis, the scant NDP caucus, and an Alberta Party movement that has so far failed to live up to its billing, the only party really set to benefit from Tory weakness is the Wildrose.

What Morton fails to recall, or chooses to ignore, is that the mere reunification of the right didn’t lead to electoral victory.

The right split because of dissatisfaction with the ruling party. Some prominent Quebec Tories left to form the Bloc Quebecois, and their Western counterparts, upset over how this region had been treated, among other beefs, formed the Reform Party.

And to reconcile various factions on the right took a great deal of effort in figuring out what it was to be conservative in this country.

It also took the West taking the lead and, eventually, becoming the more dominant conservative force, before the right reunited.

With the blossoming of the Wildrose, and the inevitable race to replace Ed Stelmach, we’re having the conversation about conservative politics in Alberta.

And with a party that’s been in power for 40 years, it’s needed now more than ever.