merger with the Liberals? - the case in favour

I have an Alberta Liberal brochure in front of me that says

... a tired PC government is spending more than ever before.... We would build the Heritage Fund to reduce our reliance on oil and gas revenues, and carefully manage future development to preserve a healthy and diverse natural environment.... Businesses can't find enough workers, and have trouble keeping the workers they do hire.... Government spending is at an all-time high, even as energy revenues are dropping - and little has been saved for our future.

Elsewhere, the Alberta Liberals indicate that they support fixed election dates and a variety of other reforms.

Unlike the NDP, Liberals at both the provincial and federal levels are not necessarily anti-business.

Many cornflake conservatives make something of a past-time out of mocking "latte liberals". According the Times of London, an Obama supporter is a typical "latte liberal":

These are the people for whom Starbucks, with its $5 cups of coffee and fancy bakeries, is not just a consumer choice but a lifestyle. They not only have the money. They share the values. They live by all those little quotes on the side of Starbucks cups about community service and global warming.

As someone who lived in Paris' cinquieme arrondissement for few months, nibbled on biscotti in Italian cafes, and smoked the sheesha in London's Cafe Cairo, I don't exactly see just what the problem is with being upscale, urban, and cosmopolitan.

Calgary executives and Edmonton grad students arguably have more in common with most Liberals lifestyle-wise than with Steady Eddie Stalemach. Regardless of who Paul Hinman is himself, the guys who prepped him and ran the spin on the Wildrose Alliance platform were a couple of young urban international professionals, unlike the ancient, out-of-ideas "brain"trust behind Stelmach.

In addition to a bit of raffinement, a merger with the Alberta Liberals could potentially give Wildrosers access to money, non-defunct constituency associations, and candidates who have gotten their name in the paper for something other than getting into an "altercation" at a gay pride parade. Everything we didn't get from the Alberta Alliance, in other words.

Professional economists are already on side with the Wildrose Alliance, and not with Ed "22% interest rates" Stelmach. A merger with the Liberals would bring the rest of the intellectuals on board in a new "Libertarian Party". Such a party could actually win.