Rob Anders with Stephen Harper

Can this really be the end of the road for Rob Anders, the malignantly comedic clown princeling of Alberta politics?

So it would seem, but so it has seemed before.

At any rate, another door has slammed shut on the continuing attempt by the man known as “Canada’s Worst MP,” the nine-term Conservative Party standard bearer in Calgary West.

The Globe and Mail reported yesterday that even the foundering remnant of the Wildrose Party has declined Anders’ candidacy for its leadership, an opening created by the defection of former leader Danielle Smith and 10 others to the ruling PC caucus late last year, citing a rule that would-be leaders must have been members for six months.

Since there’s apparently a waiver available for non-member candidates that the flagging former future government of Alberta would like to see at its tiller, this means that even a fringe party at death’s door is rejecting the man who called South African hero Nelson Mandela a terrorist and accused NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair of causing the death of Jack Layton.

Since his federal riding was redistributed away from him last year, Anders, 42, who like Smith was born on April Fool’s Day, has been rejected by the Conservative riding members in Calgary Signal Hill, a new federal riding near his old one, those of Bow River, a new rural riding east of Calgary, and now the stewards of the Wildrose Party.

There seems to have no help for him from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who used to talk like he was Anders’ patron.

Just yesterday, the Globe said, Mr. Anders publicly advised Alberta Premier Jim Prentice, a Progressive Conservative, to make and unequivocal commitment to never raising taxes. “The First Law of Holes is, stop digging,” Mr. Anders advised the premier.

Actually, not digging any more holes might not be bad advice for the MP himself as his long run in Parliament thankfully nears its end.

Otherwise, this is going to get embarrassing, then downright pathetic.

Anders, whose official campaign website has disappeared and been replaced by an ad for an environmental cleanup company, can collect his full Parliamentary pension in 13 years.

The Wildrose Party has scheduled the culmination of its leadership search for June 6. Unfortunately for them, D-Day may arrive well after the next Alberta general election is all over but the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

This post also appears on David Climenhaga’s blog, AlbertaPolitics.ca.

David J. Climenhaga

David J. Climenhaga

David Climenhaga is a journalist and trade union communicator who has worked in senior writing and editing positions with the Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald. He left journalism after the strike...