National Network for Equitable Library Service

Politician and political scientist Ted Morton shares an insider's view of Alberta Politics in this illuminating autobiography. Ted Morton has spent a lifetime in Alberta politics. Elected as a Reform Party senator-in-waiting in the 1998 Alberta Senate election, he was appointed Parliamentary Director of Policy and Research by Stockwell Day in 2001. He represented Foothills-Rocky View in the Legislative Assembly as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party from 2004 to 2012 and served as Minister of Finance, Minister of Energy, and Alberta Minister of Sustainable Resources. In 2006, Morton ran as a candidate for the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives to replace Ralph Klein, a campaign that very nearly succeeded. In Strong and Free, Ted Morton shares his journey and the lessons learned from years of struggle, success, disappointment, and change. Informed by his experience as professor of political science, Morton recounts his early involvement with Preston Manning, his friendship with Stephen Harper, and the infamous Alberta Agenda or Firewall Letter of 2001. He explains how the Progressive Conservative Party's flawed leadership selection process eroded party support, and how the PC's refusal to acknowledge and accommodate the growth of Albertans' support for the federal Reform Party led to vote splitting with the Wild Rose Party and the end of the PC dynasty in 2015. Openly discussing his conservative ideological principles and goals, Morton provides a record of thirty years of Alberta politics as seen from the inside by someone who reached for the top--and almost made it. Strong and Free argues that an independent, prosperous Alberta makes a strong and prosperous Canada. Ted Morton has spent thirty years fighting for both.