With all the uproar over the Edmonton Oilers’ run for the Stanley Cup this spring, another contest in Alberta drifted into the media background, almost into invisibility. The Progressive Conservative dynasty that has governed Alberta for 35 years is looking for a new leader to replace Premier Ralph Klein.

And who wouldn’t want to run a province that’s prosperous, debt-free and sitting atop the largest untapped source of oil on the planet? Klein was in little hurry to vacate the premier’s office, planning a leisurely cruise into retirement. But his party had other ideas. In April, the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta effectively fired a leader who had won a fourth consecutive majority in November 2004.

This may seem goofy to Canadians outside Alberta, but you have to put it into the context of the province’s lopsided political dynamic. There is an elected Opposition, but it doesn’t count for much. The last time an Opposition party came remotely close to challenging for power was in 1993, when the provincial Liberals seemed to have a better understanding of the financial crisis facing Alberta, which was then running Canada’s largest per-capita provincial deficit.

But the Klein Tories hijacked the Liberal fiscal plan and never looked back. That was until the 2004 election, when some 300,000 Conservative voters stayed home and the Liberals, with almost no additional votes, managed to take a majority of seats in Edmonton — and even three seats in deep-blue Calgary.

Elsewhere in Canada, this would have been a minor setback, but a lot of Alberta Conservatives thought Klein had run a subpar campaign and offered no vision for using the current boom to secure the province’s future prosperity. Despite his promise to do better, the Tory rank-and-file decided they didn’t want to wait two years for new leadership.

Klein’s heir apparent has long been former provincial finance minister Jim Dinning, a smooth Calgarian who has been out of active politics for almost a decade. He has been viewed as the front-runner because, for a long time, he was the only guy in the race.

Reform Party founder and former federal Opposition leader Preston Manning had moved to launch his leadership campaign. Manning has no history with Alberta’s Tories, and his leadership would have amounted to a hostile takeover. After an abortive attempt to raise money and support, he said he’d had second thoughts.

This didn’t leave much of a field to challenge Dinning. Farmer Ed Stelmach and lawyer Dave Hancock — Klein cabinet ministers until launching their campaigns — are well respected but underwhelming. Tory backbencher Ted Morton, a University of Calgary political science professor, is the darling of the right but scares his middle-of-the-road colleagues.

Lyle Oberg, a medical doctor and Klein cabinet minister, was thrown out of the Tory caucus for remarks about being the premier’s “worst nightmare” if his boss didn’t get a move on toward retirement. He’s still in the race but is a dead man walking.

That leaves another former Klein minister, Edmonton businessman Mark Norris. At age 43, the youngest contender is brimming with ideas and energy, and has quietly assembled an organization and war chest to match Dinning’s. He doesn’t yet have the former finance minister’s profile, but his supporters have the enthusiasm of die-hard Oiler fans — which should be no surprise, considering his biggest backer is Oiler president Cal Nichols.

Klein is scheduled to submit his resignation in September, triggering a three-month leadership campaign that will come down to a fight between the candidates with the deepest pockets — Dinning and Norris. At stake is the chance to lead the most prosperous jurisdiction in North America into a dazzling future. IE