The ongoing Bill 44 saga has been amazing to watch.
As a party with the legislative numbers to have easily rammed through this Bill while the Opposition parties and the media were distracted by the outbreak of the Swine Flu/H1N1 virus, it seems that Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives have emerged with a no-win political situation.
Even if the controversial amendments are amended, the essence of the original amendment — a compromise to the social conservatives MLAs in the PC caucus — is now being compromised because of opposition from outside the Legislature and notably by one of the groups most loathed by the hard-core conservatives: the Alberta Teachers’ Association.
While the sheer number of PC MLAs in the Assembly will ensure that a version of Bill 44 will become law, this Legislative roller coaster of the past month has raised questions about the cohesiveness of the PC caucus, and has saddled its two arguably most progressive Cabinet Ministers — Dave Hancock and Lindsay Blackett — with some controversial and undesirable political baggage.
