The 2010 Spring session of the Alberta Legislature wrapped up yesterday with little fanfare. Ending a month and a half earlier than the increasingly pointless Legislative calendar had scheduled, Premier Ed Stelmach‘s PCs seemed happy to cut short one of their roughest sessions in decades. Here are some thoughts on how each of the parties fared during the 2010 Spring session:
Progressive Conservatives
Entering their 39th year in office, the Progressive Conservatives caucus appeared to list from left to right and back again during this session. The massive cuts expected in the 2010 budget never emerged (and the cuts that did take place were largely overshadowed by funding to health care and education). Their flagship bill, the Competitiveness Act, is already becoming largely forgotten in the minds of most political watchers and did not have the public splash impact that was likely intended.
The PCs faced criticism over sending junkets of Cabinet Ministers to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games while the Assembly was in session to hobnob with international business leaders on the Alberta Olympic Train. The PCs also made changes that lowered the amount of resource royalties collected by the provincial government, effectively undoing in one day the long process of industry consultation, economic study, and public relations that they had undertaken prior to the 2008 election.
Their political machinery is still well-financed, but the PC Party leadership appears disconnected from mainstream Albertans. Premier Stelmach’s weak public speaking skills were crutched by some of the cabinet ministers who were shuffled into new positions in February and have made an impact this Spring. Most notably, Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky, Labour Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, Finance Minister Ted Morton, Housing Minister Jonathan Denis, and Solicitor General Municipal Affairs Minister Hector Goudreau have performed fairly well in their new roles. In the Health Care file, Minister Zwozdesky appears to have spent much of the past three months travelling the province attempting to extinguish the fires set by his predecessor (now -Energy Minister Ron Liepert). While his style has brought a much friendlier tone to his position, there are still remains unanswered questions around issues ranging from seniors’ pharmacare to the future of Alberta Hospital Edmonton.
As criticisms have increased from outside the Legislature, it appears that a few PC backbenchers are increasingly unwilling to read the puff-ball questions that they regularly line up for. Whitecourt-Ste. Anne MLA George VanderBurg, Lesser Slave Lake MLA Pearl Calahasen, and Grande Prairie-Wapiti MLA Wayne Drysdale have asked some pretty tough questions and have noticeably got under the skin of some cabinet ministers during Question Period.
Premier Stelmach and his cabinet ministers will undertake a province-wide tour over the summer to talk with Albertans (and try to win back the hearts and minds of PC supporters who have flocked to the Wildrose Alliance). The optimist in me hopes that the tour will actually be effective in reconnecting our elected government officials with Albertans.
Liberals
With the exception of Health critic Kevin Taft and Calgary International Airport-tunnel advocate Darshan Kang, the Official Opposition Liberals struggled to focus during this session. David Swann‘s rag-tag Liberal caucus gained some attention after releasing a new oil and gas policy, but have had a difficult time finding a role in the new and increasingly dominant political narrative being developed between the PCs and the Wildrose Alliance.
The very public departure of Calgary-Currie MLA Dave Taylor and his verbal lashing of Dr. Swann in the media seemed to be the most memorable moment for the Liberals during this session, though internally, they are probably better off without Mr. Taylor. The Liberals won a reprieve from negative attention when a motion by backbench PC MLA Verlyn Olson temporarily removed the independence of Public Accounts Committee chairman Hugh MacDonald. While I believe Dr. Swann’s performance actually improved after Mr. Taylor’s departure, similar to their federal counterparts, the provincial Liberals biggest weakness is their focus on daily tactics, rather than long-term strategy to form government.
Wildrose Alliance
With the addition of former PC MLAs Rob Anderson and Heather Forsyth, the WRA caucus was boosted to third-party status for the first time. Ms. Forsyth’s Mandatory Reporting of Child Pornography bill was passed on third reading (I cannot remember any time that an opposition MLAs private members bill was passed into legislation). The Wildrose Alliance was faced with the challenge of not becoming the NDP of the right and have been strategic in what issues they chose to focus on (ie: opposing the centralization of regional health authorities into Alberta Health Services).
With three MLAs in the Assembly, seatless leader Danielle Smith has spent the majority of her time during this session criss-crossing the province, speaking to town hall meetings, trade shows, chambers of commerce, and anyone interested in meeting with the newly anointed Dauphine of Alberta politics (a very smart decision in my mind).
New Democrats
The NDP caucus of Brian Mason and Rachel Notley did what they do well this session: get media attention. Rather than striking out on their own when their position in the Question Period line-up was in jeopardy, they joined with the Liberals and Wildrose Alliance at the press gallery podium to present a united front against this change. On the policy front, the NDP released a report on Health Care that was generated after a series of town hall meetings.
Outside the Legislature, the NDP appear to be stalled in the polls and have not been able to capitalize on the destabilization inside the Liberal Party. At their 2009 convention, Nova Scotia NDP organizer Matt Hebb advised his Alberta cousins to build a bigger tent of supporters and to act like a party of government by taking a pragmatic and constructive approach to politics. “Act like a party of government, don’t talk about it,” was Mr. Hebb’s message. Judging by the daily outrage and ankle bitting during Question Period, it does not appear that the two MLAs have heeded Mr. Hebb’s advice.
Independents
Independent MLAs Guy Boutilier and Dave Taylor now share the lonely northwest corner of the Assembly floor. It was suspected that Mr. Boutilier might join the Wildrose Alliance caucus (his 2008 campaign manager has joined the WRA), but he may be too much of a wildcard for a party that is riding high in the polls and posturing to form the next government. More recently, there have been rumors floating that Mr. Taylor would like to acquire the leadership of the newly reorganized Alberta Party and reshape it into his own image (knowing the people involved in the Alberta Party, this might not be a welcoming prospect).
Floor-crossings
Since the 2008 election, five of 83 MLAs have forced the changing of seating arrangements on the Assembly floor. There has not been this much movement across the Assembly floor between elections since the early 1990s, which saw some significant Liberal by-election victories, a New Democrat cross to the PCs, a PC leave to sit as an Independent, and a handful of right-leaning Liberals cross to the PCs. It is also the first time since 1989 that an opposition party other than the Liberals or NDP have had more than one MLA in the Assembly (the Representative Party elected two former Social Credit MLAs in 1986).
Press Gallery
This was the final session for long-time Canadian Press reporter Jim MacDonald, who will be retiring from his role in May. After 27 years working for Canadian Press, Mr. MacDonald has become an institution in the Press Gallery. During my time as a spokesperson for the Council of Alberta University Students from 2006 to 2007, Mr. MacDonald was always the most nerve-racking reporter in a media scrum – always asking the toughest questions and not taking spin for an answer. He will be missed.
On a final note, I feel the need to recognize Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid, who is normally a very good columnist, but during this spring session has written some excellent columns about politics in Alberta.
7 replies on “spring session of the alberta legislature cut short.”
This is a good summary of the spring legisative session. However, in my view, the confusion on the health care file is the most important emerging issue. Do the Tories have the guts to stick with their privatization plans?
Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky must execute a deeply flawed initiative that has come off the rails. And yet the government seems to be “going forward” with changes to health care law in the fall.
At first blush, the Alberta Health Act looks like a way for private insurance companies to sell first class-second class-economy class tickets to the health care you need for individuals and families. Also, a way for some doctors to double dip.
We have laws against these destructive practises. Lets hope the government has the sense to not change the law to force the public to pay more, and get a whole lot less.
Mr. Stelmach: Re-enforce the good legislation in Alberta which actually makes the Alberta Law better than the Canada Health Act. Resist the temptation to head to the gutter!
Good summary, Dave. I think I see why you moved to the new website: the article and pictures look good.
Keep us posted on the summer tours?
You’re kidding about Braid right?
The one good thing that the PC’s have done is move to one health board. This saves a lot in administration costs. Paul Hinman and the Wildrose is WAY WAY out to lunch here.
I will make no further comments on this website.
The comment at 10:19 am is not made by me.
Any comments that appear on here regardless whether this person decides to add the links will not be made by myself. I have read your page for quite some time Dave and I will continue to do so but I will not make any comments, so any you see from this point forward will be for the purpose of causing trouble and should not be associated with me. If I chose to make any commenst I will do so under my real name. If anyone choses to contact me do so by e-mail at stopthepcs@hotmail.com
All the best Dave,
Joe Albertan.
The last comment was made by the person who has hacked into my account. It is not Joe Albertan and is just made for the purposes of confusion and causing trouble.
Could you please clarify your comment about ‘Sore Loser’ Taylor? I’m not enough of a political junkie to decipher “knowing the people involved in the Alberta Party, this might not be a welcoming prospect.” Please name ‘the people’ and did you mean ‘welcome’ and for whom – the AP, SLT, or the unwashed masses? Thanks for all your efforts to enlighten us!
With respect to Don Braid, I agree with you, with one exception that I can recall: he, along with Don Martin, swallowed whole ‘Firewall” Morton’s malarkey on equalization ( I hope that you weren’t also taken in!). The following is the body of a letter I sent to the Herald that didn’t get printed:
You’ve got to hand it to Ted “Firewall” Morton: within eight days he’s gotten sympathetic ink from two veteran Herald columnists to his campaign to make equalization the main reason for Alberta’s current financial pickle!
Both Dons mention that Albertans now receive less provincial government services than most other Canadians. So much for the Alberta Advantage! Equalization has played a part in Alberta’s financial situation, but the main problem has been the refusal of successive Conservative governments to collect taxes to fund services, relying instead on revenues from the development and production of our non-renewable resources (our “capital”). To date, much of our capital has been squandered, instead of saving it to replace the income from the non-renewable resources when they’re gone. Now we’re even racking up debt big-time, so that our children and their children, in addition to coping with a bare resources cupboard, will have to pay interest on the provincial debt.
When the feds vacated two points of GST recently, if the Alberta Conservative government had been thinking strategically and not bound by ideological constraints, it could have quite painlessly introduced a 3% HST and still handily won the last election. Now the Wildrose Alliance is nipping at it’s heels with it’s lean and mean agenda and the Conservatives have lost any flexibility in that direction. In addition, Ed Stelmach inserted his foot in his mouth and said “no tax increases.”
Maybe its not too much to hope that voters in the next election will consider a university education as one of the criteria when choosing where to put their X. It’s no guarantee of common sense, but at least one can expect that the candidate has been exposed to a class or two in Political Science.