On March 3, 2008, less than 40% of Albertans ventured into the March cold to exercise their democratic responsibility, and a full year later the debate around that election still rages.
There are likely many reasons why the large majority of Albertans failed to cast their ballot on that day, but one that continually arises in conversations is cynicism. It’s hard to argue that any of our political parties gave Albertans a compelling reason to race to the polls in droves a year ago, and I don’t believe that much has changed a year later.
Entering the second year of Ed Stelmach‘s first term as Premier, our province is facing many challenges. No longer rolling in the billion dollar surpluses that we had been told were thanks to the now dead Alberta Advantage, Finance Minister Iris Evans now tells us that this year’s $1.4 billion deficit is ‘market induced‘ (and not the fault of a political party which has been happy to take credit for Alberta’s fiscal prosperity over the past decade).
Should Albertans blame the Stelmach PCs for the economic downturn? Of course not, because it’s not their fault, but nor should Albertans praise them for the (also market induced) boom.
In their March 2009 edition, National Geographic shined a powerful international spotlight on Alberta’s oilsands, dealing an unintentional blow to the yet to be launched replacement for the Alberta Advantage. The $25 million taxpayer-funded public relations campaign is set to brand Albertans with a new identity by combating international criticism of the oilsands. Do Albertans really need government-hired public relations consultants to determine our identity? Albertans are more than just a brand, and our identity will be determined by our actions, not by government-hired public relations consultants.
The death of the Alberta Advantage has led the Progressive Conservatives to once again return to the realm of budget deficits, and as the government cuts important programs like the $2 billion GreenTRIP funding for public transit in our cities, they are continuing to funnel $2 billion into a Carbon Capture and Storage project.
It wasn’t that long ago that the governing PCs would claim and shame the opposition parties for wanting to spend Alberta back into a deficit. Now faced with a billion dollar deficit, the same PCs are willing to push aside 15 years of fiscal dogma to continue spending billions of dollars on an unproven technology, that if developed would put Alberta at the forefront of collecting yesterday’s dirty pollution, while the rest of the world focuses on tomorrow’s new and renewable energy.
Maybe Albertans are right to be cynical?
