Premier Redford’s decision to resign showed
common sense. There was no way should survive the coming onslaught from the
Progressive Conservative Party’s own leadership – the rank and file and the
constituency associations. The Presidents of these associations were about to
meet as she resigned to ask her to do just that.
While she was a flawed leader (see here
for why), the real issue facing the Progressive Conservative party is not
leadership, but purpose. Why do they exist and why should they expect the
people of Alberta to continue to support them after forty three years in power?
The Premier gave emphasis to the word
“progressive” in her resignation speech. She did so for a reason. Alberta is a
very liberal and progressive Province and becoming more so. It values equality
of opportunity, fairness, transparency and outcome based investment by
government. It does not value elites, favouritism, privilege and policies which
ensure that the rich get richer, the middle class get poorer and the poor
remain poor. If anything, Alberta is the engine of progressive thinking in
Canada, despite the views of the young Trudeau.
A true progressive conservative party would
now increase taxes and revenues to pay for better education, better health
care, more support for those in need. It would systematically attack poverty,
homelessness and growing youth unemployment. It would focus on enhancing access
to skills development and opportunities for lifelong learning and would invest
in the infrastructure of the Province. If this takes managed debt, so be it. If
this takes increase royalty payments from oil and gas, so be it. Changing the
mind set about taxes so as to achieve social benefits which increase the
opportunities for wealth creation should be the cornerstone of progressive
politics.
Another critical component of such a
progressive approach would be to seek genuine and meaningful partnership with
those who can make public services work and perform – public servants, doctors,
nurses, teachers, teaching assistants, social workers. The present government
has systematically and deliberately alienated exactly these workers – the very
people who ensured their election two years ago. They have attacked them, their
rights and their pensions. Its time to stop and to look for a re-engagement of
civic leadership and public sector employers in the work of building the
Alberta the world needs to see.
I know that this sounds like a liberal
agenda, but few in Alberta will vote Liberal while Raj Sherman is leading. Even
fewer will vote NDP while Brian Mason leads – his “use by” date is long past.
Sadly, the Alberta Party is yet to make headway, though if ever there were a
time for it to start to step up to the plate it is now.
What happens next for the PC Party will
tell us everything we need to know. Clearly there will be some interim
arrangements while the party discovers its next leader. Pay some but not much
attention to this. If all of the leadership candidates are from the existing
front bench then the party is dead at the next election. What it truly needs is
a fresh leadership face – someone who will be a “game changer”. Anyone within the cabinet ranks right now has
too many bodies buried and too many debts to pay. A new broom can truly sweep
clean.
Stephen Mandel, former Mayor of Edmonton,
is the kind of person we may need. Some tell me he is a liberal – so was Ralph
Klein. Some tell me he is too old. He is younger than Ronald Reagan was when he
won the Presidency of the United States. He is a skilled, collaborative
politician with a record of getting things done. He knows how to engage and broker alliances
and he has the patience to see the long-game – just look at the Rogers Arena.
Rona Ambrose, Federal Minister of Health
and Vice Chair of Treasury Board and MP for Edmonton-Spruce Grove, is another
possibility. True, she is a tried and tested and familiar politician. But she
would be a fresh face to Alberta Provincial politics and brings a wealth of
experience to local politics from surviving goodness knows how many shuffles,
debacles and midnight coups in the federal domain. A smart, articulate and
skilled politician, she would bring new blood to the game.
The last person the party needs is one of
the current front bench. The leadership of the party should be systematically
looking outside the party elite to change the game and wrong-foot the Wildrose
Party. They should rethink their policy
position and not fall back on mantra’s that were appropriate for the 80’s and
90’s of the last century. A 21st Century Progressive Conservative
Party with new leadership and fresh thinking could do very well.
Lets just take a small bet: none of what
needs to happen will happen. We will get more of the same and have a wild ride
election sooner rather than later.
Welcome to the red zone and “mind the gap”,
as they say on the London underground.
There is
gaping hole – the PC Party could leap across and show its imaginative
side or could ensure that the hole becomes a sink hole.
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