Look to the left to make Alberta politics right

Back in 2012, after the Tories dunked the Wildrose into the political lake of fire, it sure looked like the very next election after that was going to see Danielle Smith become premier of Alberta.

Thankfully, with her ignominious self- immolation on the altar of betrayal, and subsequent departure from politics, that is never going to happen. The expected Wildrose re- group after 2012 turned instead into a de- group last December, and the rest is history, along with Smith herself.

Instead, an interesting and most welcome prospect looms on Alberta’s electoral horizon — the resurgence of the left. A Mainstreet Technologies poll of 3,000 Albertans, whose results were published in the Herald April 1, showed that in Edmonton, the NDP’s support stands at 35 per cent among decided voters, with the Wildrose at only 14 per cent. The PCs are at just 13 per cent, the Liberals at 12.

I’m from Manitoba, where the voters typically give the Conservatives a couple of terms in office, then hand the reins to the NDP for the next few terms, then switch back to the Conservatives. Manitoba voters get tired of one party being in power too long. Unfortunately, this sort of thing doesn’t happen in Alberta, where the Tories have been in unbroken power for 44 years.

Which begs the question a gentleman asks in a letter to the editor on these pages: Why are Albertans so fearful of electing a different party? The sky hasn’t fallen in other western provinces where this has happened.

The odd thing is that Albertans grumble and grouse bitterly about whatever it is the Tories are doing, make dire, if vague, threats to unseat them in the next election, and then trot to the polls and dutifully vote them back in.

Whereupon the grumbling, grousing and bitterness among the electorate starts all over.

It’s a puzzling phenomenon. Few people are naive enough to believe it won’t repeat itself this time. However, things could be very different on the opposition benches after the May 5 election. It is early days still, but if the momentum holds, the NDP could form the official Opposition in the new government.

The Wildrose formed a healthy Opposition last time around, but it had its shortcomings. The Wildrose did an excellent job digging up dirt, exposing wasteful spending and the like. That’s obviously a very necessary part of being the official Opposition, and the Wildrose performed superlatively.

However, the Wildrose wasn’t inclined to hold the government to account on fiscal and other issues which the right wing generally agrees upon.

And its socially conservative opposition to progressive policies on things like gaystraight alliances and climate change was ineffectively reactionary, if not downright risible.

If election- day numbers boost the NDP into official Opposition status — and given Leader Rachel Notley’s integrity and lack of taint from scandals and lesser shenanigans, they might — things will look quite different.

There is no doubt the NDP would do the usual Opposition work of exposing waste and mismanagement in government; they’ve done some of that already. But they would also hold the PCs’ feet to the fire on such things as health, education, environment and the truth about man- made climate change.

With an NDP official Opposition in place, the government would finally be forced to act on things like sprinklers for long- term care homes, farm workers’ labour rights, and treating young offenders as more than just widgets to be warehoused far from home.

An NDP Opposition might force the government to call an independent inquiry into the clusters of rare cancers at Fort Chipewyan, downstream from the oilsands on the Athabasca River. We might even see a better balance between drilling leases and protecting endangered caribou herds.

A right- wing government does not need an Opposition that is farther to the right. Good government under a right- wing party requires a left- wing Opposition to, among other things, put the brakes on regressive stances, speak up for the marginalized and protect the environment.