DOWNFALL BY SOCIAL MEDIA
New MLA Deborah Drever paid the price Friday after yet another inappropriate image was circulated from one of her social media accounts forcing the NDP to suspend her.
Most governments save their embarrassments until they actually are the government. But there was Rachel Notley’s NDP on Friday, apologizing for two major bloopers within a couple of hours, two days before she’s even sworn in as premier.
If this is a foretaste of what’s coming with the NDP, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
First, Notley finally punted Calgary-Bow MLA Deborah Drever, whose Internet indiscretions appear to run deep and wide. The latest was an Instagram post with scribbles on a photo of ex-premier Jim Prentice and Ric McIver, the PC’s interim leader.
Notley handled Drever patiently through two previous revelations — the Canadian flag-fingering photo on her Facebook page, and a band album cover that pretends to show her about to be sexually assaulted with a bottle.
That would pretty much do it for most Canadian politicians, no matter how young and green. But Notley hung in there with Drever, telling her to sensitize herself and others to the evils of sexual assault.
The defaced photo of Prentice and McIver finally snapped Notley’s patience. Well it should. There has to be some tolerance in modern politics for youthful Internet silliness, but this was personal, nasty and stupid.
The photo reminded me of the letters columnists sometimes get, with newspaper pages covered with vicious insults, the marks of minds both small and immature.
For the NDP, there’s a niggle of larger worry in this expulsion.
It brings the new government’s seat count down to 53. If the party loses a pending judicial recount in Calgary- Glenmore, that means 52 MLAs. Electing a Speaker from the NDP caucus would cost another legislature vote.
Suddenly, the NDP would be down to 51 seats.
Forty-four votes are needed for a majority vote any day in the legislature. Losing a few more MLAs, to the Internet or whoknows what other misadventure, could quickly bring Notley into risky territory. This may explain her earlier efforts to salvage Drever. Notley has done the math. It isn’t difficult.
The second episode — the NDP’s apology for blatantly using a government event to raise money for the party — is more alarming.
Via Twitter and email, the party sent invitations to party members and the public, asking people to attend Sunday’s “family” swearing-in ceremony on the legislature grounds.
Answering the RSVP immediately took people to a party fundraising page.
Again, the math is simple. The taxpayer funds a big government event. The party uses the event to pry money out of donors. Poorer taxpayer equals richer party.
The Progressive Conservatives had a dozen ways of working this equation, but even they were never quite so blatant as to turn a swearing-in ceremony — the very symbol of public democracy and renewal — into a tawdry pitch for cash. Most worrisome was how long it took the problem to sink in with the NDP.
Notley’s office first justified the practice, saying it was only aimed at party members. But Notley herself had sent the pitch to thousands of non-members via her personal Twitter account. So did other NDP MLAs.
By Friday morning, the party finally realized this looked like a betrayal of Notley’s own promise to reform political financing.
“In this, unfortunately, we were mixing a party fundraising appeal with a publicly funded event,” said Mary McLean, acting provincial secretary of the NDP, in a written apology.
“This was a serious mistake, conduct we committed to end during the campaign.
“I have directed an immediate end to this fundraising appeal and the removal of information on the Internet supporting it. And I have directed that there be no repetition of fundraising appeals that refer to publicly funded events in this way.
“We sincerely apologize to Albertans for this mistake.”
OK, they regret it. They apologize. But we’re entitled to wonder, with that old Alberta sinking feeling, if it’s only because they got caught.