Opposition is giving the NDP government too easy a ride

Notley smiling as parties on right wrangle in tiresome tiff on entirely internal issues

The best opposition politician in Alberta right now is Rachel Notley.

Her recent speech to the adoring NDP faithful at the University of Calgary, in which she savaged the parties trying to line up against her bunch of rascals, was the best bit of political grandstanding seen in many a month.

“Whatever new name they are hiding behind, they still don’t get it and they won’t get it,” she told gung-ho party supporters.

It was — by Canadian standards — middling to strong stuff. The only problem being that Notley isn’t in opposition any more — although she often looks happier and more confident on the attack than when forced to defend her own policies.

But old habits are hard to break, and years on the opposition benches leave their mark — going after the Tories or Wildrose becomes second nature, even to the extent of forgetting it’s you with the actual power. Plus, it’s also easier than explaining away why unemployment in Alberta is at a disgraceful level as your “party for the people” approaches the end of its second year in power. Certainly all those who are out of work aren’t “getting it” either, premier.

Still, Notley knows her party’s chance of a second term is as likely as Donald Trump entering a head-shaving fundraiser if this so-called unite the right movement eventually ends up with one reasonably focused party from the current PCs and Wildrose bunch.

Yet, whatever the final outcome, the squabbling, nastiness and confusion that has affected those two parties ever since the last election has been a sad episode in the history of legislative politics in Alberta.

The last couple of years have been a tough slog for our province. There have been challenges internationally, with the worldwide drop in energy prices, the hardening debate over global warming and, lately, talk of ripping up trade agreements and imposing tariffs by our major export market. Then we have made-in-Canada threats to Alberta — the rippling tide of anti-pipeline protests being the major one.

Meanwhile, within our own provincial boundaries, we’re living through our first NDP government, which has resulted in carbon taxes, big minimum wage hikes, a provincial deficit that should make everyone blanch and one in 10 Calgary workers desperate for a job.

Undoubtedly these have been, and continue to be, unusual and troubling times. Yet, they are the very times when a vigorous opposition party is essential to question this ongoing sea change in provincial politics and, in tandem, suggest alternate approaches to what ails us. If nothing else, such actions in a democracy keep the government’s feet to the fire.

Sadly, that’s not the case, as both major opposition parties engage in a ridiculously long and simmering internal wrangle on their own futures — whether to get it together or keep going it alone.

Heck, they can’t even really decide what to call themselves, with the front-runner in one internal election seemingly intent on eradicating that party’s name from future existence.

Of course, after the electoral defeat of the PC dynasty, and the recent rise of a relatively new party in Wildrose, there was sure to be some back and forth about possible unification. But, come on, this has been going on for 18 months and shows no sign of abating — a similar period of future faffing about looks almost certain.

The resulting delay just allows the NDP to get a nice, long and relatively comfy ride at a time when this province is getting whiplashed from all sides.

An opposition’s job is not just to oppose, but also to put forward alternative policies. How can they do that in Alberta when they don’t even know if it will be one party or two, and then who’ll be the leader or leaders?

Oh, well, when power beckons — mark it down as the final year of the NDP’s mandate — they’ll no doubt get it sorted out. Such delay in these times is unconscionable. No wonder Notley is smiling.