Politicians may try to run, but they can’t hide from voters

Political spin-mastery an exercise in smoke and mirrors that fools no one in the end

Thirty years have passed, yet Alberta governments still love nothing better than to drop a political stink bomb, then quickly flee the scene on a late afternoon before a public holiday.

It was June 30, 1987 — a Tuesday, if I remember correctly — when a staid news release was silently slipped out from some nondescript office a bare few minutes before that day’s anointed closing time at the legislature in Edmonton, where Don Getty’s Tory government then reigned.

By the time anyone even had a chance to read the sucker, never mind understood what it actually meant, given the deliberately boring gobbledygook wording, everyone at provincial cabinet level was speeding away to enjoy the upcoming Canada Day festivities.

Oh, and what was this lastminute announcement? Only that the treasury had essentially revoked the trading licence of the once-vaunted Principal Group, which meant thousands of Albertans suddenly found their life savings in serious jeopardy. Yep, bankruptcy and a massive financial scandal followed.

That was then and this is now. Yet still, political parties love nothing better than to pay big fees to the snake oil spokesmen branding themselves media specialists because they once got a byline in the college rag and have since taken elocution lessons while attending Toastmasters.

In classic strategy session blather, the audience is told: “drop the bad news late on a Friday or before a public holiday. By the time everyone’s back at work, hopefully, it’ll be forgotten.”

Oh, but this isn’t about political history.

Nor is it about the moribund Tory party. Time enough to roast that lot when their conservative descendants get back into power, which they surely will if they can actually stop poking fingers into each others’ eyes.

Nope, this is about the saintly crew now ruling us sad plebeians. Yes, that would be the “butter doesn’t melt in our mouths because we won’t open our lips” New Democratic Party.

The latest cowardly example of this odious ode to political spin-mastery came with last Friday’s release, right before the long weekend, of the latest body count that now substitutes for an actual government discussion on the scourge of opiate deaths that continues at more than one a day.

The good news, if 113 corpses could ever be called good, is at least there appears to be a levelling off in the death count during the first three months of 2017 compared to last year’s final quarter. However, comparing deaths to the first three months of 2016 shows a 61 per cent increase.

“We may be seeing a levelling off, but we really can’t say at this point for sure. But the numbers, regardless, are high still,” said Dr. Karen Grimsrud, the province’s chief medical officer of health.

At least she stuck around to discuss the ongoing slaughter. Not so any government member. The premier’s long since distanced herself from even uttering the words “opiate crisis,” while the health minister, sensing the wind’s direction, passed off Alberta’s most serious health issue to her junior sidekick, associate minister Brandy Payne.

Maybe Payne’s finally tired of parroting the party line that this shouldn’t be classified as a provincial emergency because, well, maybe the police will come and kick in our front doors if we do, or similar such absurdities.

It was up to provincial Liberal Leader David Swann, who is a medical doctor, to question the lack of progress and the convenient timing of the news release.

“I find it highly disrespectful to concerned Albertans to release such important information without formal commentary from the minister on a Friday afternoon, and, in this case, just ahead of a long weekend,” said Swann.

“It hints at an NDP government that is more concerned about biding its time, protecting its political skin, and avoiding accountability for a crisis that it clearly does not have a handle on despite its best efforts.”

It’s called drop it and run. It stank 30 years ago and it still does today.