Minister should do the talking, not some minion

NDP tweets itself in the foot over eating less red meat

Whatever you might think of the words below, one thing is certain: they were somewhat diligently typed by those long-serving digits that go by the collective name of my fingers.

Stating what would appear, on first blush, to be obvious, now seems appropriate, thanks to the latest mini-tempest of silliness, courtesy of Alberta Environment Minister Shannon Phillips.

Not content with demonstrating to Albertans exactly how to screw in energy-saving light bulbs at vast governmental expense, Phillips has now managed to screw up her own Twitter account, claiming it wasn’t she, but a staffer, who tapped out a recent phrase urging people to eat less meat.

Why anyone, least of all a minister of the Crown, would allow someone else to write things under their name and then broadcast them willy-nilly to the world without even checking beforehand is baffling.

Actually, there was an opinion piece on this page a few days ago supposedly written by Phillips about clean energy and such matters of import, though for all we know, given recent developments, it may have been penned by her cat.

The tweet in question backed an environment-friendly list of new year’s resolutions emanating out of the minister’s constituency down in Lethbridge that suggested, among other things, cutting back on meat eating.

“Need a resolution?” Phillips, the MLA for Lethbridge-West, posted about a local group’s 30-day environmental challenge. “Use reusable shopping bags, take shorter showers, unplug electronics devices, eliminate vehicle idling and eat less meat.”

At first, this looked as if it would fly harmlessly under the radar, but then UCP Leader Jason Kenney, sensing an opening, took to Twitter (at least we suppose it’s him) to score some easy empty net points.

“As someone who supports Alberta’s farmers and ranchers — and enjoys a good steak from time to time — I will not be taking the NDP’s advice,” was Kenney’s pithy rejoinder.

Anyhow, that eventually led to this headscratcher, from Phillips: “I was away from my Twitter account around NY Day, and the tweet that came from a staff person was regrettable. I’m assured it won’t happen again.”

Assured it won’t happen again? Well, there’s a fairly fail-safe way of ensuring it doesn’t, which would entail the simple measure of not allowing anyone working for you to pretend they are you — send out your own messages or, if that’s too much bother, then at least insist on reading everything someone else types under your moniker.

Of course, there’s a much bigger issue in play than the strange alter egos seemingly running amok inside the communications department of this particular minister’s office. That’s the electoral division of seats here in Alberta and the NDP’s hopes of retaining power come the next provincial vote in less than 18 months.

A rough guide would divide those seats into three groupings — Edmonton, Calgary and the rest. Today’s conventional wisdom would suggest there’s a reasonable chance the government will hang onto a fair few seats in the capital, much lesser hopes of keeping what they have in Calgary, and barely a snowball’s of getting much from the rest.

Certainly, the amalgamation of the Wildrose and PC parties under the UCP banner is the main stumbling block to any possible Dipper success outside the major cities. But the rashly introduced farm safety legislation, known as Bill 6, was an immediate self-inflicted body blow to the government’s future hopes in the hinterlands.

Despite some serious back-pedalling two years ago, much rural wariness remains, so the last thing this government needs with an election on the horizon is a purposeless attack, no matter how inadvertent or slight, on the beef, pork and poultry industries that remain major areas of employment and wealth-generation in Alberta.

Then to discover this sloppiness was contained in a public message not even seen by the very minister whose name was attached to it is sheer political lunacy.