THE POLITICAL RHETORIC IN ALBERTA IS AS OVERHEATED AS THE SUMMER WEATHER
Snap quiz.
Which Alberta politician uttered this comment on Monday: “They treat every one of you who does not agree with them with increasing disdain and arrogance.”
It’s the kind of complaint you hear from just about every politician about the other guys.
In this case it was Brian Jean, the former Wildrose leader in the kickoff to his leadership campaign for the United Conservative Party.
In a speech that lacked not for over-the-top comments, Jean blamed the NDP for the loss of 50,000 jobs in Alberta. No mention of the oil-price-drop recession that has pummelled the province.
“They’ve allowed the Trudeau Liberals to write us off the map, block our pipelines and threaten to shut down our oilsands,” said Jean in a statement that managed to misrepresent events over the past few months, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accidentally overlooking Alberta in his Canada Day speech.
But Jean is not alone in ramping up the rhetoric, particularly in the wake of the unity vote last weekend where members of the Wildrose and Progressive Conservatives supported forming a new conservative party.
There is so much at stake for Jean, who is in a race for his political future against Jason Kenney, the soon to be former PC leader who is expected to launch his campaign Saturday.
And there is so much at stake for the NDP government that will be in a race for its political survival against the UCP in the 2019 provincial election.
That’s why the NDP caucus was taking repeated shots this week at MLA Nathan Cooper the moment he was named interim leader of the UCP.
On Monday, the caucus issued a news release pointing to Cooper’s pre-political job in 2009 with a Christian activist group, Canada Family Action, that was loudly anti-gay.
“As UCP leader, Cooper must explain why he promoted these extreme views or resign,” demanded the NDP.
Resign? That’s more than a little over the top.
On Tuesday, Cooper responded by telling journalists his views on the gay and lesbian community have evolved and he even gave credit to the NDP.
“I have spoken about some of the things I’ve learned from other members of the NDP caucus and the LGTBQ caucus,” he said. “I have just a better understanding of the community generally.”
The NDP responded with another poke at Cooper, pointing to his work in 2009 as a “public advocate for defunding abortion services in Canada.”
Cooper refused to respond to that attack.
He should have said something, even if only to explain that while he may personally disagree with abortions, he as a politician will not try to have them defunded. Besides, he’s only interim leader for three months.
By keeping silent he’s allowing the NDP to tacitly accuse the nascent party of having a hidden agenda against abortions.
But not all political rhetoric this week was overheated.
Comments from Kenney, for example, were more subtle.
His Twitter page is headlined with an icon that declares, “95 per cent of PC members vote yes to unity.”
That’s a misrepresentation at best. The fact is that almost half of PC members didn’t bother to vote. The turnout was 55 per cent, which seems low considering how Kenney has been talking about unity for the past year and then actively pushing it for two months. And members had three days to vote by simply going online for a couple of minutes.
You have to wonder if the
45 per cent of no-shows simply abandoned the party.
Kenney’s icon should read: “95 per cent of PC members who cast a ballot voted for unity, but turnout was 55 per cent, which means when you consider all registered members, including those who did not vote, just 52 per cent of all registered members voted for unity — still a majority but not impressive sounding, which is why I’m going with 95 per cent.”
But that wouldn’t make for a snappy slogan. Nuanced political facts placed in context rarely do.
It is the simplistic catchphrases that are more memorable and quotable, whether it’s “he must resign!” or “they block our pipelines” or just “95 per cent.”
They’re superficial but effective. Expect to see many more of them from all parties between now and the 2019 election.