THOMSON, GAS AND DASH
Even without a seat, Kenney’s presence serves as omen of elections yet to come
If you’ve ever visited the Alberta legislature and wondered if it’s haunted, let me assure you it most definitely is.
You should have seen the place Monday, on the eve of Halloween.
There were spectres all over the place.
There was United Conservative Party MLA Dave Rodney about to shuffle off the mortal coil that is his seat in the legislature. He’s quitting Wednesday to force a byelection to allow new party leader Jason Kenney a chance at a seat in the assembly.
Speak of the devil, Kenney himself was haunting the government Monday afternoon as he sat in the gallery like the ghost of elections yet to come. He had stopped by to be introduced to the house after his leadership win on the weekend.
Speaking of which, secondplace finisher Brian Jean showed up for question period, too, and took his repositioned seat. He’s still on the front bench of the official Opposition, but has been shoved to the side to allow Jason Nixon to take over as party leader in the house (while Kenney awaits the byelection).
Jean stopped briefly for questions from reporters on the way into the assembly, but this is a man haunted by the weekend vote. You have to feel sorry for Jean. He is the most popular politician in the province, but that wasn’t enough to keep his leadership ambitions alive. It is not clear yet if the former Wildrose leader is long for this political world.
Earlier in the day, Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark gave the NDP the tiniest of frights by announcing that former NDP Karen McPherson — who had abandoned her party four weeks ago to sit as an Independent — had joined his caucus.
McPherson, something of a political phantom while an NDP backbencher, has never clearly explained why she left the NDP caucus. Presumably, she found the prospect of being a New Democrat an all-but-impossible task in Calgary, where the party is as welcome as a zombie apocalypse.
Speaking of which, Premier Rachel Notley called her caucus together for a meeting before the legislative sitting began Monday afternoon. And for the first time, she invited the reporters to hear her speak.
If nothing else, Monday was a day when the parties worked overtime to outdo each other with announcements and news conferences. Notley’s was the largest.
She had a room filled with 50 or so MLAs, who gathered around her as she gave a campaign-style speech praising her own government’s achievements and slamming the opposition.
“From the start, Jason Kenney and the UCP caucus have opposed almost every change we’ve made,” said Notley. “They insist we go backwards to the same policies Albertans rejected in the last election.”
You half expected Notley to call the election right then and there.
Instead, she needled Kenney a bit by mocking his standard description of the NDP as “debt-quadrupling, tax-hiking, job-killing, accidental socialist government.”
To the cheers of her colleagues, she pledged to “stand up against the UCP’s job-killing, climatedenying, gay-outing, schoolcutting, health-privatizing, backward-looking, hope-destroying divisive agenda.” That’d be a frightening campaign slogan, especially on the side of a bus.
And for anybody who cares about legislative decorum and tradition, nothing beats the sheer parliamentary horror of what an NDP backbencher did during question period.
He posed questions to a cabinet minister, but the questions had nothing to do with government policy and were simply an attack on Kenney.
“To the minister of health,” said NDP MLA Graham Sucha. “Mr. Kenney stated a desire to cut 20 per cent from each department and each budget. What would the impacts of 20 per cent cuts to health care have on Albertans that rely on it most?” Sucha and Health Minister Sarah Hoffman then began an exchange where she happily took the opportunity to attack Kenney for proposing “super reckless, super extremist and super cruel” cuts.
Love Kenney or hate him, this government-scripted exchange is a misuse of question period. It’s supposed to be a time for MLAs from all parties to hold cabinet ministers to account over government policies.
NDP backbenchers have routinely used it as a chance to lob puffballs to ministers, but Sucha and Hoffman lowered the bar with their partisan performance.
NDP MLAs might think they’re being witty, but they’re giving the impression that Kenney’s elevation to UCP leader has scared them witless.