UCP ELECTION PLATFORM BEGINNING TO TAKE SHAPE

As if in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, United Conservative Leader Jason Kenney offered some love to Albertans this week with a proposal to relax provincial liquor laws so as to allow opportunities for public drinking.

For a province trapped in a deep freeze, it was a better gift than any box of chocolates or bouquet of flowers — the ability to imagine a warm summer day, beer or cocktail in hand (and possibly a joint in the other), free to wander the grounds of Edmonton’s Fringe Festival or the Calgary Stampede.

Kenney’s pitch was among a handful of new-ish policy proposals he served up Tuesday to an advocacy group of restaurant owners.

Added to other bits and pieces Kenney has already revealed in past months, it’s fair to say at least a rough outline of the UCP election platform is starting to emerge, though the whole remains decidedly fuzzy.

Analyzing these latest pitches, I was tempted to characterize them as the good, the bad and the ugly. But in this case it’s really the good, the iffy and the ill-advised, which doesn’t roll off the tongue as nicely.

First the good.

Though Kenney went over the top by suggesting Alberta was stuck in some sort of “Prohibition-era” alcohol regime, allowing instances of open consumption is an overdue idea. Or as Kenney put it: “Let’s grow up.”

It’s a concept that has worked in other places, most notably in Europe and Las Vegas. Even in Tennessee, in the heart of the conservative Southern U.S., open consumption is allowed yearround in specific areas.

Consultations with law enforcement and communities will have to be done of course — it’s not clear the UCP did this already — to determine, for example, whether public drinking should be allowed in the Whyte Avenue area all year, or just during the summer months, or only during festivals.

But those are just details at this point. As a political tool, savvy leaders have known for generations that the loosening of rules around alcohol is an easy win with the public.

One of the most recent examples was Doug Ford’s “buck a beer” promise, which generated a fair share of mocking, but also had the desired effect for the now Ontario premier.

If only all public policy were as simple as an easy-drinking lager.

In Kenney’s case, he soon got onto more unsteady ground with a promise to consider replacing the NDP’s $15 an hour minimum wage with a graduated wage system.

You might remember that Kenney himself, during the 2017 UCP leadership race, slapped down a fellow nominee’s call to roll back the minimum wage.

“Promising hundreds of thousands of people that you are going to cut their wages is not the winning formula for an election,” he said.

Yet that seems to be exactly what Kenney is proposing to do by musing about a graduated system that would cut the wages for young people, alcohol servers, and perhaps others.

The UCP says this could actually help youth workers to find jobs, noting numbers that show increasing unemployment in Alberta among those without post-secondary schooling.

However the flip side is that lowering wages for youth may have a negative effect on adults among the working poor, who could find themselves priced out of low-paying service jobs.

Kenney is probably better served by sticking with a universal minimum wage, and finding other ways to tackle youth employment, perhaps by improving Alberta’s abysmally low post-secondary participation rates.

At the same event with the restaurateurs, Kenney was asked about his party’s stance on abortion. The question was relevant considering an anti-abortion advocacy group, the Wilberforce Project, recently suggested the UCP has Alberta on track toward the “the most pro-life legislature in decades.”

Kenney is aware that any attempt to remove funding or access to abortion is political dynamite. Which is why he again told reporters that a UCP government will not legislate, change the status quo, or even debate it.

However, the UCP leader also dropped the tidbit that he has not discussed the issue with his candidates. That seems odd, considering at least some of the party’s nominees are stated social conservatives. It’s hard to imagine all of them are going to want to stay silent.

As well, a pledge to keep the status quo is a bare minimum position. The real test will come if the status quo isn’t an option anymore.

For example, there is a strong argument abortion services should be expanded beyond the two existing clinics in Edmonton and Calgary. Would a Kenney government recruit more doctors and nurses? Would it continue to pay for the abortion pill mifegymiso if prices go up?

Kenney could really show Albertans some love this Valentine’s season by answering those questions and filling the gaps in his party’s platform.

When and how we get that information remains up in the air, but in the meantime, there is certainly enough for Albertans to ponder. Perhaps over a drink.