Conservatives responsible for current mess in Alberta

From 1935 to 2015 Albertans overwhelmingly and unfailingly chose conservative governments for their legislature. And they consistently sent conservatives of one flavour or another to Ottawa, with only a few exceptions. One could be forgiven, then, if one were to conclude that Alberta was immutably conservative.

Clearly, based on the election of 2015, this is not necessarily true anymore. Conservatives under Jim Prentice woke up the morning after the election aghast and confused. We lost? The province now has an NDP government? Blood pressures rose, hands were wrung, dogs were kicked. For some the sky seemed to fall.

Some say, however, that this last election was just a fluke. The voters merely wanted to give the ruling party a slap on the cheeks for being arrogant, unresponsive, and incompetent. But things went too far and ushered in an NDP government, unprepared to govern, some said.

They were wrong. Yes there were rookie mistakes and rookie misspeaks and rookie discipline breakdowns in the first months. But the leadership was strong. And the ‘inexperienced’ government of Rachel Notley, clear-headed, pragmatic, and energized, went to work to deal with the mess left behind by of 44 years of short-sightedness, mismanagement, self-congratulatory arrogance, and arguably one of the most “tone-deaf” governments ever to be tasked with preparing for an unknown future.

From that very first big gusher in 1947, Alberta tied its fortunes to the assumed long-term future of oil. Alarm bells should have gone off right from the beginning. Volatility should have favoured savings policies designed to shelter Albertans during oil price disruptions.

The OPEC crisis struck in 1973. In response then-premier Lougheed established the Heritage Trust Fund in 1976. It had two goals: Provide an umbrella for the bad times, and prepare for the inevitable and (in his mind) short reign of petroleum (by supporting alternative energy sources.) His advice, and the fund, was largely ignored after 1980. Instead, oil revenues funneled into general expenditures, in effect, bribing voters with lower taxes and no sales tax.

Then came the Iranian Revolution, 1979, The Gulf War, 1990, and the oil glut of 2010, which continues into the present — a roller-coaster ride of boom and bust. Should never have happened.

Norway started its own fund in the 1990s. Oil revenue went directly into the fund, and by law, only four per cent of the fund could be used to meet budget shortfalls or projects. Today Norway’s Fund stands at $1.1 trillion,60 times more than Alberta’s Fund at $17.6 billion. Economic good sense trumped politics, but not in Alberta.

Forty-four years of conservative policies have given us our present crisis. Conservatives must be held accountable. Give someone else a chance, someone less doctrinaire.

Peter Mueller Medicine Hat