Wall seems to be copying Clark’s offensive tactics
Hopes of PC-like dominance in Alberta now a pipe dream
There look to be a number of areas of painful similarity between Clark and Wall.
Brad Wall may once have had hopes of turning the Saskatchewan Party into the equivalent of Alberta’s PC dynasty, which was barely challenged as a default government over a period of decades under multiple leaders. But if anybody thought Wall’s party might have that kind of staying power, the belief has to have been shattered by the aftermath of this year’s provincial budget, including a steady stream of public protests, along with a sudden drop to near parity against a party without a permanent leader.
If limiting a province’s political debate to within the tent of a single party isn’t possible, the next model for Wall looks to be that of British Columbia’s Liberals, a party that rarely holds a majority of support, but which can take advantage of poorly regulated corporate money, vote splits and momentary support to compete in most election cycles. And Wall looks to have already adopted some worrisome elements of the Christy Clark Liberal playbook.
As it happens, Clark is facing her province’s electorate over the next week. And the same issues of a disconnect between government and citizens that have emerged here in the wake of Wall’s callous budget have been a staple of the B.C. campaign so far.
The example that has resonated most so far was that of Linda Higgins, who was brazen enough to try to speak to Clark at a public campaign event. Clark immediately cut off the conversation, and walked away without the slightest effort to listen to Higgins’ concerns. And that would have been bad enough on its own, particularly after it gave rise to an #IAmLinda Twitter stream involving others who had similarly seen themselves as being excluded by the Liberal government.
But the Liberals made matters far worse with a five-day campaign of vitriolic and evidence-free accusations against Higgins personally. And all this because Higgins dared to hope that a campaigning premier might be willing to speak to voters, rather than expecting to be able to live in a bubble free of dissenting voices.
Higgins’ example is far less stark than some others — most notably including the suicide of Roderick MacIsaac, who died in 2013 after being fired without any apparent explanation under circumstances that still haven’t been fully investigated. But it’s Clark’s campaign behaviour that has caused British Columbians to have serious reason to doubt whether their government listens to them.
And there look to be a number of areas of painful similarity between Clark and Wall.
Like Clark, Wall has gone out of his way to preserve streams of corporate and out-of-province funding due to the political advantage he gets from them, and has rewarded corporate donors with largesse out of the province’s treasury while demanding sacrifices from the general public.
Like Clark, Wall has made a habit of imposing perpetually more extreme decisions with perpetually less consultation or explanation, with the list of groups affected spreading far beyond traditional political foes to include a panoply of public and community organizations.
And like Clark, Wall has done everything in his power to stymie investigations into his government’s activities, even as his party builds up the type of corruption and decay that is inevitable when political leaders see their actions as being beyond any meaningful accountability.
It’s far from clear that British Columbia’s Liberals will pay a meaningful electoral price for their failings, as the current election appears too close to call. But whatever the outcome in B.C., we should be on guard for the same patterns in our provincial politics — because we too are Linda to our government.
Fingas is a Regina lawyer, blogger and freelance political commentator who has written about provincial and national issues from a progressive NDP perspective since 2005. His column appears every week.