Conservatives at work on an austerity agenda

When the federal Conservatives choose a new leader and that leader comes up with a plan for post-pandemic Canada, look to Alberta for the template.

It is being designed right now with the help of Stephen Harper and, of course, one of his favourite former cabinet ministers, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

The two of them, along with the crème de la crème of Alberta’s old-style corporate power, have already begun laying the groundwork for what will supposedly pull Alberta out of the economic quagmire left by the pandemic and the crash in oil prices.

But it’s becoming clear that they have their sights set well beyond one province.

What they are likely aiming for is the same kind of influence that Reform Party ideology had on Alberta in the 1990s when Ralph Klein took up the cudgel of austerity, which was subsequently wielded by other provincial premiers and eventually the federal government.

It’s no coincidence that Harper was a Reform MP at the time, as was Kenney.

And even though a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then, the original Reformers’ zeal for austerity — in Klein’s Alberta government spending was cut by 20 per cent, a hospital was even blown up to save money — has not been squelched.

Harper made that clear in a recent opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal in which he called for government to get out of the way so the private sector could rebuild the economy the way it sees fit.

His disdain for the programs that the Trudeau government has rolled out to help Canadians get through the health crises and job losses that have rocked the country was barely contained.

For Harper it has been simply “ruinous.” So why does this matter? Harper is not prime minister anymore, not even a premier.

Because he is clearly the unofficial leader of the Conservative party and still wields enormous influence.

And because Kenney appointed him to his Economic Recovery Council, and it’s hard to imagine that Harper will be satisfied with anything less than becoming the council’s alpha dog.

The council is chaired by Jack Mintz, every conservatives’ favourite economist who (not) coincidentally opined in the Financial Post the day after Harper opined in the WSJ that the public sector needs to start making “sacrifices.”

That, no doubt, would include nurses, paramedics, police officers, bureaucrats funnelling millions of dollars of support to various Canadians, school teachers, and post-secondary instructors, most of whom are now struggling to adapt courses to online delivery.

In other words, people doing essential work during the pandemic.

According to Mintz, who also happens to be a director of Imperial Oil — which, according to the latest figures available, earns him about $250,000 in total compensation annually — people working in the public sector need to have their wages reined in.

Another clue that Alberta is likely to become the petri dish for federal conservative economic policies is the enthusiasm for Alberta displayed by Conservative leadership candidate Erin O’Toole. He launched his leadership campaign from Calgary and has been endorsed by Jason Kenney.

In the meantime, Kenney’s economic revival committee is feeding him advice on a regular basis. They are not mandated to produce a final report or make recommendations. So who knows what they are whispering in his ear? Who knows which other ghosts of Reform, such as Preston Manning, are leaning in?

In the end, Kenney could adopt a tough neo-Reform agenda despite the difficulties imposed by the pandemic and the oil price crash. He has already proceeded with plans to lay off support staff at schools, technical colleges and universities, even amidst the unemployment caused by the pandemic. Regulated environmental monitoring of the oil industry has been put on hold, another vivid example of less government that would no doubt earn Harper’s approval.

Of course this doesn’t mean Albertans will take to the neo-Reform agenda. And it certainly doesn’t mean that Canadians will embrace it if it is taken up by the next Conservative leader.