Redford’s partisan remarks take Tories to new low
Last month, it was firefighters. This month, it’s schoolchildren — who’s next? Astronauts? Puppies?
Who will Premier Alison Redford have as the backdrop for her next news conference?
In April, she chose firefighters — undeniably the most respected Canadians — as a prop to re-announce a piece of workers’ compensation legislation.
Last week, she chose schoolchildren — undeniably the cutest Canadians — as political decor to announce new schools.
No doubt her advisers are at this moment trying to find another suitably beloved group with which to surround the premier, hoping she can bask in some reflected popularity. She could do with the boost. A recent public opinion poll indicates 60 per cent of Albertans disapprove of the job she’s doing.
Using popular professions and people as political furniture is hardly a noble practice, but politicians have been doing it for years. And who’s going to quibble about a politician announcing schools in a room filled with the young citizens who’ll be the main beneficiaries of those new structures?
However, Redford added a cynical twist to an already cynical practice by using the school announcement to launch a partisan attack against the Wildrose.
“We will not take the approach of the Opposition, which is a build-nothing approach,” Redford told dozens of elementary children gathered in a semicircle at her feet last Thursday. “The truth is, either we want a world-class education system or we don’t.”
We might be a bit surprised that Alberta politics is stooping to a new partisan low, but we really shouldn’t be surprised. This has been happening for the past six months.
We’ve seen official government news releases referring to initiatives not of the Alberta government, but of the “Redford government.” It’s one thing for the news media to refer to the Alberta government as the “Redford government” — we do it all the time — but it’s quite another for the government to start refer- ring to itself as such. There’s a subtle difference between the two and it’s an important distinction that should be maintained. Redford, though, wants to blur the line between what is done in the name of a government (that represents all Albertans) and the partisan (that represents all things Progressive Conservative).
And then there’s the degeneration of question period — as if the most partisan exchange in any legislative day couldn’t find another lower level.
Backbench Progressive Conservative MLAs aren’t just asking puffball questions of cabinet ministers, they’re using — or more accurately, abusing — question period by attacking the opposition.
The most recent example came Monday when PC MLA Gina Leskiw opened her “question” to the premier with a sycophantic preamble about how “our government prioritizes education and are putting our commitments into bricks and mortar,” and then shamelessly asked, “Can you tell me why our government is building schools while the official Opposition says we should cut spending and delay?”
It’s enough to make an advocate of parliamentary tradition weep. The government obviously feels this is all necessary to stem the advance of the Wildrose.
Government officials say privately they’re simply responding in kind to the partisan and personal attacks from the Wildrose. Unofficially, the government’s defence of the new partisan attacks is “the opposition started it first.” Perhaps this new style of aggressively partisan attacks will be effective. I don’t know.
What I suspect is it makes the 61-member government look weak and scared of the 17-member Wildrose. It’s the Opposition tail wagging the government dog.
Expect to see more of it over the summer as Redford tries to convince fellow party members that she can hold off the Wildrose threat and that they should therefore support her at the party’s mandatory leadership vote during their annual general meeting in November.
In that vein, expect to see more photo ops of the premier with anyone who is cute, respected or popular.
Redford’s staff are no doubt wishing we had puppy astronauts.