Let Premier Redford get on with governing Alberta

I was a little worried when I heard that Danielle Smith and her Wildrose cohort had stormed out of the legislature before Speaker Gene Zwozdesky ruled on the Alison Redford non-scandal.

I was afraid they were in such despair that they had rushed out to throw themselves headlong into the lake of fire. But then I remembered the lake of fire is only for gays, and possibly liberals. Still, had they not returned after throwing this hissy fit Monday, it would have been a relief, too.

Then, Redford’s government could have got on that much sooner with governing. And yes, I said non-scandal. From Day 1 it was made clear that ex-spouses were not included under conflict-of-interest rules.

It was also clear that the negotiating process for the firm awarded the tobacco litigation contract could have fallen apart anywhere along the way, and that nothing could have been called settled until Justice Minister Verlyn Olson signed on the dotted line months after Redford had resigned as justice minister.

So, doing their best imitation of three-year-olds having a tantrum in the candy aisle, Wildrose MLAs stamped out in a huff, pre-ruling, after Zwozdesky decreed there’d be no more questions on any issue linked to tobacco. The Wildrose was foiled again in its attempt to trash the premier.

“If he’s going to make a mockery of question period, then what other recourse do we have?” Smith said.

What other recourse? Well, there was one. It’s called behaving with dignity, maturity, respectfulness and decorum. As deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk pointed out, Smith’s almost unheard of attack on the Speaker was damaging to his reputation, and Lukaszuk added: “Albertans are not being well-served by this kind of discourse, this kind of behaviour.”

He’s right. Albertans are not being served at all by it. The Wildrose’s constant hammering at this non-issue wasted almost a week that the legislature should have spent in governing.

I’m not saying all this just because I didn’t vote for the Wildrose. I’m saying it because they behaved badly. Period.

Seems the official Opposition just can’t forgive Redford for winning the election in a big way after the Wildrose’s hopes went up in smoke in the fiery Lake Hunsperger. And I guess that prevents them from doing their job. They might want to Google their job. Here’s what they’d find:

“The leader of the Opposition has been a position in the legislative assembly of Alberta since 1905,” says that fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia.

“In most other legislatures in Canada, the opposition party is traditionally recognized as a government in waiting, and will alternate periods of government among two or three parties. In Alberta, however, the opposition has traditionally been very small in terms of seat numbers, and highly unstable in terms of party leadership. Peter Lougheed is the only leader of the Opposition who has ever gone on to become premier of Alberta.”

A sobering thought for Smith, since eight months after getting elected, no one has actually ever mentioned her name in the same breath as Lougheed’s.

The government of Alberta’s website says: “The role of the Opposition is to criticize government activity, propose improvements and present itself to the public as an alternative to the party in office.”

Oh, dear. The Opposition doesn’t seem to be doing any of that, does it? Maybe they haven’t read this website.

Instead of criticizing government activity, they are making personal attacks on the premier. They are not proposing improvements, although one improvement that urgently needs looking at is better janitorial services at the legislature. There seems to be an awful lot of mud that needs cleaning up lately.

And the official Opposition certainly hasn’t been doing much to present itself to the public as an alternative to the party in office.

Pretty much all the public knows of its positions on issues is a declaration that the Wildrose is going to take another look-see at some of its platforms that proved resoundingly unpopular during the election campaign.

Think climate change, Alberta pension plan, the Danidollar scheme, gutting Alberta Health Services and a bunch of other stuff. But saying you’re going to re-examine your platform is not, in and of itself, a platform. It’s a vagary.

“The Wildrose party has the most opposition seats in the assembly,” says the government of Alberta website. “It is called the Official Opposition.”

Sure wish they would start acting like the official Opposition.

They could begin by wiping their muddy shoes at the door — tracking mud all over the legislature and then picking it up and slinging it at the premier doesn’t make her look bad. It only makes the people doing the mudslinging look bad.

And it prevents the Tory government from getting down to business and governing, which is what the public elected them to do.