Party leader interviews
Redford could be in ‘real trouble,’ Wildrose leader says
Even before Alberta’s finance minister sounded a pre-Christmas warning about tough financial choices ahead, Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith was talking about 2013 in terms of budgets and bottom-lines.
In an interview with the Journal at the end of her first year as leader of Alberta’s official Opposition, Smith said she believed questions about a balanced budget – and just how that is defined – would weigh heavily in the coming year.
“I think Albertans give a government a lot of latitude in individual policy decisions that they make and individual spending decisions they make as long as they get the big picture right, as long as they can balance the budget,” Smith said.
“I think this premier is going to be in real trouble in 2016 if she doesn’t meet that pre-election commitment.”
Until late December, the Redford government had not wavered in its commitment to introduce a balanced budget for 2013-14 in the spring.
During the fall, the PC language shifted to describe a balanced operating budget that might include borrowing for priority construction projects such as schools or hospitals. Government ministers still spoke confidently about being on track to avoid tapping into Alberta’s rapidly diminishing savings yet again in the coming fiscal year.
Now, plunging resource revenues that bankroll more than a quarter of Alberta’s $40-billion budget are raising questions about whether that will be possible if all else remains status quo.
In the mid-December interview, Smith said there was no excuse for the province even to be toying with a deficit.
“Even this year with energy prices off and production not as high as they had hoped it would be, we’re still getting about $8.5 billion worth of resource revenues,” Smith said.
“This is a level of windfall revenues that no other province enjoys. Not only are they going to spend every penny of it, but they’re also going to dip into our savings and they’re talking about running debt. It’s unbelievably irresponsible.”
Smith may have strong feelings about Alberta’s finances, but the 2013-14 budget will be the first time she and a majority of her 17-member caucus have gone through the budget process as MLAs.
Although many Wildrose supporters were disappointed when the party failed to end four decades of Tory rule, Smith said she sees the party benefiting from a term as the official Opposition.
The first full session of the legislature in the fall proved a valuable learning experience, she said.
But while Smith sees the silver lining in being Opposition leader, she has her eye on the next provincial election.
The year 2016 comes up regularly in conversation.
With Redford setting a fixed election window every four years, Smith easily rattles off when the party plans to start work selecting candidates to challenge the PCs, Liberals and NDP in the next rematch.
Candidate nominations will start near the end of 2014 and finish by the end of 2015, she said. “That gives everybody lots of time to be able to put their campaign together. It gives us lots of time to make sure that we’ve chosen the right candidates and to do our own research on each of them in the event there are any issues that need to be raised and dealt with beforehand.”
There is no doubt Smith hopes to learn from some of the missteps in the spring election that cost the party at the polls. The party is still stinging from being judged as intolerant after Smith refused to turf an Edmonton candidate who blogged that gays and lesbians would burn in a lake of fire.
In the future, all potential Wildrose candidates should expect to be grilled at the local level and by the provincial party about their views on a range of issues.
“I think our candidates are going to get asked a lot of very tough questions during the candidate-selection process and they’re going to have to be able to answer those questions,” Smith said.
“We believe people with strong religious views should be encouraged to run for office, but if they can’t communicate their beliefs in a way that’s respectful and can’t communicate their beliefs in a way that unites people, and causes division, then they probably shouldn’t be candidates.”