Alberta disaster brings out the best in Canada’s leaders
In a crisis or natural disaster, partisan politics necessarily fade into the middle distance. At the same time, leadership jumps into stark relief. Under pressure, its earnestness, intelligence and effectiveness, or the lack of these, are laid bare. U.S. president George W. Bush had his hurricane Katrina nadir. His successor had his hurricane Sandy triumph, informed by Bush’s failures.
In this light we can ask, even as Albertans begin to grapple with the colossal challenges of recovery and rebuilding from the Great Flood of 2013, how their leaders have fared thus far. The somewhat reassuring answer is that at all three principal levels of government, political leaders have performed well. It’s early days. There will be ample opportunity for things to go sideways, as the wrangling over money sets in. But for now, in the clutch, Alberta’s politicians — including at the federal level — are rising to the moment.
First let’s recognize that disasters draw out the very best in human nature. Television and film habitually lie about this. Every apocalyptic fiction has its obligatory scenes of looting and chaos as social order breaks down. The reality is different. People endure extraordinary hardship and go to great lengths to keep order and help one another, even amid much greater suffering than the flood has brought to Alberta. I saw this first-hand after the Haiti earthquake in 2010, and again in Japan after the 2011 tsunami.
But it’s helpful for a community to have a rallying point — and that is what Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi has become. When the flood waters rose he was in Toronto, giving a speech. Within hours he was home and working round the clock, to the point that his Twitter followers half-jokingly urged him to get some rest, using the hashtag #nap4nenshi.
Nenshi was popular before the flood, political consultant Donn Lovett told the CBC. Now, “nobody should even bother running” against him in the upcoming municipal election, Lovett said, noting that he and Nenshi are not typically allies.
Nenshi appears to intuitively understand what a political leader should be, and what he should not be, in a time of crisis. He must be chiefly a tireless communicator and cheerleader, as opposed to any kind of disaster micro-manager. The skilled politico lets first responders and hands-on volunteers do their life-saving work, praises them to the skies, and otherwise keeps out of the way. The very last thing any leader wants or needs is to appear to be taking advantage of a crisis for political gain.
What of Premier Alison Redford? Monday she announced $1 billion in crisis funding and $1,250 preloaded debit cards for adults displaced by the flood, and $500 per child. That was a bold move, which Nenshi immediately praised. Redford also said this puts running a budgetary surplus by 2014-15 out of reach.
Did the Premier need to cave on the deficit quite this soon? Maybe not. Her critics will point out that, during the Klein years, a massive rebuild such as this — with a cost estimated by BMO Capital Markets at between $3 billion and $5 billion — could have been funded at least in part from Alberta’s Sustainability Fund. That pot of money is now gone, following a string of free-spending Redford budgets.
Be that as it may, under the circumstances, this will seem like quibbling. The premier appears to be moving as quickly as she reasonably can to help avert an economic catastrophe. It’s tough to see what she could have done better, or differently, this past week.
Finally there’s Ottawa. Here again, the potential pitfall is over-reach, which can make one look silly. In this regard Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s response was pitched correctly: Visit the stricken area, express support, offer financial help, then go away, to avoid becoming a distraction. Harper ran into a bit of criticism for his choice of touring jacket, an RCAF olive drab. In the grand scheme that disappears into the “gimme a break” bin.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and MP Michelle Rempel, both of whom represent Calgary ridings, were active on social media through the weekend, but never gave the impression of being more than conduits of safety information conveyed to them by experts. In other words, they did their jobs.
Is there a greater downside for the Conservatives, in that they’ve had to postpone their June convention, at which the PM was expected to deliver a “reboot” speech? On balance, I doubt it.
If anything, the flood has given the Tories an opportunity to think and talk about something concrete and constructive for a change. Given the swamp in which they’ve been stuck for the past two months, this won’t hurt them.
Deflecting scandal and pillorying opponents have taken a back seat to helping Canadians in need. The longer that continues, one suspects, the better off Stephen Harper will be.