‘Mr. Sunshine’ holds first caucus meet.
Jean says official Opposition will promote ‘positive ideas’
Wildrose Leader Brian Jean pledged Monday to take the province’s NDP government to task without resorting to the politics of fear.
Jean said he wants to be known as “Mr. Sunshine” in the legislature.
“It’s not about being negative,” he said.
“It’s about being positive, positive ideas and making sure when the government does screw up, as I’m sure they will, we are there to make sure Albertans know that and to make sure they get it right next time.”
A sometimes caustic dynamic overtook the legislature over the past few years as the previous iteration of the Wildrose opposition repeatedly unearthed scandals that came to plague the Progressive Conservative government.
Speaking at the first Wildrose caucus meeting after last week’s historic election, Jean said Alberta’s official Opposition will stay focused on the platform that got them elected: efficient government, low taxes, balanced budgets and improved health care and education. “Those ideas can’t be fought on the basis of fearmongering and can’t be fought on the basis of throwing things at them,” Jean told the Wildrose caucus, which grew from just three incumbents to 21 MLAs.
“It has to be done based on good logic, good argument and that will get us the trust of Albertans in the future.”
The Wildrose caucus includes two women and no MLAs in Edmonton or Calgary. Its youngest member is 29; its oldest is 62. The median age is 51; Alberta’s is 36.
Jean, who has helmed the Wildrose for just six weeks, also named the first six members of his shadow cabinet: Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes holds health, Drumheller-Stettler MLA Rick Strankman is agriculture critic and Living stoneMacleod MLA Pat Stier is municipal affairs critic.
Rookie MLAs Leela Aheera in Chestermere-Rockyview and Mark Smith in Drayton Valley-Devon hold the energy and education files, respectively. First-time MLA Derek Fildebrandt, who represents Strathmore-Brooks, will be finance critic.
Fildebrandt was a perpetual thorn in the Tory government’s side as the Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Association. He will push for low taxes as the province’s oil royalties stagnate.
“It’s very clear now that the Wildrose is the only conservative party left standing in Alberta and we’re going to provide a strong and rigorous defence of keeping our business taxes competitive, a defence that (former PC Leader) Jim Prentice did not make successfully,” Fildebrandt said.
The NDP campaigned on a platform that included hiking the corporate tax rate two percentage points to 12 per cent.
While Jean cast the New Democrats as an “ideological government,” he said his caucus can bridge the divide by keeping focused on Albertans.
“I think if we do that we will be able to find common ground with (premier- designate) Rachel Notley and whatever she wants to put forward in legislation,” he said.
While he’s been official Opposition leader for less than a week, he has already cast his gaze to forming government after the next election.
“We need to make sure that in four years we have put forward our principles and ideas and we have fought hard for those principles and ideas and that Albertans trust us,” he said.