By now everyone has read or heard about the incident in our Provincial Legislature involving visiting Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and the spokesman for the Wildrose Party at the time. One truly does not know whether to laugh or cry at such unparliamentary, undiplomatic statements, to put it mildly. I was quite pleased to learn that the perpetrator of the remarks has had his knuckles rapped by his party, even though the party leader had, it is reported, signed off on these remarks ahead of the session.
Does it make it OK to now state that Mr. Fildebrandt would never have made these completely unacceptable remarks if Ms. Wynne had not been in the Legislature at the time? So making such insulting, downright rude statements is just fine if the target of same happens not to be present? Kudos to our premier for her adult response to the incident, also to Ms. Wynne for her very calm reaction.
Saying that these scripted statements, apparently, were already in the agenda does not make them acceptable. Could not the party leadership, noting the presence of the intended target, have simply told the MLA not to get up and say anything at all? Also, the big promotion for getting the Saskatchewan Premier to come visit Alberta was utterly offside and irrelevant.
I would respectfully suggest that all our “rookie” MLAs have by now had enough time to learn the basics of behaviour in the legislature. There are likely many Albertans who would be just fine with such statements, even if they know zip about how Ontario operates or even care. Very likely the Ontario populace could say the same about Alberta. However, they now have a pretty vivid picture of how some of our elected members behave - and it is not very impressive. If we are the first-class, pivotal Province of Canada, as loudly advertised, somebody needs to start behaving like adults without further adieu. I for one expect a lot better performance from my elected representatives whatever their party affiliation.
Bonnie Denhaan
Red Deer