Central Alberta deserves — and needs — more representation in the provincial cabinet.
Former premier Ed Stelmach’s last cabinet contained three Central Albertans: Mary Anne Jablonski of Red Deer North, Luke Ouellette of Innisfail-Sylvan Lake and Jack Hayden of Drumheller-Stettler.
When Alison Redford won the Progressive Conservative leadership last October and became premier, the balance of representation began to tip toward Alberta’s two largest cities and away from rural and smaller urban areas. Thirteen of the 19 members (including Redford) are from either the Edmonton or Calgary regions, and three of the seven associate ministers are from Calgary.
Redford’s first cabinet included Cal Dallas (Red Deer South) and Hayden, but both Jablonski and Ouellette were out. The trend away from strong Central Alberta representation had begun.
On Tuesday, Redford introduced her first post-election cabinet.
It is smaller — she trimmed to 20 portfolios from Stelmach’s 23 in October, then lopped off another two portfolios this time (although there are another seven MLAs who were appointed associate ministers).
And she had fewer Tory MLAs to work with: the caucus prior to the April 23 vote was 66 and now is 61 (in a legislature that has grown from 83 to 87 seats).
Hayden was among the Tory MLAs who lost their seats, and so he is naturally not back in cabinet. In fact, all five of the rural ridings that surround Red Deer are now represented by Wildrose MLAs (Ouellette was among those toppled).
That means that Dallas and Jablonski must represent all of Central Alberta within caucus. The dissenting views of the five Wildrose MLAs from Central Alberta will hardly matter to the Tory decision-makers. Partisan politics tends to trump virtually everything else, often at the expense of regional fairness.
And it means that Central Alberta has just one voice left in the inner circle of provincial power: Dallas, who is back as minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations (the Aboriginal part of the portfolio has been assigned elsewhere).
Jablonski picked the wrong horse in last year’s leadership contest. Gary Mar’s defeat apparently meant she was instantly out of favour.
Certainly her time as Seniors and Community Supports minister was neither unblemished nor easy. But she was always the good Tory soldier, taking the party line even in the face of harsh criticism, particularly locally (and the party line was often ludicrous when it came to care for seniors).
And she handily retained her seat last month, despite that criticism, because she is perceived as honourable and hard working by Central Albertans.
In a region that leaned right in a big way, the retention of the two Red Deer seats for the Tories was significant.
It gave Redford a base from which to reach the dissenters of Central Alberta. But it also means that she needs to give those two Red Deer MLAs a strong voice to carry the message.
And she needs to give them the clout to advocate for a large region. That means that both Dallas and Jablonski should have been in cabinet.
The fact that Dallas must carry the load alone suggests — once again — that Central Alberta must take a back seat when it comes to provincial funding for any number of projects.
And it means that the odds are stacked against our regional needs and wants being heard above the din.
John Stewart is the Advocate’s managing editor.