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The Conservative cookie is crumbling

The shocking news of Gary Mar’s sudden departure came last Friday evening.
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The shocking news of Gary Mar’s sudden departure came last Friday evening.

Fortunately, as a provincial election looms, voters are less and less asleep at the switch these days.

Premier Alison Redford is expected to call the election any day now. If she had her druthers, perhaps she would postpone an election until things smooth over in the fog of time — things like MLAs receiving thousands of dollars each for doing sweet tweet on committees, continuing problems with the health-care system like wildcat strikes, improper donations to the Tories, bullying doctors and municipal politicians, and now the Gary Mar problem.

The cookie is crumbling.

Mar, the man who really wanted to be premier and spent a lot of money trying to make that happen, was suspended by Redford on Friday as Alberta’s trade representative in Asia.

The premier ordered him to take an unpaid leave of absence after he auctioned off a trip to Hong Kong at an Edmonton $400-per-ticket fundraiser on March 1. The event was intended to help cover remaining costs ($265,000) of his failed bid as leader of the Alberta PCs. In total, Mar spent $2.5 million on his leadership bid. (Redford spent $1.3 million.)

As well, Redford ordered an ethics investigation into the matter.

The problem, as the heel-biting Wildrose Party and others allege, is that it appears as though Mar was trying to sell government services for private gain. This is a clear and absolute no-no. The opposition parties are calling for Mar’s resignation.

Redford, who does seem willing to deal promptly with ongoing issues, may just have too many minefields to clear. She apparently had no idea about Mar’s fundraiser. She should have.

The optics, to say the least, are terrible — especially if you’re a member of the Alberta government. The voting public is asking: Is the Redford government any different than any of the previous old-time Conservative governments over the past four decades? Yes, that’s right, four decades.

Soon after Redford won the leadership to replace Ed Stelmach and became Alberta premier, she appointed her closest contender, Mar, as Alberta’s envoy to Asia, in Hong Kong. The job pays $265,000 per year. There was no competition. It was as much a patronage appointment as any. Same old same old.

Mar’s job is a very important one in the global economy — connecting Alberta with Asian markets. Whatever the ethics investigation reveals, he should still resign. Optics are indeed important.

The Tories have a long history of controlling the message. They’ve been unable to do this very well lately.

Every week brings some new serious issue with this government. The latest, the Mar suspension, is a serious blow to them.

Albertans may finally be ready to decide that a change is as good as a cure.

Mary-Ann Barr is the Advocate’s assistant city editor. She can be reached by phone at 403-314-4332, by email at barr@www.reddeeradvocate.com and on Twitter @maryannbarr1