Politics in Alberta is heating up.
Two years ago, Alison Redford and the Progressive Conservatives somehow dodged their demise by denying what many thought would be a Wildrose majority and the end to the PC’s 40-year reign.
Some argue that Redford and the PCs won while many more argue that Danielle Smith and the Wildrose’s bozo eruptions simply gave it away.
It might be convenient to pin the Alberta government’s problems on Redford’s leadership. Her resignation is be a superficial solution to a complex problem. Redford leaving in 2014 will no more fix the problems than dropping Ed Stelmach in 2012.
Alberta blogger Dave Courneyer writes that, “the PC party in 2014 has become tired, arrogant and absent of real principles.” This is bigger than Redford.
While there is no shortage of pundits and talking heads speculating on what they deem as the real problems, Calgary-Varsity MLA Donna Kennedy-Glans, who left caucus to sit as an Independent MLA, may have said it best: “Since being elected, however, and particularly since joining cabinet, I am increasingly convinced that elements of this 43-year-old government are simply unable to make the changes needed to achieve that dream of a better Alberta.”
A lot of Albertans were ready for change in 2012 — two years later, even more are ready for change.
So why isn’t anything changing?
Alberta’s 2012 election was victimized by fear. Too many voted Wildrose because they hated the PCs, and too many voted PC only because they were scared of the Wildrose. In 2012, too many Albertans voted for the lesser of two evils and then in 2014 wonder why we still ended up with nothing we wanted.
The members of the PCs and the Wildrose are brothers from the same mother. After all, the Wildrose is largely made up of ex-Progressive Conservatives while the PCs have some members who would find the Wildrose a comfortable fit.
It’s not rocket surgery. As long as Albertans continue to vote the way they have always voted, Albertans will continue to get what they have always gotten.
Holding your nose and voting for the PCs or the Wildrose out of fear of the other one won’t change a damn thing in this province. This was true in 2012. It’s true today in 2014. And it will still be true in 2016.
Alberta is desperate for an alternative to the PCs and the Wildrose.
Joe Bower
Red Deer