Outside with the people may work in Notley’s favour

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on November 21, 2019.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

The term “unprecedented” is tossed around a lot these days, so often its lost meaning in conversations about politics.

But Alberta could be heading toward unchartered water, and not because of a sea-change budget or the ferociousness of its defenders and detractors.

We may well see a government opposition led from outside the legislature, by a former premier who is citing principle over convention in a fight with the government.

Politics is full of grandstanding, but this is a challenge that the United Conservatives likely didn’t see coming and may have difficulty defending against.

Rachel Notley was escorted from the chamber on Tuesday after refusing to apologize for saying that UCP House Leader Jason Nixon “was misleading the house” on why the Alberta Elections offices were being reorganized in the budget bill.

Notley says it amounts to sacking the man investigating the UCP leadership contest. The government says its a cost-saving move.

In the rarified, almost ancient, atmosphere of the legislature, its not allowed for a politician literally state that another is “lying.”

That’s quaint considering usually nasty politics have gone into a full nuclear meltdown over several years, and parliamentary “convention” translates closely to “manners.”

Lately, governments now have no trouble trouncing that convention when it suits their needs. But the opposition could as well, and what would they have to lose?

If Notley remains unapologetic, refusing to return, maintaining her absence is a protest, what better place to be that in the street with those also locked out of government decision making?

If criticized for not doing her job, all she need do is respond is that she’ll happily return when the elections commission is reinstated, and “why wouldn’t the UCP want that to happen?”

The longer it goes on, the more it looks like there’s something to the whole business.

And it provides the first real test to the UCP government that’s been steaming ahead since it was elected last spring.

The UCP likely wants to, but doesn’t necessarily need to, avoid galvanizing opposition to the budget. There’s plenty of opposition, and not just from the usual corners of the NDP, the Alberta Federation of Labour, or environmentalists. Cities, charities, doctors, teachers, counties, and working people in general all have some some level of anxiety.

You can’t go around for very long alienating a wide variety of voting blocks if you’re political party.

The UCP will say they’re doing what needs to be done to put out fires and balance a budget.

The standard for an new government to bring in a hard budget early, then hope conditions improve or, at least, hope hard feelings dissipate before the next election. Hard bargaining stances tend to soften in the interest of making a deal that can be branded a win-win.

Most of what’s in the budget is what the UCP ran on, or at least in the ballpark and probably expected. But it also has a rubbing-their-faces-in-it sort of feel.

Case in point, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange on Wednesday critical of the Calgary Board of Education for cutting teaching positions to balance its reduced budget. She ordered the board to be audited.

The same offer will be extended to cities that have trouble getting the message that local taxes aren’t to rise even though provincial program and construction grants will shrink.

The UCP has the power. They won a majority. And they don’t have to listen to the Official Opposition if they don’t want.

In order to avoid total irrelevance, the NDP may argue that drastic times, require drastic measures. A sort of people’s movement outside of the halls of government may be the best avenue for a small Official Opposition that gets outvoted 2 to 1 on every turn.

The government will have to figure it out.

(Collin Gallant is a News reporter. You can contact him by email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com)

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