MLA Report: Let’s dump leader-centric politics

By Drew Barnes on May 20, 2022.

Much of the focus in media in recent weeks has concerned Jason Kenney’s leadership review. While I applaud the interest in provincial politics, I can’t help but think much of the debate on this topic is missing the point.

Don’t get me wrong, when it comes to seeking new leadership for our province I am at the front of the line. Kenney has broken too many promises, rigged too many processes and launched too many personal attacks to ever be considered trustworthy.

However, I think Kenney’s authoritarian leadership style is symptomatic of a much deeper problem. That problem can best be described as leader-centric politics.

Rather than uniting members around common ideas or policies, parties have allowed their brands to be directly attached to the leader of the day. Over the past two years the UCP has been transformed top-to-bottom, inside and out, to become the Jason Kenney party. Prior to that, the previous NDP government firmly attached its brand to Premier Notley.

While this can be useful for popular leaders in short-term campaigns, over the long term such leaders start demanding absolute loyalty from party officials, MLAs and even party members.

For MLAs, this leaves less and less room for effective representation, and the focus of the democratic process shifts from doing what is good for the people, to doing what is good for the leader.

This is no way to run a province, let alone a G7 country.

In the early days, I got the sense Kenney understood the dangers of leader-centric politics. He pledged servant leadership and provided members with a grassroots guarantee. Both policies were quickly abandoned once he took office, however. Instead, we got an executive branch of government running roughshod over the legislative branch to a degree not seen in Alberta for generations.

If we’re being honest with ourselves, simply replacing Kenney with another prima donna leader isn’t going to solve this problem. Instead, we need to get back to basics, restore effective representation and put the people back in charge of our democratic process.

There are specific steps that can help.

First, we need to give voters an effective mechanism for recalling MLAs. Jason Kenney’s recall bill was designed to protect politicians, and the very fact he waited two years to implement it, so it could not be used against him, speaks to his lack of commitment to grassroots democracy.

Second, we need to overhaul the Citizens Initiative bill. Once again, this bill was delayed and watered down to prevent its use. Either you respect the will of the people, or you do not.

Third, Alberta’s democratic process needs a circuit breaker that allows MLAs to remove a political party leader. The federal government has its Reform Act, which was recently used by CPC MPs to remove failed leader Erin O’Toole. This tool is needed in Alberta to help prevent leaders like Kenney from interfering in party nomination races and help end the culture of cronyism.

Finally, and most importantly, Alberta needs its own constitution. I have written and spoken on this issue extensively.

Given the events of the past two years, many Albertans have lost trust in our elected officials’ desire and ability to defend our most basic God-given rights. Like freedom of speech and religion, I believe we need to protect both property rights and voter rights in a way that prevents political meddling.

At the end of the day, I hope to see the UCP dump Jason Kenney’s failed leadership as quickly as possible, by any means necessary.

But unless the party also dumps the leader-centric politics that prevents our democratic process from functioning effectively, dumping Kenney is just a Band-Aid solution.

Drew Barnes is an independent MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat

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