City Notebook: Alberta election a ‘look in the mirror’ moment

By COLLIN GALLANT on May 27, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

There’s a well developed school of thought in politics that the winner of a U.S. presidential election is the candidate who provides a more transformative vision of that country.

Sure it goes back and forth, and it may be simply reversing the vision of the last guy, but they make big promises, paint big pictures.

Canadian prime ministers on the other hand, are usually the most likely to keep Canada, for lack of a better term, Canadian.

For many years that meant “not American,” but does it any more?

Consider the excitement level of the last 10 PMs and you’ll need a cup of coffee. Even the current guy is only hearkening back to a jazzy Expo ’67 sort of vibe.

But the Alberta election provides an interesting question.

UCP leader Danielle Smith is certainly the more transformative candidate, promising to elevate the province’s profile in confederation, modernize the health system, unshackle reaction to the opioid crisis, cut regulation, making things work.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley on the other hand wants to stay in a capital C Canadian Pension Plan, protect capital P public health care and the capital of the country in Ottawa – issues once as Canadian as hockey on Saturday night. Stability, dependability, compassionate Canadianism.

It might be easier to see if they weren’t both striving to be exciting and dull at the same time.

Aside from a corporate tax increase, Notley’s bland-by-design platform would be right-of-centre anywhere else in this country. That risks her traditional support for questionable gains.

Meanwhile, Smith, who is most obviously a person who loves big ideas, has run a campaign built to deaccentuate her speculative nature.

She says her party has delivered on simply put ideas (jobs and economy) with grand success – never mind that leadership race last summer.

Notley, meanwhile hasn’t gone too deep into her term as premier, where things hardly happened at the light speed that Albertans expect.

No longer does Smith muse about this or that great political cure-all like a thrice-weekly columnist would or a talk show host with hours to fill.

Only one party is talking about carbon pricing, and it’s not Notley’s, and it’s not positive.

Adding complexity, Canadian issues, or at least the issues that the Conservatives are getting oxygen off of, are increasingly American Issues also, like guns, provincial jurisdiction, the supreme courts, the “elite,” the power of the state.

If you think this is all a slight against Smith – that she’s a scary Americanizing influence – it’s not, but I guess the top line theory has been proven.

In fact, Smith may only be meeting Albertans where they already are or where they want to go. She’s probably read the room on crime correctly.

Notley hasn’t said it, perhaps smartly so, but isn’t there an easy Trump-Biden comparison to be made here that no one is making?

Within Notley’s promise of stability there’s a stream of transformation as well, as far as it refers to Alberta and for her supporters.

Much of the solid one-third or more of Albertans who don’t vote conservative on any level (and have never had much luck) crave another NDP government.

They see a province beholden to big business and the oilpatch. They want an end to the cronyism they say survived the Progressive Conservative dynasty’s demise.

Same way, but reversed, you could, and many will, argue that Smith is only vowing to keep Alberta “Albertan” strong and free, where big money comes a knockin’, where the role of government is contained, where life makes sense.

Jason Kenney commissioned a report on what is “un-Albertan,” but what is “Albertan” these days?

The question could be answered Monday.

It is not a crime to modernize our country, our confederation, our culture.

Likewise it’s not a crime to cherish our traditions, our character and strengths.

Albertans should spend some time this weekend determining what that question means to them, as an Albertan, and say as much in the voting booth Monday.

A look ahead

A tight general election will conclude Monday in Alberta.

100 years ago

City council would allow a New York syndicate to drill for oil in Police Point,” the News reported May 26, 1923, the first such private exploration for oil within city limits.

The city, which held first development rights by federal order was not in a financial position to seek oil, Mayor Huckvalle told a meeting at the Empress Theatre, but would earn a 5 per cent royalty on any oil produced by the P. Chester Thompson Company.

Stanley Baldwin became prime minister of England. Fifteen former princes and generals were executed in Soviet Georgia after the discovery of an “anti-revolutionary plot.”

Athletics teams from Medicine Hat won the grand aggregate of the inter-city track and field meet in Lethbridge, amounting to a provincial high school title.

Telephone service to Crescent Heights was crippled for five days after an equipment shack burned.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com.