National Post Article - A grudging vote for Ed Stelmach
From the National Post A grudging vote for Ed Stelmach
He's uninspiring and sometimes clueless but the alternative is worse
Colby Cosh, National Post Published: Friday, February 29, 2008
A few days from now, I'm going to do something I haven't done in close to a decade: vote for the Alberta Progressive Conservatives in a general election.
I could not possibly exercise my democratic rights with less pleasure. It's becoming clear that Premier Ed Stelmach, chosen by a divided PC party as a middle option between the technocratic Jim Dinning and the right-wing insurgent Ted Morton, was a poorer choice than either front-runner would have been. English is a second language that Stelmach speaks more like a fourth or fifth. He has cracked down on smoking, hurting businesses on a health care-savings pretext that is contradicted by all the relevant evidence. His flinging of $2-billion at the country's highest-paid teachers to fund voluntarily accepted pension liabilities in advance of the election was an act of monstrous cynicism. He is clueless about civil liberties, and has managed his caucus like an inept substitute teacher.
But the Alberta Liberals are no better, and indeed would be much worse on many of these points. What distinguishes Stelmach's Conservatives from the opposition is a belief in the power of compounding economic growth. The Tories have made Alberta a place that attracts talent and capital from across Canada and around the world. Kevin Taft's Liberals look at the province's booming economy and see only problems.
Recently Taft, in a tête-à-tête with the Edmonton Journal editorial board, looked forward to "the morning people wake up and realize that northeast of Edmonton there's one of the largest petrochemical and industrial complexes in the world, and to the southeast there's a strip coal mine covering 100 square miles ... and there's no land-use planning." The quote captures the man's style neatly. He openly accuses the voters of stupidity; he wishes some central authority had interfered with the growth of the Refinery Row-Scotford belt and the Highvale mine; he looks upon enterprise and sees defilement. Are the tens of thousands of workers he's talking about all supposed to get jobs as land-use planners? Perhaps, they can find work as caddies when Alberta becomes a quarter-million-square-mile golf course?
To hear Taft, you would think that every day in Alberta was a life-or-death struggle with a poisoned environment and post-apocalyptic levels of public infrastructure and services. So why does Alberta have a large positive net balance of immigration from every other province over the last 10 years? It's not just because of $100 oil; the demographic tidal wave peaked in 1998, when benchmark prices were below $20. Tens of thousands are voting with their feet for a way of life. And the Taft Liberals are opposed to everything that defines that way of life economically; they yearn for stronger unions, more business regulation, ubiquitous social housing, generous welfare for capable adults and aggressive environmentalism. God forbid there might remain one refuge in Confederation from multi-tentacled Ontario-style government.
The Liberals are likely to have their best election since 1993. The mass immigration they can't quite explain helps them, diminishing the influence of Trudeauphobic native-Albertans a little more every year. Their characterization of Alberta as a giant failure zone helps them with voters who really do face special pressures from the boom. And Stelmach has been enough of a disappointment to unite the right-wing opposition under the banner of a single protest party.
So why vote for his candidate? I know how it looks: Like some doddering old Stalin-era Bolshevik, I have spent a decade grumbling about The Party, but at the first sign of crisis I hurtle toward its bosom like a coward. My vote won't even mean much in my inner-city constituency of Edmonton-Crystal Meth-Sextrade; New Democrat incumbent David Eggen, a friendly chap who is probably his party's next leader, should win handily.
But on the other hand, like an Old Bolshevik, I am increasingly infuriated by the pact between external critics of Alberta and the Alberta Liberal opposition. Even relatively conservative Canadians outside our borders are fond of sniggering at our 36 years of uninterrupted Conservative government, as if we had not exercised our judgment anew at each election and were not reaping rewards for it now.
What part of the Conservative legacy should we be ashamed of, exactly? The elite public schools, patronized by even the richest families and admired continent-wide? The increasingly outstanding universities, tech schools and research facilities? The cushy working-class salaries? Our liveable, growing twin metropolises? Should we regret that we have dozens of companies quietly providing services and supplies to the worldwide petroleum business? Or perhaps denounce the new non-energy business champions of the province -- WestJet, BioWare, Matrikon, the Forzani and Katz Groups?
No, I'm not voting for Ed Stelmach and the Conservatives because I feel good about doing it. I'm doing it as a small gesture in favour of a party and a premier that, despite enormous failings, have one outstanding qualification to govern Alberta: They like the place.
National Post
ColbyCosh@gmail.com
My reaction Colby - these guys need a rest ; time for them to sit in opposition
He's uninspiring and sometimes clueless but the alternative is worse
Colby Cosh, National Post Published: Friday, February 29, 2008
A few days from now, I'm going to do something I haven't done in close to a decade: vote for the Alberta Progressive Conservatives in a general election.
I could not possibly exercise my democratic rights with less pleasure. It's becoming clear that Premier Ed Stelmach, chosen by a divided PC party as a middle option between the technocratic Jim Dinning and the right-wing insurgent Ted Morton, was a poorer choice than either front-runner would have been. English is a second language that Stelmach speaks more like a fourth or fifth. He has cracked down on smoking, hurting businesses on a health care-savings pretext that is contradicted by all the relevant evidence. His flinging of $2-billion at the country's highest-paid teachers to fund voluntarily accepted pension liabilities in advance of the election was an act of monstrous cynicism. He is clueless about civil liberties, and has managed his caucus like an inept substitute teacher.
But the Alberta Liberals are no better, and indeed would be much worse on many of these points. What distinguishes Stelmach's Conservatives from the opposition is a belief in the power of compounding economic growth. The Tories have made Alberta a place that attracts talent and capital from across Canada and around the world. Kevin Taft's Liberals look at the province's booming economy and see only problems.
Recently Taft, in a tête-à-tête with the Edmonton Journal editorial board, looked forward to "the morning people wake up and realize that northeast of Edmonton there's one of the largest petrochemical and industrial complexes in the world, and to the southeast there's a strip coal mine covering 100 square miles ... and there's no land-use planning." The quote captures the man's style neatly. He openly accuses the voters of stupidity; he wishes some central authority had interfered with the growth of the Refinery Row-Scotford belt and the Highvale mine; he looks upon enterprise and sees defilement. Are the tens of thousands of workers he's talking about all supposed to get jobs as land-use planners? Perhaps, they can find work as caddies when Alberta becomes a quarter-million-square-mile golf course?
To hear Taft, you would think that every day in Alberta was a life-or-death struggle with a poisoned environment and post-apocalyptic levels of public infrastructure and services. So why does Alberta have a large positive net balance of immigration from every other province over the last 10 years? It's not just because of $100 oil; the demographic tidal wave peaked in 1998, when benchmark prices were below $20. Tens of thousands are voting with their feet for a way of life. And the Taft Liberals are opposed to everything that defines that way of life economically; they yearn for stronger unions, more business regulation, ubiquitous social housing, generous welfare for capable adults and aggressive environmentalism. God forbid there might remain one refuge in Confederation from multi-tentacled Ontario-style government.
The Liberals are likely to have their best election since 1993. The mass immigration they can't quite explain helps them, diminishing the influence of Trudeauphobic native-Albertans a little more every year. Their characterization of Alberta as a giant failure zone helps them with voters who really do face special pressures from the boom. And Stelmach has been enough of a disappointment to unite the right-wing opposition under the banner of a single protest party.
So why vote for his candidate? I know how it looks: Like some doddering old Stalin-era Bolshevik, I have spent a decade grumbling about The Party, but at the first sign of crisis I hurtle toward its bosom like a coward. My vote won't even mean much in my inner-city constituency of Edmonton-Crystal Meth-Sextrade; New Democrat incumbent David Eggen, a friendly chap who is probably his party's next leader, should win handily.
But on the other hand, like an Old Bolshevik, I am increasingly infuriated by the pact between external critics of Alberta and the Alberta Liberal opposition. Even relatively conservative Canadians outside our borders are fond of sniggering at our 36 years of uninterrupted Conservative government, as if we had not exercised our judgment anew at each election and were not reaping rewards for it now.
What part of the Conservative legacy should we be ashamed of, exactly? The elite public schools, patronized by even the richest families and admired continent-wide? The increasingly outstanding universities, tech schools and research facilities? The cushy working-class salaries? Our liveable, growing twin metropolises? Should we regret that we have dozens of companies quietly providing services and supplies to the worldwide petroleum business? Or perhaps denounce the new non-energy business champions of the province -- WestJet, BioWare, Matrikon, the Forzani and Katz Groups?
No, I'm not voting for Ed Stelmach and the Conservatives because I feel good about doing it. I'm doing it as a small gesture in favour of a party and a premier that, despite enormous failings, have one outstanding qualification to govern Alberta: They like the place.
National Post
ColbyCosh@gmail.com
My reaction Colby - these guys need a rest ; time for them to sit in opposition
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