Edmonton Journal's Paula Simons - Stelmach a nice guy in middle of ugly mess Calgary faction clamours for premier's scalp
From http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/features/albertavotes/story.htm...
Stelmach a nice guy in middle of ugly mess
Calgary faction clamours for premier's scalp
Paula Simons, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Saturday, March 01
I like Ed Stelmach. It's hard not to. He's polite, thoughtful, hard-working, down-to-earth. Catch him at the right moment, and he's even pretty funny.
I'd love it if he moved in next door. He'd be the kind of guy who would shovel your walk for you after a bad snowfall or give you a boost if your battery died.
And he's a terribly easy guy to underestimate. That's how he won the Tory leadership. While the attention was focused on the high-profile Jim Dinning and Ted Morton campaigns, Stelmach was quietly, doggedly orchestrating his strategic victory, using the personal networks he spent years building across northern and central Alberta to bring out his voters.
In his year as premier, Stelmach governed with the same kind of stolid, solid approach, quietly cleaning up some of the worst messes left behind by his predecessor. Funding new infrastructure, creating a land-use planning model for metro Edmonton, fixing the teachers unfunded pension liability, trying to repair our absurdly dysfunctional and outdated oil and gas royalty system, establishing all-party legislative committees.
It wasn't sexy stuff, but it was badly needed and badly overdue. And if Stelmach didn't always go far enough, at least he seemed to be moving, cautiously, in the right direction.
On top of that, there's something about the shoddy way Stelmach's been sandbagged through this campaign by some of Calgary's leading political and business interests brings out my sense of hometown loyalty.
The Calgary Herald's lead business columnist, Deborah Yedlin, summed up their attitude in a column earlier this week: "When the business community goes to vote Monday, the only agenda it will have is one of changing the leadership of the provincial Conservative party. Either it will happen by voting for the Conservative candidate in their riding -- with the understanding that the support is being conditionally given for the purpose of starting an internal leadership review -- or by casting a protest vote that will see the Conservatives end up with a smaller number of seats." See SIMONS / B4 "Either way, the premier has lost the confidence of the business community and this election -- no matter what the outcome -- will almost certainly start the process of finding his successor." Gosh, with Tory "friends" like these, Stelmach hardly needs opposition enemies.
But despite all of Stelmach's earnest worthiness, despite my disgust at watching a bunch of Calgary insiders gang up on an Edmonton outlier, it's hard to deny that after 361/2 years in power, the Progressive Conservatives are a tired, lacklustre party, driven by infighting and largely devoid of fresh ideas. For Stelmach's campaign to insist a vote for him is a vote for change is like saying Raoul Casto will bring change to Cuba.
This is a province with a mind-boggling amount of potential, a province on the cusp of global greatness.
We need leaders with the vision, ambition and guts to manage our growth, sustain our prosperity for the future, preserve our environment, and restore the integrity of our battered democratic institutions.
It's time we stopped running this place like a banana republic, where Conservative MLAs, filled with a bloated sense of entitlement, treat the provincial treasury like their party purse, where the civil service has become so politicized we think it's normal that the party in power appoints every returning officer and that senior bureaucrats take "faux" leaves of absence from their allegedly impartial, apolitical "public service" jobs to campaign for the Tories.
Which leads to the questions. Are Kevin Taft and the Liberals up to the task? And are enough voters ready to take a chance on a new governing party? This election campaign was Taft's chance to prove himself. After four years on the job and a somewhat shaky start, he has grown into his role as leader of the Opposition.
He stepped up to lead the Liberals when no one else wanted the job. Now, he's made the transition from caretaker, from another perfectly nice walk-shovelling neighbour to a legitimate premier-in-waiting.
The Liberals have run a smart campaign. They have recruited some strong candidates, with some particular stars in Calgary.
They've developed a comprehensive, coherent and credible policy platform. They have successfully presented themselves, not as a party just hoping to win more opposition seats than Brian Mason's New Democrats, but as a party ready to govern.
But though the Liberals have run a very good campaign, they haven't run a great one. They have looked sharp, professional and competent. Yet despite the Tory's own lacklustre performance, the Liberals haven't succeeded in truly galvanizing voters, especially outside the cities.
Nor has the Wild Rose Alliance succeeded in channelling popular discontent on the right. Not enough Albertans are angry enough.
In a province this rich, perhaps it's just too easy to be complacent.
Even if the Liberals and New Democrats between them take every urban seat, even if the Wild Rose party pick up a handful of rural ridings, Stelmach's quite likely to see himself returned to power, albeit with a significantly reduced majority.
Given the way our seats are apportioned, given the disproportionate number of rural MLAs, it's even possible the Liberals could win the popular vote and still not form the government.
Still, I don't necessarily envy Stelmach the prospect of sitting in a legislature across from a real and rejuvenated opposition, facing rebellion within his own ranks.
Alberta's political monolith has begun to finally begun to fracture, along both geographic and ideological lines. And as the chips fall where they may, a few may land quite hard on Ed Stelmach's perfectly pleasant head.
psim...@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2008
Stelmach a nice guy in middle of ugly mess
Calgary faction clamours for premier's scalp
Paula Simons, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Saturday, March 01
I like Ed Stelmach. It's hard not to. He's polite, thoughtful, hard-working, down-to-earth. Catch him at the right moment, and he's even pretty funny.
I'd love it if he moved in next door. He'd be the kind of guy who would shovel your walk for you after a bad snowfall or give you a boost if your battery died.
And he's a terribly easy guy to underestimate. That's how he won the Tory leadership. While the attention was focused on the high-profile Jim Dinning and Ted Morton campaigns, Stelmach was quietly, doggedly orchestrating his strategic victory, using the personal networks he spent years building across northern and central Alberta to bring out his voters.
In his year as premier, Stelmach governed with the same kind of stolid, solid approach, quietly cleaning up some of the worst messes left behind by his predecessor. Funding new infrastructure, creating a land-use planning model for metro Edmonton, fixing the teachers unfunded pension liability, trying to repair our absurdly dysfunctional and outdated oil and gas royalty system, establishing all-party legislative committees.
It wasn't sexy stuff, but it was badly needed and badly overdue. And if Stelmach didn't always go far enough, at least he seemed to be moving, cautiously, in the right direction.
On top of that, there's something about the shoddy way Stelmach's been sandbagged through this campaign by some of Calgary's leading political and business interests brings out my sense of hometown loyalty.
The Calgary Herald's lead business columnist, Deborah Yedlin, summed up their attitude in a column earlier this week: "When the business community goes to vote Monday, the only agenda it will have is one of changing the leadership of the provincial Conservative party. Either it will happen by voting for the Conservative candidate in their riding -- with the understanding that the support is being conditionally given for the purpose of starting an internal leadership review -- or by casting a protest vote that will see the Conservatives end up with a smaller number of seats." See SIMONS / B4 "Either way, the premier has lost the confidence of the business community and this election -- no matter what the outcome -- will almost certainly start the process of finding his successor." Gosh, with Tory "friends" like these, Stelmach hardly needs opposition enemies.
But despite all of Stelmach's earnest worthiness, despite my disgust at watching a bunch of Calgary insiders gang up on an Edmonton outlier, it's hard to deny that after 361/2 years in power, the Progressive Conservatives are a tired, lacklustre party, driven by infighting and largely devoid of fresh ideas. For Stelmach's campaign to insist a vote for him is a vote for change is like saying Raoul Casto will bring change to Cuba.
This is a province with a mind-boggling amount of potential, a province on the cusp of global greatness.
We need leaders with the vision, ambition and guts to manage our growth, sustain our prosperity for the future, preserve our environment, and restore the integrity of our battered democratic institutions.
It's time we stopped running this place like a banana republic, where Conservative MLAs, filled with a bloated sense of entitlement, treat the provincial treasury like their party purse, where the civil service has become so politicized we think it's normal that the party in power appoints every returning officer and that senior bureaucrats take "faux" leaves of absence from their allegedly impartial, apolitical "public service" jobs to campaign for the Tories.
Which leads to the questions. Are Kevin Taft and the Liberals up to the task? And are enough voters ready to take a chance on a new governing party? This election campaign was Taft's chance to prove himself. After four years on the job and a somewhat shaky start, he has grown into his role as leader of the Opposition.
He stepped up to lead the Liberals when no one else wanted the job. Now, he's made the transition from caretaker, from another perfectly nice walk-shovelling neighbour to a legitimate premier-in-waiting.
The Liberals have run a smart campaign. They have recruited some strong candidates, with some particular stars in Calgary.
They've developed a comprehensive, coherent and credible policy platform. They have successfully presented themselves, not as a party just hoping to win more opposition seats than Brian Mason's New Democrats, but as a party ready to govern.
But though the Liberals have run a very good campaign, they haven't run a great one. They have looked sharp, professional and competent. Yet despite the Tory's own lacklustre performance, the Liberals haven't succeeded in truly galvanizing voters, especially outside the cities.
Nor has the Wild Rose Alliance succeeded in channelling popular discontent on the right. Not enough Albertans are angry enough.
In a province this rich, perhaps it's just too easy to be complacent.
Even if the Liberals and New Democrats between them take every urban seat, even if the Wild Rose party pick up a handful of rural ridings, Stelmach's quite likely to see himself returned to power, albeit with a significantly reduced majority.
Given the way our seats are apportioned, given the disproportionate number of rural MLAs, it's even possible the Liberals could win the popular vote and still not form the government.
Still, I don't necessarily envy Stelmach the prospect of sitting in a legislature across from a real and rejuvenated opposition, facing rebellion within his own ranks.
Alberta's political monolith has begun to finally begun to fracture, along both geographic and ideological lines. And as the chips fall where they may, a few may land quite hard on Ed Stelmach's perfectly pleasant head.
psim...@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2008
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