It was a funny story to read in Saturday’s Edmonton Journal… “Wildrose tail wags the dog as federal, provincial Tories quietly meet”. Funny, because the provincial branch hasn’t seemed to have much use for the federal one, given how Ottawa and Edmonton have clashed recently over health care transfers, and in a very public way.
To have the provincial and federal Tories working together trying to figure out the “Alberta Problem” really does amuse me.
Sadly for Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith has been kicking his ass pretty much all over the province.
While I don’t want to take away anything that Danielle Smith is accomplishing in Alberta, I’ve got to say that kicking Stelmach’s ass isn’t a terribly difficult thing to do. In fact, Stelmach himself seems to be making it pretty easy for Danielle to kick him around the province.
So imagine my surprise when I read in yesterday’s paper that Stelmach had suddenly and without warning to anyone, quit his job! I figured he’d at least have stuck around for the next Alberta provincial election, but I was obviously mistaken.
It’s probably a good move on his part… even if it is typical of Canadian politics. Drag your party down by doing stupid things, really stupid things, and then quit so someone else has to clean up your mess. I say it’s a good move on his part because he must clearly understand some basic Alberta political realities.
You can do pretty much anything to Albertans, with a couple of notable exceptions, one of which is stealing their land out from under them.
Stelmach’s government introduced legislation that will steal Albertan’s property on the whim of a bureaucrat if said bureaucrat decides he or she may some day want to build something on or near your property. By freezing your property, or more importantly your ability to do anything meaningful with your property, until that bureaucrat makes up his or her mind about their proposed pet project.
That doesn’t sit right with Albertans, and nor should it.
And Danielle has been kicking Stelmach’s ass because of it. He stood as much a chance of getting rel-elected as a snowball does in that really hot place down below. Actually, that’s not true. He never stood that much of a chance.
On the bright side, he doesn’t have to worry about Danielle Smith and the Wildrose ALliance any more. She and her party are officially “someone else’s problem” as of yesterdays’ announcement.
I can’t wait to find out who’s problem that will be, and I especially look forward to hearing how they will spin the past few years of bullshit legislation that steals the very land out from under the feet of Albertans.
That should be a fun show, don’t you think?
Oh yeah, because you’re not biased at all, right? Seriously, she’s not even elected, and the people in her party are just traitors who were elected because they were PCs, then crossed the floor because they felt like it. That’s not democratic, and the people in their constituencies aren’t happy.
Me? Biased? Of course I am. I’m for freedom every single time. Currently, Daniel Smith and her Wild Rose party are the best hope for Liberty in Canada, not just Alberta.
Are you seriously going to tell me that Stelmach and his government are “defenders” of liberty? I’d love to see what evidence you have of that!
As for MPs crossing the floor, I’m not in favour of it when it helps my cause, or when it opposes it. (And no, I do not live in Alberta, so none of this personally affects me.)
If an MP is elected to represent their riding by being a member of a specific party, the ONLY way they should be able to switch parties is
a) by election while running for that other party, or
b) by a referendum in that riding.
There is a third option, which is to resign their membership in the party they were elected under and sit as an independent. That should be okay without an election or referendum.
Ultimately, it will be the voters who will decide whether those MPs who crossed the floor did so with good reason or not… by re-electing them…. or not.