Phendrana Drifts

My Liberal friend Dave (along with much of Alberta's political blogging community) have been posting about the release of the Liberal platform. Fortunately for my political party, mainstream media pretty much ignored it and it would be better of everyone else did as well but I couldn't resist. Plus few read this blog anyway, so I doubt it will tilt the tide to the Liberals. Dave said that Tory spinsters (I think that is a different kind of spinster than the unmarried kind) would place two critiques on it: the Liberals are including too much spending and the Liberals are not including enough spending details. And Dave, they are right. Both are valid, very valid.

Another blogging friend, the Enlightened Savage, points out that at the core Kevin Taft and friends are essentially calling all of Alberta stupid, and that too is a great point. I am reminded of the West Wing episode where Republican Arnold Vinick thanks Democratic Jeb Bartlett and the strong legacy he is leaving - brilliant. That's what the Liberals should have done, instead of talking about how stupid we are for electing Lougheed, Getty and Klein.

But beyond that, I couldn't get over one simple reality of the Liberal platform: its boring. Dull. Uninspired.

We could do anything in Alberta. Absolutely anything - and this is what the top five Liberal promises are:

Eliminate health care premiums
Re-regulate electricity to lower Albertans' power bills. (How much lower after the Liberals axe the natural gas subsidy in the winter months - it is still mighty cold outside Dr. Taft.)
Invest 30% of all royalties
Cap greenhouse gases in five years
Provide the hospitals and train health care professionals

I want to scream out "That's it? Those five things are what needs to change in Alberta?" Now, I'm not trying to make light of the issues these promises are trying to deal with, but compared to, say, five accomplishments of the Stelmach government in 12 months alone it all feels like small potatoes, let alone what the Government of Alberta needs to get done before 2012. Consider:

Raising royalty rates by 20%, bringing in $1.4 billion more for our non-renewable resources in 2010
Investing $11.3 billion in our communities over 10 years in a new deal with municipalities
Settling the pension liability of $2.2 billion with Alberta's teachers
Limiting the frequency of rent increases while investing $285 million in affordable housing initiatives
Investing $130 million in nanotechnology - amazing research that will revolutionize not just Alberta, but the world

Naturally I'm the kind of geek that could go on and on, but the point is that the Liberals could have promised anything. They have little to lose - Dr. Taft all but said they won't win the election. They could have promised to put an Albertan on the moon by 2012. But instead we got a dull platform that likely feels like a sellout by left-leaning Albertans, a chastisement to right-leaning Albertans and a dull attempt at managing Alberta rather than bold leadership by undecided Albertans. Let's see if the other parties can do better.

Labels: alberta politics

6 Comments:

At 2:47 PM, daveberta said…

Nope, I meant the unmarried type of spinster. :-)
At 3:05 PM, Anonymous said…

Eliminate Health Care Premiums? Isn't the government already going to do this? How can that be a Liberal Campaign promise?

Lower Albertan's power bills? Once they axe the natural gas rebate credit as they have promised to do most people won't be able to afford heat in the winters! Plus, how much more can they spend as a government to subsidize our heating and utility costs without eventually rasing our taxes somewhere else? Then we really will be paying for it!

Investing anything would be a challenge for a Liberal and Alberta knows it (and we're the stupid ones).

Cap greenhouse gas in 5 years? What are they going to do, ban cars, buses and single family dwellings all in one go?

Provide hospitals and train health care professionals... Now there's something that shouldn't even be a "campaign promise" it should be the everyday job of Governemnt - which is why the PC's are building new hospitals, making more spaces at University for health care professionals AND providing incentives for health care professionals to stay in Alberta.

Thing about building hospitals in today's Alberta is that to build more right now means pulling developers away from housing projects (which are obviously very much needed) and paying an extreme premium to build your public buildings. Obviously the Liberals dont seem to understand this... It's not like you can become a government and magically everything you need appears in mid air.

I think their platform shows that they are not ready to be a government - and I am pretty sure I remember Kevin Taft saying they weren't going to win last election too. Talk about self fullfilling prophecy!
At 6:44 PM, iBrett said…

"Fortunately for my political party, mainstream media pretty much ignored [the Liberal platform] and it would be better of everyone else did as well but I couldn't resist."

Your commitment to democracy is resolute, I see.

:P
At 9:37 AM, Anon. said…

Thank the Democracy Gods that democracy is not dependant on the Liberal election platform!
At 9:48 AM, Toby said…

Duncan, do you think parties can win elections with grand promises rather than small ones? I know what I WANT the answer to be, but I'm not sure if it agrees with electoral reality.
At 3:22 PM, Duncan said…

Good question Toby... if that isn't the right answer, what can we do to make that the right answer?

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