what with the recent flurry of surprise political panic sweeping through Alberta I figured I’d repost something I’d written last summer (though not on here) about the party that most people feel will offer the biggest challenge to the PC’s for governance.

This party is, of course, the Wildrose Alliance. Otherwise known as the Tea Party of Alberta.

The following points are all based on the Constitution of the Party as adopted at their last AGM, which can be found for public viewing here. This is the real meat and potatoes of the party, not the glossy and opaque policy promises that are found under the ‘Policy’ heading on the party website.

Without further ado, I give you Picking Apart the Wildrose (originally composed June 25, 2010):

Normally, I don’t pay much attention to provincial politics, much less Alberta’s seeing as how I spent the majority of the last eight years outside the province. Now that I’m back for a while, I’ve started to watch the degeneration of the appeal the PC party has and the troubling rise in popularity of the Wildrose party.

I say troubling because this party actually frightens me. Legitimately. To the point where I would seriously consider quitting my job and moving out of the province if, through some unfortunate twist of fate, they were able to secure a majority in the next election.
The Wildrose Alliance formed out of the merger of two truly right wing provincial parties. These are the most unrepentant Canadian Alliance supporters who say that the current provincial Conservative party isn’t Conservative enough for their taste. If you’ve got an image in your head of the crazy neo-con Albertan, then yeah, you’ve probably got the right idea. If you happen to be a crazy, right wing neo-con Albertan reading this, then congratulations, you might learn something.

Like most grassroots parties, Wildrose paints itself as a unique and refreshing approach to politics, with the current goal of becoming a big-tent, center-right party. I have a few problems with this statement. I’ll get into the rebuttal of their current ‘policies’ (and i say this knowing their AGM is being held right now to formalize party policies in the hotel that’s across the street) in a bit, but first I have to say I have a problem with the statement that they’re refreshing. This is not expressly stated by the Party itself, but is an opinion held by many of its supporters. First off, are they refreshing? I’d say no. This is essentially a reactionary party full of people who can’t stand the idea of beneficial social taxation.
Reactionary parties point to an altogether larger problem in Canadian politics where the voting public disregards or ignores the bulk of party policy and simply leans towards or votes for the new entrant because “he’s not the old person.” Yo see this all the time in polls concerning federal politics: “I’ll vote Harper because there’s no real choice beside him.” This, of course and rather ignorantly,shows a complete lack of voter responsibility. You should vote for a party whose policies best reflect your needs and beliefs, NOT which party leader likes hockey more.

Wildrose is indeed a reactionary party to the perceived conservative value failures of the current Stelmach government. I don’t support the Alberta PCs, but not because I don’t think they lack in the Tory value department. I base my opinions on actual formalized policies. Supporters of the Wildrose party grasp at the carrot dangled by the party claiming that it will make up for the failings of the PCs. Unfortunately, this is reflective of the majority of voter behaviour in Alberta and Canada and it makes me sick.

The problem with grassroots parties claiming to be refreshing is that they’re essentially built up around dislike of big-tent party policy. Big-tent policy encompasses a large area of the political spectrum, so to be refreshing you really have to grasp at a niche corps of the voting public. The issue then turns into the small party becoming the big-tent party, and the cycle repeats.

Now, to truly determine if this party is refreshing in a political sense, let’s examine the policy directions, ideas and statements they’ve stated on their website:

a) To ensure that the Party Leader remains internally accountable to members of the Party and the Caucus, and thatthe Party’s MLAs remain accountable to their party and constituents.

Not refreshing, and essentially repeated in every provincial and federal political party that exists.

b) Provincially, to reflect, strengthen and efficiently serve the common-sense values of Albertans: those being civic responsibility, the lowest possible taxation, a strong and enterprising work ethic, stable families and a growing population,self-directed communities, prudent provision for the province’s future, sensible assistance for the sick and disabled,respect for the rule of law, the traditional fundamental freedoms, and secure ownership of and benefit from private property.

Again, not refreshing. Low taxation is a mainstay of the political right as is the desire for stable, nuclear families and strong work ethic. That’s why the Republicans exist. The rest of this statement is rather vague and is applicable to both right and left wing political supporters. Find me an NDP supporter who doesn’t agree that we need ‘prudent provision for the future’ or ‘sensible assistance for the sick and disabled’.

c) Federally, to encourage and support earned prosperity among all provinces, equal treatment of all provinces by the federal government, and the full exercise of Alberta’s constitutional rights and responsibilities.

Not refreshing, and a goal of the Klein government for years.

d) We believe in the inherent value and dignity of each individual citizen; that all citizens are equal before the law and entitled to fundamental justice; and that all citizens have certain fundamental and immutable rights and freedoms,including: the right to life, safety, liberty, and privacy; the freedoms of speech and expression and the freedom to advocate, without fear of intimidation or suppression, public policies which reflect their deeply held values; freedom of religious belief and practice; freedom of peaceful assembly and choice of association; freedom of mobility; and the freedom to own, enjoy, and exchange private property in a free market.

Not refreshing, applicable to just about every political party that’s ever existed. Basically, this says “we agree with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms but we can’t outright say that.” The interesting point in here is ‘public policies which reflect their deeply held values’. Read: we’re Christian, do as we say.

This is the one ‘policy’ this party has that frightens me the most. It seems they are SO in favour of the preservation of free speech and expression without fear of reproach that they are committed to REMOVING Section 3 of the Alberta Human Rights Act. Section 3 of this Act states:

Discrimination re: publications, notices
3 (1) No person shall publish, issue or display or cause to be published, issued or displayed before the public any statement, publication, notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation that
(a) indicates discrimination or an intention to discriminate against a person or a class of persons, or
(b) is likely to expose a person or a class of persons to hatred or contempt because of the race, religious beliefs, colour, gender, physical disability, mental disability, age, ancestry, place of origin, marital status, source of income, family status or sexual orientation of that person or class of persons.

Essentially, this party is going to strike down the piece of provincial legislation banning hate speech because it interferes with the preservation of free values.

Just take a second to think that through.

e) We believe in democratic processes including: free and fair elections, fixed election dates, free votes in the Legislature, and the power of citizens to recall elected representatives and initiate binding referendums.

Not refreshing. We have fair elections and there are free votes in the legislature. If the Party Whip doesn’t tell you that you are supposed to vote a certain way, it’s a free vote. This is also somewhat contradicted under their section on Democratic Reform when they include ‘with the exception of the budget and votes of non-confidence.’ If you were truly in favour of democratic reform that supports a system of total accountability and freedom in voting in the Legislature, every single vote put forward by an MLA would be based on the majority support of constituents in each riding. What if there’s a constituency where the majority doesn’t support the budget but the MLA belongs to the incumbent party? Is that truly being accountable to the voting public and being democratically responsible?

f) We believe that government must be fiscally prudent: namely balancing budgets, limiting taxation, and minimizing the size and growth of the public sector and that they should treat public moneys as funds held in trust.

Not refreshing, right wing ideology at it’s most obvious. I don’t understand why right wing supporters think a right wing party is the only one that can hold a balanced budget. Remember those balanced budgets under Chretien? How many budgets has Harper had? And yes, I realize there was a recession but he was not voted in during it.

g) We believe that elected representatives are to serve honestly, ethically, and with concern for all; that their duty to their electors supersedes their obligations to any political party; and that government must be open and accountable to the people.

Not refreshing. I think we’ve been through this with the Accountability Act and we all know how well that’s gone…

i) We believe in universal public access to education.

This is actually contradicted in their own position on education where they state “1. A Wildrose Government will give priority for admission and funding to Alberta students to post-secondary institutions.” These two words are not mutually cooperative. ‘Priority’ and ‘universal’ do NOT mean the same thing. This policy makes absolutely no sense and the list of policy statements they have regarding education could be downright damaging. The options students have for post-secondary education are not limited to a single province, so why they choose to limit entry from out of province students when Albertans are leaving to take their education elsewhere might actually cause a drop in enrollment in Alberta’s educational institutions.

j) We believe in universal public access to health care

Congratulations, you support the Canada Health Act. However, for a fiscally conservative party the amount of spending on health care reform alone would be fairly large:

– provide coverage for authorized out of province medical treatment that is unavailable in Alberta,establish and fund a fully independent Health Ombudsman in Alberta,fully fund and implement a mental health initiative,provide expanded home care and palliative care services,build a unified, universal and cost-effective health services information network,institute a Health Management System,alleviate pressure on emergency room services by expanding the funding for and the number of multi disciplinary 24-hour-a-day community based health care centres, and the list goes on.

To me this says “we’ll show all the old people we’ll take care of them because we’re very much aware that they form a large base of our voting block.”

k) We believe in being environmentally responsible through conservation and renewal of the environment for present and future generations.

This is the line they have to keep up since the current party leader doesn’t believe in human influenced climate change.

4. A Wildrose Government will hold elections for Alberta Senators at the same time as Provincial Elections.

This has already happened, and without significant reform in the federal sphere (which is unlikely, since Harper has virtually ignored his own campaign promises on this issue and appointing huge numbers of Senators, while also facing criticism for his Senate reform plan from Tory Senators) any Alberta senators that are elected will never go to Ottawa. This policy position is effectively useless.

1. A Wildrose Government will institute a zero based budgeting program in all government departments. The program will require justification of all new funds spent each year.
Government departments are already required to justify their spending. We’re in a hiring freeze and fiscal austerity means that dollars have to be accounted for now. This isn’t really presenting anything new.

1. A Wildrose Government will cut red tape and the regulatory burden by 1/3 from 2009 levels.

Essentially, they’ll try and cut 33% of spending in government sectors. Let’s see how well they’re plans for enhanced funding for program delivery improvements and development of new policies fare with a third less money.

A Wildrose Government will restore education as an essential service under the Labour Code ensuring that no child’s right to an education is denied by school strikes or lockouts.

I agree that access to education is a fundamental right, but teachers in Alberta hold a lot of political pull, and if they’re faced with this I can see it backfiring on the Wildrose big time. Also on this point, I remember in high school when the public school systems in the province went on strike. Since I was in the Catholic system we stayed in class. I do remember that there were subsitute teachers and parent groups who still offered classes to students who wanted to show up so they wouldn’t miss learning anything. Is it really denying access if you’ve got secondary options available to you?

A Wildrose Government will withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan and create an Alberta Pension Plan.

The logistics and cost behind this would be a financial nightmare, especially with the majority of the baby boomer generation approaching retirement. Will Albertans enrolled in the CPP have to remove their money and switch it over? Will people with pension plans from other provinces be able to switch it over or will their pension time be ignored? (that happened to my aunt when she moved to BC) What happens if the investments made by an Alberta Pension Plan don’t pay off? How do you propose to guarantee the earnings of people paying into it if you don’t have the money to pay them back?

A Wildrose Government will collect the Alberta personal income tax.

I don’t understand why this is a policy statement if it’s already a provincial tax. This is redundancy at its best (worst?).

A Wildrose Government will increase the basic personal exemption to benefit the lowest income earners.

This is already done on both the federal and provincial level every few years, so again, redundant.

A Wildrose Government will develop new transportation corridors to relieve the pressure on current routes.

I work for Alberta Transportation. When I started I met some of the guys responsible or highway planning and development. The plans for new transport corridors have been in place and underway for over ten years in some cases. I’ve seen the expansion plans for Highway 2 and the long term plans for Highway 21. The reality here is that if this party plans on developing new highways over new land, it would directly interfere with their statements on the right to own property without fear of government interference.

A Wildrose Government will institute methods to hold educators accountable for performance.

Being that both my parents were teachers, this one troubles me. What it says to me is “my mom and dad says my teacher isn’t doing his or her job, she should be fired.” What this doesn’t seem to take into account is that a lot of students are stupid. Really. There’s no subtle way of saying that. Why should teachers have to shoulder the blame and be held accountable for students who don’t make an effort to learn, cause trouble and place the blame for their own failings on the education system?

A Wildrose Government will work to reduce absenteeism and truancy. (in the school system)

I fail to see how a party that would pride itself on not sticking its hand in the business of the public lives of Albertans could accomplish this without directly sticking its hands in the business of the public lives of Albertans.

A Wildrose Government will expand the role of sheriffs to handle Provincial justice issues.

The current PC government is already allowing the provincial Sheriffs to partner and combine forces with the RCMP, so this isn’t anything new or unique.

A Wildrose Government will recognize that all Albertans have equal rights, privileges and responsibilities.

To me, this is directly and blatantly at arms with their idea to strike Section 3 of the Human Rights Act. Apparently everyone has equal rights except if you feel discriminated against, in which case you have no right to feel discriminated against. One of the visions they list on their website is “Recognize that families are a cornerstone of society and must be maintained.” This can easily be translated to “we hold near and dear to socially conservative values and you will be judged and/or denied about anything you say or want contrary to them.”

That being said, the current leader Danielle Smith, openly acknowledges that she is pro-choice (but not above cutting funding to abortion) and doesn’t oppose gay marriage. Good on her, this is perhaps the one good note in this whole rise of the New Right Wing Big Tent. Will her opinions on these subjects really have mass appeal to the voting base most likely to support her party? I would say no. Given that the majority of religious voters lean to the right, this is an issue that this party will have to address and come to terms with, especially if they voting block wants something done about touchy subjects like same sex marriage and abortion. The claim of being the only true Conservative alternative will only get you so far if you don’t practice what you preach.

I really hope this party either fails to gain a majority, or if they do, I’m out of the province by then. I can’t really stomach the thought of having to live in a province where the government is essentially the watered down Canadian equivalent of the Tea Party Movement. I’d rather face higher taxes and civil strikes than live in a province run by climate change deniers, Christian fundamentalists and a legislative system that openly allows hate speech.