Alberta Liberal Party votes - make it matter
The Alberta Liberal Party (ALP) membership* is voting for a new leader coming up very soon. There are three men standing for the job: David Swann, Dave Taylor, and Mo Elsalhy.
The party has been an also-ran player in the province of Alberta for the past 8 decades, many times fading to single-digit seats in the legislature. While there are a wide variety of reasons for this string of bad performance the most recent problems seem to revolve around a party core that is willfully ignorant of what average (i.e. the majority) Albertans want. The policy statements like this from David Swan’s recent glossy brochure:
…that governing should be for all people, not just special interests…
is what dogs the party. This implies, as most ALP policy statements seem to, that the majority of voters who have consistently elected Conservatives must be under the sway of special interests and are intrinsically uncaring of their neighbours. Until the party figures out that this basic premise is alienating to the average voter it will continue to be marginal.
The other issue with the Liberal coterie, especially given the broad base of support for the Conservatives, is the consistent rejection of all things done by the Conservatives as wrong, mean and immoral. There is nothing that the ALP accepts as positive public policy implemented by the current government and it’s near-past predecessors. This again contributes to the view that the ALP is ineffective as the opposition and is likely to be as ineffective as a government. Contrarianism doesn’t make a party platform and specific positions show this.
While Alberta has one of the highest per-capita health care spends in Canada, and private health care is rejected outright by the ALP, the primary message has been that we need to improve funding in many areas.
When Alberta’s primary and secondary educational system consistently ranks as one of the best in the world, ALP policy suggests that education is underfunded.
When the Conservative government has recently screwed up with it’s New Royalty Framework, precipitating billions in lost asset values and more billions in lost investment and thousands of people people being put out of work - occurring well before the recent economic crash - and all done for want of another billion in tax revenue, the ALP implies that they didn’t go far enough.
In his blog, David Swann, who seems to have the backing of many (most?) longtime Liberal party insiders (based on his recent email to party members) quotes a letter from Bob Dickinson:
The truth is, we live in an amazingly privileged society where taxes are the fuel that propel and sustain our lives and lifestyles.
While we do live in an extraordinarily prosperous province, the idea that taxes are the fuel of our prosperity is willful ignorance at it’s best. Without the creativity, the freedom, the hard work of most every Albertan and the businesses that they create to employ themselves and others, income would not exist to tax. If this basic view of economics were true then we should crank up the taxes and see a utopia spawned in the aftermath. Regardless that Alberta has the lowest taxes in the country, when you suggest that boldly increasing taxes is a policy platform, there isn’t a jurisdiction that will vote for you.
Again, these chronic stances reject the opportunity to seize more of the Alberta political center, which is the only way that the ALP is going to become relevant.
Now, after reading this litany of problems, you might think that I’m at best a troglodyte with an agenda other than actually supporting the Liberal party. While I disagree with most of the ALP policy statements, I believe that the Liberals are the best hope to bring accountability to the current Conservative government and are one of the best hopes to eventually turf Ed and his gang out on their ear - where they rightly belong. The Liberals are reasonably well organized, have a recognizable name and actually have a membership that is itching for a change of government.
What I really hope for is that the Liberal Party will reinvent itself to better resonate with average Albertans. I hope that the party brass and the next leader truly understands that the low voter turnout for the last provincial election had more to do with the ALP than the Conservatives, since Albertans stayed away for want of an actual alternative. I hope that by eventually embracing an investment friendly, innovative platform they will abandon their mantra that higher-taxes, bigger government and more laws are the only answer. I would like to see a fiscally responsible platform that combines socially progressive concepts, both of which the current Conservative government lacks. Alberta is populated by highly entrepreneurial, risk-taking, charitable individuals who don’t see their values well reflected by any party in the province, meaning that the devil-you-know problem will continue without tangible change.
I’ve had the opportunity to talk to and listen to a few Liberal MLAs and their supporters over the past few years and have found them to be earnest, hardworking, caring individuals - all of which makes them good MLA material but doesn’t necessarily improve the fortunes of the ALP as a party. If kindness won elections we’d have very different governments than we put in power.
One bright spot in those conversations has been the couple of longer conversations I’ve had with Dave Taylor, the current MLA for Calgary Currie. This statement from his most recent letter to ALP members is one that actually resonates with me:
…we need to make a stand for the centre - to present ourselves as business friendly, fiscally responsible and socially progressive.
These are concepts that the old-guard of the ALP seems to view as an untenable combination, but that I think Mr. Taylor actually embraces. He has the respect of many people I know and trust, and I believe that he’s the best choice for the current vote.
I’ve also done a tiny bit of research on Mo Elsalhy and like what I’ve read. It seems that he’s got a solid philosophy much like Dave Taylor’s, one that calls for a renewal and change within the ALP. That said, I don’t know enough for him to displace Dave Taylor as my first choice. I certainly hope he gets elected in the next election.
I’ve spent more time on David Swann’s commentary and, while he seems ernest, I have mostly found him to be too deeply connected to the old-guard in the party. This is same old guard that consistently resists real changes in platform, the same that have mounted utterly ineffectual provincial-wide campaigns, leaving their dynamic elected MLAs to be relegated to rump status in the legislature. I believe David Swann as the new leader will perpetuate the problems of the ALP and continue to deliver poor results in coming elections.
I’ll close with one last comment, that I hope current ALP members and supports will take to heart. For the Liberal party to succeed in the coming provincial election it will need to present policies that remove the Conservative stangle-hold on the Alberta political centre. Only a radical change in policy and policy presentation is capable of doing that.
Thanks for reading.
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* I’m a recent ALP member who is actively supporting Dave Taylor, my current MLA. Though I am a member I don’t identify myself as a Liberal nor does my membership in other provincial and national political parties influence me to wear a lapel pin.
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[...] in case it got lost in my last post on the subject, I wanted it to be clear that Dave Taylor is the best bet the Alberta Liberal Party [...]