| Alberta Liberal Party leader Kevin Taft says his party will be pushing for the province to implement whistle-blowing legislation during the upcoming election campaign.
And the Liberals will be campaigning for stronger ethics legislation in the province. Taft says the legislation is needed to deal with situations such as the recent one in which Premier Ralph Klein’s former chief of staff, Peter Elzinga, was hired as a lobbyist for Suncor Energy at the same time as the company is battling with the government over royalty payments for an oil sands project. Premier Klein has said he believes Elzinga’s new job is not a problem because he hasn’t heard many Albertans complain about it.
"Who else is being paid by whom to lobby which cabinet minister?" asks Taft, who discussed his party’s election platform during a recent meeting with the media in Calgary.
Whistle-blowing legislation will be a priority for the Liberals because Taft says he’s often getting slipped "brown envelopes" from provincial employees about what’s going on behind the scenes in government. However, he says his sources won’t officially come forward with their information out of fear of being fired.
Taft says another priority will be pushing for a fixed election date. "The entire reason the Tories are going into the election early is because they feel their support is softening," he says.
As well, Taft says his party will be demanding to know what the Conservative Party’s promised health reforms will consist of, and the Liberals will be focusing attention on how the province should spend its surpluses now that the debt has been paid off.
"Our real concern is that the wealth and the opportunity is handled wisely," says Taft. "We have to find mechanisms to convert this temporary wealth into something permanent."
According to Taft, there’s currently a huge infrastructure debt in the province and he says that, in real terms, factoring in inflation, Alberta’s Heritage Trust Fund has grown smaller.
As for Premier Klein, Taft believes he lacks a vision for the province’s future. "We have a premier who boasts about being on autopilot. That’s pathetic," he says.
Taft admits that the Liberals are still saddled with a $900,000 debt, but he says the party is treating it like a mortgage on a house and making monthly payments. And he claims that, despite the debt, the party will still be able to launch as "respectable" campaign. He says that Liberal memberships are "over 6,000 and climbing."
In other political news, Edmonton MLA Brian Mason was acclaimed as the new leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party at the party’s annual convention in Edmonton last weekend. The NDP says it currently has 6,000 members. It will be releasing its election platform in the near future. |
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