| After 14 years under wildly popular, colorful Ralph Klein, Ed Stelmach’s surprise victory in the Conservative leadership race has left many Albertans questioning what direction he will take the province.
In his policy platform Stelmach promised to create a lobbyist registry, hold a public review of oil and gas royalties, pony up $1.4 million in new funding to municipalities to address infrastructure issues and he hopes to negotiate more provincial control over immigration policy. The platform also stated he wants to create a new land use framework to protect the province’s environment, expand the province’s parks system and increase affordable housing. Stelmach has stated his support for the public health system and he has promised to create new all party policy committees that would include opposition parties rather than just Conservative MLAs. At his first media scrum as premier, Stelmach said the province’s labour shortage was his number one priority and his second priority is to address the province’s chronic housing shortage. It remains to be seen what action Stelmach will take on all his promises.
Liberal leader Kevin Taft says he is hopeful that opposition parties will receive more respectful treatment with Stelmach as premier and "hopefully we can bridge some of the partisan differences."
"Under Ralph Klein it wouldn’t matter what ideas we brought forward, how brilliant they were. They were always dismissed," says Taft.
Taft says all party policy committees are standard in other provinces, as well as federally, and he’s hopeful that Stelmach will follow through on his promise and introduce them as soon as possible. Taft is also hopeful that democratic reform options and fixed election dates will be on the table.
He also wants to see Stelmach move the province beyond "fighting fires" and instead show some leadership on solving problems related to Alberta’s growth.
"How is it that in a province this wealthy and in a city like Calgary our hospitals and our schools and our roads are in the condition they’re in? That’s unacceptable and my concern is that it’s still the same government that got us into the same situation," he says.
Doreen Barrie, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, predicts Stelmach will be a markedly different premier than Klein.
"I suspect (Stelmach) is going to build more consensus and going to be more of a team player," says Barrie.
But she doubts that he will have the same charisma as Klein and that will give opposition parties an advantage in the next election.
"It was Ralph Klein who really carried the party while he was premier. It was his personality and his charisma and his ability to connect with people and to communicate well that really allowed the Conservatives to do so well," she says. "I think that Stelmach would certainly put the Liberals and the Conservatives on a more equal footing in the next election campaign." |
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