Unions Score First Election Hit

As the province of Alberta rumbles towards an expected call for a late-spring election, activity on the political scene is heating up. The pending merger of the Alberta Alliance and Wildrose Party is still topical water cooler chat, with positions for and against filling the op-ed columns. Now along comes the latest buzz. The first salvo has been fired in the unofficial campaign, and it wasn’t from the gun of the ineffective Kevin Taft-led Liberals or the sideshow Whyte Avenue New Democrats. The rocket that hit Premier Ed Stelmach’s bulls-eye (and has scored a direct hit) is courtesy of ‘Albertans for Change’, which describes itself on its website as:

‘…an initiative of the Alberta Building Trades Council and other coalition members including the Alberta Federation of Labour, which together represent nearly 200,000 working Albertans.

Our coalition believes strongly that democracy is best served when governments are held accountable for their decisions and when voters are encouraged to cast well-informed ballots.’

http://www.albertansforchange.ca/

The site features three videos released by the labour coalition, all of which go beyond just the normal rhetoric of party vs. party debate to which we are all now way past desensitized. These go directly to Stelmach himself, with each vid asking in different ways why he hasn’t solved some of the sometimes overlooked negative consequences of the massive economic boom Alberta has been more than enjoying.

In targeting the ‘reaction’ to the boom’s positive ‘action’, the group points out raw-nerve issues including the still-floundering health care system, sky-high rents and real estate prices which have actually created a new class in the province – the wealthy homeless, and so on. At a time when many long-time PC’s are themselves beginning to question certain aspects of their own party and leadership, this first shot had to sting a bit.

Dealing with the public fallout over embarrassing fumbles on issues like the energy royalty mess and the Craig Chandler affair, mixed with Stelmach making himself look foolish over the stupid and useless battle with the guy who owns edstelmach.ca, the governing party was at least thankful that the other parties in the Legislature are themselves so impotent as not to be able to land a sufficient blow while the Tories were down. Instead, it was the unions who launched the first public shot against the stale P.C.s.

And by doing so, they have suddenly become a major factor heading into the upcoming campaign.