It will be interesting to see what kind of opposition government the NDP choose to be.
Will they support the UCP as they fight for pipelines to be built, or return to their pro-environment platform and try to block any project the UCP tries to push through?
Jason Kenney, Alberta’s new premier, stated April 17 that the first priority of the UCP would be to get the TransMountain pipeline approved as soon as possible, saying it’s an urgent issue that “all major parties and leaders agreed on.”
I’d say that’s generous of Kenney, to give the NDP the benefit of the doubt that they are now sincere in supporting pipelines for Alberta.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
The NDP campaigned on a “fighting for Alberta” platform and were adamant they would support pipelines and the energy industry, but their track record for the past four years says otherwise.
A video from the Calgary Herald dated April 24, 2015, shows Notley saying she would not fight for the building of the Northern Gateway pipeline, saying “I don’t think there’s any point to it.”
Trudeau later killed the pipeline with no protest from the Alberta government.
It’s hard to deny video footage, but the NDP are trying anyways.
And perhaps with the suffering everyday people in the province people have endured in recent years the NDP have finally opened their eyes to the urgent need for pipelines to be built.
Notley certainly didn’t seem too sympathetic when she told Albertans who didn’t like the carbon tax to take the bus though.
Sally Hausser told CBC “Going forward, you will see the NDP continue to fight for exactly the same things they were fighting beforehand.”
Which “beforehand” Hauuser? Do you mean the anti-pipeline rhetoric before the election, that sad, too-little-too-late effort with the railway cars right before, or the complete 180 after the writ was dropped?
What exactly will the NDP be fighting for from the opposition seat?
What makes a good opposition party anyways?
An article in Albertaviews magazine dated Jan. 1, 1998 stated: “We don’t know what it means to have an opposition with teeth because we’ve never had one. We have never valued, encouraged or elected a really effective opposition in the provincial legislature.”
Well perhaps we are going to find out.
If the point of the opposition is to bring forward all points of view, so an issue can be argued from all sides, and that minorities and those who disagree with the current party in power can still be represented and have a voice, then perhaps the NDP will do alright.
I can easily see the NDP being an annoyingly loud, vocal opposition.
But the problem with party politics is that sometimes the opposition is opposing just for the sake of opposing. Argument, simply for argument’s sake, is not helpful.
Will there will be endless debates and bickering with nothing getting done, or some actual constructive give-and take? Or will the UCP just go ahead with its superior voting power and do whatever they want regardless?
The positive take-aways? Alberta came out in droves with a record 71 per cent voter turnout to elect this new government, and with any new government comes at least the possibility of positive change.