Alberta Politics

[McG]

Former NDP leader advocates reforming electoral system
TOM BARRETT
Provincial Affairs Writer
EDMONTON
Edmonton Journal, 02 Oct 04

Former federal New Democrat leader Ed Broadbent dropped into Edmonton on Friday to promote proportional representation and to criticize Premier Ralph Klein.  Broadbent condemned Klein's recent warnings to Ottawa to lay off Alberta's oil wealth as crass and divisive politics.

He suggested the first ministers would likely not have reached a deal on health care last month if Klein had not walked out of their meetings after one day.  â Å“I will contain my true thoughts about Mr. Klein,â ? the MP said, when asked about Klein's recent warning to Ottawa to leave Alberta's oil wealth alone.  â Å“I'm a polite and congenial kind of guy.â ?

At a legislature press conference, Broadbent called the warning â Å“typical Ralph Klein politics.â ?

â Å“It has nothing to do with substance, everything to do with rhetorical positioning and does a lot of damage to the body politic,â ? he said.  â Å“That's to understate it. Why would a politician, when there's no evidence at
all in the subject matter he's allegedly discussing, attack something that's never happened?â ?

â Å“Unless he just wants to be mischievous I would just say it's irresponsible politicsâ ?

Broadbent slammed Klein's recent decision to walk out of the final two days of a national summit on health care.  â Å“I don't think it's a historical fluke that we finally got an agreement between the prime minister and the premiers because he wasn't there,â ? the MP said.  â Å“All the other premiers and the prime minister were able to reach an agreement not long after he left town. Maybe things would work out a little more smoothly in the province if he did the same thingâ ?

Broadbent came to show his support for Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason, who is making a call for proportional representation the first plank in the party's electoral platform.  Under that system, parties would be assigned a fixed number of representatives based on the percentage of popular vote they receive.  â Å“Reforming the electoral system to make sure every vote counts is an issue whose time has come,â ? Mason said.

He proposes following British Columbia's lead and selecting delegates from all 83 Alberta constituencies to form a citizen's assembly The assembly would get 18 to 24 months to develop a proportional representation system.

Broadbent, a long-time supporter of proportional representation, noted that New Zealand and most European countries use the system or mix it with â Å“first past the postâ ? representation, where whoever gets the most votes in any riding wins the seat.

Liberal Leader Kevin Taft said his party had moved an Election Act amendment to set up a citizen's assembly this year. The government voted it down. He said it was nice to see the NDP also calling for an assembly, but questioned whether they were jumping the gun by suggesting what the assembly should include. The Liberals favour some form of proportional representation as part of general democratic reform, he said, but would prefer the proposed assembly review alternatives and reach its own conclusions.

tbarrett@thejournal.canwest.corn

 

[Infanteer]

It was freaking hilarious to hear Ralph Klein's response to Broadbent's attacks.  It was something to the effect that "He is not to bright and his views on me are coloured by his socialist beliefs."

I laughed pretty hard at that one.  It is good to see that Canada has institutionalized mediocrity with the NDP.

I still can't figure out why everyone likes to target Klein as some sort of failure.  I think it is "small penis" syndrome in government or something.  To these types of people, Klein can never do right; it's always something else. 

"Alberta has Oil" - sorry bub, but resources don't necessarily equal wealth and good government; if that was the case, Angola would be a model us to follow.

I think people of a left-leaning mindset are just extremely unhappy to see the fact that a small government that is run well actually does wonders for its people.

 

[logau]

I was just in Calgary for 10 days and asked the odd question about the economy - the word that kept coming up was BEEF

Does anyone out there think that the beef embargo on Canada could be a retort to the troops embargo we have in Canada for IRAQ?

Or possibly just its just payback time for shirking out on NATO and DND spending in general?

 

[Kirkhill]

Logau,

There may be elements of both in the thinking, but there is also a healthy dose of electioneering in the mix.  Bush's Republican Red States are all in Cowboy country, Texas to Dakotas, The Appalachians to the Rockies.  Given the closeness of the election he can't afford to lose any of those states. Beef and Cowboy issues are just the sort of issues that would keep Republican voters at home even if they couldn't bring themselves to vote for Kerry.

Having said that our positions on Iraq and Defence in general is probably not buying us any extra credit for the President to use if he were inclined to take a chance.  IMHO.

Cheers