SAINTS PRESERVE US

Shattered

A full week has passed since Alberta’s provincial election. The sun has risen for seven conservative, erm, consecutive mornings. There are buds on the shrubs and trees. Tulips are up and the grass is greening. Almost half of the legal majority here in Alberta shriek that the tabulated result of 16 April is akin to the designed-to-fail musical in the Broadway farce The Producers: ‘Springtime for Hitler.’ These are the days of hysterical rhetoric.

Premier-elect Jason Kenney, leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP), was a cabinet minister in a since deposed Tory federal government, one micro-managed by control freak Stephen Harper. Kenney was educated by Jesuits. Ergo, ipso facto, he is a clever man. So clever in fact that the Mounties have opened a docket on him to discern how exactly he unified the right in Alberta utilizing divisive methods that likely prompted Russia’s Internet Research Agency to take notes. The UCP’s pithy campaign slogan was a mildly disturbing, jingoistic riff: Alberta Strong and Free. A Pink Floyd fan might think: ‘Us and Them.’

Alberta’s right is an uneasy alliance of two disparate groups, both of whom were shell-shocked by the unanticipated arrival of the 21^st century. Rural voters believe their family values have been victimized by the culture wars. Corporate Alberta is reeling from slumping energy prices and the growing popular perception that the curtain is descending on the fossil fuel era. There was a time when these two shattered groups were represented by different political parties, one right leaning and the other right tipped over.

The loyal opposition-bound New Democratic Party (NDP) has made ignominious provincial history, now forever tainted as the first-ever one-and-done government of Alberta. The right’s rap against the NDP, despite bi-partisan admiration for its leader Rachel Notley who qualifies as a true statesman whatever the pronoun, was that the lefties were too inexperienced and too ineffectual to oversee Canada’s engine room. This sentiment is also the view from here vis-à-vis the Liberal government in Ottawa, minus the respect for the leader.

The main issue of the election was a magic bullet. Both major parties agreed the solution to the latest in a cycle of provincial busts was so simple as to be obvious: another, just one, well, maybe two pipelines. Poof! Hard times be gone. Why not deflect the raisin-dry pain of another hangover with a nice cold beer? The simple choice put to the electorate was mere methodology: NDP diplomacy or UCP belligerence? Of course, Alberta cannot impose her will upon a federal jurisdiction nor can she sway the policies of a global cartel comprised of other oil producing nations. But these are details best avoided on the hustings.

The nature of Canada’s federation, an undercurrent in the Alberta election, is tricky. There’s no actual free trade among its provinces and territories. Some regions are more prosperous than others. Aspersions, Newfie jokes, are easy to cast, conflict easy to sow, eh bien! Some citizens embrace the concept of a strong central government, others don’t. Alberta is no different than her sisters, twitterpated with mixed emotions. Happy to be here but hard done by, a sort of petulant child. Like the other provinces and territories Alberta wants to keep the reap of its good years for itself but expects hand outs when its harvest is thin. The UCP me-first re-imagining of Confederation is oxymoronic although it sure stokes the folks in the skyscrapers, coffee shops and curling rinks.

Here we are now. Some of us got our wish: nothing but skies as blue as the field on Alberta’s provincial flag. A Pink Floyd fan might think: “blue skies and pain.”

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