As required by provincial law, Alberta will hold a provincial election sometime between March and May.
Our last election in 2015 was a watershed in Alberta politics by marking the end of the old Progressive Conservatives’ 44-year reign over the province.
This election will be another watershed in that there are multiple competitive parties that all have decent chances of forming the next government.
Most Alberta elections since 1935 weren’t very competitive. The successful Social Credit and later Conservative parties have usually won landslide majorities in the legislature, with the Opposition parties usually only getting a few seats each.
2015 was an exception not just for the NDP’s dark horse victory, but for the Wildrose Alliance and the PCs getting 31 seats between them. Since then, the Wildrose and the PCs have united to form the new United Conservative Party, while the Alberta Party continues to make itself known.
Regardless of who wins the upcoming election, having multiple competitive parties can only be a good thing for Alberta.
One of the most important elements of our parliamentary government system is a healthy Opposition that can hold the governing party’s feet to the fire. When that Opposition is lacking, it can reduce the quality of governance.
A perfect example is the state of the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund. While Peter Lougheed established it as a rainy day fund, his PC successors spent most of the royalty money from later oil booms as it came in instead of saving it. This approach was criticized by think tanks such as the left-wing Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the right-wing Fraser Institute, that noted the Trust Fund has become much smaller than its counterparts in Alaska or Norway.
Preston Manning once noted that, like diapers, politicians should be changed every so often and for the same reasons.
Most other Canadian provinces, including the rest of Western Canada, have regularly rotated political parties in and out of office for years. Even when they don’t form government, Opposition parties can still wield political influence.
While Manning’s Reform party never formed government in the 1990s, their calls for getting Canada’s finances in order gave additional incentive for the Jean Chrétien Liberals to make the spending cuts that balanced the federal budget.
If we’re lucky, the days of one party dominating Alberta politics for decades at a time are over.
What’s important in the upcoming election, even more than whoever wins, is that they have an Opposition to keep them on their toes.
The worst thing that could happen is for a political party to think that it’s the only one that really represents Alberta – witness conservative activist Craig Chandler claiming that conservatism was Alberta’s culture, and that new arrivals should vote conservative or leave. That’s no better than claiming that the federal Liberals are Canada’s “natural governing party” – and many Albertans are probably familiar with the contempt some Liberals displayed to us for generally voting conservative.
That, more than any particular policy, is bad for both Alberta and Canada.
Jared Milne is a St. Albert resident with a passion for Canadian history and politics.