In his underdog campaign for the Progressive Conservative leadership, Doug Griffiths said he is trying to bring generational change and argues the stakes for the long-ruling party are high.
"The future of the party rests in the balance of this leadership race."
In an editorial board meeting with the St. Albert Gazette on Wednesday, Griffiths, 38, argued the party is showing its years.
He said, at the 20 conventions he has attended, someone always welcomes the single table of young people, but the party has to do much more to reach out to them.
"You cannot have a 55-year-old person standing up at podium saying, 'It is nice to see so many young people. Don't worry, I have the answer to your problems,'" he said. "You have to have a 38-year-old person saying, 'I don't have all the answers, but I have the same questions, so let's figure it out.'"
Griffiths, a nine-year MLA and former teacher and rancher, said the party could rapidly find itself extinct if it doesn't begin to attract young people.
He said he has the experience for the job, but also a perspective that has been absent.
"I will be the first premier in this province in 26 years that has kids in school. My perspective will be quite different from any of the others."
Tough love
Griffiths is promising to be direct with Albertans about the province's financial challenges if elected. He said, with so much revenue coming from royalties, the federal government and sin taxes, Albertans themselves actually pay very little for their government.
"Here we are with a $27 billion gap [between personal tax revenues and government spending], living off of royalties that come out of the ground and federal transfers and people with addictions."
Griffiths said those numbers are foreign to most Albertans and he believes that is the first step toward fixing the problems.
"Few people in Alberta actually understand that there is such a challenge, and before you go and sell someone the solution, you have to explain to them what the problem is."
He said talking to Albertans frankly about the fiscal picture is the same approach he used as a teacher.
"You don't change students' behaviour by telling them they need to change their behaviour. You show them what the consequences are of their decisions."
Griffiths said, if the province wants to find itself in a fiscal mess a few decades from now, then it should simply keep doing what it is doing. The hard truth, he said, is the Conservatives haven't been great managers of the province's wealth, spending too much in boom times, leading to cuts during inevitable busts.
"We are not paying for what we get. So maybe we need less or maybe we need to pay more. Everything I am talking about is changing the entire culture that we have become accustomed to."
With resource revenues returning next year, the province should have an easier time balancing the books, but over the long term, what he wants is to have the province have predictable levels of spending and save surpluses for the future.
"Next year, I think four blind monkeys could balance the books because we are going to see royalty revenues climb substantially from oilsands revenues," he said. "Maybe not four blind monkeys, but anybody could balance the books."
Griffiths said those savings could be invested for Albertans and in Albertans.
Health care challenge
Griffiths released his health care policy on Tuesday and said the system has grown beyond what anyone initially intended.
"Tommy Douglas said, 'The purpose of medicare was to make sure a health care crisis didn't become a financial crisis.' I think we have lost sight of that."
Griffiths said he would like to bring some personal responsibility back into the system. He said the government was wrong to eliminate health care premiums and Albertans misuse what they are not paying for directly.
"We spend around $600 to $650 [each] on doctor's visits that amounted to little more than a sniffle."
To encourage that fiscal responsibility, Griffiths said he would restructure health premiums with a nod toward the decisions people make. Certain actions, he believes, should reduce a person's premium, while others, like smoking, should increase them.
"Every year you smoke, you are going to cost the public system more," he said. "Now they have a personal responsibility, and if they don't like paying more money, they can quit smoking."
Underdog
The limited polling on the contest shows Griffiths as having little chance to win, but he argues his support runs deeper than the numbers suggest.
"We have turned around a lot of people's minds."
Griffiths said he got into the race because he believes the province is making mistakes that will have a long-lasting impact.
"If I have to tell people what they want to hear so they will vote for me, I don't want this job," he said. "I am not in this because I want to put premier on my resumé. I have a very nice resumé. I am in this because I am concerned about my kids' future."
Watch video of Doug Griffiths meeting with the Gazette editorial board by clicking here.
