Heartbroken

Did you see the article in Calgary's and Edmonton's Sun papers on Saturday in which Danielle Smith accuses Premier Stelmach's office of spying?

A couple of things come to mind with that story.

First, why is it surprising that Liberals have been right about this anti-democratic stuff going for the last 40 years? Is that as long as Ms. Smith has been in Alberta? Too bad she's ignored the Liberal comments about all this for all that time.

Second, there's Ms. Smith's picture with the article. She looks dismayed, angry, disappointed and deeply hurt that her former friends would act in this unprincipled way against her. I would be too.

The whole scenario reminds me of a story that comes out of Saskatchewan. For all the years of NDP (and CCF before that) being in government in that province, Liberals and Conservatives complained about that dog-in-the-manger approach to winner takes all the spoils democracy.

I recall hard-bitten CCF-NDP ers while in Saskatchewan moving to Alberta and becoming hard-bitten PC ers. I always thought that paradoxical until this story came out. I then remembered the reactions of some of those people (and others) had to comments that the dog-in-the-manger approach is anti-democratic. "Of course it's their way or the highway and of course there will be no contracts with supporters of opposition parties. That's why they fought the election, so they could win and bend the government (and the public purse?) to serve their interests alone. Wasn't that the point of the election?"

So these people probably did not change their political ideology at all. It's the ideology of power much more than the ideology of effectiveness in enhancing the lives of the citizens. Moving to a new power regime meant simply changing to a different coloured coat.

Democracy in western Canada has a lot of evolving to do to truly have a government of peers, where all persons are born equal.
Mike