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Editorial: NDP acting like the opposition

Imagine, if you will,  a ruling party with a vast majority in the legislature, using the full power of the office of the premier, to lob partisan shots at its opponents

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Imagine dispatching ministers to offer torqued replies to media reports about the possible policies of the opposition, which currently has fewer than half the seats of the government. Imagine them offering campaign-style attacks against the leader of a party with just 1/18th the seat total of the government.


Now imagine the party doing all the above was the PC government under Ralph Klein or Alison Redford.

“Abuse of power!” the NDP and Liberal opposition would surely have cried. “Albertans deserve better of their government.”

Now imagine, if you will, the government doing all of this was packed with those once idealistic NDP MLAs.

We’re in the twilight zone, folks.

First, it was Premier Rachel Notley, using all the power of her office to come out and attack the UCP opposition over a hate group that had tried to glom onto an Edmonton nomination pub night. The UCP has disavowed both the candidate who defended the group and the group itself.

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Then, the government trotted out Environment Minister Shannon Phillips, who came out swinging with wild claims that UCP Leader Jason Kenney wanted to give employers the power to fire pregnant women.

A past look at his concerns with NDP labour law changes has shown Kenney is more worried about policies around union votes and stat holidays, but hey, let’s just let ministers of the Crown torque things up a notch.

Most recently, the provincial NDP took a swipe at Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel for a comment, albeit a clumsy one, made on a Postmedia podcast about issues getting more women to run for office. For his part, Mandel also talked up having gender parity among his party’s candidates and the need for more diversity in politics.

Grabbing soundbites out of context and torquing what the opposition may do is a tactic that has been used by many a governing party that is desperate (think of the 2006 federal Liberals “Soldiers with guns. In our cities.” ad from 2006. They lost that election).

It makes the government appear defensive, and it sure makes them look as though they’re the opposition.

Albertans deserve more from their government.

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