It has some of the best fuzziness, obfuscation and irrelevance to be found in Alberta politics today. Read it yourself but I was drawn to the “Social Policy” platform and here are some of my Favs:
A Wildrose Alliance Government will collaborate with non-profit societies and commit adequate funding for emergency residences to ensure that all children and victims of violence have a decent bed to sleep in and good food to eat. NOTHING TO IT - A WARM BED AND A SQUARE MEAN AND THE DOMETIC VIOLENCE PROBLEM IS SOLVED!!
A Wildrose Alliance Government will oppose all acts of family violence particularly acts against children by establishing a child's defense agency which will protect children from reprehensible acts. YES – IF WE MERELY OPPOSE FAMILY VIOLENCE IT WILL GO AWAY –RIGHT?
A Wildrose Alliance Government will offer to negotiate a delegated municipal style of self-government with any First Nation that wants to move beyond the Indian Act.
A Wildrose Alliance Government will recognize the precedence of the authority of the Provincial Government over the authority of a municipal style government. TAKEN TOGETHER SHOWS THE WAP DOES NOT KNOW ITS PLACE. PROVINCES ARE CREATURES OF STATUTE TOO…READ THE ALBERTA ACT. FIRST NATIONS HAVE SIGNED DEALS DIRECTLY WITH THE QUEEN – THEY ARE CALLED TREATIES AND THEY CARRY MORE LEGISLATIVE MUSCLE THAN ANYTHING ANY PROVINCE CAN DO.
A Wildrose Alliance Government will have as a goal the elimination of homelessness in Alberta within its first term of office. THIS IS TOO CLOSE TO A RHINO–LIKE PLATFORM PLANK TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.
There is more and I am sure some planks have some precision and merit but I am still looking. The WAP election platform proves once again that for every complex problem there is a simple answer that is WRONG!
It was embarrassing when Daveberta allegedly absconded with Ed Stelmach’s personality in the Domain-Name-Gate. But the WAP policy looks like it has been seriously infiltrated by the Rank and ‘Philes of the Rhinos.
To be fair the WAP has some merging pains and is floundering having recently lost its first President coming from the "Wildrose" side of the merger. He resigned for reasons that are still unclear. The "merged" party website mAy give a clue however. It is the "Alberta Alliance" and Wildrose is not part of the "MERGED" party's website name. Strange. Could this JUST be a Rhino astroturf site afterall?
To be fair the WAP has some merging pains and is floundering having recently lost its first President coming from the "Wildrose" side of the merger. He resigned for reasons that are still unclear. The "merged" party website mAy give a clue however. It is the "Alberta Alliance" and Wildrose is not part of the "MERGED" party's website name. Strange. Could this JUST be a Rhino astroturf site afterall?
Coming up with a pretty comprehensive set of policy platform themes under the circumstances and time constraints the WAP has faced has to be given some acknowledgement and credence. As for the policy being thought through and executable – it is not. Sorry WAPPERS - no points for effort and merely hoping complex problems will be solved is not a plan for Alberta.
"A Wildrose Alliance Government will oppose all acts of family violence particularly acts against children by establishing a child's defense agency which will protect children from reprehensible acts. YES – IF WE MERELY OPPOSE FAMILY VIOLENCE IT WILL GO AWAY –RIGHT?"
ReplyDeleteHmmm....particularly acts against children. Why not oppose acts against abused spouses and children equally? Just a thought.
At least the WAP actually gives some focus to fiscal responsiblity, unlike the big governmment progressive conservatives such as Ed Stelmach and Ken Chapman, who think every problem can be solved by throwing money at it.
ReplyDeleteJim
If the WAP role models for fiscal responsibility are the two paragons - Klein or Bush - they are in trouble. In his last few years Klein even outspent Don Getty who governed in a recession. In his time he went from an $11B budget to almost a $36B annual government spending spree with nothing to show for it but a one time $400 cash rebate that did nothing of lasting impact.
ReplyDeleteBush took the US from a surplus to a $2trillion debt in less than 6 years...and now they owe their financial sovereignty to China who lent the US the money to run the Iraq war.
Gotta love the true and blue fiscal conservatives these days.
Bush has been and always will be a big government conservative, just like daddy.
ReplyDeleteAs for Klein, it was only in 2001 when the red Tories in Calgary and Edmonton, ie. David Hancock, began to overshadow the remmants of the class of 1993, that the Klein government began to spend, spend, spend.
"Finally it has arrived"
ReplyDeleteWhat you talk about here has been out for a long time. Ever since the last policy convention, in fact.
What has IN FACT just arrived is the party's summary platform, the themes that put a gazillion individual planks into a comprehensible, presentable whole.
What is the summary platform?
ReplyDelete- Immediately eliminate health care premiums
- Raise the basic personal income tax exemption to $20 000
- Cut the provincial corporate tax rate from 10% to 8%
- Allow income splitting for taxpayers who care for dependents in times of medical or other crisis
- Direct savings from slowing spending growth to the Heritage Fund so that personal income taxes can eventually be eliminated
- Allow governance and service delivery at the municipal and community levels as much as possible
- As part of the party's universal health care plan, implement a pilot program in one of the smaller health regions that will be modeled after funding following the patients rather than the per capita funding currently in place today. Similarly, establish a school choice voucher pilot.
- Provide significant debt relief to Alberta-trained medical professionals who commit to practicing in the province at least 5 years
- Establish fixed election dates, allow for citizen initiatives via referendums, and enact the right to recall elected officials
Our brochure templates quote the Alberta Taxpayers Federation, who note that the Alberta government spends the highest amount per citizen in the country. In fact, it's 37% higher than supposedly semi-socialistic Quebec.
ReplyDeleteThe full platform is, of course, going to be mocked on occasion because it hasn't been focus-grouped and blow-dried in a smoky back room. That's what you get when any member can propose policies and see those policies get into the platform if other grassroots members agree to them. It's easier to get a plank in than to take one out when dealing with a large group of diverse opinions which makes for an unwieldly platform when unsummarized. I voted against some of them, sometimes after going to the microphone and arguing why, but it is no solution to hold policy conventions and then just ignore what the grassroots says like the PCs do.
Brian:
ReplyDeleteI like the WAP platform. It is realistic in its realization that government cannot solve every problem by throwing more money at them. That's the big government progressive conservarive approach of Ed Stelmach, Dave Hancock, and Ken Chapman.
Jim
Wow...I thought you were kidding, but nope, your post was totally on the level. I had so much trouble wading through the spelling, grammatical and formatting errors on the one page "vision" statement that I couldn't find all the stuff you referred to.
ReplyDeleteIs all of that really platform? How do I vote against beds for kids? Sounds like a winner.
I don't know what's worse - 1 page of poorly thought out policy drivel, or 20 pages of poorly thought out policy drivel.
Just to clarify on their website domain name. The albertaalliance.com site is just serving as an alias to their official website which can be found at www.wildrosealliance.ca.
ReplyDeleteIdeally, they would change the old domain name to redirect web browsers to the new domain name, instead of using it as an alias like this, to avoid confusion.
There is quite a bit in this policy document that is vague at best. An example is education, are they talking about a voucher system, where every child in the province is issued a voucher orfequivelant value and then the parents chose where they go to school. This has been proven to degrade the quality of education overall where it has been implemented. It severly disadvantages those in rural ares and small population centres. In the health care section they are definetly talking about 2 tier delivery and it can't jibe with the Canada Health Act as they say it will, it means substantioal privatization. It also sounds like you will be allocated an amout every year for Health care in an account setup, yet it doesn't suggest if you can carry years forward, or suggest a mechanism for catostrophic care.
ReplyDeleteThe so-called Alberta Pension plan would require the cooperation of the FEDS, and these self directed pensions would have been a diasaster in the last year. Yet they state that they will ensure the new APP will be equivelant or better than the CPP, how so if there is another major market downturn.
In taxation they talk about increasing deductions and basic personal exemptions, isn't this redudndant if they are working towards no personal income tax eventually.
Every section talks about tax incentives for industry and business, at the end of the year will they pay anything if they are shrewd.It just seems like more of the mantra of tax cuts pay for themselves, and lower taxes increase the take for the treasury by increasing economic activity. This is an old argument riddled with holes, just like this policy platform.
Now that it has come out, I think it is time for their leader to start answering the myriad questions it raises.