When we were in Calgary a few weekends ago, I joked with some family members that I wanted to be there on the morning following the provincial election to see if the sun would come up if an NDP government was elected. Even at that late date no one seemed to take the possibility very seriously.
It seems hard to believe that it was 44 years ago that the Progressive Conservative Party was trying to pull off a similar upset, hoping to form a new government after more than three decades of Social Credit rule. I was 17 and totally immersed in the campaign, too young to vote but already an old at hand at election volunteering. I had worked on a federal campaign at 14 and as a 16-year-old was the youngest PC constituency director in the province.
The election campaign in 1971 was exciting to work on. Peter Lougheed and a youngish group of bright lights had already made waves in the previous election with an enthusiastic and positive approach to wooing voters. Door-to-door campaigning, not common at the time, really got the attention of the public. In that election I had seen PC candidate Len Werry out going door to door, wearing running shoes, and it made a deep impression. It was enough to push me to make a cocky bet with my math teacher that Werry would unseat the incumbent and much older Socred in our riding. Much to his chagrin, he had to pay up, which he did by tossing my dime winnings across the classroom to me.
In ’71 there was a cardinal rule in the PC party. No criticizing the Socreds. Instead Lougheed and his team put together a series of proposals that illustrated how they would govern and, in the end, the public believed them. It seemed like a miracle when a government that had been in power since long before I was born was toppled.
That shift couldn’t be described as being nearly as dramatic as the one that happened last week, though. With Sarah Notley somehow elbowing out room in the centre of the political spectrum, she came across as articulate, passionate, thoughtful and not at all frightening. Here was an NDP leader that didn’t seem radical or anti-business, but who could be trusted to rid the province of the accumulated odor many long-lived governments emit. Much like old shoes, the Alberta PCs’ tongues were still fine but their soles had long since worn through.
In retrospect, I suppose it has been too easy to paint Alberta as a right wing province, given the long track record of electing conservatives candidates. But Calgary’s choice of Naheed Nenshi should have been an indicator that Alberta has changed significantly, getting younger and decidedly more international in flavour as the long boom in gas and oil attracted professionals from around the world. It is this change in demographics, I think, that fostered an increased sense of disgust with the status quo, first as Premier Alison Redford went all North Korean in her love of government perks, and then with ultra-corporate friendly Jim Prentice cynically calling an election for no better reason than his party was looking good in the polls.
What had long since been clear to many living outside Alberta, the ruling party’s government was simply fresh out of ideas. And when Dinning welcomed the Wildrose Allliance Party’s group of opportunistic turncoats into the PC caucus a year earlier the message was clear — “Nothing new to see here, folks. We do whatever is good for us and damn the rest of you.”
Now, unless Notley turns out to be the second coming of Nenshi, I can’t imagine that the NDP will be at the helm for anywhere near as long as the PCs or Socreds were. The pressures from the business sector, and oil and gas particularly, will be enormous. But if this election does nothing else, it could break the fear-of-change rut that the province has been in for most of its history. Albertans might sneer at our B.C. politics, but we do have a better record of taking chances and having a shorter stock of patience, which is a good thing, in my opinion.
This result also breathes hope that a new, more worldly generation — and many, many more women — might be ready to inject new life into a province that hasn’t done particularly well in capitalizing on its resource wealth.
Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.
