We suppose Premier Jim Prentice could be praised for consolidating what is likely the most concrete power base in provincial politics in Canada.
After Wildrose leader and MLA Danielle Smith crossed the floor, jumped ship, bailed on her constituents, turned her back on her former party’s ideals, and took eight MLAs with her (however you’d describe the move), Alberta is right back to where the Conservatives like to be – sans opposition.
Mind you, given that Albertans don’t seem to mind re-electing the party over and over and over and over ... we assume the situation isn’t really a problem for the general population.
And we realize that since no Wildrose MLA was in place in this riding, it’s really not an issue locally.
But here in the Outlook newsroom, we’re not in favour of this kind of floor crossing and the entire situation demonstrates once again that it is at the municipal level – where our politicians aren’t bound by party agendas or bias – that voters have the most bang for their voting buck.
We have to assume that some kind of cabinet or upper level position was written into Smith’s floor crossing, and that’s all well and good, but the fact that an opposition leader’s stance has made a 180-degree turn from name calling and pointing out political faux pas to praising a new leader has to be awkward, at least.
For a leader, in particular, to cross the floor is particularly problematic. It does make one wonder how long it’s been since Smith quit believing in Wildrose principles. While conservative Wildrose and Conservative aren’t that far apart on the left to right scale, we assume Smith was the leader of her party because she believed in it, not just because she thought she could sit in power via Wildrose.
And don’t get us wrong, it’s not only this Wildrose crossing that we think is wrong; we disagree with party members from any party crossing a floor, federally or provincially.
We feel there could be some merit in an MLA or MP renouncing their party to run as an independent if said candidate felt slighted by actions within their own party. At least in switching to an independent status, said MLA or MP could be viewed as remaining faithful to the voters that elected them.
But in the case of crossing the floor from one party to another, we feel constituents are being let down. In many cases, we believe, Albertans and Canadians vote for the party, not necessarily for an individual candidate. Floor crossing does not represent the wishes of those who elected a given candidate.
We realize Smith has now voiced reasons for jumping ship, including poor byelection results and a failure within her party to adopt an anti-discrimination policy.
As both Wildrose and official opposition leader, perhaps her efforts should have been focussed on hacking out deadwood and dealing with malcontents within her own party.
Clearly not everyone in Smith’s riding is happy with her floor crossing decision; a petition calling for her resignation is now being circulated in the High River area.
While Smith might not have been happy with recent byelections in this province, where her Wildrosers obviously didn’t perform as well as expected, we believe a floor crossing should signal a byelection.
With a byelection, voters could then again decide which party they want to support - in the voting booth where such decisions should be made.
