Just When I Think It's Getting Quiet

I was driving into work this morning, and listening to Rod Love and Ralph Klein expound on the lack of a need for a lobbyist registry in this province.

Says Rod Love - sometimes you can have "too much public scrutiny". (This is a quote from a debate broadcast on CBC last week)

Says Ralph - "I don't hear anybody clamoring for it"

This is near the top of my list of reasons why Ralph and his buddies need to go. For those not familiar with the relationship between Rod Love and Ralph Klein, Rod Love served as Klein's "right-hand man" dating back to his years as mayor of the city of Calgary, and was in a similar position when Klein moved into the Premier's office in Edmonton. He is now a 'consultant', apparently to both the government, and to groups that want access to the ears of the government.

I heard this, along with some very nicely done commentary from a University of Calgary professor that specializes in ethics (is there such a thing as an ethical politician???) , and I found myself thinking that Ralph, and his advisors, are even more clueless than I had initially expected. Basically, the government's position seems to be that if there's no law against something, it's not a problem. Wrong! Part of accountability is clarity - when there's a great wall of fog over the activities of the government, it becomes very difficult to understand what's going on up in Edmonton.

Along with a number of other items that Klein's bandits have been engaging in, this is part of a growing list that points to the overgrown, arrogant nature of the "Progressive Conservative" party in Alberta.

• No lobbyist registry - the electorate doesn't have a right to know who's trying to influence government policy??? (Rod Love's comment is pure poppycock - King John said the same sort of thing when he was forced to sign the Magna Carta. Public scrutiny of that King did wonders for the people)
  
• A shrinking amount of time spent in the legislature. (Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed the fall sitting shrinking to a laughable 10 days)
• No real debate going on in the legislature. Even when the legislature is in session, there is precious little substantive debate going on. Part of this is the lack of opposition seats (only 10 this term), but the other part is an attitude on the part of the governing party that makes them feel they can belittle the issues raised by the opposition rather than answer to them.

I don't want to argue that we _need_ a lobbyist registry - I'm not actually sure it would buy us anything in particular. However, Ralph's response to the suggestion basically speaks to the underlying approach of his government. Leadership is not on the agenda. Ralph doesn't lead - he bends with the political winds. If there were a public outcry over this, he'd institute one as quick as possible. (Although, hobbled to the point of being useless, no doubt)

The other thing that I find profoundly troubling lately has been a rash of legal challenges to candidate nominations that are popping up in the run up to an expected November provincial election. The Conservative party has had several nominations turn into court fights after prospective candidates were arbitrarily disqualified in favour of the incumbent. One of these kinds of battles would make me shrug it off as "normal politics". However, when we start seeing several such suits emerge, from across the province, I have to start suspecting that the rot that I believe has set in at the higher levels of the party is in fact pervasive through the entire structure. This kind of rot means that we have a group who not only believes they will be elected next time, but they are in fact presuming such to be the case. This is very bad news for the citizens of Alberta. Once a party starts to believe that they have a right to govern, the public interest will be usurped by the interests of the party members only.