Alberta needs strong leadership

by Werner Patels

People end up in politics for the weirdest reasons. Kevin Taft, outgoing leader of the Alberta Liberal Party, was once called a communist by former premier Ralph Klein, and that prompted him to enter active politics. So, he ran in a provincial election, won a seat in the Legislative Assembly and finally was elected leader of the Alberta Liberals. Having lost yet another provincial election earlier this year, Taft recently announced that he was stepping down as party leader.

In some ways, Taft has been underestimated all along. While he never managed to show real leadership skills, there is hardly any argument that he would be a better premier than the current one. It didn't help him much that whenever he tried to come up with some juicy soundbite for the media, he ended up looking childish, vindictive or outright silly. Apparently, someone must have told him that this was the way to do politics in Alberta – very bad advice.

The real Taft, therefore, remained a mystery to Albertans outside the Alberta Liberal Party. At various party functions he delivered hard-hitting speeches that, if the rest of Alberta had heard them, could have changed the course of recent history. It might surprise most Albertans, but when it comes to defending Alberta against Ottawa and others who want to dip into the province's wealth for their own advantage, Taft would probably be the toughest and fiercest warrior in the current pool of politicians in Edmonton.

If Taft were premier now, he would have sent a nuclear missile in the general direction of Stéphane Dion and Garth Turner for their most recent attempt to suck up Alberta's wealth and redistribute it among the lazy and work-shy in Ontario and elsewhere out east. By contrast, very little has been heard from premier Ed Stelmach.

The last provincial election was especially unfair and unkind to Taft. As a result of deliberate misinformation, Taft and his provincial Liberals were held responsible for the National Energy Program, a communist scheme that wrecked Alberta's economy about 30 years ago and which was thought up by a diseased federal Liberal brain, not the provincial Liberals. Still, voters fell for it or believed it and decided not to vote for the Alberta Liberals – a party that has absolutely no affiliation with the federal party, which is not even liberal at all. Taft, in fact, has never been a member of the federal party.

Now that his days as party leader are numbered, Taft is showing Albertans that there is a fighter in him somewhere. He has called on the provincial auditor general to launch an investigation into irregularities at the last provincial election (and that's putting it mildly, because election fraud may have actually been committed). Not that any investigation will go very far. In the current climate, Taft might have just as well asked Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe for a recount. The result would be the same – except that in Alberta, at least, Taft may not lose his life over it. Hey, but it's the thought that counts.

Leadership candidates have already lined up, and some Tories are getting nervous, because they know that with the right leader, the Alberta Liberals can beat the Tories. Dr. David Swann and Dave Taylor would do a good job – Taylor, a very popular former radio talkshow host, would pull in a lot of votes on his name recognition alone. Taylor has also been instrumental in a movement to reform the Alberta Liberal Party and bring it closer in line with, it is hoped, traditional small-l liberalism.