Albertans deserve final say on floor crossings
MEDICINE HAT – Just under two years ago, on a cold December evening, I found myself at a small town Christmas concert in southern Alberta speaking with a despondent constituent. With tears in her eyes, she told me that she had just sent a $20 donation to the ex-leader of the Official Opposition, Danielle Smith. I know for some, it doesn’t seem like a lot of money, but I got the sense that it meant a great deal to her. It was a sacrifice for a cause and principles she believed in.
That concert was one of my first public events after a whirlwind day that swept nine of my former colleagues to the then government benches. The hurt, the sorrow and, yes, even anger were palpable. However, the shock eventually subsided after Albertans definitively had their say at the polls that they would not tolerate or support this type of backroom dealing. Today, that event has been relegated to merely a sad footnote in Canadian history.
It’s been said that in politics, absurdity is not a handicap. As I watched Premier Notley embrace PC MLA Sandra Jansen and welcome her over to the government side, I started to see why that may be true.
Once upon a time, the leader of the fourth party NDP said that those floor crossings represented “a betrayal to a number of different voters” and that “both leaders are equally guilty of betraying the people who voted for them.”