There is something much more fundamental concerning what happened to the Alberta Education Act (Bill 2) when it went into legislative purgatory (sorry for the religious imagery, but I had to use it) on March 22.
The Education Minister saw it himself when he first debated the bill early on. Lukaszuk in response to the Alberta Liberals who sarcastically stated that the government was going to pass it anyway, heard him say to the effect of “..I wouldn’t be so sure that it is going to pass.” and then the storm became more apparent after that. I knew what was coming and was teasing the Education Minister on Twitter telling him that he is going to look like this after he finishes dealing with the Education Bill.
It seemed to me that the post mortem over the Education Act has been centered over the technical points of the Bill, when the problem is much more deeper than that.
After 41 years of Conservative rule they have limited themselves to consulting a narrow band of Albertans, and have chosen to frame those that are not involved in the policy process as ‘satisfied’. This was never more apparent during the 2008 election when Stelmach once strolled into a local Tim Hortons and deliberately avoided a group of nurses who were in their usual hospital garb.
Even after four years of ongoing consultation, and re-consultation, on something as substantial as the Education Act, the PCs can’t get it right. This is because of the vacuum of real engagement with its own citizens. In any other province they enjoy the benefit of refreshing renewal of engagement as provincial parties are occasionally thrown out of office.
As I have written here the problem over the Education Act is not the fine print, but the profound disconnect between the government and its people, that leaves those of us that are not part of the power elite, disconnected, cynical, retreating to our own insular communities, whether they be religious, geographic, or other.
No wonder then, when the governing PC comes up with a piece of important legislation they are met with an onslaught of suspicion, misunderstanding, and general nastiness.
Alberta has shown to be a collections of communities that work well on their own, but few have the vision as to how to bring together these communities into something we call a Province.
40 is enough !
