Mar. 24, 2010 - Issue #753: Zion I

Vuepoint

Effective opposition

After the last election I had pretty much written off the NDP. While the NDP spent the first part of this legislative session complaining about the impact the Wildrose Alliance would have on NDP presence in question period, they seemed to have stepped up in the last few weeks to do some critical, probing work into the impacts Conservative decisions have made—something you would expect an opposition party to do.

With a research team of only two, Rachel Notley has sent Yvonne Fritz chasing down her own bureaucrats this past week. Uncovering documentation proving cuts were being made to foster parents taking care of disabled children, Fritz displayed a quick turn around and quickly found out the bureaucrats responsibile for belaying direct orders from the ministry. Notley and company can sit comfortably with that win.
This builds on the success of last week's report uncovering the abuses still suffered by temporary foreign workers in the province, despite programs implemented a few years ago attempting to help them.

With the Conservatives holding back the meat of the legislative agenda until the fall, there's not been a lot to work with, and Notley seems to have stepped up to make things interesting.

Perhaps it's the threat of the Wildrose Alliance that has turned up the pressure to perform. Whatever it is, I hope they can keep it up. While advocacy groups hold down the progressive opposition and create the most dialogue in the media, the Alberta political scene has been lacking a consistent progressive voice in mainstream party politics, and without a critical voice in the Legislature, the Conservative one-party state can get away with the pretty much everything that they already have. We need the opposition to be this effective everyday for good political dialogue in this province.

A lot has been speculated on the reforming of the Alberta Party as a possible contender for progressive's hearts. Looking closely at the Alberta Party finds more disaffected liberals and Red Tories. And without a seat in the Legislature the job is left to the current opposition. Here's hoping that all the opposition parties can keep their resources focused on critical dialogue. V

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