The election’s over. Thankfully, the NDP, with their radical agenda, did not get in. Danielle Smith’s UCP squeaked out a narrow victory, with 52.5% of the popular vote, and five seats over the minimum needed for a majority government. As she pointed out in her victory speech, she faced the most intense third-party advertising campaign ever seen in Alberta. For those in favour of educational pluralism, this begs a question: what sort of a mandate does she have for education?.Smith has two ways of looking at her win. On one hand, she can take the election as a referendum on the NDP’s radical agenda. Since that agenda was defeated, she may want to go the opposite way. On the other hand, the UCP losing seats may suggest she should meet her opponents halfway. Unfortunately, her victory speech suggests she may adopt the latter view — which does not bode well for education choice..While Smith’s victory speech lacked much detail, she said two things about education. She said she wants to examine jurisdictions around the world to build a “healthcare system and an education system that are models for the entire world.” She said this requires empowering “teachers and other front-line professionals, along with feedback from parents.” Her remarks suggest a technocratic and elitist point of view: “professionals” are in charge — parents are an afterthought. While we hope Smith means otherwise, her remarks could signal a resolve to let the Alberta education establishment dictate terms..The education establishment, however, is the very source of Notley’s extreme policies. Michael Gove called it “The Blob” — the convergence of the interests of bureaucrats, union officials, academics, activists, and contractors. The NDP’s educational policies exist because they benefit The Blob – forcing more teachers into the union and paying for legions of consultants and activists..Consequently, we hope the Premier means to support teachers in their position as front-line professionals — not boost The Blob. However, it is the educational establishment who controls the Minister and Premier’s access to information about education. Even if they ask for a specific report to be made, it is still prepared by the bureaucrats, using materials provided by contractors and academics. They are free to slant it in a way that benefits their interests..Reflection on financial matters may help to cut through the fog of information The Blob presents her..At our current budget, the average classroom costs the taxpayer $320,000. The average teacher gets about $80,000. This is a very reasonable cost of labour for a profit-making corporation, but this is public service. Where is the rest of the money going?.At the beginning of her victory speech, Smith observed that she had been opposed by a very expensive set of third-party advertising campaigns. Most are funded by public-sector unions, and some have literally been running for years. Attempts to ban third-party could run afoul of the Constitution. The central problem is this: every dollar given to The Blob helps to advance extreme ideology, which gives power to the Premier’s opponents. And a portion of that will be spent on direct political involvement to bring about a government controlled by the unions. Attempts to accommodate them will not have good results..Smith’s best approach will be to double down on educational pluralism and stand up for parental authority. Notley is a lame-duck. Taking the educational agenda further right may cause the NDP’s allies to demand that the NDP be more shrill, and more extreme — and thus less electable. But to do that, Smith will have to tack right — which may be tricky..Part of Smith’s problem will involve keeping control of her own party. It has both right and left wings. A smaller, but very significant part of the party, has always been the “progressives” from the Progressive Conservatives. They tend to be technocratic elitists: they believe that ordinary people like you and I are not wise enough to make our own decisions, which should be left to “experts.” Others may have been candidates in battleground ridings, where they felt threatened by the NDP and thought they would get more votes by swinging left to be “moderate.” Thankfully, Smith’s current caucus is proportionately more rural than before, which means that it will be easier for her to take a more socially conservative line..The elite of the party, however, still have tremendous power and influence, and they seem to skew left. Smith’s floor-crossing episode shows that she has a predilection to be seduced by authority, and a knack for choosing advisors who are very much out of step with party faithful. They will urge Smith to be conciliatory — she will pick up votes if she just tacks left. She may apologize for previous conservative wrong-speech and adopt progressive ideas in the name of “governing for everyone.”.That would spell disaster. Voter turnout in this election fell by 5% — but it didn’t affect the NDP. Their rhetoric — together with the smear campaign against Smith — whipped their supporters into a frenzy. They will never be convinced to vote UCP..The fact that voter turnout dropped in this election, combined with anecdotes we hear from the street, suggests that the reason voter participation fell in this election is that many UCP party faithful didn’t come out to vote. Some of that is anger that their MLA supported Covid lockdowns — but it is also likely that candidates who tried to be “moderate” lost votes from conservatives who couldn’t identify with them. In many Calgary ridings that the UCP lost to the NDP, these lost votes may have made all the difference..If Smith appoints an elitist group to look for international “best practices,” and adopts solutions that favour The Blob, it will make the next election difficult for her. Social conservatives will stay home in larger numbers, while she will have fed the coffers of her political opponents. She needs to reject the radical agenda of the NDP and their allies, continue her policy of expanding the private and charter school systems, and reduce the power of The Blob..In the meantime, we will have to keep the boxing gloves on hand. For anyone who values educational choice and parental authority, the fight is still on..John Hilton-O’Brien is the Executive Director of Parents for Choice in Education, www.parentchoice.ca
The election’s over. Thankfully, the NDP, with their radical agenda, did not get in. Danielle Smith’s UCP squeaked out a narrow victory, with 52.5% of the popular vote, and five seats over the minimum needed for a majority government. As she pointed out in her victory speech, she faced the most intense third-party advertising campaign ever seen in Alberta. For those in favour of educational pluralism, this begs a question: what sort of a mandate does she have for education?.Smith has two ways of looking at her win. On one hand, she can take the election as a referendum on the NDP’s radical agenda. Since that agenda was defeated, she may want to go the opposite way. On the other hand, the UCP losing seats may suggest she should meet her opponents halfway. Unfortunately, her victory speech suggests she may adopt the latter view — which does not bode well for education choice..While Smith’s victory speech lacked much detail, she said two things about education. She said she wants to examine jurisdictions around the world to build a “healthcare system and an education system that are models for the entire world.” She said this requires empowering “teachers and other front-line professionals, along with feedback from parents.” Her remarks suggest a technocratic and elitist point of view: “professionals” are in charge — parents are an afterthought. While we hope Smith means otherwise, her remarks could signal a resolve to let the Alberta education establishment dictate terms..The education establishment, however, is the very source of Notley’s extreme policies. Michael Gove called it “The Blob” — the convergence of the interests of bureaucrats, union officials, academics, activists, and contractors. The NDP’s educational policies exist because they benefit The Blob – forcing more teachers into the union and paying for legions of consultants and activists..Consequently, we hope the Premier means to support teachers in their position as front-line professionals — not boost The Blob. However, it is the educational establishment who controls the Minister and Premier’s access to information about education. Even if they ask for a specific report to be made, it is still prepared by the bureaucrats, using materials provided by contractors and academics. They are free to slant it in a way that benefits their interests..Reflection on financial matters may help to cut through the fog of information The Blob presents her..At our current budget, the average classroom costs the taxpayer $320,000. The average teacher gets about $80,000. This is a very reasonable cost of labour for a profit-making corporation, but this is public service. Where is the rest of the money going?.At the beginning of her victory speech, Smith observed that she had been opposed by a very expensive set of third-party advertising campaigns. Most are funded by public-sector unions, and some have literally been running for years. Attempts to ban third-party could run afoul of the Constitution. The central problem is this: every dollar given to The Blob helps to advance extreme ideology, which gives power to the Premier’s opponents. And a portion of that will be spent on direct political involvement to bring about a government controlled by the unions. Attempts to accommodate them will not have good results..Smith’s best approach will be to double down on educational pluralism and stand up for parental authority. Notley is a lame-duck. Taking the educational agenda further right may cause the NDP’s allies to demand that the NDP be more shrill, and more extreme — and thus less electable. But to do that, Smith will have to tack right — which may be tricky..Part of Smith’s problem will involve keeping control of her own party. It has both right and left wings. A smaller, but very significant part of the party, has always been the “progressives” from the Progressive Conservatives. They tend to be technocratic elitists: they believe that ordinary people like you and I are not wise enough to make our own decisions, which should be left to “experts.” Others may have been candidates in battleground ridings, where they felt threatened by the NDP and thought they would get more votes by swinging left to be “moderate.” Thankfully, Smith’s current caucus is proportionately more rural than before, which means that it will be easier for her to take a more socially conservative line..The elite of the party, however, still have tremendous power and influence, and they seem to skew left. Smith’s floor-crossing episode shows that she has a predilection to be seduced by authority, and a knack for choosing advisors who are very much out of step with party faithful. They will urge Smith to be conciliatory — she will pick up votes if she just tacks left. She may apologize for previous conservative wrong-speech and adopt progressive ideas in the name of “governing for everyone.”.That would spell disaster. Voter turnout in this election fell by 5% — but it didn’t affect the NDP. Their rhetoric — together with the smear campaign against Smith — whipped their supporters into a frenzy. They will never be convinced to vote UCP..The fact that voter turnout dropped in this election, combined with anecdotes we hear from the street, suggests that the reason voter participation fell in this election is that many UCP party faithful didn’t come out to vote. Some of that is anger that their MLA supported Covid lockdowns — but it is also likely that candidates who tried to be “moderate” lost votes from conservatives who couldn’t identify with them. In many Calgary ridings that the UCP lost to the NDP, these lost votes may have made all the difference..If Smith appoints an elitist group to look for international “best practices,” and adopts solutions that favour The Blob, it will make the next election difficult for her. Social conservatives will stay home in larger numbers, while she will have fed the coffers of her political opponents. She needs to reject the radical agenda of the NDP and their allies, continue her policy of expanding the private and charter school systems, and reduce the power of The Blob..In the meantime, we will have to keep the boxing gloves on hand. For anyone who values educational choice and parental authority, the fight is still on..John Hilton-O’Brien is the Executive Director of Parents for Choice in Education, www.parentchoice.ca
