Tough on crime conservatives often mention the broken window theory – made popular in the 1990s by New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani – when they talk about social order and the need to enforce every law. The theory states that enforcing all minor laws creates an atmosphere of law and order that discourages serious crimes..Jason Kenney has made a career as a tough on crime conservative. He cancelled Christmas. He prohibited staying with out-of-town family over the holiday under the penalty of a $1,000 fine. A police officer threatened to taser a man for skating on a public rink in Calgary. Tough talk, stern enforcement, zero tolerance..But the seven, or eight, or nine (and counting) members of Premier Kenney’s inner circle who took expensive flights to get around the rules; Kenney let that slide. Or at least he did at first. When the public backlash grew too great, he changed his mind, laid off his globetrotting chief of staff – with or without a golden parachute, we may never know – and demoted Minister of Municipal Affairs Tracey “Aloha” Allard to the back benches. .What about the other MLAs and staffers? Most get off with barely a slap on the wrist..The hypocrisy is so laughable that it’s quite literally an old Simpson’s joke from 1993. Mayor Quimby – the official seal of his office being “corruptus in extremis” (corrupt to the extreme) – makes a video announcing, “because of the epidemic, I have cancelled my vacation to the Bahamas” only for the camera to pan out revealing he’s filming it on a beach in the Bahamas. For good measure, a local playing the steel drum saunters through the camera shot..They knew it was wrong. Kenney knew it was wrong. They got caught; so what now?.Before the 2019 election Kenney promised a Recall Act: “Albertans want their MLAs to be accountable to them. That’s why a United Conservative government would introduce a Recall Act allowing voters to fire their MLA in between elections if they have lost the public’s trust.” That promise has since been removed from the UCP website, although they tell the Western Standard that it’s all just a technical glitch. Choose at your leisure if you believe them..The Tories have had two years to pass the Recall Act. It isn’t a complicated piece of legislation. Yet they somehow still drag their feet. They even went so far as to use procedural tricks to kill a private members bill on recall, from one of their own MLAs. .They are already displaying all the worst signs of PC Toryland entitlement and double standards. I can’t fathom how an Albertan who was proud to vote Wildrose because of Alison Redford’s lavish travel expenses and sky palace can continue to support the United Conservative Party. Well, actually I can: “We can’t split the vote!”.What would be the point in recall legislation if Kenney stands behind MLAs like Jeremy Nixon and allows them to run again for the UCP? When Nixon won Calgary-Klein in 2019, he won with about 47 per cent of the vote. In 2015 the NDP won the seat with about 44 per cent of the vote while the PC and Wildrose candidates split nearly 50 per cent of the vote. If he were forced to run in a recall election, does anyone doubt his campaign would amount to little more than “I’m sorry, but we can’t split the vote?”.Entitlement grows when there’s no real accountability. This is less of a problem in the United States Congress thanks to the primary system. In the US, the leader can’t protect a sitting member from a primary challenge for the party nomination. And primaries are generally open, negating the need to start new parties on the left or the right. This is how senior Republicans and Democrats in safe seats – who grew too fat, entitled, and arrogant – often get replaced..Recall legislation, without first a candidate nomination, would be largely meaningless. If Kenney really believes that actions have consequences, then he should force these MLAs to face nomination contests immediately. Genuinely free, fair, and open nominations not controlled behind the scenes by the leader. Then, and only then, should the people of Alberta be given the chance to recall them..Alex McColl is the National Defence Columnist with the Western Standard and a Canadian military analyst
Tough on crime conservatives often mention the broken window theory – made popular in the 1990s by New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani – when they talk about social order and the need to enforce every law. The theory states that enforcing all minor laws creates an atmosphere of law and order that discourages serious crimes..Jason Kenney has made a career as a tough on crime conservative. He cancelled Christmas. He prohibited staying with out-of-town family over the holiday under the penalty of a $1,000 fine. A police officer threatened to taser a man for skating on a public rink in Calgary. Tough talk, stern enforcement, zero tolerance..But the seven, or eight, or nine (and counting) members of Premier Kenney’s inner circle who took expensive flights to get around the rules; Kenney let that slide. Or at least he did at first. When the public backlash grew too great, he changed his mind, laid off his globetrotting chief of staff – with or without a golden parachute, we may never know – and demoted Minister of Municipal Affairs Tracey “Aloha” Allard to the back benches. .What about the other MLAs and staffers? Most get off with barely a slap on the wrist..The hypocrisy is so laughable that it’s quite literally an old Simpson’s joke from 1993. Mayor Quimby – the official seal of his office being “corruptus in extremis” (corrupt to the extreme) – makes a video announcing, “because of the epidemic, I have cancelled my vacation to the Bahamas” only for the camera to pan out revealing he’s filming it on a beach in the Bahamas. For good measure, a local playing the steel drum saunters through the camera shot..They knew it was wrong. Kenney knew it was wrong. They got caught; so what now?.Before the 2019 election Kenney promised a Recall Act: “Albertans want their MLAs to be accountable to them. That’s why a United Conservative government would introduce a Recall Act allowing voters to fire their MLA in between elections if they have lost the public’s trust.” That promise has since been removed from the UCP website, although they tell the Western Standard that it’s all just a technical glitch. Choose at your leisure if you believe them..The Tories have had two years to pass the Recall Act. It isn’t a complicated piece of legislation. Yet they somehow still drag their feet. They even went so far as to use procedural tricks to kill a private members bill on recall, from one of their own MLAs. .They are already displaying all the worst signs of PC Toryland entitlement and double standards. I can’t fathom how an Albertan who was proud to vote Wildrose because of Alison Redford’s lavish travel expenses and sky palace can continue to support the United Conservative Party. Well, actually I can: “We can’t split the vote!”.What would be the point in recall legislation if Kenney stands behind MLAs like Jeremy Nixon and allows them to run again for the UCP? When Nixon won Calgary-Klein in 2019, he won with about 47 per cent of the vote. In 2015 the NDP won the seat with about 44 per cent of the vote while the PC and Wildrose candidates split nearly 50 per cent of the vote. If he were forced to run in a recall election, does anyone doubt his campaign would amount to little more than “I’m sorry, but we can’t split the vote?”.Entitlement grows when there’s no real accountability. This is less of a problem in the United States Congress thanks to the primary system. In the US, the leader can’t protect a sitting member from a primary challenge for the party nomination. And primaries are generally open, negating the need to start new parties on the left or the right. This is how senior Republicans and Democrats in safe seats – who grew too fat, entitled, and arrogant – often get replaced..Recall legislation, without first a candidate nomination, would be largely meaningless. If Kenney really believes that actions have consequences, then he should force these MLAs to face nomination contests immediately. Genuinely free, fair, and open nominations not controlled behind the scenes by the leader. Then, and only then, should the people of Alberta be given the chance to recall them..Alex McColl is the National Defence Columnist with the Western Standard and a Canadian military analyst
