Maybe Ralph Klein wasn't that bad as an Albertan premier after all. In 2002, Alberta's Ralph Klein was halfway through his first term, riding a 20% spending cut roughshod toward the $2.5-billion deficit he had resolved to eliminate. (source: http://www.ontariotenants.ca/electricity/articles/2002/ch-02c29.phtml) Now, Alberta has a surplus. The question of HOW the province is going to spend/invest its surplus is a difficult one to answer. So, what is Ed Stelmach going to do?
Well, let's see how the Tories are doing under Ed's leadership in the public opinion poll first, shall we?
It dropped from 58 to 32 from Jan 13th to Jan 24th 2008. That is a significant drop; but why? Is it because people are not so confident about Ed's leadership? Or is it due to voter apathy?
Challenged to think about what the top 5 issues in Alberta are in my Public Policy Administration lectures, following the news critically has been actually quite entertaining. My group came to a unanimous decision that housing (or the lack of) in Alberta is a major unsolved non-market issue. It is a farce really when the economy is in such a boom and it is getting more expensive to live in the province. Where and when does the provincial government draw the line when it comes to putting a ceiling to rent prices?
The NO PLAN propaganda:
On the contrary, the Tories have just recently unveiled an annual $6B spending plan that will run for 20 years. A 20-year plan? That is ambitious. The 100-page long plan (that I might actually have to end up reading as a class project), however, is short on specifics for longer-range schemes. (source: January 30, 2008. Edmonton Journal; Capital Plan; page A3) Well, that is actually quite understandable since politicians can't really predict the future as precisely as economists do.
To read more about the 20-year plan, click here.
