By Christopher Walsh

If only I had a unicycle

What's the worst part of bungee jumping? I've never done it, but my guess is what happens when the plunge is done.

There you are one second, heading towards the earth at terminal velocity, feeling the rush of cool air push any loose skin on your face to the top of your scalp, a feeling of absolute terror and joy, of confusion and exhilaration as you plummet wondering when you'll feel the tug and be shot back up like a yo-yo before you hit the ground.

Then it's over and you're hanging there, completely suspended in mid-air. Somewhere in the space between a bridge and a lake, you're hanging like some sort of discarded puppet with loose strings waiting to be yanked back the way you came.

Paul Hinman knows this feeling. The leader of the Wildrose Alliance Party is a self-described risk taker, a boy scout, an outdoorsman, a lover of wildlife and, of all things, a unicyclist.

“I did bungee jumping before they decided they needed to have air mattresses underneath in case the bungee cord was too long,” Hinman tells me at the City TV studios in Calgary last week.

It was a hastily arranged interview, agreed upon one hour before now. I had difficulties finding the goddamn place and by the time I made it, the City TV people told me Hinman had left. I was still early, but he was gone.

Hinman, like I said, understands this feeling. His campaign manager had just finished telling me on the phone that Hinman was stood up at a leaders' forum hosted by Mount Royal College earlier today. He was the only leader who showed up, presumably to get to the bottom of things and explain the party platform.

“It shows what kind of leaders we have in this province,” the man lamented into the receiver.

And so here was Hinman an hour later executing the same manoeuvers. As I was left hanging and determining my next step, he and his campaign manager walked back in, explaining they needed a bite to eat before the next interview.

There's a certain rush politicians get through politics. During a campaign, nothing can stop them. The more meetings and interviews, the better. This way the candidate has limited downtime to feel anything. It's why you never see a leader with a cold, snuffling and sneezing like the rest of us through an interview. It's all adrenaline, much like the feeling obtained by plummeting to the ground from 1,000 feet.

So here he was, the one-wheeling, high flying Wildrose Alliance leader, ready to discuss policy. And he has a few policies that are worth repeating.

Number one; that old word 'democracy' must be restored to its true meaning.

The best way to do this: go to the people on the big issues and let the majority rule. Hinman calls it “citizen's initiative referendums”, where the public could decide the course of action on things like oil royalties, gay marriage and capital punishment. The latter perhaps the punishment for the former.

“In a true democracy, the power should be in the hands of the people. Right now, the hands are virtually tied,” Hinman explains. “The citizen's initiative referendum allows the people that are frustrated to get out and test the waters and see if there's an appetite for ...[a certain issue].”

Ah, the frustrated vote. Where are all the angry young men these days? In rural Alberta, the Wildrose Alliance are betting.   Here is the place where Stelmach's new oil royalty regime hits the hardest. There were oil workers in Stettler two days after Stelmach released his decision to hike royalties by 20 per cent already crying foul and saying their bosses had told them to start looking for other work. It didn't matter if it was the truth or not, the “optics” as they say in politics, was there and was pretty damning. The truth was that oil and gas activity was slowing down in the area on its own. But these angry young oil workers were told by the man in charge of their paychecks that Stelmach was behind it.

Hinman knows how to use this. The biggest problem facing the province these days?  “The Tory government and their inability to manage the economy,” he says. 

Most of that was the oil royalty changes that Hinman says went too far.  “Way too far. The report is incomplete, it's inaccurate and it's misleading. That's a political report, it's not an economic report and it certainly isn't an investment report.

“It's only creating envy and greed.”

Hinman would toss out the agreement and give oil companies the money back. It's straight economics, see, because if the oil industry has more money, they'll continue raping the land and providing jobs to assist in that capacity. Those angry young men will keep holding her down for the oil companies and they will all be paid handsomely for their service and so everyone wins.....

Hinman's economic policies are intriguing. A few more:

“With the funding following the service, the economics make the decision, not the accountant. Not bureaucracy,” Hinman says.

Again, it's just straight economics.

“The funding following the service just allows the entrepreneur, the businessman to say, 'you know what, we're gonna set this up here because I believe that we can get a business and reduce the wait times'.”

Wait, I know, did he just call a doctor a 'businessman'? Yes, but it all makes economic sense, you see. And health care would remain public under a Wildrose Alliance government.

“Yes. But I don't have a problem with a doctor who wants to set up, let's say a hip doctor, moves from England and says I want to set up in Stettler, I like the area there and I'm gonna charge to do hips. Albertans have no right to say to someone 'oh, you can't do that'. I mean, we do it with dogs, we do it with animals.....”

Applause erupts in the City TV studio as Hinman finishes the thought. It's coming from a local radio station attached to the studio lobby who probably were applauding the fact that their head DJ doesn't wear underwear or something equally inane, but Hinman takes a look in case my tape recorder is somehow wired into their soundboard and some good Albertans agree with the idea.

The Alliance Party (recently merged with the Wildrose Party) was founded in October 2002 by former SoCred member and Reform Party loyalist Randy Thorsteinson after the SoCreds took measures to limit the Mormon ideology in the party. The party still leans toward that anti-federalist mentality. The rest of the country can move here, sure, but then you better swear allegiance to Alberta and get with the program. The first call is to the province and no duty to the country.

“I guess if you think that's our duty, that we should all continue to send all of our money out to...,” Hinman cuts himself off. “If you take an area that's successful and you tax it – take the money away and put it to an area that's not successful – you destroy and you have neither.”

It's all in the name of a strong province, Hinman says.  “That's being self-sufficient and sustainable.”

It's hard to say how well the Wildrose Alliance party will do this election. The goal is to steal four seats, enshrining them with official party status. They have those types of old-tyme conservative values and in rural areas that would be their best shot. And there is a strong chord of discontent out there. Where they take it, or even if they can, remains to be seen.

Hinman's completed the jump and is hanging there, waiting, waiting.......

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3.20 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."