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| The Road to the Legislature is Paved with Tears |
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| Sunday, 02 March 2008 | |
By Christopher Walsh That's incredible... I like sausage too! The premier's dark eyes shift behind his custom glasses and his legs and semi-stretched right hand follow the gaze's trajectory, as if all three are attached in unison by small strands of invisible thread. “How you doing? How's the family?” Stelmach offers when the object is finally located after the turn-around. A burly man with a NASCAR hat and a moustache responds quickly and in broken terms as Stelmach starts his prototypical small-talk. “Yeah, we got twins – two year olds,” moustache man blurts out. The premier's voice seems to fade, as if he doesn't want the media who have been following him all morning to hear what he's saying to these people; these just-happy-to-meet-the-premier-folks who happened into the sausage factory for lunch this fine sunny afternoon. Some talk of family ensues, as one man tells Stelmach his mother knows his mother and, shucks, wouldn't you know, I run into you here. “We're on your side,” a woman offers, out of nowhere. “Oh thank-you, take care, we'll see you.” And just like that, the little legs shuffle to another table where a couple with a red-headed kid are eating and a meal waits covered in grease-spotted paper towel. That's the premier's special meal, his handler tells him, just eat up and continue the small-talk with these people who, if they didn't buy the premier's dinner, were at least paying something to eat with him. Or maybe they were just photogenic folks, typical Albertans with real concerns. It did make for a good photo-op and the Calgary Sun understood this better than anyone. They had two photogs eating it up. They were pushing anyone who got in their way of this supreme shot and even made crude comments to my photographer when she dared to snap a quick one. The premier dining with a real Albertan family: behold the pure-bred Albertan male in his natural habitat. What a scoop! The whole event struck me as strange. Everywhere Stelmach appeared this campaign, someone was there to greet him with a grievance. But not here. Two days before the biggest vote in the province's “second century”, everybody was calm and in awe of the great man. Like I said, it was eerie. And that's when it happened.... We went outside for a smoke, to await the premier's departure from his beloved people. My photographer, a journalism student, had had enough.  How about one in front of the bus... She was right and probably has better journalistic instincts than anybody at the Sun or Herald. It was too much. Twenty minutes in the presence of that scene was enough to drive anyone to the breaking point. She wanted to leave then, to make a clean break of this whole politics business and just go home. But that wasn't an option now. Stelmach's lead media man, Tom Olsen, had promised us an interview with the man himself. We had to make it to the next whistle-stop in a whirlwind, last ditch effort in Calgary for the Tories. So, it made sense that we were going to the former Tory fortress; Ralph Klein's old constituency of Calgary-Elbow (that the Liberals took in a 2007 by-election). Stelmach was going to give another of his pep-talks to the volunteers there, but it was a bit of a challenge to find. (In the end, it also made sense that the campaign headquarters would be behind the McLeod Drive Hooters). My photographer had calmed down during the drive and was still wiping away tears when we approached the Hooters. “Don't worry,” I said, “I'll just grab a few shots and talk to Ed and we'll get the hell out of here.” She opted to stay in the truck while I made my way to the campaign HQ. Rousing applause as Stelmach entered and made the circle jerk rounds, shaking hands with every male Tory volunteer and hugging every female. “I haven't ... seen you in a while ... how's the family?” It's hard to describe Stelmach in any meaningful political sense. When you meet him, you like him in a peculiar, human way. That's what works with voters. How could you not vote for your buddy? A guy just like you, who shares those thoughts and feelings and ... inadequacies.... My photographer finally makes it into the old Elbow lair as Stelmach wraps up his Richard Dawson impression. A quick speech to pump up the 30 or so volunteers and then – YANK – that invisible connecting string gets pulled and the eyes glaze across the room and towards the door and the feet follow and then the semi-stretched right hand moves and it's all over.... He's gone. Olsen assures us Ed will call on the way to a senior's complex for that interview we had discussed earlier. We make our way back to the truck. “I felt more comfortable in there,” my photographer confesses. “Yeah,” I said, “you and Ed. He's good with this one on one stuff, but he cracks under pressure when a lot of people are watching.” She assures me the tears are over. But really, she and Ed have that in common too. And a lot of other people involved in this campaign, for that matter. The road to the Legislature is paved with tears.... The phone rings. It's the premier. “Hi, Ed,” I say. “I've been meaning to ask you, are all the degradations along the way to becoming premier worth it?” “The which?” he asks. The degradations. The state of being degraded. “It's part of politics,” he answers. “It's unfortunate this time around, which is unique to Alberta, with the attack ads. It's unfortunate because here are the ads produced in Vancouver, paid by groups out of Ontario and some union groups here in Alberta. And yet, when you go out of this province, no matter where I travel, people keep reminding me that Alberta is a beacon of hope and prosperity.” Yes, whatever it was Fitzgerald was talking about with that “fresh, green breast of the new world” comment. Olsen understands this concept, too. I had asked him earlier his thoughts on the one-party state here and he explained it like this: to suggest democracy doesn't exist in Alberta is an insult to the electorate because they do have a choice. They vote Progressive Conservative because they're happy. They could vote another way, but really things are good here. Anyone can come here and if they work hard enough, they can make their fortune and live however they see fit. The Albertan Dream ... and who is anybody to stand in the way of that? Although it's been the same party for 37 years, the political motor has changed. Every term, in fact, Olsen says, from Lougheed to Getty to Klein to the man on the phone.... “It's not a one-party state, we hold elections,” Stelmach says. “I brought about a lot of change to the Legislature this year. I've committed to opening the legislature on predetermined dates with the opposition.” Legislative reform is also on the way, he adds. “We also did something novel in Alberta and that is, all parties [are part of] legislative review committees. We've never done this before. We take the legislation off the floor at the committee stage and the committee – all parties – go out as a committee and listen to Albertan's views and hear what they're saying about the proposed legislation [and] bring it back to the house. That really allows all parties to participate positively.” There's another way all parties would get along. It's called a minority government, but nobody wants to bet on that at this point. That would mean the Liberals win a number of seats – perhaps in Calgary – and ... well ... we'll all see what happens Monday night.... The amount of “undecided” voters throw this campaign wide open when you consider how entrenched the Tory call is here. Nobody who's Conservative would tell a pollster they're undecided, unless they were screwing with them. But I want to get back to Stelmach as Gatsby. Here are all these midnight revellers dancing in his house to the beat of boom times, but will any of them support him when it matters? Or will they take the Party to another guy's house? Gatsby's fatal flaw was his romantic attachment to the past. Thirty-seven years of beautiful Tory tradition from Lougheed to Stelmach is a romantic past. The future marches on and we'll see tomorrow if the Tories can convince people they can change with the times.... Nobody ever shed a tear for Gatsby.... |
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