www.ChrisLaBossiere.com

This story, which basically outlines how Alberta PC MLA's are paying themselves up to $35,000 to chair and attend private committee meetings is alarming and deserves serious public scrutiny. I am all for a policy of fair pay for fair work. Attracting the best and brightest into politics demands paying an attractive salary. Make no mistake, paying $100 - $150k for a thought leader or visionary is perfectly fine with me.

But the problem with this issue is the secrecy behind these meetings. Not making the minutes of these meetings public, and not allowing Non-PC MLA's to sit on these committee's is practically criminal. Business owners; would you allow your employees to create special committee's amongst themselves, pay themselves handsomely, and then never disclose to you the boss what was being said in the meetings? Honestly, it is outrageous.

So, my brief and deliberate questions is this. What are the Fiscal Four doing about this? I am calling you out right now, and I think you should answer. This quote from Jonothan Dennis, MLA for Calgary Egmont, is antagonizing me this morning, and I want him or one of the fiscal four to speak to us Albertan's.

Denis, parliamentary assistant to the Energy minister, believes the cost cutting has to start at home. He returned $10,000 of his riding budget to the province last year and hopes to do the same this year.

"The idea isn't to be caustic toward our own government. It's to hold ourselves to account like the Deep Six did 15 years ago," said Denis, MLA for Calgary-Egmont. "We'd like to make sure the government sticks to its financial plan."

Calgary Herald  -  November 10th.

Folks, it's time to force some accountability into our government. It's not enough to shout into a vacuum, we need to start to pick out those who have committed to working for us, and see how they will respond.

I have met three of the four alleged "Fiscal Four" and I can't help but feel that they are being a bit opportunistic and disingenuous. First, I must profess that I only had a chance to really talk with 2 of them. MLA Jonothan Denis and MLA Doug Griffiths. Permission to speak frankly:

Jonothan Denis, in my personal opinion, has a personality that can only be described as used car salesman meets smarmy entitled lawyer. My discussion with him is best described as socially awkward, and I doubt that he is anything more than a political opportunist who is riding a wave of luck, enabled ironically by the demise of radical Social Conservative Craig Chandler. (a properly chosen WAP candidate in 2012 will easily beat him)

For those of you who don't recall, Jonothan Dennis was the second choice of Calgary Egmont PC Association constituents in the 2008 nomination. After Premier Stelmach showed good leadership to reject Chandler's Nutbar Social Conservative agenda. In my opinion, Dennis was a benefactor of a solid Stelmach showing in 2008, and is probably no more suited for governance than Micheal Jackson was for babysitting.

Doug Grffiths however struck me as the opposite. He seems a pragmatic fiscal Conservative, stuck in a largely rural riding, but who seems to get that strong partisanship as it relates to Social Conservatism is a death-knell for the greater population. I could be wrong on Griffiths, but his progressive activity in Social Media communities, plus his ability to be at ease among differing opinions, tells me that he could be a great politician.

So, my only hypothesis, is that these four young PC MLA's are hedging their bets and trying to make a name for themselves as fiscal conservatives (which is about as good a label as one can have these days), leaving their options open with the PC Party, and yet extending a foot to the life raft named Wildrose Alliance Party.

We don't need anymore political opportunists, we need leadership. Staking your claim as a fiscal conservative aligns easily with a majority of Albertans. Risking your reputation as a pragmatic and balanced public representative however is a risky maneuver. This is where I really hope that Doug Griffiths considers his options wisely.

Now, I am not suggesting that they are wrong to question their party, as you know I have posted before that I think the party needs a serious introspective enema. But, if I was trying to show leadership, I would consider seriously who I aligned myself with. Jonothan Denis is no Doug Griffiths. 

And, before I mounted the life raft, I would do a serious review of the people on that boat. Let's revisit Craig Chandler for a second. Chandler was the campaign manager for Mark Dryholm, of the Wildrose Alliance Party. Frankly Chanlder is a religious fanatic, and that interferes with his ability to manouver in a "Big Tent" party. Interestingly, he is firmly behind Danielle Smith as you can read in this blog post.

Ironically, I also don't get the impression that Danielle Smith is a true Social Conservative, so she may try to convince Alberta that she can bring the conservative movement under her version of the "Big Tent", but to get my vote, she would need to bring an agenda that is inclusive of moderates and distance herself from the religious right. Being a self-described Libertarian is not enough, and frankly hard to believe as long as she continues to be a benefactor of the likes of Chandler. Oh, and that agenda HAS to include a repeal of Bill 44, and so therein lies the rub.

Say what you want about Ed Stelmach, but he is no extremist. My thoughts from the middle.