Come Together, Right Now

Brad Ferguson, President and CEO of the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, gave his speech at the annual Impact Luncheon on Tuesday.  I wasn't fortunate enough to attend but I did hear a recap at 9:00 am on 630 CHED with Ryan Jespersen.

"... the biggest challenge we have, economically... is that we have been divided by ideologies on the far left and far right and we need to meet in the middle with good intentions to start finding solutions to some of the challenges that are in front of us..." - Brad Ferguson

Right now, there is a terrific opportunity to have the strongest voices come together and create balanced policy for Albertans. This doesn't necessarily even have to amount to compromise but it does have to involve cooperation.  Certainly, this is an ideal that is unlikely to come to fruition without some major changes in the way our current government operates, but indulge me anyway.

The NDP shows strong leadership on social policy.  The Wildrose wants to show leadership on economic policy.  Together, they should be able to create a winning combination of policy that all Albertans would benefit from.  It would also signal to Albertans that the NDP is worthy of its position as government and that the Wildrose is worthy of its position as Official Opposition.  Currently, both are lacking.

How could this play out? For the NDP it could decrease political risk.  If they brought the opposition in to assist in policy development, they would be able to take credit for a successful, cooperative strategy on economic policy.  Alternatively, they would be able to point fingers if it was unsuccessful.  Win/win.  The Wildrose would also be able to show that it has a grown up side in managing to work with others and the PCs, Alberta Party and Liberals could have a chance to actually influence policy as well.

Though it may seem as if the opposition has more to gain from such an arrangement than the NDP, the NDP would still come out on top because they are the majority government.  If they succeed with such an outlandish plan of action, they would be able to campaign on that cooperative governance in 2019.   In the meantime, it would be nice if the entire government could work together for everyone's benefit.

D.