What possessed the Conservative government of Premier Ed Stelmach to flip-flop ten times in three months on significant issues of obvious importance to Alberta voters?

Individually, many of the changes left voters feeling a sense of relief. This is particularly true in the case of health care — which accounts for seven of the government’s ten major policy reversals in 2010. Before the reversals, it was obvious that a large number of ordinary Albertans had reached the conclusion their government had gone badly off the rails with its health policy.

But collectively, while there is no polling data yet to support this conclusion, the changes must leave voters feeling queasy about whether their provincial government knows its own mind. At the very least, if they assume Stelmach does have a plan, they must be wondering if he is capable of communicating it to anyone.

Observation suggests the government’s critical indecisiveness is driven by four key weaknesses shared by Stelmach and his principal insiders:

  1. No vision
  2. No plan
  3. Thin skins
  4. Misplaced loyalty

No vision: Stelmach and his advisors, both elected and on staff, believe they deserve to be in power because, in Alberta, Conservatives are always in power. Other than that, they don’t really have much idea of what they should do with their power, now or in the future.

Sure, they’d like to keep things pretty much as they are — mouthing the same old platitudes and ensuring taxpayer cash pours uninterrupted to their rural heartland. But beyond that, few strong principles drive their agenda.

With no vision, their reactions to criticism are based on short-term political calculations alone.

No plan: Remember those TV attack ads, back in the mists before the 2008 election?

You know, the ones paid for by a group of unions that had a sinister voice whispering “No Plan! No Plan!” They may not have worked then, but if you played them today, they would resonate powerfully with Albertans.

It’s obvious this government has no plan. Why else would its political calculations be dreamed up with so little thought about long-term consequences? Wanting to make the complaining stop is understandable. Alas, in politics as in weightlifting, sometimes if there’s no pain, there’s no gain!

Thin skins: Stelmach and his insiders are thin-skinned to the point of vindictiveness. As a result, Stelmach takes every slight personally and wants to react instantly. While the premier possesses great charm in person, like the proverbial elephant, he forgets nothing.

With no vision to guide them, and no plan to stick to, this prickly sensitivity drives the Conservatives to react with snap decisions that make sense in isolation, but add up to weakness.

Misplaced loyalty: One way or the other, Stelmach’s radical former health minister Ron Liepert has been involved in eight of his government’s ten major policy reversals this year.

Liepert mishandled the health-care file so grossly he probably should have been fired from cabinet. The public completely rejected his approach and let the premier know it. The entire province heaved a sigh of relief when he was replaced by the soothing and deliberate Gene Zwozdesky, who quickly undid most of his unpopular decisions.

It speaks volumes about the premier’s loyalty that he immediately assigned Liepert to another important portfolio. Maybe he didn’t want to admit he’d blundered by putting Liepert in cabinet in the first place. Maybe he just likes the guy.

Whatever the reason, no sooner was Liepert in his new job than the premier’s much-ballyhooed modest hydrocarbon royalty increases of two years before were reversed, making the government look as if it had caved to the energy industry and exacerbating its financial woes.

Such indecisiveness is not good news for a government that has seen its support fading, and which faces an aggressive and capable challenger in the far-right Wildrose Alliance.

Count on it, when the time comes, the Alliance will run a no-holds-barred campaign that exploits all the government’s apparent weaknesses.

David J. Climenhaga

David J. Climenhaga

David Climenhaga is a journalist and trade union communicator who has worked in senior writing and editing positions with the Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald. He left journalism after the strike...