[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Brad Ferguson has been a really interesting leader in Edmonton for the last 3 years, and delivered a whale of a speech last week.

The speaking notes http://www.eedc.ca/impact/2016-keynote/

If you think I am up here blaming our current provincial government, you’re wrong. They inherited 10 years of drunken-sailor euphoria that came after the Klein years, which was the last time we made hard decisions about size of government, debt repayment and government program spending.

We, in this room, didn’t do our job over the past 10 years of euphoria and we didn’t hold our government to account. Government spending increased at twice the rate of population growth plus inflation which has created an unsustainable cost structure and a culture of dependence on program spending. We watched our net assets deteriorate and we never once forced the discussion on a revenue framework that protected us from a downturn in energy prices. This is a lesson to all Albertans, that today we would be suffering the consequences regardless of the party in power.

But there is a party in power, and our new government now needs to manage this province with astuteness and precision. It doesn’t matter what political ideology was campaigned on, our government has a responsibility to steward this province forward for the best interest of Albertans and future Albertans. As I see it, they have a choice: to govern from ideology that risks temptation to follow Ontario into a financial vortex of despair; or, to govern from the centre and implement fiscal and economic policies that will require patience from their supporters, but achieves a balance between economic reforms and economic growth. That is what leadership is all about, and it is a requirement of the job.

John F. Kennedy once said, “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”

One thing being a parent has taught me, is that when you have responsibility for the next generation you abandon your right to be reckless. Pursuing economic growth without economic reform was reckless over the past 10 years. Pursuing economic reforms without economic growth would be equally as reckless in the years ahead. It is critical we get the balance right, or the consequences will echo for generations.

I started this address talking about my kids and our proud history in this province. I used words like rugged and resilient, hard work, determination and courage, triumph over hardship. Yet over the past six months we’ve been made to feel ashamed of our history, the embarrassing cousin that no one wants to talk about, the outlier among provinces.