[Dion]

Worried the New Democrats start to question their government

One rural New Democrat, active at the heart of the party for decades, says the government’s headlong policy changes have caused big problems.

“The carbon tax issue — they moved too quickly on this,” says this veteran who, like all the others, won’t be named at this point.

“We could have done a lot more consultation.

“We did a great job with the major oil companies, getting them to support the tax,” he adds. “We should be engaging those people (the industry types) to sell the message to the average Albertans.”

That’s simply not true. First, the carbon tax wasn’t mentioned during the campaign. Second, the whole environment policy comprises only 220 words of the NDP’s election platform. The word “climate” appears only once.

This is immensely complex policy that needed a full public airing long before it became law. Even New Democrats who fully support the policies now see the sense in that.

“A lot of the stuff done in the first year should have been done in the second year,” the veteran says. “They would have had more time to explain and sell the policies.”

Then their own opacity over Bill 6, the farm safety legislation, provoked monumental demonstrations and anger.

The government apologized then, but now Notley tells her Ottawa audience that the bill passed “despite a vicious, over-the-top incitement campaign run by Alberta’s right wing anger industry.”

“You needed to talk about that legislation, you needed to bring out the human rights issue, the clear fact that the court had warned Alberta to amend its legislation,” says the worried New Democrat. “If you convince people, you’re going to have an informed and willing public.”

Even after alienating large parts of rural Alberta, the New Democrats have done little to win people back. They don’t connect well with community newspapers — “the rural Bibles,” the NDPer calls them — or local decision-makers.

To suddenly be shunned by your own, after being scorned for so long by nearly everyone else, can breed a deep resentment.

“They’ve moved way past me,” says another loyalist who once ran for the party. “I have no idea what they’re doing and I have no points of contact. I am frankly very worried.”'

The NDs I spoke to still support the government and certainly want it to win again.

“But they’ll have to be very smart in the next three years, especially in their communications and outreach,” says one, with confidence no more convincing than Joe Ceci’s.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...eir-government#