Oil-rich Alberta showing shades of Green
From the Globe and Mail Feb 21, 2008
DAWN WALTON
With a report from Katherine O'Neill in Fort McMurray, Alta.
February 21, 2008
LACOMBE, ALTA. -- Alberta Green Party candidate Joe Anglin could hardly believe his eyes when 50 people - mainly baby boomers, some seniors and, on the surface, not a single member of the granola set - took their seats in the Lacombe parish hall over the long weekend.
The holiday fell in the middle of the provincial election campaign and here, in the Bible Belt of central Alberta where people vote Conservative as if it's imbedded in their DNA, Mr. Anglin wasn't expecting much in the way of interest.
The 52-year-old, American-born businessman, who is married to the minister of a local United Church, talked about how economic policy cannot be separated from environmental regulations. With an impressive supply of facts and figures on the tip of his tongue, he said the governing Tories have let the boom ride roughshod over the province and now, under Ed Stelmach, they aren't promising anything new to curb the ravages of inflation as Albertans head to the polls on March 3.
"Everything you say makes sense," offered 75-year-old Dorothy Broadbent, who lives in the nearby community of Morningside. "How can we wean the silent majority away from the devil they know?"
Mr. Anglin smiled - with good reason.
After 37 years of Progressive Conservative Party rule, voters seem cranky and the environment, even in oil-rich Alberta, has become a beacon for their frustration. Some polls show that global warming is a significant worry to voters. Discontent about rampant growth is emerging in pockets all over the province. And during tonight's televised leaders debate, the only one of the campaign, the environment may well be a lightning rod.
"People are concerned that Stelmach doesn't seem to be taking it very seriously," said Doreen Barrie, a political scientist at the University of Calgary. "I think this is their Achilles heel."
Alberta has Canada's fastest growth in greenhouse-gas emissions and is responsible for one-third of the country's total. Before the election was called, Mr. Stelmach unveiled his government's policy of freezing greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020 and cutting them by 14 per cent from 2005 levels by 2050.
The plan was criticized in Alberta and across the country for not going nearly far enough. Still, during the campaign, which an aide has dubbed "28 days of green," Mr. Stelmach has stuck to the script.
Environmentalists have been dogging him on the campaign trail. At a stop in Edmonton, a Greenpeace supporter attempted to give Mr. Stelmach "Canada's environmental destroyer of the year" award.
Mr. Stelmach shot back, saying a hard cap on greenhouse-gas emissions in the shorter term, as suggested by the Liberals and to a lesser degree by the New Democrats, would cripple the province's economy and eliminate 335,000 jobs.
During a visit to Fort McMurray, he defended the multibillion-dollar oil sands industry against a report that called the projects "the most destructive development on earth."
Mr. Stelmach, a former farmer, said it was written by "silk-suited environmentalists" who don't know their facts. He warned that Fort McMurray would be "ground zero" for job losses if the industry were to be slowed or shut down over environmental concerns.
"My job is to protect this province, to protect the prosperity of Alberta and make sure the correct information gets out," he said.
So far, he has been unable or unwilling to cite a source for the job-loss figure.
This week, an Angus Reid Strategies poll for Calgary radio station CHQR found that 55 per cent of those surveyed said the oil and gas industry has had a negative impact on the environment, and nearly 60 per cent said the energy industry exerts more political influence than it should.
During a popular right-wing talk show on the station, former Tory premier Ralph Klein, himself once accused of being too cozy with industry, groused this week about health care falling out of favour as a defining campaign issue. "Apparently global warning has taken its place as the issue de jour," he lamented.
The environment may well be the Tories' undoing in a number of ridings where opposition parties are poised to steal votes.
In Peace River, there's opposition to a proposal for a nuclear power plant. In Lac La Biche, residents are worried about a dump that's slated to be placed on top of an underground aquifer. In Calgary, the city's chamber of commerce released a survey that found environmental concerns, for the first time, were among the top five priorities for businesses. North of Fort McMurray, residents are wondering whether the tar sands are making people sick. All over, ranchers and farmers are concerned about a future supply of water.
"The Stelmach government feels that if we do something [to slow development] people will fold their tents and leave," Prof. Barrie said. "I don't think that's going to happen."
It is back in Lacombe where, perhaps surprisingly, the Green Party has its best shot at winning a seat. The incumbent MLA for Lacombe-Ponoka, Conservative Ray Prins, received 4,500 more votes than the second-place candidate in the 2004 election, but his main competition this time around knows a thing or two about slaying a Goliath.
Mr. Anglin made a name for himself last year by spearheading a successful fight against a proposed power line between Edmonton and Calgary and exposing the Energy and Utilities Board, the province's now-defunct energy regulator, for spying on local landowners.
"People said we just couldn't do it," Mr. Anglin recalled. "But it can be done. You'd be amazed what you can do."
As the chairs were being folded in the parish hall, Richard Pearen, a 60-year-old consultant who has never voted Green, said he admired Mr. Anglin's tenacity. Nobody expects the Green Party to form a government, yet the prospect of electing a lone wolf to bark in the legislature didn't seem to bother many here.
"It's a start," Mr. Pearen said.
