Alberta's 2012 budget: A triumph for the Progressives
Conservative budget in a generation, new ground indeed for a party and a government that seemed moribund scarcely a year ago.Premier Alison Redford’s budget is true to her roots. Her first hands‑on taste of policy came as a young staffer in the glory days of Canada’s last Progressive Conservative government: when Joe Clark’s foreign ministry promoted diversity, human rights and pluralism as Canada’s face to the world; when Brian Mulroney as prime minister defied the U.S. and Britain to lead the international fight for the emancipation of South Africa.
Seldom had activist government been as ambitious and as effective as under the leadership of Messrs. Mulroney and Clark: even the failed efforts to include Quebec in the Constitution through the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord were noble attempts at nation‑building which helped us to define and articulate the values we share.
Mulroney/Clark era a high-water mark
My collaboration with Mr. Clark – articulating foreign policy during and after the fall of the Soviet empire, and in defining Canadian values during the Charlottetown constitutional round – remains the most deeply satisfying experience of my own public life.
The Mulroney/Clark era represented a high‑water mark in a time when Canada aspired to make a signal difference in the world. A similarly ambitious reach already is evident in the first weeks of the Redford government. Their first budget is an opening gambit in a quest to reshape Alberta through government activism and engaged citizenship.
Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives didn’t worry much about budget deficits; knowing that the economy has its ups and downs: they kept their eye on the future. North American free trade and the Goods and Services Tax, they reckoned, were more important foundation of long-term prosperity than the slash-and‑burn myopia of balancing a budget at all costs. These were indeed the key building blocks that enabled Mulroney’s successor, Prime Minister Jean Chretien, to deliver more than a decade of balanced budgets and fiscal prudence.
A B Sound Edmonton - News
EDMONTON, AB, Feb. 11, 2012/ Troy Media/ – Alberta has its first Progressive Conservative budget in a generation, new ground indeed for a party and a government that seemed moribund scarcely a year ago. Premier Alison Redford's budget is true to her
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