SEE Magazine
Copyright © 1998. All Rights Reserved.
OPINION
BY BRYCE McLAUGHLINBored by Monday's election? Judging by the 25-per-cent voter turnout, it's clear most Edmontonians yawned mightily. Given a menu of cookie-cutter candidates who spoke in the same garbled bureaucratese and mouthed the same listless pledges made by cub scouts ("I promise to do my best, to do my duty . . ."), it's easy to understand why election '98 did not cause euphoria.
But Ralph's Team could change that by providing a huge issue for Edmonton's voters before 2001. They call it amalgamation, which is government-speak for a hostile takeover. The forced marriages would include St. Albert and Strathcona County (known everywhere else except on government road maps as Sherwood Park).
Ralph is cut from a different weave of polyester than Ontario Premier Mike Harris, who imposed a new mega-city in Hogtown. Instead, Ralph floats ideas in the public to provoke a reaction and either cautiously moves ahead or beats a hasty retreat. It's sort of like driving drunk. You might not be in complete control, but one foot is always on the brake pedal for sudden stops and reversals (see eugenics compensation).
With the sticky subject of annexation, Ralph is using veiled language and political decoys expertly.
The first trial balloon was a study released earlier this year by Jim Lightbody, a University of Alberta political science professor and annexation advocate. Lightbody's report merely stated the obvious - the metropolitan area is overgoverned, with enough aldermen, councillors, reeves and mayors to fully furnish a United Nations conference.
Some Edmonton politicians, especially Robert Noce, seized upon it as a battle cry for a mega-city because they are faced with a $30-million deficit for this year's city budget.
And really, there aren't two more attractive takeover targets than St. Albert and Sherwood Park. St. Albert's massive mansions would translate into plump tax bills under the province's new system for assessing taxes based on the property's market value. And Edmonton has always lusted after Sherwood Park's smokestacks on Refinery Row, which pump out ugly fumes, possible carcinogens and big bucks in property taxes.
The second prong was a sermon on co-operation given to the 20-odd metro communities accompanied by an "or else." These politicians know Ralph's track record in forcing mergers in other areas and no squabbling was heard when the region received an extra $10 million in lottery funds from the provincial government. Everybody agreed it would go to extend Anthony Henday Drive.
But in his heart, Ralph knows it isn't enough to be "good neighbors." He sees obvious fat to cut. For example, there are three different transit systems operating in the region (St. Albert and Strathcona County each operate their own buses). That's three different managers overseeing three bureaucracies. And these types of small fiefdoms must chafe Ralph worse than sandpaper underwear. This is, after all, Ralph the Impaler, looter of hospital boards, scourge of school board trustees. The premier enjoys little revenges, such as cutting grants to municipalities to starve them into submission.
Ralph still has to grease some wheels. Municipal Affairs Minister Iris Evans is the former reeve of Strathcona County and knows any annexation attempt would leave her as a one-term MLA. Fortunately, she's due for a promotion in the next cabinet shuffle, leaving somebody less vulnerable as Ralph's hatchet man.
It isn't a conspiracy to strip people of their rights, with annexation apologists lurking behind a grassy knoll as is the fear of most suburban chauvinists living in their well-manicured Legolands. It is Ralph acting on his conservative instincts to cull the weak from the herd to save a little money.
And it would inject a little excitement into civic politics. Bloodsport is far more exciting than tax assessment or transportation master plans.
(Bryce McLaughlin is a cynical observer of Alberta politics.)
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