SEE Magazine
Copyright © 1998. All Rights Reserved.
OPINION
BY BRYCE MCLAUGHLINWith the enthusiasm of a Great Dane that hears someone say "bone," opposition MLAs are ready for a three-week sitting in the Alberta Legislature that begins Nov. 17. This session will feel like a prostate exam for the government: poking around in uncomfortable places to shine light on Ralph's involvement in the $420-million refinancing of West Edmonton Mall.
Tune in to question period for prickly interrogations. The premier threatened the press gallery with legal action over linking the government to former Alberta Treasury Branches' superintendent Elmer Leahy, who, the bank alleges, took bribes from the Ghermezians in exchange for the sweetheart deal. Leahy countersued, alleging the bank defamed his character. He filed an affadavit stating that Ralph ordered the refinancing.
A former ATB executive said the bank started investigating Leahy after he took a golfing holiday with Peter Pocklington. In chambers, where privilege protects MLAs from defamation suits, Ralph will be grilled about cabinet's knowledge about the bank's probe into Leahy's activities.
These sticky questions cut two ways for Ralph's Team. Either cabinet knew nothing about the investigation (gross incompetence) or it sat on the information (political expediency). Either way, I'm sure a judge would love to hear an explanation, hopefully in open court, where all Albertans can share in the hilarity of how their tax dollars were recklessly risked.
Speaking of knee-slapping testimony, the official Opposition is awaiting a sighting of Ty Lund, the minister in charge of keeping Alberta safe for the extraction industries. Ty recently gave evidence in a civil case that a Court of Queen's Bench justice called "unreliable and not believable." While Ralph has defended Cheviot's champion, Ty has disappeared, much like the animals Alberta's toothless endangered species legislation has failed to protect. Perhaps Ty should amend the act to add a new category of threatened mammals: cabinet ministers with a creative recall of facts.
Fortunately, Ty must migrate to this sitting. Hopefully, wildlife biologists will be lurking near the Dome to tag him to track his future movements.
Of course, Ralph's Team has a plan for the sitting, unlike when they gutted health care or deregulated the power industry (more political grist that the Grits will gnaw upon in this sitting). Former puppet master Rod Love, fresh from preserving the freedom for idiots to play VLTs, has been pinch-hitting on West Edmonton Mall damage control. During the summer, Love sheltered Ralph from the media, sneaking him out a hidden entrance at the Dome. Keeping Ralph ahead of the hounds will continue, as the premier is expected to attend just three days of the sitting. Love also believes the best defence is a good offence, which is why government researchers are digging up dirt on Tory cabinet minister Nancy Betkowski, reincarnated as Liberal leader Nancy MacBeth.
Nancy spent the summer pressing flesh with regular folks and shaking the money tree so successfully that the Grits might pay off their $280,000 debt by March.
This sitting should show whether Nancy is cut from a sterner blend of dual-weave polyester than Grant "No Verb" Mitchell, who provided voters with shrill, incoherent bon mots ("implementing a new regime for health care infrastructure is an absolute necessity for most Albertans immediately, Mr. Speaker."). However, even if Ralph's Team bloodies the latest Grit White Hope on some of her Betkowski-isms, it's clear they view her as a much more serious threat.
(Bryce McLaughlin is a cynical observer of Alberta politics.)
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