Opinion | Session begins, but it feels like the election campaign all over again

I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure the election campaign in Alberta ended April 16 when the United Conservative opposition defeated the NDP government.

But listening to Jason Kenney and Rachel Notley debate each other in the legislative assembly Thursday afternoon, it sure seemed like the campaign is still going on.

The only difference is that Kenney is now premier and Notley is now Opposition leader.

Notley spent literally four seconds congratulating Kenney on his election victory before ripping into him on a litany of issues.

She needled him about the RCMP investigation into the UCP's 2017 leadership race, accused him of targeting students and patients for spending cuts and called him a climate change denier. All in the first 15 minutes of question period.

Here is a typical exchange:

Notley: "During the campaign, the premier accused us of, quote, making stuff up when we warned of his plans to cut. Then the premier said yesterday there will be some tough decisions ahead. So, to the premier, will you acknowledge that what you told Albertans before the election is very different than what you are telling them now."

Kenney: "No I won't Mr. Speaker. Obviously bringing some fiscal discipline back to Alberta will not be without challenges. Unfortunately our government has inherited a huge fiscal mess left behind by the NDP which recklessly increased Alberta's public debt from $13 billion to $56 billion. They had us on track to a $100 billion in debt. They underwent five credit downgrades. They drove our interest costs up to billions of dollars."

And so it went.

Working together?

We got the impression from Kenney the past few weeks that he really does want to bring some civility and bipartisanship to Alberta politics. "Albertans want us to work together," he said on Wednesday.

Indeed, on Thursday, at his invitation, Notley joined him for a meeting with Alberta Senators.

They were discussing ways to get the federal government to amend the oh-so-controversial Bill C-69 that is designed to change the way federal agencies review large energy projects.

Critics say the legislation will raise the bar so ridiculously high that any new projects will never be approved.

Notley has been fighting for amendments for months and Kenney has dubbed the legislation the "no more pipelines bill."

This week, Kenney and Notley (along with Alberta Party leader Stephen Mandel and Liberal leader David Khan) co-wrote a letter to the Senate arguing for amendments to C-69.

Kenney has pointed to the letter as a fine example of parties working together.

However, this shared animosity toward the bill has not softened Notley's animosity for Kenney's election promises. She continues to accuse Kenney of misleading Albertans into thinking the UCP can cut costs without hurting government services or slashing public sector jobs.

Campaign 2.0

Of course, Notley's needle-in-your-eye approach to question period shouldn't have been a surprise. She was poking at Kenney the moment she saw the government's speech from the throne Wednesday that was a boiled-down version Kenney's election promises including scrapping the carbon tax, cutting the corporate tax rate, and introducing yet-to-be detailed "labour reforms" under the Open for Business Act.

"They claim that they've got an Open for Business Act but what it really is, is a misguided belief that the road to job creation is paved with abandoned workers rights whether it's by cutting overtime pay or lowering the minimum wage for young people," said Notley. "And that is a huge concern."

On Thursday, Kenney was shooting back at Notley: "It's a continuation of the fear and smear campaign we saw in the last election that was so resoundingly repudiated by Albertans."

And there you have your upcoming summer session in a nutshell.

Notley will accuse Kenney of trampling workers' rights, cutting government services and hiding from questions about the UCP's leadership race.

Kenney will accuse her of a "fear and smear campaign."

It is the election campaign all over again.

But the saving grace for Kenney is we know who won the campaign. And it wasn't the NDP.

This summer will be interesting, to say the least, as Kenney works to dismantle the NDP's legacy all the while the NDP fights tooth and nail to make that work as difficult as possible.

But the really big fight will take place this fall when the UCP releases its first budget. Kenney has put much of the heavy lifting in the hands of a blue ribbon panel of experts to figure out how to help balance the books without raising taxes.

That will mean cuts, possibly big, brutal cuts.

Kenney won't say what he's thinking of doing other than suggesting public sector jobs be reduced through attrition.

But here, in three short quotes from Kenney on Wednesday, is what's going through his mind:

1. "There will be some tough decisions ahead."

2. "Finances have deteriorated compared to what the NDP presented in its last quarterly update."

3. "Governments that bring balance prudently back to their finances are always re-elected."

Paraphrased into one sentence: Expect big cuts to government spending because fiscally things are even worse than I initially thought but for me this is the road to a successful re-election in four years.

Never mind Notley trying to re-fight the last election; Kenney is already focused on winning the next one.