Thoughts on Alberta and the Federal Election

The National Post recently ran a feature choosing different election theme songs for the federal political parties (see http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=822081). Critics of Alberta’s dismal turnout on voting day (52.9% of eligible voters) might suggest that the election itself deserved its own theme song in this province – Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” comes to mind, or perhaps “I’m Only Sleeping” by the Beatles (I am dating myself here – other suggestions welcome). This complacence is troubling in light of the fact that many issues of potential concern to Albertans were discussed during the election, some of which we explored in constitutional law this term.

For example, the Conservatives plan to enact legislation prohibiting the export of bitumen to countries with lower greenhouse gas emissions standards than Canada. Such a law would clearly have a negative impact on Alberta’s oil sands operations, and raises issues about federal and provincial jurisdiction over natural resources. Albertans certainly have an interest in how a challenge to any such law would fare on division of powers grounds, not to mention how it would affect the economy.

Another example concerns the Conservatives’ proposed changes to young offender legislation that would permit the publication of names of young persons convicted of violent offences and provide harsher sentences in these cases. If the government goes the route of mandatory minimum sentences, the Supreme Court’s recent decision in R. v. Ferguson, 2008 SCC 6 may need to be re-visited in terms of its applicability to sentencing for young offenders (see my earlier post on Ferguson). This is an issue that goes beyond Alberta, but recent decisions on the sentencing of young offenders show the concrete ways in which concerns about youth crime and the proper response to it play out in this province (watch ABlawg for a post on these decisions in the near future).

Cuts to arts funding should be another issue of concern to Albertans in light of the vibrant arts communities that flourish within this province. Last year, filmmaker David Cronenberg suggested that the denial of funding to artists whose work was deemed to have inappropriate content violated the Charter. While the Conservatives promised not to proceed with this aspect of Bill C-10 if re-elected, it was Quebec that made this an important election issue, not Alberta.

Our constitutional law class also talked about the legality of this election, given the fixed election date added to the Canada Elections Act, S.C. 2000, c.9, by the government in 2007. One explanation that has been offered up for the low turnout in Alberta is that this is our third election in a year (the last provincial election was held in March 2008 and we voted municipally in October 2007). Would a fixed election date that was actually fixed make a difference to voter turnout in this province?

The moderator of the final U.S. presidential candidates debate on October 15 ended the broadcast with the plea “Go vote now – it will make you feel big and strong” (something his mother used to say to him before he cast his ballot). Do 48% of Albertans feel that this province is so big and strong that they do not need to vote?