Alberta NDP to target Calgary ridings.

Alberta NDP Strategists to target Calgary ridings.

Why?

According to today's Calgary Herald, the Alberta New Democrats are having a bit of a think about how to orchestrate a breakthrough in Calgary. Apparently, they've decided that people in Calgary don't join or vote for the NDP because nobody asked them to.

It's all the fault of the young people, explains one of their supporters. And the old people as well. The young don't vote, and the old won't change their vote, so the NDP needs to try and get the young involved more so that they will go and vote NDP. As for the established voters, it seems that they're not that interested in them because they are Conservatives.

With a strategy like that in place, Ed Stelmach should feel confident about going on a year-long holiday to Hawaii.

What the NDP don't seem to be able to grasp is that they don't offer an attractive alternative to the Conservative government. Even the Liberals are seen as being a bit left-wing for the average Albertan voter, so voting for the NDP ranks alongside a vote for Joe Stalin on the Alberta political spectrum.

The NDP would do a lot better at the municipal level, where Calgarians often vote for liberal aldermen. Of course, they can't be liberal aldermen because they're meant to be politically neutral, but as the NDP supporter mentioned earlier pointed out, leopards rarely change their political spots. Even the NDP have had an alderman elected in Calgary, Bob Hawkesworth won the provincial election for the NDP in 1989, and he still sits on the City Council today.

The NDP are trying to do too much, too soon. They had two faltering steps in 1989, and have been trying to enter the Calgary Political Marathon ever since. More baby steps Brian, that's the key.

Why the rest of the world has embraced performance-related pay.

"Don't laugh, there's a recession on."

Well, it didn't take long, did it? An unelected board is given the power to set it's own pay, and lo and behold they award themselves a 25% raise. On top of a $50k honorarium, the great and good of the Alberta Health Services Board also receive $750 for each meeting they attend, and they attend four meetings a month. Let's do the math:

$50,000 + $37,500 = $87,500

So these fine people earn $87,500 plus for a part-time job. Where do I sign up?

Let's be clear about this - Ron Liepert isn't responsible for the pay raise these people awarded themselves, nor is Ed Stelmach. They are guilty of being too trusting, and assuming that the board members wouldn't do something outrageous in the middle of a recession if they were able to set their own pay rates. Unfortunately, trust does not a contract make, and the lawyers appointed to the board would have been able to point this out.

The people responsible for this debacle are the members of the board who voted for the raise. They moved the motion, they debated it, they voted for it.

It's not like Ron Liepert to be so naieve about these things, he's as sharp an operator as you'll likely find in politics. He's clearly picked some very bright people for the board. In fact, it looks like they might have been a bit too bright, but at the end of the day we don't want dummies running healthcare in Alberta.

Is there anything Stelmach and Liepert can do about this? Not likely - the board members would have studied their contracts and the board bylaws to ensure their raises were watertight. The only thing they can do is learn from this mistake and change the bylaws to ensure that the board loses it's pay-setting powers. Liepert and Stelmach should also make it clear that this behaviour is unacceptable - board members are not members for life, they should be encouraged to show restraint in future. Forcefully encouraged.

Having one health services board for the province makes sense, and Liepert's healthcare reforms have been very encouraging - rewarding people who take care of themselves at the expense of people who don't. In fact, the Conservative government's policy on healthy living has been very strong - from Dave Rodney's Smoke-Free Places Act, to his Physical Activity Tax Credit bill to Liepert's efforts to reform healthcare delivery. These have been progressive and far-sighted pieces of legislation that will benefit us all over the years.

The reform we really need, though, is performance-related pay for the board. Performance measured in terms of increased life expectancy, not waiting times in hospital or the number if ingrowing toenails removed in a month, and certainly not performance in terms of whatever the board thinks it means. We've seen what happens when they're allowed to think for themselves.