I was dreadfully disappointed with the initial reaction of the opposition parties to the Alberta government’s announcement of a whopping $6.9 billion deficit. One party continues to use Twitter on the same march to nowhere, whereas another one seems to be learning how to use the power of it.

What did the opposition parties have to say about the Conservative deficit?

 
                 

Alberta Liberal leader David Swann’s response on Facebook was,

“The Stelmach administration’s overspending and failure to plan has created a $6.9 billion deficit, and soon the Sustainability fund will be drained dry, putting Alberta in a precarious position.

So far, the government’s only plan to deal with this crisis is to somehow find $430 million in savings from the various Ministries this year and another $2 billion in the future from so-called “corrective actions.”

Neither the Premier nor the Finance Minister have given anything more than vague assurances that the money would somehow be found – no details have been provided.”

David Swann stuck to the blame game on this one and offered up no alternatives.

                                                    

Avalon Roberts, the Liberal candidate in Calgary-Glenmore, had this to say, “through all the rich years we need to be saving for the lean years.”

According to the Calgary Herald, “Roberts wants the province to open up its books and do a value-for-money audit to determine where to cut spending.”

At least Roberts offered up a suggestion, but opening the books is about as weak as you can get. I find it disappointing that Swann and Roberts, both doctors and very intelligent people, cannot specifically tell us where savings can be found, especially in the health care system. You get the feeling that if the Liberals were in power they would be in the same situation as the Conservatives are now.

The Liberals are still stuck in a rut. They seem to only be able to criticize. They seem incapable of suggesting and promoting alternative ways of running the government. Until they can they will remain stomping ground for the Conservatives.

                                      

The best line of the day yesterday came from Twitter. Danielle Smith, a leadership candidate of the Wildrose Alliance, in the afternoon sent out a Tweet saying, “Q1 Fiscal Update: The gov is going to monitor spending, make token cuts, blow through savings, and blame their problems on everything else”.

Twitter username darylcognito sent back a great one liner saying, “not going to win an election with sarcasm are we now”. True, true.

Others like lisa_mack, I_Q, ChrisLaBossiere, djkelly, shannonsortland, jtraptow, and especially Imparo pressured Smith for solutions. Smith later sent @Imparo a Tweet that said, “Thanks for the response. That's more like it. Explain what you are for, not what you are against. Vision = Leadership.” Exactly. This was the power of Twitter in action - holding politicians accountable.
 
Danielle Smith was put in her place, but to her credit she did respond later on with actual solutions. On Twitter, Smith posted the following:

“I've sounded the alarm on excessive spending for years. We'd be in surplus if increases had been capped at inflation + pop growth

We need to institute spending and wage freezes/rollbacks. We need to cancel wasteful spending like the $2B carbon capture fund.

We need to replace the Stelmach royalty framework with a new model that will see a return of investment dollars and land sales.

We need to stretch the capital spending plan from 3 years to 5 years

And we need to bring per capita program spending in line with other provinces.”

At least the Wildrose Alliance has some practical suggestions.

The Conservatives played the ‘market is out of our hands’ card. Perhaps the best response of the day was the Conservative’s Glenmore-Calgary candidate Diane Colley-Urquhart who said in the Calgary Herald, “the province is in better shape than its counterparts because it has $17 billion in savings to tap to cover its projected $6.9-billion deficit, a $2.2-billion increase from April's forecast.

“Thank goodness for the sustainability fund,” the Conservative candidate said. “It gave us the cushion that we needed.”

Though the Sustainability Fund will be depleted in 2 years if the present course continues, the Conservatives should be given credit for saving and creating the $17 billion Sustainability Fund. Otherwise the deficit would be devastating and drastic cuts in spending would be occurring. Obviously the Conservatives did not save enough though.

Twitter can be used to stay in touch or to show you are out of touch. Danielle Smith was able to listen and make adjustments from poignant feedback. The Liberals on the other hand seem to continue to use Twitter and Facebook only as an announcement platform, rather than an avenue to create dialogue and get valuable feedback from Albertans.

Twitter can be a powerful political tool. The Liberals fail to use it, while Danielle Smith is learning how to use it.  

Note: The 2 NDP MLAs were on vacation and therefore were unable to comment.

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