Alberta's dirty little progressive secret

Originally published Dec. 17.

Earlier this month, newlyelected Calgary MP Kent Hehr spoke in the House of Commons and shared an observation his fatherhad passed on to him.

"Son, you got electeda Liberal fromCalgary. You are kind of like a unicorn," said Hehr.

In those 15 words, heperfectly summed up the perception of Alberta as Canada's conservative heartland, a notionheld by many across the country.

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It's aperception that matters, as it shapesthe way the country sees Alberta and the way Albertans see themselves. It's also a perception that is rooted, at least partly, in historical experience.

After all, Hehr and fellow rookie MP Darshan Kangwere the first federal Liberals elected in Calgary since 1968 when Patrick Mahoneywas sent to Ottawa to serve under another prime minister named Trudeau.

Alberta wasalso the homeof the Reform Party, the precursor of the current Conservative Party of Canada, and the home of former prime minister Stephen Harper.

Add to that the fact that the province was runfor nearly half a centuryby theProgressive Conservative Party, and it iseasy to see how Alberta's conservative reputation was born.

But is it accurate? Is Alberta an especially conservative place? Not according to University of Calgary political scientistMelanee Thomas.

"Albertansare not conservative in terms of policy preferences," she says, while allowing that "might sound a bit weird."

Albertans like their social programs

Weird, indeed, butThomas, who was raised in a tiny rural community in southern Alberta, should know.

"Albertans really like intervention in their economy, they like their social programs. But this is the thing,Albertans don't really wantnecessarily to pay for them."

In fact, Thomas says, Alberta has a long history of supporting progressive policies and politicians.

Case in point, one of Alberta's most popular premiers, Progressive ConservativePeter Lougheed.

He was the premier who, among other things,started a government-run oil company,boughtanairline, created a human rights commissionand spentlavishly on the arts.

"You compare some of the things the Lougheed government was sayingwhen they were first elected in 1971, it'spretty similar to some of the things that you heard the Notleygovernment saywhen they werefirst elected in 2015," Thomas says.

Not convinced,here are a few more examples of progressive firsts in Alberta:

• The first woman electedto public office in Canada wasAnnie Gale, as a Calgaryalderman in1917.
• The first woman elected as a member of a legislaturein the British empirewasLouise McKinney, also in 1917.
• Alberta was home tothe Famous Five, thedriving force behindCanada'ssuffragettemovement.
• The province was run by the United Farmers of Alberta,a co-operativeagrarian party, from 1921-1935.
• The CCF, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation,was founded in Calgary in 1932, morphing intothe NDP in 1961.
• The first aboriginal Canadian appointedto the Senate was Alberta'sJames Gladstone in1958.
• Canada's first Chinese-Canadian MLA wasGeorge Ho Lem, elected in Calgary in1971.
• The first Muslim MLA elected in Canada was Lesser Slave Lake'sLarry Shabenin 1975.
• The first MuslimMP elected in Canada was RahimJafferin Edmontonin 1997.
• Canada's first Muslim mayor was Naheed Nenshi, elected in Calgary in 2010.

'That was a big big-tent party'

So, how did a province witha penchantfor progressive political firsts putConservatives in power for 44 straight years?

Well, if you ask Calgary Mayor NaheedNenshi, theanswer lies in the PC brand, which was both progressive and conservative.

"When Peter Lougheed was the premier,that was a big, big-tent party. You know, in federal government terms it meant that everyone from Pierre Poilievreto Stphane Dion would be in the same party."

Nenshi says that with the demiseof the PC dynasty in the last provincial election, that big tent has collapsed, allowingnew political divisions to emerge in the province.

"The really big tectonic shift in Alberta politics is not the fracturing of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party, it's the urbanization of the province."

Of course, provincially, those urban seats are the key to the NDP's current hold on power in aprovince where more than two-thirds of Albertans livein and around its twomajor cities.

Federally, the political dividebetween Alberta's two major cities appears to be narrowing as well.Edmonton haslong beenhome to whatever electoral successes progressive parties have enjoyedin recent years. But with two MPs in Calgary, the federal Liberalsnow have a toe-hold in the historically more conservative south as well.

Still, not everyone is convinced that the province's urbanization will mean a continued shift towards more progressive politics.

David Valentin, the spokesman forthe polling firmMainstreetResearch, says people havebeen moving to Alberta's citiesfor decades while continuing to elect conservatives,

"Those things never really sort ofactualised. People would come from other parts of the country, and more often than not the research would show that theywould sort of acclimatize and become a little more conservative when they landed."

Notley approval ratings still high

Of course, opinions mightchange over the remaining three-plus years of Rachel Notley'sfirst term in office, and Valentin concedes that he has already noticed a shift in some long-held Albertan values.

"More and more peopleare willing to accept higher debt,are willing to accept some sort of tax increase," he says, by way of example.

He also says that, so far at least, Notley's approval ratings have remained reasonably high, despite her adherence to aleft of centre platform.

At the U of C, MelaneeThomas says that,given the province's progressive history, that absence of any strongbacklashshouldn't come as a shock.

"It's not necessarily surprising that when the provincial government did change it took that step to the populist left," she says.

Of course, as with all of Alberta's political leaders, progressive or otherwise, how long their popularity lasts will likely depend more on oil prices than policy choices.

Calgary at a Crossroads is CBC Calgary's special focus on life in our city during the downturn. A look at Calgary's culture, identity and what it means to be Calgarian. Read more stories from the series atCalgary at a Crossroads.