Opinion | Policy debate Albertans yearn for will require restraint from both sides of the aisle

If we're into the honeymoon period for Alberta's election-winning United Conservative Party, we're also into the awkward period for the election-losing New Democratic Party.

As the legislative assembly gets ready for a special summer session starting next week, we enter a period when the NDP will defend policies that were rejected by a majority of Albertans who cast a vote in April's provincial election while also attacking UCP policies that were supported by a majority of Albertans who cast a vote in April's provincial election.

The NDP is in the same political hell of awkwardness the Progressive Conservatives found themselves in after losing 2015 election: trying to appear credible after an election drubbing.

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Of course, helping boost NDP credibility is the fact the party won almost 620,000 votes, pretty much the same number of votes they received when winning the 2015 election.

Also, the party's leader, Rachel Notley, is staying on, whereas the PCs lost Jim Prentice on election night when he announced he was stepping down not only as leader but as an MLA.

Not only does the official Opposition have a leader who used to be premier, almost a dozen of the NDP's MLAs used to be cabinet ministers. And the NDP has 24 seats, whereas the PCs won only 10 in 2015.

Nothing, though, can diminish the political awkwardness New Democrats must endure in the upcoming session as the UCP kicks post-election sand in the NDP's face. It's political karma.

Last time around, the NDP was happy to subtly torture the PCs with reminders of who won the election.

But here is the most awkward fact of all for the NDP: in Alberta history, no political party has ever been re-elected to government after being defeated.

Not the Liberals or United Farmers or Social Credit or Progressive Conservatives. In Alberta there is no political resurrection.

The NDP is hoping to change history by getting re-elected to power in 2023, just as it made history in 2015 by forming Alberta's the first NDP government.

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We'll see how that goes.

More immediately, the NDP risks undermining its position if it simply treats the upcoming session as an extension of the past four-week election.

We will work to find common ground with the government on issues that we can work together on, because that's what Albertans deserve.- Rachel Notley

"We will work to find common ground with the government on issues that we can work together on, because that's what Albertans deserve," said Notley last week in a conciliatory message.

But she also had a warning for the UCP: "As a former House leader, I can tell you with absolute certainty and absolute clarity, we can filibuster forever. If they start coming after workers' rights, that's exactly what you're going to see."

After 28 days nay, make that 28 months of hyper-partisan political attacks from the NDP and UCP against each other, Albertans could do with some good old fashioned policy debate.

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And we have a legislature uniquely positioned to do just that with a right-wing government and a left-wing opposition.

Perhaps we will now see the two sides enter into heated but respectful debates over important issues of our times including the environment, education, taxes and workers' rights. Yes, I write that with a straight face.

But it's a two-way street.

Glimpse of restraint

If we expect superhuman restraint from Notley who will watch as Kenney does his best to dismantle many parts of the NDP legacy, we should expect some restraint from Kenney.

We saw a glimpse of that Thursday.

Kenney invited Notley to a lunchtime meeting with Alberta Senators next week to discuss amendments to the federal Bill C-69 dealing with energy projects (which Kenney has dubbed the "no more pipelines bill"). It's a start.

However, Kenney, who talks of finding common ground with the Opposition and restoring civility to debate, more often sounds like he is still on the campaign trail. Which, of course, he is, only now he's campaigning against Prime Minister Trudeau. But his rhetoric still includes targeted attacks against Notley, as in the "Notley-Trudeau alliance."

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He is also continuing his simplistic and misleading rhetoric against issues including the "job-killing carbon tax."

He has appointed a socially conservative politician as education minister and his environment minister has vowed to scrap the entirety of the NDP's climate leadership plan, to mention just two examples seemed designed to irritate New Democrats. Kenney might talk about working with the Opposition but when it comes to give and take, he is big stick and baby carrot.

Mind you, Kenney has been forced by real world politics into a more nuanced stance on his red-meat promises including turning off the taps to B.C. (he hasn't), launching his own legal fight against the federal carbon tax (he hasn't), and cancelling the $3.7-billion oil-by-rail deal (he hasn't).

The trick for Notley will be avoiding the temptation to rub it in Kenney's face whenever he backtracks, flip-flops, and tap dances around his simplistic and cynical election promises.

The trick for Kenney will be to live up to his promise to bring a level of civility and decorum to political discourse in the new UCP-dominated legislature.

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