This Wildrose Isuue is NOT from the Beaverton or The Onion

[tay]

Alberta’s Wildrose Opposition is gearing up for a battle over its objection to the NDP government’s proposal to convene the legislature at 9 a.m.

Government house leader Brian Mason said the province wants to extend sitting hours to begin at 10 a.m. Tuesdays and 9 a.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays. The house would still convene at 1:30 p.m. Mondays.

But its efforts to adjust the legislature’s hours to include morning sittings could spark the assembly’s first filibuster of the fall after the Wildrose delayed the first day of debate on the proposal.

“I think it’s a shame that they’re wasting so much time in this important legislative agenda because they don’t want to start work at a reasonable time in the morning,” Mason said Thursday. “Most Albertans start at nine or earlier. When I worked driving a bus, I started at 5:30 in the morning.”

A half-dozen Wildrose MLAs spent more than an hour taking turns speaking against Mason’s proposal in the legislature this week, party staff saying the official Opposition is preparing to stall as long as necessary.

Mason said that with a young caucus — many have young families — it’s important to make the legislature be more family friendly and reduce the reliance on evening sittings.

Opposition parties often complained that the former Progressive Conservative government misused evening sittings, often sitting late into the early morning hours, to ram government bills through the house.

Alberta Wildrose threaten filibuster over NDP proposal to convene legislature at 9 a.m. | National Post

 

[tay]

Alberta’s majority New Democratic Party government has prevailed as anticipated and MLAs will now have to start work at 9 a.m. … two days a week, and only when the Legislature is in session, but still an improvement in value for money for taxpayers and better accommodation of legislators with families, both of which ought to be encouraged.


It is also a largely self-inflicted defeat for Alberta’s Opposition Wildrose Party – which inexplicably opposed the early start time from the moment it was mentioned by the government, thereby ending up with scrambled egg from the most important meal of the day all over its MLAs’ faces.

Opposition Leader Brian Jean tried to argue, rather fatuously I thought, that starting the Legislature’s day at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and 9 a.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays would let the NDP “ram through” legislation by sitting all day and into the night.

But with a substantial majority and a Parliamentary kitbag full of legislation-ramming tools, the NDP could do that anyway without bothering to lose sleep. Indeed, what the NDP is trying to do is put an end to the need for late-night sittings, which past Progressive Conservative governments loved because they were an effective way to, well, ram through legislation.

It’s hard to believe the Wildrosers, 21 out of 22 of whom come from mostly rural ridings where lots of folks still have to rise early to do agricultural chores, would score many political points arguing that they have a God-given right as MLAs to sleep in.

But in the absence of their being sleep deprived, their taking on this sure-loser is simply inexplicable. Under the circumstances, one can certainly forgive NDP House Leader Brian Mason for succumbing to the temptation to mock the ’Rosers for their apparent stout defence of their right to sufficient beauty sleep.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media, true to form, has not been able to stop itself from presenting this 'shiny pony' as a “spat” between the government and Opposition, as if it were some kind of issue that will either make or break Alberta. Even the CBC, which ought to know better, did this. Given the circumstances, this is quite offensive.


Morning sittings approved at Alberta legislature - Edmonton - CBC News