The Notley NDP are having a field day this week.
All they have to do is sit back and watch.
Or, when the spirit moves them, they can give Wildrose leader Brian Jean a little jab whenever they feel like it.
It really is like shooting fish in a barrel.
Wednesday afternoon. The legislature’s daily question period.
Jean can’t get a question out without being made a laughing stock by Premier Notley.
Jean is referred to as “the member opposite” and the premier treats him like a punch line.
“I can certainly understand why people in Alberta would be concerned about issues of uncertainty given the member opposite can’t take a position or keep a position for more than three or four hours at a time,” says Notley.
All that’s missing is the drum and the cymbal.
Ba-dum ching.
Another question and Notley again: “I did in fact answer this question yesterday but I can understand the member opposite might, because of his own experience, think it’s important to check positions every day.”
It’s Notley’s Just for Laughs festival.
Notley on a third question: “I understand, given the member opposite’s demonstrated inability to reach and keep a decision, that dithering is the way to go.”
NDP budget boss Smilin’ Joe Ceci is smiling even more than usual as he looks on at the premier’s shtick.
On a fourth question, Notley again plays it up to guffaws from the NDP benches: “He changes his position more often than someone attending yoga classes in my riding, We just can’t keep up.”
Downward dog, indeed. I turn off the TV. It is just too painful.
Where does all this hilarity come from?
Well, you see, on Monday, Wildrose leader Brian Jean says parents should not be informed when kids join a gay-straight alliance, a GSA. Period. Full Stop. Absolutely not.
Then on Tuesday, your columnist is told the press didn’t get the story straight.
There was more to the story and Wildrose leader Brian Jean’s full position and how it would be expressed in the column is discussed with Wildrose staff.
The column concludes by saying, for Jean, there are some occasions when it is OK for parents to be notified their kid is in a GSA.
On Wednesday, Jean puts out a Facebook post.
A sentence in my column read: “Notification would be permissible where the local school or school board determined it was in the best interest of the student and the student was involved in the process.”
In Jean’s Facebook post it reads: “School authorities should be available, if requested by the student, to help the student discuss with parents their involvement in a GSA.”
On Facebook, Jean adds Wildrose “strongly supports parental oversight and input” including with the establishment of GSAs.
And, something totally new, Jean says “parents need to be assured GSAs are not being used to get around the legal requirement to obtain parental consent when discussing issues of human sexuality.”
That sentence is not explained.
On Wednesday, Jean assures the press nothing has changed in his position and how it read in the column was “a good faith error” on the part of Wildrose.
A dogged newshound asks Jean how his message got so badly mangled.
“I’m here today telling you for certain what my position is and my personal opinion is, we shouldn’t out kids,” says Jean.
His personal opinion? Is it Wildrose’s opinion? Just asking.
Notley, now more serious, isn’t finished.
The premier says the opposition is “tying themselves in knots” and they haven’t “come to terms with the fact there is still some underlying discrimination going on in the lens through which they view this problem.”
Ouch.
David Eggen, the education minister, says little. Maybe he thinks politics has the same rules as football and he might get a penalty for piling on.
He does make it clear what Jean feels about GSAs is still not in line with the NDP government’s position.
Before we’re done, a world-weary small-c conservative throws up his hands over what he’s seen the last three days and says: “Leave the gay kids alone.”
Even NDP backbencher Michael Connolly gets his moment upon the stage.
“Albertans are asking: Just what does Brian Jean stand for?”
Wildrose rides the three-day political roller coaster on gay-straight alliances
