Many Albertans had a good night sleep, satisfied in having maintained the status quo, i.e. having stopped the Wild Rose Party from seizing the Provincial Legislature. The turning point was that in the final week it started to become clear that some of the candidates for the upstart party were hillbilly bigots. Or something like that, in any event. So fear took the day, and many who would otherwise have voted Liberal or NDP cast their ballot for the Progressive Conservatives.
Noteworthy is that the Progressive Conservatives are far more progressive than they were a decade ago. And Alberta is no longer the home of freaky conservatism — you can find the new home in Ontario.
The BCLiberals, closely associated with the Progressive Conservatives in Alberta, are looking long and hard and plotting a similar reprieve. The idea is to vilify the NDP — to identify them as the socialist threat, thereby pulling in the fear vote and sliding through with a majority. Time will tell if this strategy works in BC.
Note to Danielle Smith (head of the Wild Rose Party): if you search the Globe and Mail’s archives you can find the first ever mention of Stephen Harper. He is reported as having given a speech at an early Reform Party convention. His message was that they should silence the candidates and not speak publicly about what they planned to do because if anyone found out, they would never win an election.
In any event, congratulations to the successful candidates and their supporters in Alberta. But we have bad news for you. Legislation already passed but not enacted is coming your way to punish suspected over .08 drivers long before the case ever gets to court.
You can read a government fact sheet about what is to come here. As we have in BC, the Alberta Government is implementing a .05 % level for the first stage of punishment. It is not justified in our view, but governments have power to do such things (think marijuana prohibition).
On the plus side, unlike in BC is it not a money grab. There are no fines, which may protect it from a division of powers argument. And there is a more prominent rehabilitative component to the scheme. Finally, the intention is to only rely on ASDs for Warn range drivers. If it is an over .08 allegation, the evidence will be collected on an Approved Instrument, which is a far more reliable (although not foolproof) breath testing machine normally found in police stations.
However, the most frightening part of the Alberta scheme is over .08 and alleged refusal scenarios. The punishment starts immediately, even if you are innocent. So although you may need to wait a year to be exonerated in Court, you cannot drive for that entire time, in addition to paying for the associated costs. So you can forget about that whole “presumption-of-innocence” thing. The trend appears to be toward a new “presumption of guilt” standard. And if you are innocent, tough luck buddy.
Of course, this is a bullying tactic to try to force people into an early guilty plea in order to end the punishment earlier. Which is absolutely reprehensible. Simply put, almost nobody drinks and drives while waiting for their trial. So there is no need to prohibit these people to protect the public during the months while waiting for a trial date.
All of this has been waiting on the election. The Progressive Conservatives, having had a majority, wrote, introduced and passed the legislation, without any significant amendments, in the blink of an eye. It is ready to go, simply waiting on the green light from the re-elected Premier. So you can expect this to come your way in a matter of weeks, rather than months.
So congratulations Alberta. But we are very sorry for what is coming your way.