UCP leader’s political fate riding on byelection result

There’s been little drama throughout the campaign, but Thursday’s byelection in Calgary-Lougheed will mark a significant moment in Alberta politics.

The Dec. 14 vote was triggered by the October resignation of United Conservative Party MLA Dave Rodney, who stepped down to open a legislature seat for Jason Kenney, the newly elected leader of the fledgling party.

Kenney is the heavy favourite in the race and if he wins, as expected, the legislature will be a showcase for the former federal cabinet minister’s blunt-edged brand of politics, said Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams.

“He’ll be able to speak for himself and his party, and hold the government’s feet to the fire,” Williams said Wednesday.

“He’s got a very strong combative style . . . it will be interesting to see how that style works up against the NDP and Rachel Notley.”

Well, that ended in a hurry.

The fall sitting of Alberta’s Legislative Assembly wrapped up Wednesday afternoon after the United Conservative Party hit the eject button.

The UCP had been talking about keeping the sitting going to debate major pieces of legislation introduced by the NDP government over the past week or so.

And that was a reasonable position considering the complexity of the legislation that included massive changes to the Workers’ Compensation Board and getting “dark money” out of politics.

But the sitting came to a screeching halt Wednesday after the UCP folded its tent and headed to the exit.

While everyone is decking the halls this time of year, the NDP had been swabbing the deck — with the UCP’s house leader, Jason Nixon.

Premier Rachel Notley began wiping the legislature floor with Nixon’s credibility Tuesday when Postmedia broke a story about how, as a business owner a decade ago, he had fired a woman after she complained about being sexually harassed by a client of Nixon’s.

The woman had been working for Nixon’s firm in British Columbia. After she protested, a B.C. human rights tribunal investigated and awarded her $32,000 in compensation.

The story has particular resonance now because the legislature had been debating Bill 30, an act that includes protection for workers against sexual harassment.

Nixon had argued against the bill. That gave Notley an opening to slam him hard, and demand UCP Leader Jason Kenney fire him as house leader.

“Mr. Nixon has gone into the house and fought against the bill that would have protected someone in Alberta in the very same situation as the woman Mr. Nixon chose to fire,” a fuming Notley told reporters Tuesday.

Later, she turned the tables on Nixon in question period by ignoring a question from him on the carbon tax to attack him over his actions as a business owner a decade ago: “Instead of defending a woman who complained to him about sexual harassment, two days later he fired her.”

She had Nixon on the defensive, an unusual spot for the Opposition during question period. It’s supposed to be the other way around.

“I deeply regret some of the decisions that were made by myself and my organization while handling that human resources issue,” said a contrite Nixon. “It was not right then, and it is not right now.”

The rest of Tuesday’s question period was a subdued affair, with the normally combative UCP looking like a deflating balloon.

Same with Wednesday as deputy premier Sarah Hoffman took her turn to chastise Nixon during question period, saying she was “disappointed” he was still Opposition house leader.

Again, Nixon had to explain himself and admit he had made mistakes. It didn’t help Nixon’s case that the woman he fired was a 27-year-old mother of three who had no other income. And he fired her a few days before Christmas.

That certainly seems to be why the UCP was happy to end the sitting Wednesday. The party simply didn’t want to have Nixon pummelled daily with little to defend himself other than offering “regrets.”

Government house leader Brian Mason said he had expected the sitting to run until next week because of the UCP’s determination to debate legislation. But he said the UCP contacted him Tuesday afternoon to talk about wrapping things up quickly.

“They really couldn’t wait to get out of here,” said Mason during a news conference Wednesday, minutes after the sitting ended.

A bit later, Nixon paid a visit to the press gallery offices to dispute Mason’s account. Nixon insisted the UCP decided to wrap things up because it had done all it could in the fall sitting.

The NDP, though, is feeling rather smug, not just because it had Nixon in an awkward spot, but because the government passed so much legislation this fall, including bills to protect, among others, gay-straight alliances, convenience store workers, consumers and workers facing unsafe jobs.

The NDP likely won’t feel so smug Thursday night after the results of the Calgary-Lougheed byelection roll in. Kenney is expected to win in a landslide.

Then he’ll get a seat in the legislature, and the UCP can parade him into the assembly in late February when the spring sitting starts.

By then, the UCP hopes Albertans will have forgotten the Nixon unpleasantness as people focus on the much-anticipated Kenney vs. Notley debates in the assembly — with just one year to go at that point until the provincial election.