Alison Redford participates in Pride Week.
by Samantha Power
Premier Alison Redford made history recently by being the first Albertan premier to deliver an address at Edmonton's Pride Week. It was as large a step for the PC party as it was a politically astute move.
Shortly after Ms Redford announced she would be delivering an address at Pride, Wildrose opposition leader Danielle Smith revealed she too would be appearing at Pride, just not at the parade. Or any public event. Ms Smith attended Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht's police reception, a limited space event to which you had to RSVP.
This game of optics was quickly trumped by Premier Redford when she took the opportunity to announce the reinstatement of funding for gender reassignment surgery, something Ed Stelmach's Conservatives removed in 2009.
For about $1 million per year, the province will provide funding to approximately 25 people. At the time of its delisting there were an estimated 600 people on the waiting list for the procedure. Although Redford and the PCs don't get full points — having been the party to remove the funding in the first place — reinstating the funding when she did revealed the optics game being played by both party leaders. Danielle Smith quickly proved she could keep up, denouncing the funding decision by saying "I think it's clearly elective surgery," and stating there were medically necessary procedures that were much higher priority.
Wildrose called for elimination of the Human Rights Act section banning hate speech.
In the same week as these announcements, the Wildrose released a statement calling for the removal of section 3 from the Alberta Human Rights Act. Section 3 defines hate speech found in telecommunications and over Internet. Removing section 3 removes the ability of human rights tribunals to rule on hate speech over the Internet.
The Wildrose views this section as limiting the Charter right to free speech. The policy evokes the balancing act Danielle Smith is attempting to play with Alan Hunsberger's online comments. Smith has stated they are not her views or reflective of the policies of her party, and that she will not apologize for those comments for that reason.
What she fails to realize is that as a public leader she is no longer speaking solely for herself, but for all Albertans. There must be a view to respect all Albertans' rights to free speech and rights to feel safe to celebrate and express who they are as people. So far Smith has failed to step up and understand that balance, something Premier Redford seems intent on taking advantage of.
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