The Alberta Teachers’ Association

A provincial general election campaign that was described as the most active and competitive in decades is now over.

Student Vote 2012

And while the electorate aged 18 and older had an ­opportunity to cast votes in the real thing, ­students in Alberta had their chance to participate in a ­parallel election program through ­Student Vote.

Early election results obtained from Student Vote indicated that students would elect Alison Redford as premier. According to results from 585 schools across Alberta, the Progressive Conservatives (PC) took 34 per cent of student votes, whereas the Wildrose Alliance (WRA) party took 29 per cent. The Alberta Liberal Party (ALP) received18 per cent, the New Democratic Party (NDP) received 13 per cent and the Alberta Party (AP) and other candidates received 0 per cent. The legislature assembled by students would have 50 PC seats, 23 WRA seats, 8 ALP seats and 5 NDP seats. A total of 67,696 ballots were cast by students.

“Alberta’s teachers have always been outstanding supporters of the program and the participation in this election has been overwhelming,” said Student Vote’s Chief Electoral Officer Taylor Gunn. “In the last federal election, more schools participated from Alberta than any other ­province and we topped that number of schools in this ­provincial election,” he said.

Student Vote is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that aims to build young Canadians’ interest in and commitment to participation in their democracy. For the 2012 Alberta election, Student Vote was sponsored by the Alberta Teachers’ Association, Heritage Canada and Alberta Education.

On the election campaign

The election campaign was varied and compelling, as healthcare, MLA pay, government accountability, budgeting, the economy, conscience rights and sexual minorities had their place on centre stage at different points during the campaign.

Education issues also featured prominently at different times. In the early days of the campaign, school fees featured prominently, as the WRA pledged to eliminate mandatory school fees and work with school boards to replace the $40–$80 million in anticipated lost revenue. The WRA pledge came in addition to similar earlier pledges from the ALP and NDP parties. The PC Party vowed to review school fees.

Infrastructure popped up as the next big topic in the campaign when the PCs issued a promise to build 50 new schools and upgrade or revitalize 70 others. Critics questioned the number of schools required, saying that ­Minister of Education Thomas Lukaszuk had suggested earlier that 400 new schools would be needed over the next 10 years. The WRA criticized Premier Redford for announcing school spending that was not included in the government’s budget.

The next day, the PCs promised teachers a $500 tax credit, providing some relief for teachers who routinely spend their own money on school supplies or helping students. This promise mirrored one made earlier by the ALP.

ATA President Carol ­Henderson commented: “Tax credits are an intriguing concept for teachers, but it points out that the real problem is that public education is underfunded and teachers are subsidizing it.”

Midway through the campaign, discussion focused on comments made by WRA ­candidate Allan Hunsperger on a blog post he made a year ago. While public discussion focused on Hunsperger condemning gays to a “lake of fire,” the actual blog posting was about public education. Hunsperger wrote about the Edmonton Public School Board’s (EPSB) policy on sexual and gender-identity minority ­students. In the posting he said: “I have warned Christian educators that you can’t partner with public education because public education is godless. … The dictionary defines godless as profane or wicked.” EPSB chair Dave Colburn called the words offensive and asked for a retraction and “an apology to some of our sexual minority populations that would view that blog as threatening and ­offensive.”

Wildrose leader Danielle Smith came under fire later in the campaign after stating at a forum in her constituency that the only way to reward good teachers is to promote them to administration. She further suggested that “our very best and most skilled teachers no longer are in the classroom delivering those frontline services.” The WRA party said Smith’s comments were based on statements made by former Calgary Public Local President Noel Jantzie at last year’s Annual Representative Assembly, which Smith had attended.

Jantzie was not acting in an official capacity when he delivered the statement. His actual statement reads as follows: “I find it passing strange that we have a profession where the mark of achievement and the mark of merit is to remove yourself from the classroom and from contact with kids … one of the frustrations that I’ve had over the years is that the incentive structure really tries to push people from the classroom and makes it difficult to have the people standing and engaged with kids who really will bring them into that life of mind.”

Now that the campaign is over, the rhetoric will likely cool down. Unless the law is changed or the government loses the confidence of the legislature, ­Albertans will next go to the polls sometime between March 1 and May 30, 2016.