No need for a red carpet this time around

So, it appears that today we Albertans will be graced with a visit from the leader of the Federal NDP party, Thomas Mulcair. Tom will start his visit in Edmonton where he will meet with Alberta Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk,  Alberta Premier Alison Redford is in Virginia to attend the Bilderberg conference. Now there has been some criticism that Premier Redford herself should have been here to meet Tom, however my thoughts on this are simple. Why?

After all, Mr Mulcair is not the leader of our country, he is the leader of the official opposition, a position he was granted by his party (not the electorate) after another individual had done all the work to get the party to official opposition status. Sorry to bring it up Tom, but so far you are simply riding on Jack Layton's coat tails. My belief is that Mr. Mulcair is fully aware of his precarious status within the party (and amongst it's supporters) and as such understands better than anyone how important it is that he make his presence known amongst voters before another federal election. Where Jack Layton took the NDP in federal politics was nothing short of a miracle, unfortunately Jack has passed on, and lightning rarely strikes in the same place twice. It would appear that Tom has his work cut out for him. So whats his plan?

So that brings us back to his visit and what I personally suspect are the reasons behind it. Tom desperately needs a call to action amongst NDP supporters, an "enemy at the gates" so to speak to show off his leadership skills (or possibly, his lack of), and he believes he has found one in the Alberta oilsands. For Tom it is a match made in heaven, most of his support is based in Ontario and Quebec, two provinces that have not weathered well in the current economic climate. Both provinces suffer from heavy provincial government debt, high unemployment, over taxation, and a shrinking of their industrial base (namely manufacturing). So to bolster his reputation Tom simply looked West where the economy is booming , unemployment is low, and the energy sector is growing leaps and bounds. Rather than point to the West as an inspiration and an example that Canada can continue to grow economically in the future, Tom has assigned the role of Boogeyman to the West by laying much of the blames for the economic woes of the East on us. It appears that Tom's battle plan for the next Federal election is to "divide and conquer", pitting the "poor suffering Easterners" against the "wealthy money grabbing oil barons " of the West. Great plan Tom, but isn't one of the main jobs of a National leader to assist people in seeing past their regional differences and work together a one nation?

I wonder if he is praying that he gets to
keep living in Stornoway?

Sadly what Tom misses in all of this is that if the NDP ever took power at the federal level (odds given on this are about the same as the proverbial "Snowball in Hell") they will need every tax dollar (and then some) coming out of Alberta (and everywhere else for that matter) so they can create the entitlement utopia that that they all dream of every night. You know the one, where the government supplies every need and whim of Canadian citizens, where independence and self- sufficiency are just horrible nightmares of the past, and where the collective back side of the population is wiped by a massive central government and it legions of bureaucrats. Commonly referred to as "Socialist Eden". So in a nutshell Tom is the one guy in this country that should get on his hands and knees and pray to whatever deity he worships (Marx, Lennon, whoever) that the oil keeps flowing in Western Canada for decades to come.

Now, back to Tom's visit today. I personally view it as being akin to when the almighty film director James Cameron visited the oilsands to personally review the operations and determine if they would receive his holy sanction. As you may recall James arrived here on his private jet (which one would imagine is fueled on good hopes and intentions rather than a nasty carbon based fuel) and at the time many felt that it was bad protocol that the Premier himself did not roll out the red carpet for Jimmy, ( possibly even kneel and kiss his ring hand) but rather sent one of his ministers to meet with him. I on the other hand felt that even sending a minister was overkill, it seemly lent credence to Jimmy's overgrown sense of self importance. However the real difference between Tom and Jim is that people actually pay to see what comes from the mind of Mr.Cameron, Tom on the other hand is still struggling to find an audience.

Myself, I probably would have told Tom to cab it from the airport, but that is probably why I am not a politician....