Shifting Priorities: From Deficit Spending to Paying down the Debt and Lowering Taxes - Evidence from the Alberta Advantage Surveys: 1995-2000

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The Opposition

Organized labour was among the first to announce it was against the May, 1993 budget (Calgary Herald, [CH] 8 May, 1993), but no serious opposition was mounted until after the election. In August, 1993 the President of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), Linda Karpowich, promised "a mobilization and a militancy not seen in Alberta since the Gainers strike" if the Government tried to make any cuts in the civil service (AR, 16 August, 1993). In fact, however, the Alberta Union of Public Employees (AUPE) proved to be barren ground upon which to sustain the flowering of union solidarity.

Hospital workers and the Alberta Teachers Association also declared their opposition along with the opinion, widely reported in the media, that Albertans in fact were eager to pay more taxes to ensure educational funding, and that 80% of the population opposed cuts. As is indicated below, this statistic was neither accurate nor politically significant. Other public sector union leaders promised grave disruptions and violent reaction to the cuts. Opposition from the media, notably from the Edmonton Journal, remained strident and both the Prime Minister and the Premier of B.C. criticized the Alberta Government for its "heartless" policies. So, of course, did the Liberal opposition in the legislature.

National television coverage of Alberta also seemed stacked against the Klein agenda. The National Media Archive, a department of the Fraser Institute, conducted an analysis and comparison of media coverage of the first twenty months of the Klein government with the first twenty months of the NDP government under Premier Bob Rae in Ontario (Miljan, 1995). At the time, Ontario constituted 40% of Canada’s economy, so one might expect extensive media coverage of the actions of the Ontario Government. In fact, however, TV news paid more attention to Alberta than to Ontario.

Assessments of Ontario’s policies were "slightly more negative than positive" on both major networks. "However, on CBC, assessments of Alberta’s actions were twice as often negative as positive, and on CTV three times as often negative as positive." Expenditure cuts were said to be much less desirable than increasing either deficits or taxes. Privatization was attacked and the deficit and debt issues were virtually ignored. In contrast, the intentions and actions of the Rae government were carefully explained by TV reporters. On the other hand, the CBC mentioned that Alberta had not raised taxes in only 1 percent of its stories. CTV did so in 2 percent. Instead, both networks focussed on the opposition claims that user fees were "hidden taxes," when in fact they are not hidden, but open, and are not taxes, but client-paid fees for service, such as campground charges.

It is remarkable, then, that at a time when seventy percent of the stories on TV were negative, in Alberta Premier Klein was setting records for popular support. According to the National Media Archive, the media displayed such "gross partisanship" that they "have crossed the boundary from news reporting to news advocacy." The conclusion was obvious: "In their coverage of Alberta and Ontario, television news has seriously misrepresented the public mood" (Miljan, 1995).

Notwithstanding this multivalent opposition, however, it was clear by early 1995 that criticism from the left was ineffective. That did not, however, mean there would be smooth sailing. Soon enough the question began to emerge: after the deficit and debt issue had been met, what was to follow? How intense should "reinvestment" be, and where should it be directed? And what of other policies? On the right flank, there was some criticism from "theo-cons," particularly those associated with Ted Byfield and Alberta Report. In the July 1995 issue of the magazine, for example, Klein was accused of being a "business conservative," which was not intended to be a compliment. They meant that Klein was less concerned with smaller government and lower personal taxes than with assisting large business organizations (AR, 10 July 1995). According to this interpretation, there was little difference between the policies of the current government and giving corporations tax breaks and "picking winners" in the old style by providing selective loan guarantees, direct investment, and so on. This may be questionable economic doctrine, but it was significant that Alberta Report had detected a change in the Premier’s attitude and actions. Whether the magazine was astute in its perceptions or merely opposed to Klein for other reasons associated with its social conservative commitments, the government was able to ignore opposition on the right as well.

To summarize: upon election, the Klein changed the financial profile of the province. When Peter Lougheed turned the government over to Don Getty in 1985, the provincial net worth was nearly $13 billion; when Getty left in 1992 the province was nearly $6 billion in the hole. With Klein, the deficit was gone in a matter of three years and it was conceivable as early as 1996 that the accumulated debt would disappear a few years down the road. Opposition came initially from those whose short-term interests were harmed—civil servants, doctors, teachers, and even municipal politicians. The government responded consistently, making the argument that they had been elected to govern; by providing answers and rebuttals through the media; by using the usual array of public relations sophistry; and by admitting error and correcting its actions. Both substantively and technically, the Government was successful in meeting the initial opposition to its program. The criticism from Alberta Report and from other committed social and fiscal conservatives was, for the moment, ignored, but it would reappear after the Tories were reelected in 1997.

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