Recall comes back to Alberta politics
February 8, 2008 | 07:09 PM
Scott Dippel
I'm not talking about the recall of your MLA. That old Social Credit chestnut was briefly on the books in the 1930s — at least until Premier William (Bible Bill) Aberhart found out a petition for his recall was circulating in his own riding. Recall was repealed a short time later.
The 21st-century version of recall in Alberta refers to news releases — specifically the ones issued by the Alberta Liberals.
At 10:31 a.m. Friday morning, the Libs dropped their Southern Alberta Agenda into my e-mail inbox. It was short and to the point, detailing their six-point plan for southern Alberta.
Then at 2:26 p.m., my inbox beeped again with the "recall" of the 10:31 a.m. release, replacing it with a revised version.So what was in the original that shouldn't have been and what was it replaced with?
The original mentions a Taft government will start construction on a new hospital for Medicine Hat immediately and will move quickly to get the police college in Fort Macleod built and operating.
The replacement release takes out the word ‘immediately,’ and deletes the police college point entirely.
The second version then adds two things that weren’t there before:
- Medicine Hat College in the list of southern Alberta's post-secondary institutions that the Grits will support.
- A promise that the Libs will ensure seniors centres get the money they need.
This is the second “recall” of a news release this week.
On Monday, the Liberals indicated they were ready for a snap election in a statement issued before the election was called. No one was really sure why it had to be recalled, but it was issued again a short time later.
Then on Wednesday, the party issued a news release stating that leader Kevin Taft was looking forward to a "tentatively scheduled" televised debate on Feb 18.
A little more than an hour later, a “clarification” release was put out. It stated that the debate was not a confirmed event. Clear?
