For those interested in the leadership race of the United Conservative Party, the debates have been good viewing, highlighting the difference between the candidates and giving insights into what the party may yet become.
Jason Kenney is a fiery orator, and most of the loudest applause and cheers in the opening debates seem to be reserved for him and fellow candidate Brian Jean. At one point or another, all four candidates offered good, common-sense thinking when it comes to needs for health care reform or getting the economy on track. But Kenney is demonstrating how a turn to the right could derail this party yet, particularly when it came to talking about education.
The candidates all agree on the need for school choice, and the need to respect parental choices, the need to focus on STEM and improving results – that’s all well and good. But when Kenney starts talking about the curriculum redesign and NDP politically engineering classrooms, that’s where things begin to sound off-course.
Moderator Dave Rutherford seemed to play to this paranoia, talking about the bias in schools and curriculum as a given, and talking about a banner that compares Conservatives to fascists, (when in fact, the banner he referred to showed a political spectrum that demonstrated where different political movements lay, and fascists to the farthest right of Conservatives).
To his credit, candidate Doug Schweitzer seemed to reject the premise of the question, noting his mother was an educator, and from his experience with educators, none of them go to school with a mission to create a bunch of little socialists. Educators are not one entity, but individuals with different political backgrounds, just like any other professionals. However, instead of being treated as professionals, those involved in the redesign are being subject to a somewhat paranoid witch hunt, with demands for their names to be released.
For that matter, the NDP’s attempt to paint the United Conservative Party as an army of homophobic bigots is equally petty. But the UCP may give the NDP an opening to gain political capital here, if leadership candidates don’t stay on track with key messages. If the UCP wants to become a party of wide appeal, that offers the big tent, it must steer clear of dog-whistle politics and ramped-up rhetoric.
