Thomson: Meet warm, fuzzy Wildrose

Thomson: Meet warm, fuzzy Wildrose

A funny thing happened in Alberta politics this week, literally. The Wildrose Party discovered a sense of humour.

That's not to say members of the party individually are without a funny bone but collectively the Wildrose often comes across as the grumpy old man of Alberta politics.

Just days after Alison Redford won the Progressive Conservative leadership in October, for example, the Wildrose issued television ads attacking the new premier before she had actually even been sworn in as the new premier.

"Alison Redford promised change like fixed election dates," intoned a male announcer in one of the ads while ominous music played in the background. "Now, she won't say when the next election will be."

The ad wrapped up with party leader Danielle Smith saying "Albertans are tired of politicians who will do anything for power."

Keep in mind these ads were done as Redford was planning the funeral for her mother who had died in the final days of the leadership campaign. The Wildrose had gone too hard, too fast against Redford. When Smith was talking about "politicians who will do anything for power," the words seemed to be as much about her as about Redford.

Enter the kinder, gentler and relatively funnier Wildrose.

This week, the party released two new television ads, one called "Flip Flop," the other "Classroom."

The message in "Flip Flop" is very much like the message in the ads from October - but what a difference in tone.

"When is a promise not a promise?" asks a jaunty female voice in what sounds like the opening of a joke - followed by the punchline, "When Alison Redford's campaign is over." It's not exactly a knee-slapper but neither is it a face-slapper. And the bouncy background music is like something from a cartoon, complete with sound effects. "Since she be-came premier she has flip-flopped on her promise of a public inquiry into health care, flip-flopped on her promise of transparency by approving secret budget consultations, flipped and flopped and flipped again on her promise of fixed election dates." And then the finale: "Flip-flops are for the beach" ... complete with a picture of a pair of flip-flops on the beach.

It is an attack ad as written and performed by Disney.

The second ad has the smiling party leader in a school talking about education. "Hi, I'm Danielle Smith. I grew up in a big family, three brothers and a sister. My parents were very involved in our education, they wanted their kids to have the best start."

The ad is only about 30 seconds long but Smith manages to squeeze in the importance of hiring more teachers and building more schools. "We need a government that will do a better job planning for our future so our kids have the best start in life. That's my priority and it's a Wildrose commitment."

It is a message as warm and fuzzy as a Christmas sweater; the only things missing are a mug of hot chocolate and a roaring fire. In per-son, Smith is actually very warm and personable but that doesn't always come across in news clips when she's in full attack mode.

In Alberta politics, the politician who has most successfully managed to present herself as a person who understands the challenges of real-life Albertans is Premier Redford, who won the PC leadership by appealing to teachers and nurses and the soccer moms as a fellow sandwich-generation mother caught between raising a school-aged daughter and caring for aging parents.

The new Wildrose ads are designed to soften Smith's image and that of the party, not that the party will out-right acknowledge the old ads were too severe.

"There are different ways of drafting ads and different ways of reaching Albertans so we thought we would try a different avenue," says Wildrose executive director Shayne Saskiw.

"People have been telling us that you just can't criticize the government, you have to put forward your proposals."

This is not to say the Wildrose will fight the next election with rain-bows and lollipops, but it is a tacit admission the party should go into the election with a smile on its face, not what chronically appears to be a grimace.

The election is coming and it's coming fast; just ask Iris Evans, Ron Liep-ert and Ken Kowalski. All three members of the government's old guard announced this week they won't be seeking re-election. That brings the total number of government MLAs who have announced they're jumping (or have been pushed) to more than a dozen.

That's' good news for Redford's election planners, who want to present the premier as a new leader with a new team, one that ideally will be less grey, less white and less male than the old one.

Cleaning house on the government side can also be good news for the Wildrose, specifically Link Byfield.

He's the Wildrose candidate in the riding of Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock, which Kowalski has won every election since 1979, the last time with 70 per cent of the vote. Byfield, one of the most credible of the Wildrose candidates, would have faced such an uphill climb against Kowalski he'd need to campaign with pitons and ropes.

Now, Byfield's chances have improved considerably; enough, probably, to bring a smile to his face.

We could use more smiles in Alberta politics, just as we could use a little more humour.