Wildrose should recall Aberhart

If the Wildrose Alliance proves to be a serious gust of fresh air across the Alberta prairie, MLA Paul Hinman's recall law for MLAs will be a very unfortunate example of what the party means by "new."

In fact, the idea is so old it belongs in a sepia-tinted photograph next to a jug of moonshine.

It dates back three-quarters of a century in this province, to the dawn of the Social Credit era under William Aberhart. And if you will forgive the wordplay, a recall of the brief life and ultimate fate of the Recall Act of 1936 might serve 21st-century Alberta's upstart party well. For it turned out that Aberhart and Social Credit only thought making MLAs more accountable was a good idea when enemy politicians were involved. When the premier himself was the target in 1937, Social Credit shamelessly repealed their provision for recall before a petition demanding one could be presented.

Obviously, the Wildrose group has a long way to go before such a humiliation is possible. But the party's recent embrace of two turncoat Tory MLAs, and accompanying reluctance to put their new choices to their constituents, suggests they too want to have it both ways.

The party piously insists it wishes to avoid the expense of byelections. To avoid the charge of ignoring electors' wishes, the position is therefore taken that they have been informally canvassed. "All of them said the same thing -- they wanted me to cross the floor," said Heather Forsyth, a claim that seems a bit of a stretch in a province of mavericks, especially since the Liberals and NDP between them had a third of the votes in Calgary-Fish Creek in the 2008 election.

We'd take the line made famous centuries ago by British MP Edmund Burke that MLAs are elected to do what they think is right, not what they think voters currently want, and that the time to answer is at a general election. Thus, Forsyth, like colleague Rob Anderson of Airdrie-Chestermere, has every right to wait before answering for their actions.

But if Wildrose takes that approach, it is blatantly defying the spirit of the recall idea that Hinman is trying to resurrect. If they don't want to remind modern Albertans of Depression-era Social Credit, they must choose between byelections and their position on making MLAs more directly answerable for their choices.