Bill 6 has passed third and final reading in the legislature and the honey badgers from both the left and the right will soon have to find something else to get nasty about.
Bill 6 has passed third and final reading in the legislature and the honey badgers from both the left and the right will soon have to find something else to get nasty about.
Yes, just like those little hellions from the wild that take what they want, any time they want because, as Randall's famed video proclaims, the honey badger just doesn't care.
And there has been plenty of nastiness lately from both sides of the provincial legislature.
More importantly though, the NDP, in spite of itself, has passed one of the most important social policy legislations in the province's history, new laws that will be a big first big step in establishing long overdue protection and equality for farm and ranch workers, one of North America's most disenfranchised group of citizens. I say step because there is still much more work to be done on Bill 6, and hopefully the NDP will finally understand that to have the entire file finished correctly, a thorough housecleaning of its communications department is in order.
The NDP was elected last May largely because it promised to do things differently than the Progressive Conservatives, and that included communications. But they bungled the Bill 6 file so badly on communications, Alberta became mandatory news feed material for every government agency in North America on what not to do when it comes to messaging. In fact, there has never been a bigger oxymoron in politics than the "communications" department of Alberta's NDP.
In the meantime, the NDP became daily fodder for the honey badger rantings coming out of Wildrose Party headquarters. And who could blame them? The NDP kept giving Brian Jean the gift that kept coming, day after day of public relations blunders, including Brian Mason's own honey badgering last week by calling Opposition MLAs goons and gangsters.
And sadly it has not stopped with Bill 6. For the past month the NDP's communications office has given the appearance there is a new policy on how to handle media queries, possibly one designed as a means of protecting itself from itself.
Three times in the last two weeks the Innisfail Province has called Alberta Environment on stories for Innisfail and Penhold. Each time the communications person on the other end of the line told us that media now has to send them an email first before anyone in that office will take our questions. They want to know what the story is about and the deadline. I suppose it never occurred to the NDP's communications office that we are now all living in the day and age of social media where news coverage of any story is potentially instantaneous, and that traditional media deadlines no longer apply.
The Notley government should be thankful the Christmas break is soon upon us. It needs to regroup, especially on its short- and long-term communications strategy. The storm over Bill 6 will ultimately go away, but soon, possibly over Notley's climate change initiative, another will quickly appear.
And sadly the honey badgers will return. The NDP should be prepared. Nothing stops the honey badger. He just doesn't care.
[email protected]
