Be Like Guy! He is honest Stelmach is not

EDMONTON — Premier Ed Stelmach says he expelled Guy Boutilier from his Conservative caucus because he was not a team player and tried to blame his colleagues for the government’s decision to defer a long-term care facility in Fort McMurray.
“It’s very easy to blame someone else on the team,” the premier said Monday. “All successful teams, whether it be in government or in sports, always work together and they suffer through difficult circumstances together.”
He said MLAs were advised their constituencies will have to tighten their belts during the recession and everyone has to do their part.
“Although we all sit around the table and make decisions with respect to how we’re going to deal with the economic situation, no one as an individual MLA can take a pass on it and say: ‘Well, you have to suffer through, in your constituency, some of the difficult decisions, but in mine, I’ll just step out of the team and blame my colleagues,’” Stelmach said. “That’s not the way the government operates under my leadership.”
He said MLAs can make passionate cases for the constituencies in caucus, but he expects them to support the decisions of the majority.
Stelmach noted the Conservative caucus held together through tougher times during the Ralph Klein budget-slashing era.
“I reflect upon my experience in the early 90s where we had to make very, very difficult decisions, but that team held through difficult times and I know the team under my leadership will do the same.”
But Boutilier, who has been hailed as a hero by the Friends of Medicare, lashed back Monday, saying the premier made his decision based on faulty information provided by his staff and never gave him a chance to make a case either in person or before his caucus peers.
“I am a team player, but when you ask the coach ­— the premier — to meet and he says ‘no’ after 12 years together on the team, this gives new meaning to ‘team,’” Boutilier said. “He wouldn’t meet with me.”
Although Boutilier was hopeful the premier might reconsider the decision, Stelmach didn’t have any plan for that to occur.
“I made the decision Friday. It stays the same today and it will into the future,” he said. “It’s one of those unfortunate decisions that you have to make as the leader.”
He said he gave Boutilier more than one chance and the MLA’s comments in e-mails and in newspaper accounts were “self-explanatory.”
When asked why Boutilier wasn’t given a chance to make his case in front of caucus, Stelmach said: “I am speaking on behalf of caucus.”
Boutilier was advised by the premier in a late Friday phone call that he had been removed from his post of Treasury Board and expelled from the caucus for his criticism of his government in recent days and weeks.
The former cabinet minister has argued that he is just representing the view of his constituents — and that he shouldn’t be punished for that.
Dave Eggen of Friends of Medicare said Boutilier’s expulsion sends a “very negative message.”
“We want each MLA to understand that this health-care crisis transcends party politics and really lies at the root of the security and peace of mind of their constituents,” he said. “That’s what Mr. Boutilier did and we’re proud of him.”
Boutilier said he had calls of support from 26 MLAs, but no one was leaping to his defence Monday.
“It’s a team game and the premier felt he had to make that decision and I support him in his decision,” said Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett.
Finance Minister Iris Evans said Stelmach has 100-per-cent support of his caucus.
“Look, if you have been in caucus for 12 years as Guy Boutilier and I have (and) if you have been in local politics as both Guy Boutilier and I have, you know there’s a right and a wrong way to do things,” she said. “I think the premier deserves the respect of all caucus members.”
Evans, who was in cabinet when caucus expelled former cabinet member Lyle Oberg, said she also believed that the premier was right to take the action unilaterally.
“I think it’s the right way, frankly, to have the leader make that decision and make that call,” she added.
But NDP Leader Brian Mason said the expulsion of Boutilier should give voters pause for voting in government members in the future.
“The prevailing political wisdom in many parts of Alberta is that you get more done by going through your local MLA, but it’s pretty clear to me that if there is an issue where the government policy is harming your constituents, you dare not speak publicly about it or you face what Mr. Boutilier did,” he said. “Why would you elect government MLAs if they can’t represent the constituents? There’s a really strong argument here for electing more opposition MLAs to make sure people’s voices are heard.”
dhenton@thejournal.canwest.com