Ian van de Burgt
For Business Edge

Hail King Ralph, Liberal in all but name.

Once upon a time, the name Klein brought to mind staunch conservatism. Still today, many Canadians erroneously identify Premier Ralph Klein with free-market ideology. His critics still regularly lambaste him for his unfaltering belief in the “marketplace.”

But those attacks are outdated. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck . . . A rose by any other name would smell as red.

Klein’s laissez-faire reputation ensconced itself before the recent sea change in Canadian politics when Liberals and Conservatives started to steal each other’s platforms, if not actual membership.

A seminal year was 1998, when Nancy MacBeth, formerly a prominent Alberta PC cabinet minister, became the provincial Liberal leader. A month or so later, Jean Charest, no less than the federal PC leader himself, pulled the same stunt in Quebec.

Perhaps Charest and MacBeth had to find new ground after Prime Minister Jean Chretien and other Liberals started with absconding one PC idea after another. The first was Chretien’s acknowledgement, implicitly through his inaction, that Mulroney’s GST was a good idea after all.

Most recently, Brian Tobin of all people (yes, the same Brian Tobin who railed against the perils of North American free trade) has become point man for the federal government’s free-trade policy.

Throw in new helicopters and add a privatized Toronto airport, and you have a full Liberal about-face.

Debt reduction, now a point of pride with the Liberals (“We’ll have the debt paid off in only 180 years!”), was Klein’s program first.

Which leads me back to Alberta.

Subtly over the past two years, as if to join the chameleons, Klein has put his left foot in and taken his right foot out — taken his right foot out and shaken it all about, so to speak.

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Give the people what they want, he says. Well, maybe they unconsciously want Liberals.

If there is any question about whether Klein’s ship is now listing to port, consider his economic policies. He has capped electricity rates for at least a year at 11 cents per kilowatt. This is not deregulation.

He has provided “energy rebates.” This is not a way to appease staunch free-market fanatics.

As an aside: For some reason even the left-leaners gripe about these rebates. They attack them as a form of subsidy for the big power producers.

But this is unfair. Klein’s residential rebates are not linked to power consumption. In other words, they are more of a tax reduction than an energy subsidy. Fundamentally, the rebates are wealth redistribution or a de facto progressive tax (a classic Liberal policy), because those who pay little or no tax receive the same cheque as those who pay high taxes. The scheme, in essence, nullifies Klein’s own “flat tax.”

We expect that opponents of pure free-market economics will intervene in commerce. Hence, it is no surprise that Chretien and his cronies subsidize and lend millions of dollars to corporations such as Bombardier.

But why would the “right-winged” Klein reinstate handouts for the film industry, as he did a couple of years ago through the film development grant program?

As someone who purportedly believes so religiously in the “free market,” why would he continue to provide the oil and gas industry with various royalty reductions, knowing that such assistance distorts the marketplace?

Answer: He’s not as right-wing as his enemies pretend.

It’s a shame the opposition isn’t more gracious about the favours Klein has given their causes.

Deregulation in the energy sector, and the concomitant high prices, have led to the almost unbelievable result that in Alberta — the fossil-fuel capital of Canada — wind, solar and other clean-power generation, typically left-wing causes, are becoming economical. The high prices have also strongly encouraged energy conservation.

How could Raj Pannu and MacBeth see this as negative? Have they suddenly become champions of cheap, dangerous, unclean coal power? There is simply no consistency there.

At least Klein is consistently Liberal now. Farm aid just announced last week and his transportation tax, which amounts to equalization payments for rural areas, are only two further examples that jump to mind.

It behooves the NDP and Liberals to praise Klein for doing so much of their dirty work. For them, he is a sheep in wolf’s clothing. It’s the free-market fanatics that have been left out in the cold.

So let there be no mistake: Our premier is turning red.

He’s the True Grit.

(Ian van de Burgt is a freelance writer and editor.)