Canoe (includes photo of the red-faced premier)

Monday, February 26, 2001

Klein takes the heat in TV debate By JOHN COTTER-- The Canadian Press

EDMONTON (CP) -- Election underdog Nancy MacBeth took dead aim Monday at the one perceived chink in the armour of Ralph Klein's governing Conservatives -- sky-high power and heating bills.

"There's a huge fiasco that's been created by electricity deregulation in this province," MacBeth, leader of the Opposition Liberals, told Klein and a provincewide TV audience during the only leaders' debate of the Alberta election campaign.

"Albertans were promised that deregulation meant the lowest prices. In fact we're paying some of the highest prices in North America," said MacBeth.

She said if you want to understand why, follow the money. She said utility companies have given more than $250,000 to the Tory party.

"They got deregulation and you got skyrocketing electricity prices."

Electricity bills and the cost of natural gas have soared in recent months, due in part to the Conservatives' program to deregulate the electricity industry, which kicked in Jan. 1.

But Klein said despite short term pain, the system will work.

"All evidence shows the price of power is in fact coming down and competition will bring it down," Klein, 58, told MacBeth, 52, and New Democrat leader Raj Pannu in the 90-minute debate.

The Tories have recently returned more than $4 billion in energy rebates to consumers -- about $1,600 per two-adult household. They have said other factors besides deregulation, including market forces and broken down generators, have contributed to the high costs.

Pannu, 67, took potshots at both opponents.

"This government's priorities are wrong and the Liberal opposition have let us down. Time and again they have failed to keep the government on its toes," said Pannu.

His two-member party has stated it would be happy to simply overtake the 15-member Liberals as the Official Opposition. Pannu hammered the Liberals throughout the debate, prompting MacBeth to tell him at one point, "Your idea of opposition is to fight the opposition party."

The electricity issue has dogged Klein in the otherwise low-key, four-week campaign, now at the halfway point.

Voters go to the polls March 12 and recent opinion surveys suggest the Tories, with 64 members in the 83-seat legislature, are headed for a ninth-straight majority government.

A win would be the third with Klein as premier.

The debate has been viewed as MacBeth's big chance to show that her Liberals are government material. It's a campaign that even she has referred to as her David versus Klein's Goliath.

(snip)

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), February 26, 2001