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Assessing the role of Alberta Report in shaping the new Conservative Party right in Canada

 * Alberta Report started in 1971 under the name St. John’s Edmonton Report as a weekly general news magazine with a main focus on political figures and events from a socially conservative Christian viewpoint. Some believe that it was an attempt for the journalist and editor-in-chief of Alberta Report to “combine his love of the news business with his desire to proselytise” because of its overtly right-winged editorial slant.  In the following couple decades it formed a dedicated readership in Alberta but succeeded in obtaining national subscription as well. Alberta Report catered to a more Christian and mature demographic with roots in antiquated traditions and who became distressed in the face of modern moral and cultural transformations such as gay rights, feminism and abortion. By the late 80’s to early 90s Alberta Report faced serious financial issues, in an attempt to remain afloat it redesigned and launched itself as The Report, nevertheless the proposal proved unsuccessful and in the spring of 2003 the printing presses stopped and it shut down.  In assessing the role of Alberta Report in shaping the new Conservative Party right in Canada it became obvious that the magazine was the training ground for several conservative journalists in structuring their prejudice. Through the explicit support of the Conservative Reform Party in Alberta, the denouncement of gay-rights, the level of concern arising from threats to white supremacy and the magazines rather pervasive involvement in abortion rights, it is clear that Alberta Report acts as a catalyst for the conservative and evangelical reformation of state.


 * By identifying the areas in which Alberta Report concentrated its energies, essentially where the majority of research was conducted and then published on, one can gather a greater understanding of this right-wing angle. It does not require one to look beyond the headlining photos, articles and titles and into the underlying rhetoric of the magazine, rather it hits you face on in the social and political issues that drive the publishing week after week. Alberta Report gave a voice to Western grievances that went unaddressed, certainly those in Alberta. Ted Byfield, former editor-in-chief of Alberta Report, held a strong hand in the progression of the Reform party – some may even say it was the mid-wife in its birth - due to his writing and reporting of the involvement of the new Western organization from the late 1980s on. Though at first he and fellow colleges in the Reform party were overly ambitious in their expectations of a majority government over a decade ago, today they have achieved it.

The Report Shadows The Reform's Successes

 * Under the guidance of Ted Byfield, Alberta Report seemed to possess an instinctual sense for what its readers believed, allowing full voice to the vexation of Albertans. Through Alberta Report’s rather religious documentation of the Reform Party of Canada, from its birth through to it’s inevitable demise, AB’s journalists showed their allegiance most notably through the parties milestones which have since defined them: firstly, RPC’s birth in 1987; secondly, their first time entering Parliament in 1989; and thirdly, major success in the 1993 federal election.

The Reform Party of Canada's Birth in 1978

 * Western alienation is hardly a new theme, but having swept the majority vote in the early eighties from the unrelenting 15 year reign of the Liberals for majority government, the Progressive Conservatives under the lead of Brian Mulroney created a surge of optimism in the West. However, soon after promises of a “new era” with relations between Ottawa and the western provinces were made, came the realization to all westerners that the picture of the new era had an uncanny resemblance to the old . Hence, in May of 1987 an economist by the name of Preston Manning, whose “owlish” manners had previously been publicly dismissed, took the reins in front of several hundred delegates to the Western Assembly on Canada’s Economic and Political Future . Presenting a new constructive political reform, Manning – by the end of the weekend – was to become what Alberta Report journalists deemed a “guiding light” and the father of what was soon to be called the Reform Party of Canada (RPC) . Intensely conservative and Christian in beliefs, it seemed that both the Alberta Report and the RPC’s roots had stemmed from the same tree. Therefore, it came as no surprise when Manning and the Reform Association of Canada appeared as headlining stories capturing the front pages of the Alberta Report (i.e. Western Report) in the weeks, months and years following the assembly.


 * Manning’s political movement absorbed the pages of the weekly magazine that quickly became the platform from which it would eventually gain lead as the right-winged party in Canada. “The West Finds a Voice” and “Born with a Bang: The new Reform Party of Canada begins amid high hopes and controversy” are just some of the headlines that followed its birth in 1987. Storyline's in the Alberta Report were repeated and pages were devoted to Manning’s biography and success, the publication followed the party’s up rise by documenting organized rallies and campaigns as the “Reform [took] to the road”, summoning large crowds such as those which were present in Edmonton in August of 1987 and reported on . As the party gained power, Reform resolutions and policy alternatives consumed an exceptional amount of The Report's pages. Journalists, namely Mike Byfield son of Alberta Report’s editor-and-chief Ted Byfield, in 1987 stressed the RPC’s valiant mission to “achiev[e] economic justice for the West, [and] to rectify the historic exploitation of our resources and our people by central Canada” . In addition, Byfield praised Manning’s character; painting him to be the unexpected successor to leading right-winged Canada, Byfield explained that “instead of campaigning for the leadership, Mr. Manning simply assumed the role”.

On the Road and Winning in 1989

 * The first advertisement for the Reform Party of Canada in Alberta Report appeared as a full-page spread printed in the February 27th 1989 edition of the weekly periodical. Urging the readers in its headline to “Say no to the new federal sales tax!” Deborah Grey – whose photo occupied more than a quarter of the page – lobbied for her vote in the March 13th 1989 elections . The magazine followed the stunning and unlikely by-election victory of Miss Grey, where the Reform party captured almost double the amount of votes than the Tories and nearly quadruple the amount of the Liberals and NDP in the Edmonton area riding . Paul Bunner of Alberta Report declared Miss Grey “an articulate, appealing contender who outperformed her opponents on the hustings and dominated the all-candidates debates”.


 * In an attempt to further stress the importance of RPC support, in May of 1989 the publisher of Alberta Report Link Byfield wrote in a rather provocative declaration that “this country stands now upon a pivotal point. Either we submit like sheep to a future of crushing taxes and ruinous simultaneous inflation, or we deal with it. And as far as I can see, only two avenues for ‘dealing with it’ remain open” . Speaking about the “country’s worst economic prognosis since the 1930s” and the Conservatives failed attempt to balance a budget, one of the avenues Byfield suggests is to elect an “honest and sensible party” which he confidently assumes is the Reform Party of Canada . In addition to Alberta Reports rather obvious coverage of RPC activity, other opportunities for social and political persuasion were exercised, specifically in a February edition where Ted Byfield speaks candidly about abortion.

Reform Success in the 1993 Federal Election

 * Reaching into the early 1990s as the Tories campaign started to flounder with an incomplete and rather substandard blueprint for economic recovery, the pages of Alberta Report enunciated the Tories struggle with story-lines that read “The Tories Falter and Reform Rebounds” and “Why Kimmy Can’t Add” satirically mocking Prime Minister and Tory leader Kim Campbell. Emphasizing the success of Reform party leader Preston Manning in the campaign’s third week in October of 1993, journalist Michael Jenkinson made promising predictions for the future of the party in the campaign, proclaiming that they “could make significant gains in the West and Ontario” . In the 1993 election Alberta Report, more specifically its publisher Link Byfield, was extremely forthright in his opinion on the election and emerging from the shadow of his allegiance he announced his vote was with the RCP. In a letter from the publisher on October 25th 1993 titled “If you hate toiling in Ottawa’s slave labour battalion, vote for freedom next Monday” Byfield dissected the Tories campaign and unnecessary expenditures. He concluded with a profound proclamation to the RPC saying “next week we vote again, and this time we have a realistic option in the Reform party, which has riled every vested interest in the country by vowing to shovel all this crud out of Ottawa once and for all. We had better elect them. If we don’t, we deserve what we get.”


 * However ironic or proving it may be, the Reform Party’s successful performance in the Canadian federal elections secured their majority government and specifically in Alberta where Ralph Klein was in power, was there a distinct sense of overregulation of the social . What is meant by the term ‘overregulation’ of the populace is a movement towards traditional politics with an authoritarian government, where law and order as well as a disciplined society are priority. With the fairly new Conservative majority of the country, moral regulation became more apparent throughout the nation but more specifically within the province of Alberta in respect to topics such as gay rights, gun control and political correctness. The ways in which people are defined human were being legitimized and naturalized through this regulation which is supported by laws and state practices. This moral regulation is heavily reliant on mass media for support and propagation through the citizenry – government action must be deliberated and justified. It is important to recognize that the criterion that provides the basis for political judgment is not random, it’s not coincidental, it’s intentional and such magazines as Alberta Report are exemplary of this.


 * Alberta Report has been looked upon as a reference for discourse analysis on such topics as the ‘Klein Revolution’ as a result of its association with the radical-right and Reform politics. Through such discourse it was observed that articles pertaining to oppositional government action were ignored essentially assuring the government-generation of news stories. Reaffirming that media outlets are the primary pipeline through which government discourse reaches the citizenry. Ralph Klein’s intimate ties with the politically right-winged Alberta Report played a pivotal role in popularity of the Progressive Conservative government during his time in reign . The magazines crux of cultural politics coincides with the government’s cultural crusade during this time, involving law and order and human rights. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that coverage of the government was mainly focused on the “Multiculturalism and Community Development department, where political correctness, special rights and special-interest groups were lambasted”.

Recent Report and Reform Acknowledgments

 * Alberta Report’s Ted Byfield was most recently celebrated during a ceremony for the magazines role in helping instigate and in the words of Prime Minister Harper “lead the Conservative movement in Canada” in September of this year . “The West Is In: 25 years on, a national gala reunites the original authors of Harper’s historic victory” read the front of the program guide, a play on words to the unofficial slogans of both The Report and the Reform’s “The West Wants In” . A toast was made to the original authors of Harper’s historic victory, both Manning and Byfield, by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. The right-wing Western democratic spirit that “had colou[red] the pages of [the Alberta Report] magazine for years” and lent “legitimacy to ideas that fertilized the West for Reform policy”, Mr. Manning believes “soften[ed] the ground first for the mobilization that would come later” . The reunion ceremony was a moment for both the Alberta Report and Reform to relish their shared hardships and success.

The Cultural and Sexual Discrimination found within Alberta Report

 * Furthering these conservative notions is fundamental Christian journalist and coincidentally editor-in-chief of Alberta Report, Ted Byfield’s rather dedicated column, in March of 1987, denouncing gay-rights activist groups in Alberta speaking explicitly about the threat of the ‘gay plague’ as a result of its association with the AIDS pandemic . His publication further explicated and consolidated the naturalization of human behaviour supported by Conservative political campaigns, which have heavily embedded an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality within society. Again in 1993 in an article entitled “Homosexuals at Play” Patrick O’Flaherty of Alberta Report documented the “gay activities” which were taking place in Calgary’s Glenmore Park that were offending the public and the campaigns to cleanse the park of homosexuals and “Why Kimmy Can’t Add” . The choice of rhetoric throughout the article ensures the objectification of homosexuals as distant and unfamiliar beings, once again reaffirming the naturalization of human behaviour in deeming ‘them’ as unnatural.


 * A more recent article published in 2003 by both Ted Byfield and his wife Virginia speaks to the cultural and moral threat increasing immigration posses on the Caucasian race. Byfield and his wife caution the public about diminishing birth rates in Europe and North America, pleading that without the continuation of child birth, travesties will take place like the surrender of democracy to Muslim autocracy . The article concludes by suggesting that the decrease in birth rates correlates to a decrease in church attendance as “the greatest incentive for having children comes from the belief that they constitute a precious gift from God” . The loss of hope for societal values and morals in the remaining sentences of the article leave a sour taste in ones mouth, so as to suggest that this century is morally doomed and resultantly our existence is too. However vague or subtle the correlation may be, it is possible to notice changes in subject matter discussed in Alberta Report during times of campaigning and voting that reflect and reaffirm the principals of the Reform Party of Canada. The investigative reporting which the weekly magazine allowed for that hourly websites and daily newspapers did not, somehow Byfield and fellow colleagues must not have found to be beneficial in their study of gay-rights and immigration, due to the illegitimacy and ignorance on which their arguments were founded. Nevertheless, this timelessness and thoughtful reflection that the weekly publication allowed for did in fact benefit other areas of social exploration found within the pages of Alberta Report.

Alberta Report's Hand in the Never-Ending Abortion Debate

 * Journalists and reporters associated with the magazine were able to take the time to build constructive and rigorous arguments which would speak closely and profoundly to the magazines principles. Pulling on the heart strings of evangelical Christians, Byfield in a February 1987 edition of Alberta Report, compares abortion to the killing of a man. He suggests that though the law declares protestors to be illegal and abortion legal does not make the act right, stating that “belief supersedes the civil law” and that Christians today are acting shameful by not defying the ‘law’ in the name of abortion . His rather extreme claim to Christianity and both moral and ethical standpoint coincidentally parallel those held by the pro-life Reform Party of Canada, and regardless of questioning intention, reaffirm the support system holding up the RPC.


 * Additionally, Alberta Report played pivotal roles in headline stories such as the leak of abortion information in 1999, at the Calgary Foothill General Hospital. Articles consisted of licentious language such as “genetic terminations unquestionably constitute murder" and "the abortionist might well be guilty of culpable homicide". Moreover, the connection to the antiabortion community that Alberta Report has is undeniably strong as the wife of the editor-publisher is the Pro-Life Alberta president . The abortion debate has appeared in the pages of Alberta Report since its outset if not weekly, surely monthly. Starting in 1989 Alberta Report followed the legitimization of abortion religiously over a span of weeks, months, years and even decades. On March 20th in 1989 Alberta Report (i.e. Western Report) published a conversationally stimulating and extremely controversial cover page entitled “It’s All About Politics Now: A Supreme Court decision forces parliament to write an abortion law”. Below the headline was a picture of a 17 week old fetus which consumed more than half of the page.


 * In a more recent attempt to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and the need for abortion an article found in the pages of Alberta Report (i.e. The Report) in 2003 called “The only safe sex is no sex” by Marnie Ko persuades the public that abstinence is the sole remaining option. Incidentally the perception of abortion held by Ted Byfield founder of Alberta Report are akin to those held by the RPC’s national pro-life referenda “to solve such controversial moral issues as abortion” . The fervour within Alberta Report to seek and secure Conservative political support from within the province and beyond – as it attempted to penetrate national boarders – was immeasurable.

Printing shops may have closed but the beliefs live on

 * The ways in which Alberta Report, under the guidance of a strongly rooted Conservative and Christian man named Ted Byfield, approached and attempted to persuade the general public are boundless. Such topics of conversation that are both political and social which speak to the ethics and values of the magazine range anywhere from contending political parties to extremely controversial and religiously relevant issues like abortion. Essentially married to the Reform Party of Canada, Alberta Report documented firsthand the struggles and victorious success of the party, all the while rallying a dedicated and sound support system through way of its public and provocative journalism. Acting as a platform for disgruntled conservative Christian pro-lifers similar to Ted Byfield, the periodical marched to the beat of his drum and though the defunct magazine may have proven to be an unwise business investment, capital would hold little to no value next to the political power it ignited. The topics of concern in Alberta Report may well be interchangeable; nevertheless, it is critical that one observes that the angle in which the subjects are assessed is aimed toward the betterment of the Conservative Party in Canada.