NDP to make second Speech from the Throne

The Alberta NDP will be opening the second session of Legislature with a second Speech from the Throne.

Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt told 660 NEWS, he finds it unusual that the government is bringing in another Throne Speech after just nine months.

“You’ve just been elected. You’ve just campaigned. You’ve just had a Throne Speech, and all of the sudden, you’re changing that. I think that is surprising,” Bratt said. “You normally see one Throne Speech per government, sometimes there’ll be two in the span of four years. Not two in less than nine months.”

He added, since there will be a second Throne Speech, the government needs to make sure one thing is addressed.

“She’s got to set up the budget. [It’s] going to be a big issue. I think that’s why they’re doing a new Throne Speech. I think it’s got to be about the economic situation and identifying some of the plans on how they think they’re going to get out of this.”

Bratt said the last Throne Speech was full of optimism, as after 44 years, a new government had been elected. It was also full of “bashing” the previous Progressive Conservative leadership. Both are things Bratt said won’t be part of the speech the second time around.

“Now that they’ve been in office nine months, I’m not sure they can continue with the ‘let’s blame the previous government’ approach,” he said. “At the same time, I think it’s going to be tough to have the same degree of optimism that they had back in May. So I think there’s going to be a lot more pessimism in this speech than what we saw last time.”

A lot of that pessimism, according to Bratt, will be due to the bleak outlook on the province’s economy.

Alberta Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell will begin the speech at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday morning, regular House business will resume, followed by a question period in the afternoon.