{"id":23199,"date":"2014-08-22T14:28:27","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T06:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=23199"},"modified":"2014-08-22T12:30:58","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T04:30:58","slug":"alberta-tory-leadership-hopeful-jim-prentice-promises-political-term-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/08\/22\/alberta-tory-leadership-hopeful-jim-prentice-promises-political-term-limits\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta Tory leadership hopeful Jim Prentice promises political term limits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jim<\/a>
Jim Prentice. Photo by Manning Centre \/ Jake Wright \/ Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EDMONTON\u2014Term limits on politicians are a needed part of an overall package of reforms to improve transparency and accountability in government, says Alberta Tory leadership hopeful Jim Prentice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should involve turnover in our political system, bringing new people, renewal into our political system. Things like term limits, these will all form part of an accountability act,\u201d Prentice said at one of the last all-candidate debates in the campaign Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters after the debate, Prentice said two terms for premiers and three for legislature members\u2014limits that would be a first in Canada\u2014would ensure a steady stream of fresh faces in government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want see more new young faces brought into politics. I hear a great deal of support for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prentice pointed out that appointees to provincial boards are currently limited to six years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf six years is the appropriate time for people to take on positions of public responsibility, why is it not appropriate for people that elect them to have term limits?\u201d<\/p>\n

Because voters might still like them, said his opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cTerm limits? Really?\u201d said fellow candidate Ric McIver. \u201cI believe in democracy\u2014Albertans should decide who sits in the legislature. We shouldn\u2019t tell them who they can elect and who they can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Candidate Thomas Lukaszuk called the idea an \u201cAmerican-style\u201d solution that wouldn\u2019t work in the Canadian context.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither you have integrity or you don\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t know it intuitively, you surely will find a loophole. Term limits are not the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debate before more than 100 people often grew testy as the candidates sought to paint each other as insiders who can\u2019t be trusted to change an atmosphere in the government that the province\u2019s auditor general has described as a \u201cculture of entitlement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prentice repeatedly asked Lukaszuk why, when he was deputy premier, he did nothing to stop excesses such as the inappropriate use of government planes. He pointed out McIver sat around the cabinet table when those decisions were being made.<\/p>\n

His opponents claimed they did speak out at the time. Both said Prentice wasn\u2019t living up to his own rhetoric by allowing his campaign to give away free party memberships.<\/p>\n

Earlier Thursday, Prentice said the first bill a government under his leadership would introduce would protect the property rights of citizens, an issue that the Wildrose opposition has made political hay with against the Progressive Conservatives, especially in rural areas.<\/p>\n

Card-carrying members of the PC party vote for a new leader Sept. 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON\u2014Term limits on politicians are a needed part of an overall package of reforms to improve transparency and accountability in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":23200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-headline","mauthors-bob-weber","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}