EDMONTON - There is a lot to discuss in a federal election, but the discussion in Alberta's lone battleground riding was about one issue.

Ryan Hastman, the Conservative candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona, began talking about the oilsands when the writ was dropped on March 26. By then, the hard-working young man with experience in the prime minister's office had been door-knocking full time in the riding for two years.

Hastman accused NDP candidate Linda Duncan and her party of wanting to shut down development of the oilsands. He was backed up by unnecessarily vulgar remarks by NDP leader Jack Layton, who used the phrase "dirty fuels subsidy" in Quebec to describe the accelerated capital cost allowance, a tax break the Conservatives themselves had planned to halt.

Duncan, in contrast, talked about everything but the oilsands in her local campaign, focusing on families, on helping small businesses, students, the arts, universities. She seemed exasperated by Hastman's statements and didn't counter them strongly until the final days of the campaign.

"I just want to properly regulate," she said on election day. "He can go on telling untruths about me and we'll see what the voters believe."

The voters in Edmonton-Strathcona were as divided as the rest of the country between left and right.

Nationally, all three major parties engaged in untruths and exaggerations, and they worked.

The attack ads against Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, led by the catchy phrase, "He didn't come back for you," may have destroyed the man's political career and, if the history of the Reform and Progressive Conservative frustrations in the 1990s carry any lessons, they may also have inspired the eventual fusion of the liberal vote in Canada.

Personal attack ads are an unfortunate but inevitable aspect of modern politics.

But in the future, especially as we ease into another political season of provincial leadership contests and an election, we can only hope that our leaders stop playing political badminton with the oilsands. It is too important, too complex and so are we.

Edmonton is more than the gateway to the oilsands; it's a high-technology city, a university city, a city of the arts. Our economy, we can only hope, will become more and not less diverse as oil prices rise and investment rises with it.

A Conservative majority promises fairer representation for Edmonton voters by the time we vote again; we deserve another MP or two, given our population. It's more difficult to say whether other city priorities, like LRT, will be as important to the Harper government as they are to us.

As we have seen in the past five years and during this campaign, Edmonton is not a personal priority for the prime minister. We can only hope that our Conservative MPs, led by Rona Ambrose and the energetic Laurie Hawn and James Rajotte, will be more persuasive with the powerful PMO than they have been in the past.

Duncan remains the face of opposition in Edmonton, buoyed by her re-election and by the bright new fortunes of her party.

If and when our Conservative MPs fail to argue forcefully for the city and its ambitions, it will be her job to remind them there is one small, feisty orange chip in this blue-painted province.

There is a danger in the strong, stable governments we adore in this province. It's the notion that criticism is unwelcome, even traitorous. The truth is, without honest criticism, excellence is impossible.

No doubt we will see fine critics like Edmonton Centre Liberal candidate Mary MacDonald and NDP candidate Lewis Cardinal again, though I suspect they won't be running against each other in four years.

On behalf of all Edmontonians, thanks to everyone who took time away from their careers and their families to knock on thousands of doors, to argue and sweat and plead with their fellow citizens, candidates like Hastman, a new father, and the thousands of volunteers who helped him and every other brave Edmontonian who stood up for their city and their country by running in a federal election.

Congratulations, Prime Minister Harper. Remember us.

tbabiak@edmontonjournal.com

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