Doug Horner is one of those cronies that is tainted for standing with her. Perhaps Gary Marr might come back, but he isn't here now.
There is no need for a law to allow caucus to act, it just needs to be in the party constitution. If the constitution allows the caucus to choose a new leader, then they could do this, as seems to occurfairly often in Australian politics.
As for the budget, no there wasn't a reall surplus then. Ralph Klien drove the province deeply into debt by failing to build the infrastructure needed as a result of the economic growth that was occurring. As a non-concervative populist, he reduced taxes below the level needed to run the province, even after slashing programs and operational spending to the bone. It has been left to subsequent governments to clean up the deficit created by the Klein years. I see the results of that magical thinking on a regular basis in the Sun Newspapers: She is spending out of control, cut spending. Oh but increase spending on roads, schools, hospitals, grants to cities, etc., etc., etc.
Thus, Redford's most recent budget is sound. The program spending is under control, and borrwing is only for capital project that have built up as a result of the fiscal failure of the Klein government. She should actually be raising taxes to pay for these needed projects, but I can already hear your howls of protest. So I can understande why, when spending is trully necessary, as it is right now, that Redford chose to Borrw and spend rather than Tax & spend. Albertans have dunk too long the magical Koolaid that a people can tax themselves at a rate lower than it costs to run the place, and still balance the budget and provide all the services and infrastructure the people need.
