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Chapter 1 STOCKWELL DAY: THE EARLY YEARS

"I've never seen [a politician] as open and transparent as he [Day] is."
--Journalist Claire Hoy, Stockwell Day, 2000

"[H]e [Day] is a blank slate."
--Journalist Allan Fotheringham, November 2000

"He [Day] is a mirage: the closer you get to him, the more you realize there is nothing there."
--Lawyer Virginia May, 2001

WHO IS STOCKWELL DAY? Is he a living testament to the Peter Principle that every person rises to his or her level of incompetence? Or is he simply a good man trapped by circumstance or--perhaps--a vast left-wing (or even right-wing) conspiracy? Is he a shaman who believes firmly the controversial things he says? Or is he a showman and inveterate dissembler, always constructing a new image to fit the occasion and playing to the crowd for cheap votes? Is he a little of all these things? This chapter presents from various accounts the bare facts of Day's life, and the shifting images he has left along the way.

Early Life
Stockwell Day Jr. was born on 16 August 1950 in Barrie, Ontario, the second of six children.¹ His father, Stockwell Sr., worked for the Zeller's merchant chain. His mother, Gwendolyn, was a stay at home wife. The family was hard working, respectable, patriotic, Anglican, conservative, and middle class. Over the years, as Stockwell Sr. rose up the corporate ranks, the family regularly moved: New Glasgow, Nova Scotia; Fredericton, New Brunswick; Quebec City; Montreal; St. Lambert, Quebec; Ottawa; then back to Montreal. These many relocations, along with a host of jobs he has held later allowed Day to claim he has lived in every part of the country.

In Ottawa, he attended Ashbury College, a small but prestigious all-boys school. After the family moved back to Montreal, he attended Westmount High School from which he graduated. By several accounts, Day was friendly and personable as a youngster, but otherwise unremarkable. He did have a talent, however, for talking, telling jokes, and remembering things--all useful attributes in a politician.

In 1967, Canada was one hundred years old. It was a time of celebration for English-speaking Canadians, what with Expo and Bobby Gimby. Many Quebecers did not share in this enthusiasm, however. Separatism was on the rise. Concerned about Quebec politics and taxes, Day's father decided it was time the family moved west. Exercizing his stock options in Zellers, Day Sr. packed up the family and drove across the country, eventually settling in Victoria. There, he bought and sold some land before finally buying a commercial fishing boat.

Stockwell Day Jr. left home for the first time in 1968. He was eighteen and moved to Vancouver. There, he did typical male adolescent things: lived in cheap accommodations, worked at low-paying jobs, and smoked pot. A year later, he moved back home again, took some upgrading courses, and enrolled briefly at the University of Victoria. University did not hold his attention long, however, and he was soon doing dead-end jobs again.

In the fall of 1970 he met Valorie Martin, a dog groomer and occasional hair stylist. A year later they married. The marriage eventually produced three children: Logan (1972), Luke (1974), and Ben (1976). Described as calm and unpretentious, Valorie provided Day's life with stability.² She also introduced him to the evangelical faith. Day had been raised an Anglican, but now began a path of personal salvation that led him into the Pentecostal church.

Work was still a problem for Day, though in the early 1970s a lack of post-secondary education was not the hindrance it is today. Before meeting Valorie, he had worked in a morgue, sold chickens (from his car), and been a deckhand on a fishing boat. After meeting her, Day worked for a time for British Columbia's Department of Highways.

In 1972, the family moved to Kelowna, B.C. where Day went into the auction business with Valorie's father. A year later, however, the business burned down. Unable to find steady and good employment, and perhaps restless, Day repeated his father's pattern. Over the next few years, the family moved repeatedly as Day worked as a logger (the Okanagan Valley), a camp counsellor with an evangelical group (Kelowna and Edmonton), an oil and gas service company (Inuvik), a packing plant worker (Red Deer, Alberta), and a self-employed drapery installer (Edmonton).

The Bentley Christian Centre
Stability at last arrived in 1978. Day had taken courses at Edmonton's Northwest Bible College. Though he never graduated and never received accreditation from the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, Day nonetheless landed a job as assistant pastor of the Bentley Christian Centre in Bentley, Alberta, 25 km. north-west of Red Deer.³

The Centre was run by a charismatic pastor, Bill Lewis, a man of apparently uncompromising beliefs. Day quickly became Lewis' right-hand man and administrator of the church's new school, the Bentley Christian Training Centre.

Like some roughly thirty private Christian schools in Alberta during this period, the Training Centre operated at first in relative anonymity. In 1982, however, a school teacher in Eckville, Alberta named Jim Keegstra was found teaching his students of a Jewish Conspiracy. He was subsequently dismissed from his teaching post and later convicted in criminal court of spreading hatred against Jews.⁴ In the wake of the Keegstra Affair, the Alberta government took steps to rein in the independent schools.

Day was front and centre in the ensuing battle.⁵ He helped found the Alberta Association of Independent Schools, a lobby group for fifteen of the independent schools, and became its secretary-treasurer. In this position, which he held from 1981 until 1986, he lobbied the Alberta government. Government officials of the time seem to have found him civil and pleasant, but also found Day intransigent in meeting repeated requests to comply with government regulations. In a now-famous quote, Day once stated: "God's law is clear. Standards of education are not set by government, but by God, the Bible, the home and the school. If we ask for (the education minister's) approval, we are recognizing his authority."⁶ Day later argued the quote was taken out of context and that he was merely representing the position of the Christian schools.⁷

Alberta Education also had concerns with the curriculum being used in many of the independent schools. Developed in Texas, the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) program was based on a strict interpretation of the Bible. An audit conducted by Alberta Education in 1985 found the ACE materials used in the independent schools generally stifled creativity and critical thinking. Portions of the ACE curriculum were also found to be insensitive to "blacks, Jews and natives."

Alberta Education had specific concerns with Day's own Training Centre. The department argued the Centre's six teachers were not qualified and that it was operating without government approval. The department also expressed concern the Centre was employing the ACE curriculum, though no racist materials were in evidence. Day denied the validity of any of these concerns, contending the staff were qualified, the Training Centre was properly registered, and that the teaching materials used in the school neither condoned nor encouraged racism or anti-Semitism.

In time, a kind of detente was reached between the Alberta government and the religious schools. Today, there remain twenty-six private religious schools in Alberta, mostly Mennonite. They are properly registered and must follow government-approved curricula for students to receive credit, but are not required to hire teachers with Alberta teaching certificates. They receive no government funding.⁸

The Bentley Church Centre was facing other problems, however. Success in starting up the Centre had resulted in Pentecostal families from across the west relocating to Bentley. By 1984, the school had over a hundred students in grades K to 12 and perhaps a third of Bentley's population of 900 people belonged to the Pentecostal church. Tensions soon rose between the Pentecostal community and the rest of Bentley. The former claimed their children were being threatened. The latter claimed the church was really a cult bent on taking over the town. The tension was not merely between the communities, however. There seems also to have been growing conflict during this period within the church congregation itself over issues of scripture, leadership, and finances.

In December 1985, Day's family left Bentley for Red Deer where Day henceforth found success as a politician. The next year, Lewis relocated the church to nearby Sylvan Lake, taking with him perhaps half of its members. He left to the United States a while later.

Today, tensions within Bentley have eased. The church school closed in 1989. The church members reintegrated into the community. The wounds have largely healed. Day is remembered, but opinions vary. He remains revered by many Pentecostal members and former students. Some, however, cannot forget the near damage done to their community during the period of Day's tenure.

Portrait of a Political Culture in Crisis
The early 1980s were an unusual period in Alberta politics. Discontent was rife. Much of this was directed at the federal government of Pierre Trudeau. Early on, many Albertans took a personal dislike to Trudeau and his government's policies of bilingualism, multiculturalism, and metrification. Westerners gained another reason to dislike the Liberals when, in the fall of 1981, Alberta entered a recession. Quickly, the National Energy Program which Albertans blamed for their declining fortunes became as much a part of western mythology as the horse and the roughneck. Ignored was the fact the recession was international.

But there also was growing discontent in Alberta with Peter Lougheed's provincial Tories. In 1971, Lougheed had led an urban revolt against the ageing Social Credit regime. For the next ten years, Alberta and the province's indigenous bourgeoisie rode a gradually ascending roller coaster of rising oil prices.⁹ Urbanites and corporate executives revelled in the New Alberta. But many Albertans, especially in the rural countryside, disliked Lougheed's Conservatives, viewing them as insufficiently conservative in moral matters and far too interventionist in economic matters.

In this context, a strange concoction of right-wing fringe movements began brewing in Alberta. Central Alberta provided particularly fertile ground for many of these movements. Several of the parties, such as West-Fed and Western Canada Concept, advocated western separatism. (The voters of Olds-Didsbury, in central Alberta, in February 1982 elected a WCC candidate, Gordon Kesler, a thirty-four year old oil scout and rodeo worker, in a by-election.¹⁰) Others advocated economic remedies reminiscent of Social Credit's "funny money" theories, while others sought salvation in religious fundamentalism. Not infrequently, political and religious beliefs merged, as in the case of the aforementioned Jim Keegstra.

Sometime around 1983, after his dismissal from teaching, Keegstra moved to Bentley where he opened a garage.¹¹ There, various other prominent members of the extreme right, such as Terry Long, leader of the Church of Aryan Nations, and Doug Christie, head of Western Canada Concept and a lawyer famous for defending individuals accused of hate crimes, are said sometimes to have visited Keegstra. Day met Keegstra during this period and took his car to the garage for servicing on at least one occasion. However, according to Calgary lawyer Gerald Chipeur, hired by Day in the spring of 2000 when stories linking him to Keegstra resurfaced, Day never returned after the mechanic began a "hate-filled diatribe."¹²

Such was Alberta's political climate in 1982 as Stockwell Day made his first foray into electoral politics.

A Political Life
The political arena was not entirely foreign to Day. His parents had long been active in politics. The children of Robert Thompson, Canada's Social Credit leader, are said to have once stayed with the Day family for several months in Ottawa while their father looked for a house.¹³ In 1972, Day Sr.--identifying himself as a fisherman and professor--even ran as the token Social Credit candidate against NDP leader Tommy Douglas in the riding of Nanaimo-Cowichan. He finished a distant fourth, with 1,868 votes.¹⁴ Day Sr. remains today politically involved as a supporter of Western Canada Concept and occasional contributor of letters to that organization.

In 1982, Stockwell Day Jr. ran for the Conservative nomination for Alberta's Lacombe constituency, declaring his life was "based on the supremacy of God and strong biblical principles."¹⁵ He lost and returned to his life running the Bentley Christian Centre.

Close to Lacombe lies Red Deer, a city of just over 60,000 people. Situated on the river of the same name about 150 km. south of Edmonton, Red Deer is primarily an agricultural and oil field service and distribution centre, though there is also a Community College and a thriving cultural community. Red Deer is located within what Albertans popularly refer to as "the Bible belt," a description going back to the days of the Social Credit Party's founder and first premier, William ("Bible Bill") Aberhart. The description was perhaps always unfair, and is even more so today. Nonetheless, the Red Deer region as a whole is very conservative. Minimal government, low taxes, and getting tough on crime are stances sure to win votes.

Before the 1986 provincial election, Red Deer's political riding was split, north and south. In December 1985, Day moved the family to Red Deer and, calling himself an education consultant, entered the Tory party's nomination race. Declaring his campaign a "moral crusade," Day at first railed against homosexuality, pornography, the legal system's treatment of criminals, and the federal government. Later, as the nomination day of 17 March approached, Day downplayed his Christian morality and played up his previous vocation as an auctioneer.¹⁶ He won the nomination on the first ballot, but it was a divisive victory. Opponents claimed the meeting was "stacked" by Day's religious supporters from the Bentley Christian Centre. One nominee said he was bothered by the religious overtones of the Day campaign.¹⁷ Day himself is quoted as saying, "the whole thing was birthed in prayer."¹⁸

The subsequent May 1986 election saw Day defeat Liberal Donald Campbell by 436 votes.¹⁹ The result was surprisingly close, considering--as Hoy relates--the last time a Liberal was elected in Red Deer was 1918.²⁰ Thereafter, however, Day proved invincible, being re-elected in 1989, 1993, and 1997 with hefty majorities (see Appendix 1).

Not surprisingly, as a newcomer Day cast only a small shadow during his first years in office. He acquired a reputation as a tireless constituency worker, though--in a practice based in his strong religious beliefs--he rested on Sundays. Ron Moore, a former long-time Alberta MLA and chief political organizer, is quoted as saying Day during this period "wasn't dynamic," and was "just an average MLA."²¹

Alberta politics was still undergoing important changes, however, that would extend Day's opportunities. Lougheed stepped down as Conservative leader in 1985. He was seceded as premier by Don Getty, a long-time friend and businessman, and a former prominent and popular cabinet minister in Lougheed's first two governments. Unfortunately for Getty, his timing could not have been worse. About the time of the 1986 election, Alberta entered yet another recession. The economy bottomed-out, unemployment soared, and bankruptcies proliferated. The Getty government made a number of business loans to simulate and diversify the economy, but many of these loans later went bad. The Alberta government was left holding the bag.

Growing discontent with the Tories reflected itself at the polls. Under Lougheed, the Tories had taken 75 of 79 seats in 1982. Under Getty, this number was reduced in 1986 to 61 of 83 seats, and in 1989 to 59 of 83 seats. Though discontent was widespread, the upsurge of opposition was particularly apparent in the urban centres, notably Edmonton, and its suburbs. One ironic consequence of this urban "revolt" was that rural voices in the Tory government gradually gained more influence.

There was something else shaping Alberta's political landscape in the late 1980s, however. Led by Preston Manning, son of a former Alberta Social Credit premier, right-wing fringe elements and discontented federal Tories in 1987 founded the Reform party. From the beginning, Reform's heartland was Alberta. And while Reformers set their eyes on federal power, many also cast disapproving looks in the direction of Getty's provincial government. In 1990, discontent with the Meech Lake Accord resulted in a surge in Reform support nationally, particularly in the west. In Alberta, this discontent was directed at Getty who was a strong supporter of the Accord. Some Reformers formed a committee, jokingly referred to as the "Task Force to Scare the Hell out of Don Getty," to study whether Reform should go provincial.²²

In 1992, Getty's government was in real trouble. Alberta's economy, as elsewhere, had entered another recession. Government deficits were still accumulating, despite cutting programs and services.²³ The Tories' biggest problem was Getty himself. By then he had acquired an image--undeserved or not--of administrative uncertainty and incompetence. That fall, Getty announced his resignation just as debates leading up to the Charlottetown Accord referendum began.

Getty's departure was sudden. Few believed, however, that it would change Tory fortunes. Public opinion polls for some time had shown the provincial Tories trailing behind the Liberals led by former Edmonton mayor Laurence Decore. Under his leadership, Decore had assembled an impressive array of candidates. By contrast, a number of long time Tories announced their retirement. No one likes to be part of a losing team, and the Tories in the fall of 1992 looked like sure losers. Day would subsequently benefit from the relative paucity of talent resulting from these early defections.

In the fall of 1992, the Alberta Tories experienced something of a carefully staged miracle. Fearful the party was going down to defeat--and to the hated Liberals, at that--the Reform element within the Tory party seized centre stage. Led by prominent rural overlords and a few influential corporate chieftains, the Reformers got behind Ralph Klein. Klein, a former mayor of Calgary, was relatively new to provincial politics, having been first elected in 1989. But he had strong support on his home turf and a smart campaign manager in Rod Love who massaged Klein's image as the kind of no-nonsense populist who might turn the party around. Under Love's tutelage, Klein captured the party leadership in December 1992 with a second-ballot victory over his main challenger, Nancy Betkowski who--along with several long time Tories--soon left the party.²⁴ Over the next few months, the Klein government took several symbolic actions designed to show there was a new sheriff in town determined to corral the province's apparently runaway debts. The political facelift worked. Combined with Klein's own personal appeal, the result was a solidifying of the Tory's electoral base outside the capital region. Though pressed, the Tories won the election that June. The Liberal threat was largely contained to Edmonton where, over the next decade and under several leaders, it withered and died. The Tory party, albeit one very different from that of Peter Lougheed, was saved from defeat.

Alberta politics took a very peculiar turn after 1993, even by usual standards. Government members took freely to musing about such things as hanging children convicted of capital offences, setting up boot camps, and banning books. Cabinet ministers pulled imaginary studies and statistics out of their hats to justify privatizing or cutting services. Policy was made on the fly, in part because planning was considered "stupid." Moreover, these things happened largely with impunity and without scrutiny. Legislative sessions were shortened. Indeed, the fall 1997 sitting of the legislature was eliminated entirely in favour of a summit of "stakeholders" hand-picked by the government. Ralph Klein was above criticism. With few exceptions, the press, led by Conrad Black's Calgary Herald and the Byfield-family's Alberta Report, acted as compliant cheerleaders. Klein, his cabinet ministers, and the press regularly denounced those few who dared raise questions as whiners, communists, and just downright "un-Albertan." The result was a political culture in which members of the province's cosy and self-congratulatory political class were protected from the real rough and tumble of competitive politics. This class's sense of having created a "new politics" of free enterprise and smaller government exportable to the rest of Canada was reinforced after 1995 when, benefitting from surging oil and gas revenues, Alberta's fiscal situation quickly brightened. The deficits disappeared, suddenly replaced by a series of mounting surpluses. Such was the political culture that nurtured Stockwell Day and his political ambitions.

Making a Name
Day was not a major political figure when the Klein revolution began. Don Getty had made him party whip in 1989, and in February 1990 appointed Day chair of the Premier's Council in Support of Alberta Families. The next year, Day was one of 16 MLAs named to a special all-party committee on constitutional reform. And, in 1991, he headed an all-party review of MLA salaries and benefits.

Day supported a candidate other than Klein during the first round of the leadership campaign, but this did not hurt Day with the new premier. Though they differed significantly on issues of morality, Klein was beholden to his rural supporters and wanted in any case to put a fresh face on his government. Thus, Klein in December 1992 appointed Day as labour minister. The Klein government was less than favourable to labour interests, and Day's appointment concerned union leaders. Day had previously made statements opposing minimum wages and supporting "Right to Work" legislation. Surprisingly, however, Day resisted calls by people such as Rob Anders, later a Reform and Alliance MP, to implement "Right to Work" legislation. Also, during Day's tenure as labour minister, rules were introduced governing midwifery in Alberta.

Soon, Day added other positions to his portfolio. In July 1993, Day also became deputy house leader and member of the Agenda and Priorities committee and the six-member provincial Treasury Board. In October 1993, he became government house leader.

Despite these promotions, Day still did not have a huge public profile. Two very different books that arrived in bookstores in 1995 make the point. Frank Dabb's generally positive biography of Ralph Klein mentions Stockwell Day's name only once.²⁵ Similarly, Mark Lisac's more critical review of the Klein government cites Day's name but once, and that involving bawdy jokes being told at his expense during a party convention.²⁶ Journalists covering him during his legislative years tell of a man blessed with a comedic streak and a flare for imitation. (He once did a now-legendary take-off on comedian Rick Mercer, and is said to do first rate impressions of Jean Chretien, Preston Manning, and Joe Clark, not to mention various press reporters.)

Day suddenly became more prominent in the fall of 1994, however. The Klein government then introduced to the fall sitting of the Alberta legislature two particular bills: Bill 41, the Government Organization Act, and Bill 57, the Delegated Administrative Act.²⁷ These bills, the government said, served merely housekeeping purposes. Nonetheless, the bills quickly became controversial. The opposition Liberals argued the Bills allowed the executive and even individual ministers to skirt the legislature, and to effectively abridge democracy. Radio talk shows were alive with Albertans concerned about the legislation's possible consequences. Even Alberta's generally compliant press, including the Edmonton Sun, denounced the bills.

As government House Leader, Day was chief defender at every turn of Bills 41 and 57. He denounced the Liberal opposition's "misinformation campaign," and went on radio to defend the bills. A guest column under his name also appeared in the newspapers stating the government's case. In the end, Bill 41 was passed through the government's use of closure. (As of the fall of 2000, the Klein government had used closure on twenty-seven occasions.) But Bill 57 was withdrawn, and later dropped altogether--a rare retreat for the Klein government during this period.

In late May 1996, Day moved from labour to the department of social services, overseeing the shifting of people on medical assistance to disability status where they qualified for higher income benefits. In March 1997, following the election, Day left social services to become provincial treasurer, replacing the departed Jim Dinning. Under Dinning, the Alberta government had used a combination of massive program cuts, especially in health, education, welfare, and municipal grants and increasing revenues from oil, gas, and gaming to erase its annual deficits.

By the time Day took over in 1997, Alberta was accruing mounting surpluses, $2.5 billion in Dinning's last year, $2.6 billion in Day's first.²⁸ These increased surpluses did not immediately mean a return to pre-1993 spending levels, however. Instead, the government continued squeezing program spending. The surplus went to lowered taxes. Only beginning in 2000 did government spending begin to approach previous levels and national averages. By then, Day had built a reputation as the guardian of taxpayers "sweat-soaked loonies"--even as, in 1999, he spent $37,800 on a flashy Toyota Four Runner as his government car. That same year, Day introduced a system of flat-rate taxation, saying he dreamed of one day ending altogether income tax in Alberta. "I, for one, think it would be wonderful if people were not being punished because they work."²⁹

His rhetorical appeals to the anti-tax lobby aside, Day by 1999 also had developed another reputation, one for being impolitic, even careless, in his public statements. Day's gift of ill-advised gab was already known by the time Klein came to power, sometimes betraying a bizarre logic. In October 1990, during AIDS Awareness Week, for example, Day came out against condom dispensers in high school washrooms, citing as his reason the failure rate of condoms:

Different therapists and medical people talk about failure rates as high as 25 percent. So if you look at somebody starting becoming sexually active in Grade 8, by the time they hit Grade 12 they've got a 100 percent chance of that condom failing on them.³⁰

Day became even more unguarded, however, under Klein's rather lax style of management. Unhindered by Klein, and encouraged by a rabid press and his small entourage of right-wing supporters, Day became a treasure house of quotes.

His comments often suggested an authoritarian streak. In March 1994, for example, Day supported the call of Red Deer South MLA Victor Doerksen that John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men be removed from schools because of its profane language. In another example, in April 1995, Day supported a proposal to drop abortions from the list of services insured by Medicare, arguing "the medical evidence is clear that abortions are not medically required." (Klein stared Day and others down on the issue, much to Day's apparent displeasure.) Along the way, Day also advocated work camps for young offenders and supported capital punishment, even for teenagers convicted of first degree murder. He also argued for the banning of sex education in schools (unless it could be proven it did not increase the incidence of sexually transmitted disease and teenage pregnancy),³¹ called for increased private school funding, justified the government's frequent use of closure, and called the policy of official bilingualism an "irritant."

One of his more unguarded comments came at Calgary's Roots of Change conference in October 1997. Day chaired the conference and during one discussion suggested the following way of dealing with serial child killer Clifford Olson: "People like myself say, 'Fix the problem. Put [Olson] in the general [prison] population.' The moral prisoners will deal with it in a way which we don't have the nerve to do."

Homosexuality is an issue about which Day revealed particularly strong opinions. He argued at various times that homosexuality is "not condoned by God" and that sexual orientation is either a matter of choice or a "mental condition" curable by counselling. He became publicly furious in 1997 over a decision by the province's Community Development department to give a $10,000 grant to the Red Deer and District Museum to study the history of the local gay community. Denying that homosexuals are discriminated against, in 1998, Day also spoke out encouraging the government to invoke the "notwithstanding clause" of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms to overturn a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that homosexuals must be protected under Alberta human-rights law.

Hoy's laudatory biography explains some of the controversy over Day's statements as resulting from the press misquoting him or leaving out important subtleties. This may well be the case in some instances, though the Olson quote seems clear enough in its meaning. But Day also basked in the reputation of being a spokesperson for the moral conservative wing of the Klein revolution. It was an image Day actively cultivated, and for which he was rewarded. But was the image Stockwell Day?

Who is Stockwell Day?
We have come full circle, back to our beginning question. Most accounts suggest Day is hardworking, stubborn, restless, and even impetuous. Beyond these qualities, however, lie a plethora of inconsistent and shifting images. His admirers describe him as "likeable" and "decent." But others accuse him of being "petty" and "vindictive." Supporters view Day as "honest" or--in the words of journalist Claire Hoy--"transparent." But critics term him "manipulative" and "hypocritical." Admirers point to his accomplishments. But detractors describe these as embellished, as when (as Treasurer) he gave himself the title of "Finance Minister" or (when Klein was occasionally away) "Acting Premier." Where some describe Day as "smart," "a quick study," and having an almost photographic mind, others say only he is "clever," but "shallow," and struggles with unscripted questions. A "pragmatic politician" to some, a "zealot" to others. For every person expressing surprise at Day's willingness to listen to alternative views and contend he would not impose his own beliefs, there is another describing him as rigid, argumentative, and all too willing to throw his weight around. A consummate anti-politician with no record of long-term success at anything outside politics; an opponent of "big government" who would prove willing to use his powers of office against an individual citizen; a politician whose rhetorical jabs often exceed his actual punch. These are merely some of the discrepant images with which anyone trying to understand the Stockwell Day phenomenon must wrestle.

There is no easy way to reconcile these inconsistent images. They cannot be explained as politically motivated, for often surprisingly they cross partisan lines. Inconsistency is part and parcel of Stockwell Day himself. He is shaman and showman, ideologue and opportunist.

Conclusion
Ultimately, there is no way to arrive at the "truth" of who Stockwell Day "is." People will make up their own minds, one way or another. They will imagine Day from all the discordant facts, and will believe in the image of their own making.

One point is clear, however. For all of the "hype" about Stockwell Day's accomplishments by the various media, in the spring of 2000 he was an untested politician of modest accomplishments, a meagre national profile, and enough controversial baggage to fill a Ryder truck. Yet, a few months later, he was leader of Canada's latest political party, a rising star in the New

Notes
1. Basic biographical details appear in C. Hoy, Stockwell Day. His Life and Politics (Toronto: Stoddard, 2000); G. Thomson, "The definitive Stockwell Day." Edmonton Journal 2 April 2000, E8; and G. Thompson, "Who is Stockwell Day?" Edmonton Journal 10 July 2000, A6 and A7.

2. "Valorie has the veto if the Days disagree." Edmonton Journal 9 July 2000, A3.

3. See T. Walkom, "From preacher to politician: Stockwell Day in the early 1980's," The Toronto Star 29 October 2000, A1. A few uncontentious details are taken also from G. Laird's otherwise controversial article, "Hellfire, neo-Nazis and Stockwell Day," published in Vue Weekly, 27 April-3 May 2000, 8-13 and in similar magazines across Canada.

4. The story of the Keegstra Affair has been told many times. See S. R. Barrett, Is God a Racist? The Right Wing in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987).

5. G. Thomson quotes correspondence from government files during this period in "Day's fight for the right." Edmonton Journal 13 May 2000, H1 and H2.

6. G. Thomson, "Day's fight." The quote originally appeared in Alberta Report.

7. C. Hoy, Stockwell Day, 40.

8. J. Kachur, Privatizing public choice: The rise of charter schooling in Alberta." In T. Harrison and J. Kachur (eds.), Contested Classrooms: Education, Globalization, and Democracy in Alberta (Edmonton: Parkland Institute/University of Alberta Press, 1999).

9. See J. Richards and L. Pratt, Prairie Capitalism: Power and Influence in the New West (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1979).

10. T. Harrison, Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995).

11. Keegstra's period in Bentley is described in G. Laird, "Hellfire."

12. "Day angrily denies rumoured tie to Keegstra." Edmonton Journal 21 June 2000, A8.

13. C. Hoy, Stockwell Day, p. 13.

14. Either Day Sr. or Hoy have some of the election details wrong, suggesting it was a by-election. Complete data on Canadian elections can be obtained through the Library of Parliament's Website, "History of the Federal Electoral Ridings Since 1867," available at http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/process/house/hfer/hfer.asp?Language=E

15. Quoted in T. Walkom, "It was Day who shone spotlight on religion," Toronto Star 21 November 2000, A29.

16. M. Tougas recounts Day's transformation during this period in, "Tory herd mentality in Central Alberta." Red Deer Advocate 9 April 1986, 4A.

17. "Stockwell Day captures Tory nomination." Red Deer Advocate 18 March 1986, 1A.

18. J. Murphy, "Workfare will make you free: Ideology and social policy in Klein's Alberta. In G. Laxer and T. Harrison (eds.), The Trojan Horse: Alberta and the Future of Canada (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1995), 318.

19. Chief Electoral Officer of Alberta, 1986: B9. C. Hoy, Stockwell Day, p. 49, wrongly reports the margin of victory was 389 votes.

20. C. Hoy, Stockwell Day, p. 49.

21. C. Hoy, Stockwell Day, p. 44.

22. T. Harrison, "The Reformation of Alberta politics." In G. Laxer and T. Harrison (eds.), The Trojan Horse: Alberta and the Future of Canada (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1995), 53.

23. K. Taft, Shredding the Public Interest (Edmonton: Parkland Institute/University of Alberta Press, 1997).

24. Betkowski later changed her name to MacBeth and became leader of the Alberta Liberals. She resigned after her personal defeat and the party's humiliation in the 2000 provincial election.

25. F. Dabbs, Ralph Klein. A Maverick Life (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 1995), 159.

26. M. Lisac, The Klein Revolution (Edmonton: NeWest Press, 1995), 91.

27. I have described the controversy over these Bills in "Making the trains run on time: Corporatism in Alberta." In G. Laxer and T. Harrison (eds), The Trojan Horse: Alberta and the Future of Canada (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1995).

28. K. Treff and D. Perry, Finances of the Nation (Toronto: Canadian Tax Foundation, 1998, 1999).

29. "Day dreams of ending income tax in Alberta." Edmonton Journal 22 October 1999, A1.

30. Quoted in "Ministers divided on condom issue." Edmonton Journal 18 October 1990, B2.

31. "Educators cool to MLA's attack on sex education." Edmonton Journal 16 March 1990, B2.

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