It perplexes me that a pumpkin in the place of popular Premier Prentice piques people.  Perhaps the public has a pinhole perspective on political participation.

I worked on that all day.

So skip the alliteration - I really am baffled when people show indignation at the leader of the PC Party of Alberta not showing up to a forum.  They have no good reason to show surprise and disappointment.

This is the norm for the Mr. Prentice.  Voters should have seen it coming.

In August of 2014, he was invited to the Alberta Teachers' Association's Summer Conference.  He didn't show, despite a carrot being offered to get him there.  Thomas Lukaszuk got the stage, and Ric McIver at least made a token appearance.  Granted, there was no pumpkin there that time.

Prentice's reward: the Premiership of Alberta.

What else could he have possibly learned?  He certainly didn't learn that if you don't show up, you don't get elected.  He learned that if he stayed away, he would get elected.  So he did.

And a pumpkin took his place.  I'll bet that pumpkin doesn't get elected.

Maybe he thought the pumpkin would represent him well at a forum sponsored by the Alberta Society for the Visually Impaired.

Prentice was given affirmation of that lesson learned during the PC leadership election itself.  He was elected with less than half the votes cast in the 2011 leadership race, and less than one-sixth of the votes on the second ballot in 2006.  Therefore he learned that if voters don't show up, he gets elected.

So what better way to get into office than to disappoint voters to the point of apathy?

He's counting on voters being thick.  He might be right.

I can only guess that the indignation I see on social media suggests voters didn't see it coming, that they fully expected Prentice to show up.

Mind you, if voters really are thick, it's probably because they keep building up the callus from banging their heads against the wall.

I have hope that voters aren't that thick, though.  After all, they were prepared enough for an absent Premier that they had a pumpkin ready to take his place.

So voters, if you aren't thick, then you shouldn't be surprised.  And should he be elected, you shouldn't be surprised if he doesn't show up to Question Period and lets his Deputy Premier field the tough questions for him.

Sound familiar?  The only thing missing from this prediction is the margarita in Palm Springs.

And, voters, if you aren't thick, then you'll understand why an absent Premier is not a good thing.  And you'll vote for someone who shows up.

So who showed up ready to listen to the constituents at the Calgary Foothills forum?

• Jennifer Burgess – NDP.
• Polly Knowlton Cockett – Green Party.
• Michelle Glavine - Alberta Party.
• Kathy Macdonald - Wildrose Party.
• Robert Prcic – Liberal Party.

I know who I'm partial to, but the point I'm trying to get across is that voters should not let themselves appear as thick; they should be well-informed, and make the best decision for themselves going forward.  So check these candidates out.

I will push one bias though.  I'd rather voters vote for a person, not a pumpkin.

After reading about an Innisfail school no longer willing to introduce their Grade 6 students to Question Period, I should have been shocked.

I wasn't.

I was just disappointed.

When I'm with my children in a grocery store lineup, or with my students at a fast food joint on school trip, and I hear another adult choosing inappropriate language, I politely tap them on the shoulder and ask them to choose different language, gesturing to my students.  Thankfully, they usually acquiesce.

However, for some strange reason, they didn't seem to notice the children in the public space.  Have we become so ignorant as adults that we don't recognize the opportunities we have to impact on our youth?

Not that we can't recognize when youth are around us.  We simply don't.  We choose not to pay attention.  Or at least, a select few of us don't choose to pay attention.

Our elected officials, theoretically the people who were so fine and upstanding that they managed to get thousands of Albertans to vote for them, don't.

What makes this truly downtroddenly expectoratingly disappointing is the fact that in Question Period, the guests have to be introduced.

MLAs were told the students were there.  They even waved at them.

And then they turned around and told each other they "blow and suck" and called each other out to fight.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is verbal abuse and bullying.  And we're letting it happen.  Every time we vote some of these bullies into the legislature, we're letting this verbal abuse happen.

It's like second-hand smoke.  You smoke, you damage your own body.  But don't forget, you also damage the body of those who also inhale your putrid vapours.

You call people out, name-call, swear, or otherwise bully in the legislature, you damage your own relationships.  But don't forget, there are a bunch of 10-year-olds in the gallery who also hear your colourful metaphors.

If you speak in Legislature, don't forget you're on public camera.  If there's a school in the gallery, it becomes even more obvious that you're under scrutiny.  And if you still choose to use inappropriate language and throw decorum out the window, remember this;

You've just become a child abuser.

I can't tap you on the shoulder politely to ask you to consider your surroundings.  The Speaker in the Legislature has done that plenty enough, to no avail.  I'm honestly surprised he's actually taking supplementals and questions away from members now to penalize them for poor behaviour.  But I welcome it.

But I will have a very difficult time standing for an institution that abuses children.  Even if it's second-hand abuse.

Duly elected Members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, this is what I am asking you to do; abide by Rule #2 of the Alberta Party's Guidelines for MLAs.

"Each MLA of the Alberta Party shall ... conduct themselves in a professional manner and with integrity, including within the legislature. Alberta Party MLAs shall conduct themselves in a manner that is respectful to other members of the legislature and shall not engage in disrespectful behaviour."

There was only one other rule that the Alberta Party listed before that one, and that rule has to do with engaging in direct in-person conversation with their constituents.  Something that should be viewed as necessary, but also something you can't do effectively if you don't treat others with respect.

We need the "Honourable" members of our elected assembly to treat each other with respect and act with decorum.  Then maybe, just maybe, our youth will believe in our "Honourable" adults the way I believe in our youth.

A Twitter friend of mine, best known as @ManitobAlex, posted a view that I share with him, but requires more than 140 characters to explain.  I’ll share this tweet later, but suffice it to say it refers to the decorum of the Alberta Legislature, most specifically Question Period.

The behavior in the Legislature has been appalling.  Insults, innuendo, and accusations are viewed as the norm.

Just ask Wildrose MLA Pat Stier of Livingstone-Macleod. In an article printed in the Gateway Grassroots on November 26, Stier explains that even though it looks like the Opposition is “lashing out” or “attacking” the government, that it should be expected in order to hold the government to account.

But what is happening in Question Period is not “lashing out” or “attacking”.  It is daily slander and libel.  And it’s on record.

When it is acceptable for MLAs to interject out of turn, and shout and scoff at other members who already have the floor, or even for an MLA to charge that a Minister is “full of you-know-what” (Heather Forsyth, November 26, 2012, Hansard Page 989), then the party of MLAs represented by such comments lose all their credibility.

When it is acceptable for an MLA to table tweets of citizens neither present nor informed (Richard Starke, November 26, 2012, Hansard Page 993), or to even consider calling other members “bottom-feeders” (Thomas Lukaszuk, November 19, 2012, Hansard Page 698), then the party of MLAs represented by that unprofessional conduct lose their credibility.

Any MLA who chooses to participate in such behavior loses their “Honourable” distinction, and that such a title becomes nothing more than ink on a page.

The common view seems to be that in order to hold either the government or the Opposition to account, you must use such inflammatory language.  However, if you review the number of changes in behavior or policy on either side of the House that have occurred, you will find a whopping zero.

So obviously holding each other to account in this way is either ineffective, or a colossal waste of tax-payer money.

I believe this too, but not because the Alberta Party would bring butterflies and puppies into the legislature (thanks for the idea, @JoeAlbertan, but we would both agree how useless that would be).  I believe this because the Alberta Party, whether on the government side or on the Opposition side, would ask tough questions without the accusations or insults.  You can get tough on election finance without calling each other criminals.  You can get tough on senior’s care without calling into question another person’s grooming habits.  You can discuss difficult budget questions without dropping F-bombs (Premier Alison Redford today).

The way it should look is an MLA would question a Minister on a particular aspect of governance, and get a well-reasoned non-insulting response.  The MLA would then ask if the Minister would consider their alternative, and the Minister would say yes or no with reasoning.  What happens following this should only be for clarity, or to provide avenues for solutions to be implemented.

This would mean that any particular issue of governance would come to Question Period once.  But it requires appropriate input from both the government side AND the Opposition side.

You can scoff at this idea, saying that it would be a pie-in-the-sky, supremely ideological concept.  Perhaps it would be.  But if you try to argue that it would be ineffective, you should keep in mind that it would be no moreso than what currently exists.

Why don’t MLAs of today try this Alberta Party concept?  The worst that could happen is that something could actually get done.