Former Alberta Treasurer Stockwell Day was recently elected to lead the "new and improved" Reform Party (now dubbed the Canadian Alliance). Before rushing out to support either Day or his new party here are a few thing voters should consider:

• Before entering politics, Day was an assistant pastor at a fundamentalist church in Bentley, Alberta. A school run by the church used an American curriculum that suggested that Jewish leaders were the "children of their father, the devil." Day was administrator of the school and publicly defended the controversial curriculum.
• After winning a seat in the Alberta Legislature, Day made a name for himself by championing the concerns of the religious right. Most notably, he has advocated using public dollars to pay for private religious schools. He was also one of the strongest voices in cabinet arguing against laws that would protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in the workplace.
• As Labour Minister in the Klein government between 1995-97, Day did virtually nothing – at least nothing for workers. Like other Tory labour ministers before him, Day turned a blind eye when employers used Alberta’s regressive labour laws to undermine unions and trample the rights of working people. During labour confrontations like the Finning and Safeway strikes, Day repeatedly refused to get involved, saying he didn’t want to "tilt the playing field" – even though it has been tilted in the employers’ favour for years.
• As provincial Treasurer, Day was the architect of Alberta’s new flat tax. The tax – which will be implemented starting January 2001 – will reduce taxes very slightly for middle-income Albertans. But tax cuts for the richest Albertans – those earning more than $125,000 per year – will be huge. As a result, people earning between $30,000 and $65,000 will be forced to shoulder an even bigger share of the tax burden.
• Before jumping to the federal stage, Day was one of the most vocal supporters of the Klein government’s controversial private health care law, Bill 11. Under the new law, public money will be used to pay for private, for-profit hospitals. Along with Premier Klein, Day ignored the majority of Albertans who strongly opposed the law. Like other Alberta Conservatives and Reformers, Day mouths public support for Medicare – but his actions speak louder than his words. If Day had his way, Canada would have a full-blown two-tier health care system – with one standard of care for the rich and a lower standard for everyone else.
• Not content with his Alberta flat tax, Day wants to introduce a flat tax on the national level. If the Alliance were able to implement its tax plan, the wealthiest Canadians would get a huge tax break – and government revenue would plummet. In order to keep the annual budget balanced, a Reform/Alliance government would have to slash federal program spending by up to 30 per cent. As a result, there wouldn’t be enough money to increase funding for things like Medicare or education. There wouldn’t even be enough money to continue paying off Canada’s debt – something the Reform/Alliance has always said should be a top priority.