Chris Clegg
As we head into a provincial election soon, it is time to reflect on the past performance of Lesser Slave Lake MLA Pat Rehn.
Rehn made one big mistake early in his term and it cost him. When he trotted off to Mexico early in the pandemic for a holiday, while his government told everyone to stay home for Christmas, it was a mistake many never forgave him for. His own party gave him the heave-ho albeit temporarily before reinstatement. There were calls for Rehn’s resignation, but such was also the case for former MLA Pearl Calahasen, many people forget, and she survived that just fine, thank you.
The decision paved the way for criticism of Rehn, no matter what he did. If criticism of Rehn was defended by his supporters or the party, the critics always had that one fatal error to fall back on for which there was no defence. Political adversaries do not forget such mistakes easily.
During the last half of his term, Rehn was the quiet back-bencher, doing his job the best he could. There were success stories, there were failures. Not everything was good, nor was it bad. Rehn and the ruling UCP did do some good work.
One wonders what Rehn could have become before his mistake. The public will never know.
It did not help that Rehn followed decades of MLAs in Lesser Slave Lake with excellent track records. Daniel Larivee and Calahasen were high profile MLAs (cabinet ministers) during most of their terms. Both were also very visibly in their constituencies, something not afforded Rehn due to the pandemic, and that certainly wasn’t his fault! Before, Larry Shaben was one of the top dogs in government. His resume needs no explanation.
The fact is, Rehn had to follow decades of exemplary MLAs in Lesser Slave Lake. The bar was set very, very high. Not exactly an easy task to begin with, but one made impossible by that early mistake.
To Rehn’s credit, he stuck it out and did the best he could. Many would have quit and retired back to public life amidst the social media storm that followed. Rehn had businesses to run and certainly could have decided to leave. But Rehn had made a commitment to the people of Lesser Slave Lake and he remained as MLA and fulfilled that commitment. He was no quitter. We can give him credit for that under difficult circumstances.
Perhaps Rehn could have been more visible after the pandemic, but it did not mean he wasn’t doing a good job. Hospital services were increasing (dialysis in High Prairie), roads were getting fixed – probably not as many as most people would like – and new ones being built, along with a host of other normal government operations and services.
Only Rehn knows if he was in public service as MLA for the long haul, and by that we mean multiple terms in office with perhaps higher aspirations. But to recover from that early mistake was virtually impossible, unless you are surrounded by an army of supporters not only in Lesser Slave Lake but all of Alberta.
Many politicians like to leave a legacy of their service when it is over. For Rehn, it is likely over but never say never. As for Rehn’s legacy, it is answered in the form a little two-word question: what if?