EDMONTON—Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is getting high marks for leadership in handling the Fort McMurray wildfire crisis, but political observers say the disaster remains a dicey political proposition with limited upside and a lot of downside.
Political scientist Duane Bratt says the process of getting people back into their homes and getting aid and reconstruction money will tell the tale on how Notley will be remembered in the long term for her handling of the crisis.
“On the political side, if you handle it well it’s a short term blip,” said Bratt, a political scientist with Mount Royal University in Calgary. “[But] if you screw it up, it never goes away.”
About 80,000 evacuees will begin returning in phases to Fort McMurray on June 1, almost a month after a raging blaze broke through the firelines and destroyed 2,400 structures, most of them houses.
Since then Notley has become the face and focus of efforts to contain the blaze, save the city, and get it back on its feet.
She has given almost daily updates for three weeks.
It’s been an organizational challenge orchestrated on the fly on multiple tracks: getting the evacuees out and fire crews in, securing the area from looting, and finding temporary homes for the displaced in Lac La Biche, Edmonton, and beyond.
Preloaded debit cards were being handed out a week after the evacuation.
