It has been several months since Chestermere’s Bruce McAllister betrayed his Wildrose constituents to join the very party which has been responsible for the deterioration of Alberta’s historical economic strength, the Progressive Conservatives. With no apology or explanation (or even mention) of it.
While many PC supporters hope that one man, Jim Prentice, can somehow reinvigorate a party that has badly lost its way, little has changed under Prentice to date and the vast majority of the 77% or PC MLAs that gave Redford an approval rating prior to her removal are still in place today. It’s business as usual with Prentice. When I “look in the mirror”, I see a man working hard to provide for my family because nearly half of my income goes to taxation and to pay for bureaucratic excess, inefficiency and greed, through the biggest expense anyone has, taxation. Does anyone really believe they are getting anything close to good value for their tax dollar?
It has become untenable that many of the highest salaried people in Alberta today are all in public service. And as the public service grows, these people vote themselves the status quo (look no further than Ontario to see where Alberta is going with the increase in government and taxation and drive towards big government/big business crony capitalism).
The Alberta PCs have proven their inability and unwillingness to balance the budget or address their mounting debt problem. With oil at $100/barrel oil, does anyone with any amount of economic sense really think that the PCs will be able to do so when oil is at $50?! The only solution that the Prentice PCs can come up with is “let’s attack the taxpayer!”. Where is the leadership?
Alberta trails both Norway and the state of Alaska in the amount it has saved from oil production in recent years. Alberta has saved less than $20 billion from oil revenue since 1971, compared with more than $700 billion for Norway and $51 billion for Alaska, according to the Calgary Chamber. Yet, Alberta produced twice as much crude as Norway and almost seven times Alaska’s output over that time.
The ponzi scheme of publicly funded pensions is also never addressed and neither is the fact that Albertans pay more for their public services and more is spent on them per capita than elsewhere in Canada. Albertan public servants get paid significantly more than their private industry counterparts.
Meanwhile, as job losses mount across the province, Prentice appears to be moving forward to break the law and hold an election a full year before it is should be held for the sole purpose of consolidating power at the expense of the only hope that Albertans have of a return to any fiscal responsibility, Wildrose. Fortunately, lawyer Tom Engel is filing a lawsuit against Prentice and the Alberta PCs in order to force Prentice to delay the election to when it should be legally
held, spring 2016, despite the fact that lawsuit filing fees have now increased (while at the same time Legal Aid access has decreased) sending a clear message that you get as much justice as you can afford in Alberta under the elitist PCs).
When will Albertans say “enough is enough!” to this entitled, fiscally irresponsible, inept, corrupt and utterly morally bankrupt PC party? A vote for PC is a vote for “more of the same” mismanagement and corruption and further taxation. One man cannot undo a party culture. Indeed, Prentice has already proven his unwillingness to do what is necessary in this recent budget. “Holding your nose” and voting PC, achieves the same result as enthusiastically voting PC. We must not enable such incompetence and entitlement.
Daniel de Vries
