Editor:
It's not just the forest fires blowing smoke in our faces. There is the blurring and blinding effect of the current political smoke screen that is causing some severely induced mental irritation.
To clear our eyes and minds, it might be useful to do some fact checking of the political sloganeering and outright false claims that are making us bleary-eyed. Consider some examples. The UCP advertisement claimed that during their four years in government, the NDP lost a staggering 183,000 jobs. But this is smoke in your eyes as Statistics Canada and CBC fact checking pointed during an extreme downturn in the oil market as the price per barrel plummeted from $105 US a barrel to less than $30 US a barrel and revenue to the province fell by $5.5 billion – causing a minor recession – the NDP government added 42,400 full-time and 21,000 part-time jobs.
Then there’s the smoke and mirrors screen created by the UCP ad claiming that 97 increases in taxes and fees – actually increases in 74 fees primarily required in order to keep up with inflation – during the four years of the NDP government. True, but what is not mentioned at all for comparison – failure by omission, a common strategy – is the unbelievably massive 144 increase in taxes and fees, according to a May 13 CBC article, under the current UCP government.
Many of these you should have already noticed in licence fees, the new park pass in Kananaskis Country, a new $60 cost to seniors for driver’s testing.
Finally, there’s the massive exodus of people predicted by the UCP to leave this province if the NDP were to return to government. One wonders what these guys have been smoking when, as Statistics Canada reports from 2018-19 in the final years of the NDP government, actually 17,027 people migrated from B.C. to Alberta, while other prairie provinces reported losses.
To maintain the Alberta Advantage and Keep Alberta Strong, we should all vote using fact-based decision-making and avoid the politically biased smoke screens while hugging the nearest oil well for good luck.
Jim Gough,
Canmore
