Editor:
In 2008, I was honoured to ask for your vote as a member of the now-defunct AB Greens which, by the way, have reformed as the Evergreen party, which is running candidates in both Calgary and Edmonton.
In the end, over 1,500 of you voted for me; thank you once again for this honour. I was seriously considering running again, but personal circumstances did not make this possible.
In this election it seems that there is ‘change’ in the air. The Progressive Conservatives (PCs) have sensed it and the Wild Rose Party (WR) are doing their best to exploit it.
Let’s be honest, as much as I think Ms. Redford is doing her best to clean up the economic, ethical and environmental mess she inherited by over 40 years on one party rule; she willingly participated in building this problem as an MLA and has not had the time to follow through on any of her reactionary promises since becoming leader.
And for the WR party; don’t forget that they were founded by members of the PCs who seemed to ‘jump ship’ when they found the political winds changing and represent, for the most part, the extreme right of political views. Ms. Smith might claim that she would not allow ‘morally contentious issues’ to be a factor, but how can she promise free votes in Edmonton and then promise that the leaked musings of some of her candidates won’t result in private members bills? She can’t. I have resorted to calling the WR party the ‘Tea Party of the North’ because of their candidate’s consistent public statements on morally contentious issues.
But what about the Liberals and New Democrats (NDPs), where have they been? If you’ve only listened to provincial media sources, you can be forgiven for not knowing that these parties exist. I find this lack of balanced representation to be a serious problem, but that didn’t stop me from sourcing out the various party platforms (a good start is the CBC vote compass at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/albertavotes2012/features/votecompass.html).
After reviewing this literature I found myself liking parts of the Liberal campaign platform as well as the NDP campaign platform. In both cases, the Liberals and the NDP have presented a cost analysis of how they would pay for their campaign promises that were realistic, transparent and represent a true change from the status quo.
In my mind answering the question, ‘how are you going to pay for this promise?’ is the difference between buying votes with empty promises during a political campaign versus putting forth a clear agenda for people to judge.
In the end, I liked how the NDP would increase the personal income tax for the rich (anyone earning over $200,000 per year) and start to collect our fair share of royalties from the oil sands to pay for senior’s, education and health (something that the PCs and WR clearly indicate they would not even consider).
Let’s look at facts, even with the increases that the NDP are proposing, the oil companies will still be paying among the lowest royalty rates in North America and Ms. Redford’s fear mongering that any increase will cost jobs is simply unfounded.
After years of failing to keep up with the basic infrastructure for health, education, health care, the environment and our social programs by passing these growing debts onto our children, we simply can’t continue to let policy reward a select minority while the rest of us suffer.
I work for Children’s Services in Calgary and because of my work I also work with nurses, doctors, teachers, police and the very social agencies that Ms. Redford claims she will use to fix poverty in Alberta.
Let me tell you from direct experience, all of these groups of people are struggling from years of neglect and simply cannot sustain being asked to do more with less without the very real risk of people dying.
Ms. Redford, your plan to use social agencies to address poverty issues is naive, clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding about the issues and simply will not work. Trying to rely on these services to fix your government’s problems is akin to using the political tagline of ‘trimming the fat’ from bloated government, but in this case it’s like saying that you will ‘trim the fat’ from an anorexic person; there simply is no fat left to trim! We need more people and more resources to continue to provide the services that all Albertans rely on.
I had hoped that the leaders debate would make things clearer for me; however, given the lack of debate concerning the ongoing economic and environmental issues surrounding the oil sands, education and other issues, this debate did little for me but highlight the inherent similarities between the PCs and WR.
I then contacted Mr. Jamie Kleinsteuber to discuss his political views. After meeting with Jamie, I can now proudly say that I will be voting NDP in the next election.
But here’s my most important message; vote, just vote. Educate yourself on the issues and vote. I have made my views transparent about my concerns about voting for either the PCs or WR party. but in the end I just hope that you vote and let your voices be heard.
Remember, people in other parts of the world are literally dying to gain the basic democratic rights that we are now being asked to participate in.
Dan Cunin,
Cochrane
