Extremist: /ɛkˈstriːmɪst/ noun, chiefly derogatory: A person who holds extreme political or religious views, especially one who advocates illegal, violent or other extreme action—Oxford dictionary
Hysterical rhetoric
Of all the bonehead things Premier Prentice could have said in his campaign kick-off speech, warning Albertans to beware of “extreme ideas or ideologies” takes the cake.
Prime Minister Harper labeled ISIL “extremists” and “terrorists”. He girded his loins and sent in the troops.
Premier Prentice labelled the Wildrose and the NDP “the extreme right and the extreme left”. He girded his campaign team and sent in the spin doctors.
Are you an extremist?
And that’s on Day 1 of the campaign trail. God only knows what weird and wonderful things he’ll come up with by Day 28.
But hey, it’s politics, we should expect some mudslinging, right?
Wrong.
It’s one thing to sling mud at your political opponents. They’re used to it. Abe Lincoln’s detractors called him everything from a “rail-splitter” to a “third-rate backwoods lawyer” (I’m not sure which word was the insult, “backwoods” or “lawyer”).
It’s quite another thing to sling mud at citizens who support a political party other than your own. That’s not mudslinging. That’s an utter lack of respect for the democratic process that permits more than one political party to exist at one time.
The hard truth
In addition to calling Albertans names, Mr Prentice says the Tories are the only party prepared to tell Albertans the “hard truth”. It’s easy, he says, for the Wildrose or the NDP to criticize his budget, but it’s “incumbent” upon them to put forward their own realistic plans so that Albertans can judge their solutions against the Tory solution.
Mr Prentice is half-right.
It is indeed easy to criticize Mr Prentice’s Budget 2015. It promises to take Alberta off the resource revenue roller coaster but fails to do so.
Mr Prentice promises to balance the budget in three years and start depositing half of Alberta’s royalty revenue into the Heritage Savings Trust Fund by 2020. Most importantly, Mr Prentice promises to wean the government of its addiction to energy royalties and stop using volatile resource revenues to plug holes in its operating and capital budgets.
HAH!
Budget 2015 starts on the right foot. In 2015-16 resource revenues make up just 6.7% of all revenues the government requires to provide public services. But by 2019-20 resource revenues balloon to 16% of all revenues, making the government even more dependent on booming oil prices.
Brian Jean, an extremist?
To further increase the frisson of uncertainty, Budget 2015 is based on WTI oil prices of $54.84 in 2015-16 and $62.80 in 2016-17 (rising ultimately to $83.83 in 2019-20 when the first transfers to the Heritage Trust Fund are expected to take place).
Just one small snag. The US Dept of Energy expects WTI oil prices to come in $2 to $5 lower for the same period. And to make matters worse, the successful conclusion of the Iran nuclear deal will likely reduce oil prices an additional $5 to $15 by 2016.
Mr Prentice’s Budget 2015 isn’t taking Alberta off the resource revenue roller coaster, it’s strapping Albertans firmly into the Mad Mouse carnival ride at the OPEC amusement park.
Lougheed, Klein and, um, who?
Mr Prentice characterizes Budget 2015 as a budget worthy of Alberta’s legendary premiers, Peter Lougheed and Ralph Klein. He challenges the Wildrose and the NDP to show Albertans how they would plug the $5 billion deficit resulting from his own government’s failure to manage Alberta’s economy through the good times.
And here’s where it gets interesting.
The Wildrose promise to reverse Prentice’s tax hikes and cut $2.2 billion by reducing waste and eliminating 3200 civil service management jobs. The mantle of Ralph Klein, the king of the austerity budget, rests comfortably on the shoulders of Wildrose leader Brian Jean.
Rachel Notley, an extremist?
The NDP promise a true progressive personal tax, fair corporate taxes, tax credits to support a job creation plan and Bill 209, a bill to ensure that Albertans receive full value for their natural resources in accordance with the principles set out by Peter Lougheed. NDP leader Rachel Notley rightly deserves the mantle of Peter Lougheed, who she wryly points out wins the “Extremist of the Day” award for proposing a corporate tax hike in 2011.
What about Mr Prentice? Sadly he doesn’t deserve carry the mantle of premiers Lougheed or Klein, let alone wear it.
Mr Prentice’s budget is fiscally irresponsible. It binds the government’s ability to deliver (and staff) schools and hospitals to an increasingly volatile global oil market… and plunges the province into $30 billion of debt in the process.
Mr Prentice’s government is socially conservative. It took a national outcry to prevent the Tories from passing legislation that blatantly discriminated against gay school children.
Mr Prentice’s government is undemocratic. The premier gleefully gutted the Official Opposition when his own government held an overwhelming majority of seats. Heaven forbid that someone from across the aisle might try to hold his government to account.
There is indeed an extremist party in Alberta. It’s decked out in Tory blue.
Susan on the Soapbox 
Brilliant! But that’s just par for the course for Ms. Soapbox.
This piece deserves Alberta-wide attention -and the attention of each and every one of its citizens.
Thanks ABCanuck! Every poll conducted since Prentice unveiled his 2015 Budget and 10 Year Vision indicates that Albertans aren’t buying it this time. What’s really interesting isn’t that the PCs are neck and neck with the Wildrose, or that Prentice’s personal approval rating has sunk to 29% according to some polls, it’s that the NDP is emerging as a credible alternative. This is very encouraging!
Well done Ms. Soapbox!
Mr. Prentice appears to have the same contempt for average Albertans that did in Ms. Redford.
Thanks John. The irony here is that Mr Prentice bent over backwards to distance himself from his predecessor (remember his mantra “under new management”) and then he proved he was no different. I’d characterize his few months at the helm as being even more self serving than any of the others who’ve gone before him. The story on sole sourced countracts is not fully understood, his Nov 2014 RFP for the Kananaskis Golf Course is nothing to be proud of, and his role in gutting the Wildrose Opposition still needs to be told.
I figure that Jim was a product of an hysterical pregnancy, grew up as an hysterical child, and eventually sat on the right hand (or was it the left hand?) of an hysterical Alberta based politician. I blame the vampire beavers.
Anonymous: “vampire beavers”…of course!!! 🙂
I love your post as usual. This one hit close to home and close to what I am feeling. I have not voted PC since Lougheed was running as I haven’t seen anyone worth voting for, In my books they have all been corrupt crooks since Lougheed. Each a shade worse than the one before. Redford was the worst trough slopper, and Jimbo is showing a lot of the worst in all of them. I was not expecting the degrading/mudslinging till farther on in the campaign month, but I am sure there will be plenty more. Jimbo doesn’t need much mudslinging at or degrading as he has done a lot to himself already. Albertans aren’t stupid. Insults, blame, bad decisions and more tax with 59 extra fees were the last straw for a lot of folk. They started looking elsewhere and Jimbo is trying by any means to win them back.
I just heard about the elite hospital in Hanoi that Alberta funded. Redford was even at the opening, she went on the tax payers dime of course.
Thanks Jackie. The PCs drifted so far from the principles espoused by their first leader Peter Lougheed that it’s the NDP, not the PCs, who are tabling Bill 209 to ensure that Albertans get fair value for their natural resources, there’s more refining and upgrading in Alberta (why ship 18,000 jobs to the US) and there’s greater transparency with respect to the royalties actually paid by the producers to the government (ie us). Makes sense given that, as Lougheed said, it’s the people, not the producers, who own the resources. Prentice and his PC predecessors lost sight of that critical relationship a long time ago.
Not sure what to what to your post Susan but I wonder sometimes where these people come from.
First I was told to look in the mirror and feel guilty about the overall state of this province. I was basically accused of getting the best services possible and not wanting to pay for them. Then I was called an extremist because I do not vote PC. Judging by what his best friend Harper is doing in Ottawa I may very soon be on the CSIS list because I do not agree with the neo-conservative agenda.
Is it any wonder is popularity is now at 29%? The man that the Edmonton Sun was so proud of because of his genius move of destroying the opposition and get the PC party to be back in style is now shrinking at the speed of light. Daniele Smith did not destroy the WR, she destroyed the PC party and Jim Prentice is the one who allowed it to happen. Why? Because both have no moral compass, both are right wing extremists.
I personally am surprised that Jim Prentice seems to be paying the price for his arrogance. I thought Albertans would continue sleep through the whole process, but there is ray of hope that it is finally happening. After 40 years of abuse, Albertans are ready for an intervention.
I do not want to release the fireworks before the end because much can change and I am sure the big guns are now scrambling to get the best spin doctors available anywhere, but I am hopeful that for the very first time in my life my so called democratic vote is going to count. In the meantime I wished Rachel Notley would use Proportional Representation as part of her election platform. It continues to be a dead issue.
I am sorry – ” ….what to what…’ what is this? Gosh I reread it twice.
It is supposed to be ‘ ….. What to add..’
By the way Susan were you interviewed in Daybreak Alberta on Saturday? The CBC program?
I heard your name but I was not listening to it and I cannot find it on the website.
Excellent comments Carlo. You’re wise not to “release the fireworks” just yet. As we learned in 2012 all it takes is one misstep on the part of the challengers and bam! Albertans run back into the waiting arms of the PCs…only to be abused for another 3 years until the mess comes crashing down, they jettison their premier and force another premature election.
While I didn’t expect much of Mr Prentice I thought he’d show more courage when it came to his plan to diversify the economy, This is absolutely critical. Peter Tertzakian, a well respected energy economist with ARC Financial, says that the advent of fracking in tight oil formations fundamentally changed the energy industry from one with long lead times and big investments (read: oilsands) to one with shorter lead times and less capital. This, plus geopolitics, will make the industry even more volatile than it is now.
He also warned Big Oil to get ready for the green shift. He’d been dismissive of electric cars in the past but has since changed his mind. Even small inroads with electric cars will, in his words, “dent the growth curve of oil”. So increased volatility, shift away from oilsands, shift toward green energy…what does that tell you? Alberta is in URGENT need of a real diversification strategy–something more than a hope and a prayer for more pipelines to carry bitumen to China.
Yes, that was me you heard (or didn’t hear) on the radio. CBC liked my doorknocking blog and did a brief interview capturing the highlights. I was so enthralled by the foamy microphones and the sine waves (or whatever they were) on the monitor that I completely forgot the best doorknocking story of all. I’ll see if I can find the link and post it here.
I am SO sick of all these Conservative guys and all their lies!! We’re waaay past politics. Very simply, we are now in a battle between “good and evil’.
Sky, I know the feelling! Everytime the Conservatives say something is “white” the press runs a story proving it’s “black”. The Kananaskis golf course is a classic example. Prentice responded to questions about special treatment of PC insiders in covering the cost of flood damage and business losses by admitting that $5.4 million had been spent but no more public money would find its way to the private operators, and voila, today we learn that an additional $3.9 million of public money went out the door. Lord only knows what it’s going to cost Albertans for the government to break this sweetheart deal.
How can Mr Prentice possibly ask Albertans to trust him?
I heard the latest snafu to do with that controversial golf course last night. That was my breaking point. I decided to write an ode to the PC’s. Sorry if it offends any one.
ODE TO THE PC’S ( USING THE BARNEY TUNE)
I PAY YOU, YOU IGNORE ME,
TOO BAD PC’S JUST DON’T SEE,
WE ARE ALBERTANS THROUGH AND THROUGH,
OUR MONEY SPENT WENT ALL FOR YOU.
I LOVE YOU, YOU LOVE ME,
LETS RUN JIMBO UP A TREE,
FROM UP THERE, HE WILL WAVE,
AS HE DOES HIS RANT AND RAVE,
I PAY YOU, YOU IGNORE ME,
TOO BAD PC’S JUST DON’T SEE,
WE ARE ALBERTANS THROUGH AND THROUGH,
OUR MONEY SPENT WENT ALL FOR YOU.
THE BUDGETS CRAP, WE HAVE SAID,
IGNORING US MADE US SEE RED,
TAXING, FEEING, WANTING MORE FROM US,
WE DON’T LIKE IT, GO RIDE YOUR BUS.
I PAY YOU, YOU IGNORE ME,
TOO BAD PC’S JUST DON’T SEE,
WE ARE ALBERTANS THROUGH AND THROUGH,
OUR MONEY SPENT WENT ALL FOR YOU.
EXTREME LEFT, EXTREME RIGHT,
FINGER POINTING IS YOUR PLIGHT,
TELLING ALBERTANS THEIR CHOISE IS BAD,
ON MAY 5TH WE’LL SEE WHOS SAD.
I PAY YOU, YOU IGNORE ME,
TOO BAD PC’S JUST DON’T SEE,
WE ARE ALBERTANS THROUGH AND THROUGH,
NO MORE MONEY GIVEN TO YOU.
Well done Jackie!. All we need to do is paint Barney blue and he’s the perfect mascot for the tired old PC party. 🙂
Hi Susan,
Pickpocket Prentice is Harper 2 in my opinion.
I think he learned all about the politics of division with Harper 1. It’s too bad he has started out as he means to be for the rest of time with his extremist comments but really how else is he going to save the Tories?
He has to scare the Tory voters back to the fold. It’s pretty sad. We’re easily spooked so he may succeed with the sheep.
If the sheep see a whole pile of wolves everywhere they will be reluctant to leave the coyotes that are among them.
It’s too bad that a whole pile of credulous folks think he is just the leader for us.
He seems like a canny political creature but that is about it.
He’s doing anti-democratic acts of the Harper 1 sort. I mean I did not appreciate getting Mandel parachuted into my community. We had the slowly fading Hancock for ages and now we get an even more faded Mandel for the rest of time. What next?
The usual political junk.
He is doing the usual Tory bribes business –this time he is pouring money on the troubled waters of continuing care. The Tories successfully ignored the need for long term care beds simply by ignoring it. Then instead of making publicly funded and publicly run continuing care places, they threw the citizens to the private sector (non-profit and for-profit continuing care providers).
This long term care non-plan has failed.
This is why you hear all the yapping on the news about the problems; I guess Albertans are standing up for their families now rather than shutting up about the problems in continuing care.
But are we getting value for the major public money going into grants for the building of mostly assisted living spaces (which are more profitable for private providers than long term care spaces)? I don’t know. The financial informations of providers is “proprietary” so taxpayers just have to trust AHS which has auditors that seem to think that over-coding is not fraud but money going to the same continuing care pot of cash (it all goes to take care of residents rather than business owners).
But until the Auditor General of Alberta does these audits of over-coding facilities and really of all these continuing care facilities I remain sceptical that the public is getting good value for our public cash. I mean the private providers must make profits –right? And even the not-for profits have to cover their costs as well as ensure that the major capital projects that are half paid for by public dollars is a solvent business matter -right? So until the Auditor General of Alberta shows us the audited financial returns of these folks, I somehow doubt that the continuing care providers are losing cash.
As for our grants to these folks–who watches how this grant money is being used? Is this grant money being used appropriately and prudently?
I have noted that a lot of public money is going to continuing care grants— that were never considered prior to this election; we even hear about long term care beds although apparently where these long term care beds will appear is mysterious.
This was a smart move of the Tories.
There are plenty of us who are steaming mad about the problems in continuing care and are finding out that if we yap we get banned and our families get evicted. Do we live in China?
The Tories will use whatever goodies they have to get back to power and if money won’t do the trick they will use fear. Pickpocket Prentice uses the same fear strategy of Harper 1 to keep the Tory voters from decamping to the other political parties.
It is really odd that folks think that the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta represents them when the MLAs do very little for us. When you go to your Tory MLA they just tell you there is nothing they can do for you. What the heck? Why can’t the MLAs do something for their constituents who are dumped out like week old bread and their advocates silenced by banning (well I’m not silenced but some folks are too afraid to yap after being banned).
My MLA is the Health Minister and he is useless in this case. He sends us form letters. He is supposed to help me. What is the use of having a Health Minister for your MLA if he can’t help you in a problem that he could solve with a simple note to the folks at AHS that they need to get my handicapped sister back to her placement? She hasn’t done anything wrong. It is not her fault that I yap day and night on a blog about the failures to meet the standards of care that were recently itemized in an audit by Alberta Health. Mr. Mandel needs to do his job as my MLA. He won’t even meet with me. He’s too busy. Too busy doing what? Knocking on doors in Riverbend?
I’m still waiting for Mr. Mandel to get involved in the eviction of my handicapped sister from the Good Samaritan Extended care at Millwoods. Instead, I learn that AHS enabled the eviction and that the appeal process that is required by the Nursing Act and its regulations simply isn’t present at AHS.
So odd.
Why isn’t AHS following the laws of the land?
Why isn’t Alberta Health getting AHS to follow the laws of the land?
What do we pay the lawyers at AHS to do?
If the legal counsel at AHS is responsible for ensuring that AHS is compliant with the legislation then why is there no appeal process for residents who are evicted from continuing care facilities? There is supposed to be an appeal process at the organizational level and at the regional health authority level. But when I talked to the folks at Facility Living (a part of Continuing Care) they did not mention any of these appeal processes?
Also why is there no appeal process set up by AHS for banning cases? It is easy for them to do. They just have to require it of all continuing care providers in the wording of the Master Service Agreement. I have seen the Master Service Agreement for one facility and the continuing care provider has to follow the Nursing Act and its regulations; all AHS has to do is add the requirement for an appeal process for both eviction and banning clearly in this agreement. It is an odd thing but unless you spell out the requirements of the legislation, folks tend to forget or ignore these requirements.
For example the continuing care provider is supposed to pay for supplies/ equipment that is of a health nature such as BiPaP masks and BiPaP machines but they seem to forget their requirements when they run out of cash.
Patient care based funding (PCBF) hasn’t provided the same sorts of revenue streams as the previously funded specialized respiratory funding provided you see and so when providers run out of cash, they try to get the money from AHS. Usually they don’t get the money from AHS. This is because the only thing that gets the folks at AHS to do their jobs is the CBC news report or other media chatter. The folks at AHS aren’t concerned about citizens. Nope. AHS does nothing until mummy bloggers yap for years on a blog. Then when the mummy blogger gets banned for her blogging and her handicapped sister is in week 8 of her dumping at the Grey Nuns Hospital and CBC does an article, then AHS might do something. Usually this something is a meeting with other folks.
Meeting after meeting.
But at least we have meeting now.
Adverse publicity has nothing to do with getting us from the point of “there is nothing we can do, there is nothing we can do, there is nothing we can do” to maybe we can have an appeal process in place that is required by legislation. What the heck?
Why is there no appeals process at AHS as required by the Nursing act and regulations? I am curious about this matter. So I looked for the section of AHS that monitors the rest of the organization. I wrote to the folks at Ethics and Compliance at AHS and they tell me to go right back to Patient Relations (where I started from) because they don’t do double investigations (I guess they are trying to be frugal). So the department that is supposed to monitor compliance of the rest of AHS won’t do the job that I believe they should do.
Such a maze.
And it is a maze created by the Tory MLAs we have hired in government.
We get all the surface of power and no actual power. All the offices created by the Tories are powerless to do anything for us and are also understaffed, under financed and overwhelmed with complaints.
The Health Advocates are swamped with complaints (increasing numbers of eviction and banning cases) and they have a tiny staff. Recently their budget was cut. The Health Advocates can’t force anyone to do anything. They can yap and plead. The Ombudsman can make recommendations but you can only go to him after you have gone through all the proper channels (this might take years). The Patient Relations folks at AHS seem nice but not very knowledgeable or why else did they forget about the Nursing Act and regulations? Why did the Patient Relations folks and the Continuing Care folks have to be shown the relevant sections of the legislation by this mummy? Don’t they know the legislation that governs their own departments?
The Patient Relations folks don’t have a lot of manpower as well; last time I yapped about the Good Samaritan extended care was when the staff refused to give me my sister’s medical information (despite her written permission). The lady I yapped with there was working part time and I never found out what the resolution of that complaint was. The folks at the Good Samaritan Extended care did not give me my sister’s information for almost two months (the silent treatment); it’s really a zoo out there for mummies.
Continuing care has animals I have never seen before and I am pretty sure that there are many families in the same sort of situation as we are in—-where we encounter a failure to meet the standards of care and AHS is a castle that won’t admit the complainants who are like me–in the wilderness seeking entry.
Patient Relations is inundated with complaints and yet cannot solve problems. They have consultants. What the heck? What do these consultants do? Mostly they seem to act as a single point of contact. Instead of you yapping to anyone at AHS, you go to Patient Relations. In any case, we were not able to find the directory of folks at AHS. This is top secret stuff. You are not given the names of folks who work at the place either. If you ask for an organizational chart of a department they give you a few names of the top dogs and all the other names are blanked out. It is simply weird. I can go to the university websites and get the contact information for everyone there. But the AHS directory is private. Their policy and procedure manual which should have all the rules of the game is not available. You have to FOIP audits on continuing care places It is so non-transparent and yet it uses most of our tax dollars.
In addition AHS is not helpful and will not support families in an appeal process for an eviction/ banning case until the CBC news publishes the family mess to all and sundry. I mean before the CBC news yapped about my sister’s eviction and my banning this department didn’t tell our family about the legislation that requires an appeal. So odd. It is almost like no one at AHS wants to help evicted residents and their banned advocates from learning about their rights.
The banning business is very shaming. I wear my scarlet letter of banning very sadly. I feel very outsider now even though I am in my bedroom writing most of the time. Banning is a tool used by AHS, Covenant Health and continuing care facilities to shame advocates into silence. The organizations say they use banning to protect residents/patients and staff. The MLAs that you go to for help- then say (sanctimoniously) that rules have to be followed, and the banned citizens can complain to the Health Advocates and the Ombudsman who cannot unban you.
It is a pretty slick set up by the Tories; this set up has certainly helped to keep the bad publicity of the evictions and banning out of sight. But now Albertans are standing up for their families and telling their stories. Good for them. Why should any Albertan put up with this junk? If you are accused of a crime, you get to go to court and you have a jail sentence if you were bad. With this trespass law, you go to court, but the court can’t help you. There is no appeal of any sort. And you are stuck with a judgement for an offence you don’t even know the reason for. It’s very disturbing and we can thank our own Tory MLAs for designing this Trespass law.
I’ve also learned that if a continuing care facility doesn’t even have to provide you with a letter to ban you. The Good Samaritan Extended Care banned me by voice mail and you can’t enter their facility or you get fined major bucks. It’s very 1984 in Alberta. I’ve lived here for decades and I never knew what worms lay under the mud.
The only extremist party I can see is the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta. It is to blame for providing such draconian tools as eviction/banning– for use by AHS and the continuing care providers. I mean think about it folks –why did the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta make the Trespass Act without any appeal provisions?
Click to access T07.pdf
TRESPASS TO PREMISES ACT
Trespass
2(1) No person shall trespass on premises with respect to which
that person has had notice not to trespass.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), notice not to trespass may
be given to a person
(a) orally or in writing by the owner or an authorized
representative of the owner, or
(b) by signs visibly displayed
Offences and penalties
3 A trespasser, whether or not any damage is caused by the
trespass, is guilty of an offence and liable
(a) for a first offence, to a fine not exceeding $2000, and
(b) for a 2nd or subsequent offence in relation to the same
premises, to a fine not exceeding $5000.
RSA 2000 cT-7 s3;2003 c41 s3
*******************************************************
Folks get banned from continuing care facilities —and they don’t even know why they are banned. Some folks like Shauna McHarg is banned from seeing her dad—which is the worst sort of banning in my mind. In her case, she can’t see her dad and she doesn’t even know why.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1178130/family-members-call-for-change-to-seniors-care-system-after-being-banned-from-seeing-their-loved-ones/
Family members call for change to seniors care system after being banned from seeing their loved ones
Shauna McHarg has also been battling Covenant Health. She says she hasn’t been able to see her father for almost two years, and has had her visiting time restricted with her mother.
***************************************************************************
I don’t believe that families should be harmed in this manner. There needs to be an appeal process to the banning business.
They also don’t have time limits specified so once you are banned you can be banned forever.
After learning about this sort of banning business for writing the truth on a blog, I feel that the most extremist political party in Alberta isn’t the NDP or the Wildrosies but certainly it is the party that I have voted for–the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta.
It is very cheeky of the Pickpocket Prentice to call the other parties extremist when his party makes laws that harm families in this way.
I feel very sad for Shauna McHarg. She is in the maze created by the Tories and she has already spent three years in it. Why? Look no further than the MLAs we hired. I’m looking no further than Mr. Mandel in Edmonton Whitemud.
Julie, you describe the hoops you have to jump though to fight the eviction of your sister from the Good Samaritan as a maze, but even a maze has an end point and sooner or later people find their way out at the other end. The fact that there doesn’t appear to be an appeal process and that no matter where you start you end up with Patient Relations indicates that the process is broken.
I couldn’t help but notice that Mr Prentice was quick to order the Surface Rights Board (an independent agency) to take another look at the Lemke situation because as we know it’s election time and he wants the rural voters to believe he’ll look after their property rights, but Mr Prentice is not so quick to order AHS (an indiependent agency) to take another look at your situation, because as he’s probably already guessed, he’s lost your vote and will never get it back.
These guys have got to go. Now.
Susan, as usual, right on point!
What infuriates me the most about the PCs are the non-truths (the outright lies, the half truths, the non-disclosure of information, and the lack of accountability).
Prentice talks a good talk, like so many other provincial PC leaders in our recent past. He talks about trust and his new plan…..where I come from, in rural Alberta, trust is earned not granted. He tries to prove he is trustworthy by stating that after only 6 months in office he has done so much for the people of Alberta – he sold the government planes, and for that he deserves our trust that he is in office to do right by the people of Alberta. In my books, that is not enough. In my opinion, public pressure made him sell the planes. It was a cleansing of sorts, cleansing the palate of Albertans after the bad taste of Redford. To me, everything he has done thusfar has been a gesture to placate and entice the people, to tame the animals back into submission
The current PCs may have a good, solid plan to get Alberta back on track, and right the wrongs of their predecessors. I DO NOT TRUST THEM!!!!! As history has taught me, what they say and what they do are 2 different things. In the end, their friends win, they win, and the rest of us are hooped! The “good old boys club” seems to be alive and well.
I am tired of being lied to! I am a frontline healthcare worker. As a public servant, employed by this government, and my ultimate boss is health minister, Stephen Mandel, information is withheld, or skewed, or politicized (spun).
I feel I am lied to at work, and by this PC government everyday. Even with Prentice at the helm, this continues. Nothing has changed. Oh, sorry, he sold some planes……
For the 1st time in many years, I am looking forward to my PC candidate knocking on my door! I have some very pointed, specific questions to ask that will probably reveal their ignorance of what this party is actually doing and will possibly show them that they have “drank the Koolaid”. Probably not though….once you drink the Koolaid from the PC trough, I think you are pretty much done. Think back to the PC members, turned Wildrose, turned PC again…must be the Koolaid
Well put Mad Madge! I don’t know what’s in that Koolaid, but it’s going to be put to the test on May 5. The PCs are dropping in the polls. If this continues the PCs will pull out all stops in the week prior to the election. They’ll have to convince voters that the “extremist” Wildrose party will slash public services to the bone but at the same time, they have to be careful not to push the voters into the arms of the “extremist” NDP who said they’ll restore funding to public services.
I’m betting the PCs will be so desperate that we’ll see a bunch of “NDP = socialist” ads. Hopefully the public won’t fall for it and go stampeding back to the PCs for another four years of neglict and abuse.
This election is as much about the maturity and thoughtfulness of Albertans as it is about anything else.
Susan are you running with the NDP? I do not see your name so I had to ask sorry!
No problem Carlos. I’m not running this time. There are some things happening on the home front that make it impossible for me to do so at this time. But I am supporting a number of NDP candidates that I know and respect, including Rachel Notley. Looks like the NDs are going to give the PCs a run for their money this time. Yippee!!!
Hopefully you can handle the Home front well. I am sure your help to the candidates is tremendously needed. There are not too many people with your vision and social and political intelligence. I am sure that like myself, people think that it is a loss for all of us.
I agree that it looks like this is going to be an interesting election and that the NDP is going to give everyone a headache. I am very happy that is the case. On the other hand I am concerned that the right is going to try to destroy Rachel Notley as badly as they can possible afford. This is the way they do politics, very within their survival of the fittest view of life. She is a very capable and smart person but shock and awe is to say the least barbaric and very damaging. With the PCs in free fall, I am sure the barrage is coming sooner than later.
I just read this this morning. I had no clue as to the bonuses and perks as well as their overbloated salaries Prentice gives his MLA’s on the tax payers dime. Then he has the balls to call the left and right extremists.
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