I was composing a short Happy Thanksgiving blog when a UCP government press release appeared in my inbox.
Today is World Mental Health Day and Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Mike Ellis, said “Right now it might seem like a lot of things are out of our control, and this may be contributing to feelings of stress and anxiety.”
Well, duh. Things seem like they’re out of control because they are out of control and this lack of control is definitely contributing to our stress and anxiety, especially if we work in or require healthcare thanks to this pathetic, ideologically driven government.
Ellis says it’s appropriate that World Mental Health Day falls on Thanksgiving weekend “because the act of practising gratitude can be a helpful tool to improve mental wellness.”
I have no idea what practising gratitude over the Thanksgiving turkey would entail, but here’s a suggestion, the government could practice what it preaches and show its gratitude to the overworked and understaffed healthcare professionals who are desperately trying to keep us alive.
It could (1) listen when they beg for a firebreak and other tools (especially in schools) to stop the spread of the virus, (2) implement and enforce a real vaccine passport system (no more exemptions for those who’ve tested negative over the last 72 hours), and (3) support the healthcare system with additional resources and funding now so it doesn’t collapse before we’re through the worst of this.
Oh, and a little bonus to nurses like the ones being offered by Quebec and BC wouldn’t hurt, because at this point in our covid experience platitudes and links to mental health resources in press releases simply don’t cut it.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Susan on the Soapbox 
Happy Thanksgiving Susan and All!
Thank you Susan.
Thank you for pointing out the merits and necessity of actions to support our words.
Thank you Mike! I hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. I really did intend to post a fluffy little Thanksgiving post but you know how it is with these guys, the baloney just keeps on coming.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone
I will leave my kind words to this government because it is useless to say anything.
A government total lost in time and reality is not worth it. I hope they sink as fast as possible.
Carlos, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Drew Barnes is testing the water to see if there’s an appetite for a new rural political party. He says it would be like the original Reform and Wildrose parties. You know what this means, Kenney will be even more focused on saving his political career and his caucus will be spinning like tops trying to figure out when to bolt. Oh joy.
A sorry state (province). Have a happy Thanksgiving and forget about all this mess for a day, or two!
Linda, you’re right of course, in order to properly appreciate World Mental Health day we must put Kenney et al out of mind, if only for a day. The mess he created will still be there tomorrow, waiting for us to clean it up. Grrr.
Today is the perfect day to thank you for your intelligent and thoughtful blog! PS: Mike Ellis IS a turkey!
Why thank you Danusia! I loved your PS. Mike Ellis IS indeed a turkey. They all are. 🙂
I’ve taken 3 weeks off and today I learned that AHS has “advertised” the rules for allowing covid positive support people in (“when no other support is available”) I find it hard enough to care for one potential covid positive patient… let alone a second support person that has no obligation to the listen to us. We all have families that we need to protect…. and this is somehow less important? I did not sign up for this!!
This seems so crazy… think about the children!!
Oh Monique, what you describe fits with what I’ve heard about other AHS policies that don’t appear to be aimed at reducing the spread. For example, a parent I know said one of their kids came down with covid. They called the school to report it, the school said it was OK for them to send the kid’s sibling to school even though the family was waiting for the sibling’s covid test results. The parent decided to keep the sibling at home and he tested positive the next day.
As you said, it seems so crazy. Utterly irresponsible.
Susan: Thanks for sharing another great blog. The UCP clearly has their own mindset, won’t listen to the experts, and Albertans are the ones who end up paying for it. The UCP’s management of covid in Alberta has been deplorable. In fact, the UCP’s governance has been deplorable. Mike Ellis is contributing to why things are out of control in Alberta. This is a Stevie Wonder song, from 1974, You Haven’t Done Nothin’. It features The Jackson 5 on background vocals. I’d say this describes how the UCP are looking after the province very accurately. I hope you and your family have a Happy Thanksgiving.
My goodness Dwayne and Carlos, your knowledge of these songs and your ability to bring them into the conversation is quite remarkable.
Carlos, thank you for your message of hope. Let me add to that. In addition to hope we have to be prepared to play hardball. I just saw the government press release saying the mediator in the contract dispute between AUPE and the government has issued its recommendations. Instead of supporting the 4% wage cut the government wanted, the mediator is recommending a 1.5% increase plus other good things. Clearly the only way to deal with this bully government is to fight back hard.
So that’s what we have to do for the remainder of Kenney’s government’s miserable term.
Here’s the link https://aupe.org/news/news-and-updates/bargaining-update-government-services-bargaining-committee-2?fbclid=IwAR1b2DypxZYhjMX0weD4pC99e2aDWB9TImHXOq3UZbCwmNb-CdijN3rRm_A
Although this is a great song I think we Albertans deserve his album ‘Songs in the Key of Life’ which is the best set of songs I have ever heard in the same record. I am not one of those that thinks that the past is the greatest time. Lots of things were wrong in the past. I am happy that the respect for women and indigenous peoples in general has improved so much with the efforts of all of us together as a species. I miss the hope for the future but I am sure that we together will do better and will change the prospects for our children and grand children. Forces of the devil always exist but we will prevail and that is why I read this blog every single day and participate in it. I hope that all of you feel the same way today when we celebrate giving thanks for what we have.
Thank you Susan
Carlos: Here is a song that has a positive message to it. It is a new release from Carlos Santana, and it features Chris Stapleton. The song is called Joy. It is off of Santana’s new album Blessings And Miracles. We can have hope for brighter days for everyone.
Happy Thanksgiving to all, with special thanks to our hostess Susan for allowing us to vent on her blog 😉
Reading the Ellis quotes makes me wonder if you have to take a special test to become a UCP cabinet minister. Do you have to have negative scores on “empathy” and “compassion”?
Susan, your three points of “proof of gratitude” are exactly right and I agree with all of them. I’d add 4) an apology for the wrong-headed decisions that caused the mess and 5) a sincere promise to listen to expert advice and actually EVALUATE it before knee-jerk “No” reactions.
Promising to kick Jason Kenney to the curb is too much to ask for Thanksgiving. Maybe Christmas?
Mike J: your two additional points of “proof of gratitude” are bang on. I was listening to Markham Hislop interview Duane Bratt the other day. Bratt said everyone considered William Aberhart to be the worst premier this province had ever until Kenney came along. Bratt said Kenney had Aberhart beat because of all the deaths. Can you imagine having your political legacy tied forever more to unnecessary deaths? Unbelievable.
I believe Mike Ellis may be suggesting that we should show a little more gratitude that God sent us Jason Kenney! It is a sickening thought. As bizarre as it sounds, it is not out of the realm of possibility.
Jaundiced Eye. You’ve put your finger on a very important point. The political environment in this province is so twisted that the interpretation you offered is entirely possible. How messed up is that??!!
Susan: I also saw this article recently. What do you think this means for Canada?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bnnbloomberg.ca/recession-virtually-guaranteed-amid-energy-squeeze-rosenberg-1.1663214.amp.html
Gosh Dwayne, this is a lot to take in. Today’s Glove and Mail says the CEOs of the major banks disagree with the Bank of Canada as to what the inflation rate will be. Seems to me everything is up in the air right now. It will take a while before we fully understand where the economy is going as a result of covid, supply issues, inflation, etc.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Susan, for the many hours you’ve spent researching, organizing, and succinctly revealing key political facts that impact our daily lives. Your blog is a sparkling gem in the mud slinging of the UCP.
Thank you Judy for your kind words! Every so often I become so fed up with Kenney’s incompetence that I want to hole up somewhere until it’s all over. Then I remember that the only way he’ll leave is if we push him out, so we all come back here to discuss things and share information.
One thing I know for certain, when he’s finally booted out of office we will have a GIGANTIC party!!!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Susan. I love the picture of the turkey, though it reminds me of the turkey we have as our Premier. lol
Have a great day, and thank you for all your blogs. I read them with great interest.
Thank you Frank! I agree with you that the turkey is the perfect symbol for the man who calls himself our premier. (God what a dud!).
I hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and are doing well.
Take care.
This was supposed to be a reply to Dwayne and his Carlos Santana Song but Word Press is not cooperating so I try it again without being a reply – if it repeats I apologize
Carlos Santana – I miss those days for sure. I loved his music. The explosion of creativity in music in the 60s was addictive. All of them with different kinds of music like Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Mahavisnu Orchestra, Mike Oldfield, Rick Wakeman, Jethro Tull and on and on no end. Unfortunately everything was done without measuring the consequences as if we owned knowledge and the planet. The results are out and the planet is dying. The greatest problem to me is that we do not seem to learn much. We are just starting a new industry – the space tourism – and again it is evolving fast and again mot much thought of the consequences. Space tourism involves great discharges of whatever is that is coming out of the engines. As we did before we will let the industry grow to a point where then it is not possible to stop it anymore and damn the consequences. Only a handful of scientists are talking about it now but WHO CARES? Is Space tourism for the elites something we now need to develop? It would much more sense to use those billions of dollars in building decent housing for all of those that have to suffer being homeless. Controlling our population and soften inequities and push standards of living up, would do much more than sending 90 year old buddies to space.
My modest opinion anyway.
GO JEFF GO!!! And take Elon and Richard with you.
🙂 🙂 🙂 GOOD one Mike – I thought the same
By the Way one more word – I know I apologize for being such a pain but I have the zoomies and I have to let you know about a new series the ‘National Observer’ is producing on climate change and it is not just the usual calamity. Please give it a shot and if you can help the National Observer continue its work please do – instead of reading right wing propaganda in the Edmonton Sun and Edmonton Journal, save that money and send it to those who are really going in the right direction. We need to change our routines to point to hope rather than greed, bullying and cheating as a way of life. We can do better and we WILL DO BETTER especially with Dwayne’s music and Susan’s great thoughts.
It is a podcast and you can hear at your leisure.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/podcast/race-against-climate-change/how-we-eat
Carlos and Mike J: I loved the comments about Jeff and Elon and Richard. If they spend 1/10 of the money it cost to send themselves and their buddies into orbit on things like climate change mitigation and promoting income equity the world would truly be a better place.
Apparently when William Shatner went up on the most recent flight into space he took young Bezo’s toy Star Trek communicator with him. Strange to think a rich man’s childhood toy can make the news. Reminds me of Orson Wells (Citizen Kane) on his death bed talking about his sled Rosebud.
Susan: What do you think of this blog piece by David Climenhaga?
https://albertapolitics.ca/2021/10/how-low-can-jason-kenney-go-this-weeks-poll-same-as-last-weeks-poll-puts-him-at-22/
I just say that I doubt Jason Kenney is at 22% – I think again this is the right wing media pushing the propaganda. Alison Redford at the top of her circus exhibition was at 18% and what she did compared with JK is popcorn in the movies.
Jason Kenney has not done one positive change in 2 years and what he did is actually directly inflicting pain not just in terms of Covid19 deaths but people leaving the province and people loosing their jobs. It has been a complete nightmare and has brought up anger not disapproval. Anger is what many people feel including myself. I would physically remove this idiot from the Legislature if I could.
Carlos: What’s also appalling is that a provincial election doesn’t have happen until mid 2024. How much longer can anyone with even an inch of moral fibre accept this?
Good Question Dwayne – even people that are usually in control like Susan is displaying signs of complete frustration. Jason Kenney will be lucky if until the day he leaves he does not get to be a target of some projectile. I am actually surprised with the extreme situation we have reached in Alberta. No one in the UCP seems to have the courage to challenge him directly. Neither has the NDP. It is frustrating that there is not any way to take them down by a vote of confidence or some other mechanism.
Just further to what I said in my reply to Dwayne, you see what is happening in Britain where another MP was stabbed to death. I really do not believe this is just a lunatic out there that decides to kill someone. People are tired of todays politics that just serve the elites and the Ellon Musks and Richards and Trumps of this world. That tiredness is evolving into the rage you saw at Capitol Hill in the US. Canada as usual is naïve to continue this game that serves no one. It is creating anger and despise for politicians and democracy and if not stopped will for sure collapse the system. Anyone that is naïve enough to believe this cannot happen today is dreaming. I say it again even if I sound like a broken record. We can fix it now or suffer the consequences which when is done through a revolution, cannot ever be predicted. It is not by chance that we are witnessing more and more weirdness in all of our systems – political and social.
It is too bad that when I post something like this never gets any replies and I am not sure why? We can discuss these issues that are crucial to our future as much as Climate Change. In fact Climate Change is a consequence of us not discussing anything seriously. There are not many places where this can be done despite our belief we live in a democracy. Parties avoid them because it does not take votes and so we go in circles without any clear objective resolutions. I remember the only time in my life when I had a chance to discuss Proportional Representation I was shot down because the party is not interested in changing the voting system. They are interested in slogans and quick dreams. What do we expect to come out of all of this? Put in crap and crap * crap come out.
Carlos: I read what you have posted. Very interesting points.