Alberta’s government intent on taking us back to the dark ages
By Lethbridge Herald on May 15, 2024.
Editor:
More and more, we see paternalistic policy from the UCP. I know many who would benefit from the national pharmacare program: diabetics who cannot afford medications and test supplies who progress to diabetic complications, and those who cannot afford birth control.
Our provincial government claims Albertans have access to programs and do not need pharmacare coverage but this is not the case. I’ve tried, and help simply isn’t there, particularly for low-income people.
Albertans should be able to choose to participate in federal pharmacare, not to mention the cost-saving benefits a pharmacare program would provide to our health system. Legislation Alberta plans to introduce preventing organizations and municipalities from dealing with the federal government, illustrates a totalitarian mentality.
Adding to their lust for control, is the desire of the UCP to implement party politics at the municipal level. This would result in organizations and municipal governments not UCP inclined, to have officials removed and to deny funding and benefits to these locations. Totalitarian regimes seek to control the private and political lives of their citizens. Hence also, the Alberta Provincial Police and the Alberta Pension Plan (APP). True democracy ensures the protection of natural rights and civil liberties – which seem to me to be threatened with all these measures to take control of our lives.
Alberta’s rejection of a unified court system further erodes the safety of Albertans by increasing trial postponements. The Open Government Project (OGP), with a membership of some 54 countries, promotes transparency in governments with a goal of reducing corruption, corresponding to increasing democratic processes.
Past OGP forums from underdeveloped countries include results of transparent bidding procedures and instances of sincere stakeholder consultation to implement health and agricultural projects. The sham of the APP survey/consultation and the Alberta government’s appeal of a judge’s ruling ordering release of internal documents on coal mining in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains is alarming.
Though Alberta, rich province that it is, should be a leader in open government and democracy, it appears to want to take us back to the dark ages.
Barb Goertzen
Coaldale
11-10
Danielle and her UCP are utterly rudderless:
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/alberta/albertas-government-introduces-bill-to-begin-sweeping-revamp-of-health-care-services/article_14917eab-88d7-5a93-9bed-5be97d098975.html
The UCP is dangerous and power-hungry. I don’t trust Smith at all.
While true conservatives certainly knew how dangerous she was the fools in Rural Alberta were totally ignorant of what we were saying. Voting for the word conservative and ignorant of who was hiding behind the name has created the mess we are in and it all started with Ralph Klein who constantly claimed that he was a Liberal and was using Reform Party policies.
Well said Barb. Isn’t it too bad Albertans aren’t smart enough to figure out the difference between a true conservative and a Reformer trying to pretend they are a one. The damage they have done to this Province is disgusting and has destroyed our children’s future. Instead of following the Lougheed and Getty way of governing they are hellbent on destroying everything conservatives have created for the good of the people.
It’s disheartening to witness Alberta’s government pushing policies that seem to drag us back to a darker era. The lack of support for a national pharmacare program is particularly concerning, as it leaves vulnerable individuals, like diabetics struggling to afford medications, in a precarious position. The government’s assertion that Albertans have access to adequate programs rings hollow when faced with the reality of many low-income individuals being left without the help they desperately need.
Allowing Albertans the option to participate in a federal pharmacare program would not only provide much-needed relief to those in need but also offer cost-saving benefits for our health system as a whole. However, the government’s move to prevent organizations that help me write my lab report and municipalities from engaging with the federal government shows a worrying trend towards totalitarianism.
Moreover, the UCP’s attempts to exert control at the municipal level and their proposals such as the Alberta Provincial Police and the Alberta Pension Plan raise serious concerns about the erosion of democratic principles and individual freedoms. By rejecting a unified court system and resisting transparency initiatives like the Open Government Project, Alberta’s government risks undermining the safety and well-being of its citizens.
In a province as rich and diverse as Alberta, it’s disheartening to see such regressive policies and a lack of commitment to open government and democracy. Instead of moving forward, it appears that our government is determined to take us back to the dark ages.
We vote for the system that is now in place. We created this mess and of course do not want to live by it. We have many a politician in all parties that get into politics to further there own agenda and career! Why, because people who should run and would change direction in this ships destruction get destroyed by being honest.
We are a society of people who believe the government should support us by making up for shortfalls in our own morals. Don’t want to work? No problem, we give you money! Want to have children, we will give you money! Don’t want to go back to the office (your place of employment) no problem, we will negotiate with you!
If no one accepts personal responsibility for what they do, then government must!Why, because those who accept no personal responsibility scream racism, or phobia’s until the government pays.
You pay the servants until you have stablished your Kingdom and you are King, then you take your money back, but until the Kingdom is established you pander people to keep them on your side. The UCP are trying a different tact, they believe they have the right way, and, if repeated enough, they believe they can convince you they are right.
When parties hang around the center by being a “little right of center” or a little “left of center” Kingdoms cannot be establshed. So, the easiest way to become hard right, is to have a party doing hard left things and the center is gone.
Ergo, APP or hang with the extreme left. The NDP in Alberta have to terminate any connection to Singh and the Fed NDP because of the extreme Left ideas that are attached to Trudeau, and not the NDP. So to get any wiggle room and try to drift closer to center, where they hope Albertans will reside once UCP is finished with them, They have to break the alliance.
The facts are, if a politician speaks the truth and does what he says he will do, He will not get ellected, period. We rely on Government handouts to a point where we cannot afford them any longer and anyone that runs on a platform of “truth” that tells you that, will not get elected, period!
Brilliantly stated and without a doubt correct. BS your way into office and then fall in line with the mob.