West Lethbridge residents need to set aside time to vote in election
By Lethbridge Herald on November 23, 2024.
Editor:
Now that a by-election has been called for Lethbridge West, the voters in the constituency will have an opportunity to state their views on issues that matter to them.
If you are a pensioner or are nearing pensionable age, are you happy with Danielle Smith and the UCP’s plans to compel you to join an Alberta Pension Plan instead of the Canada Pension Plan? Or do you agree with former Lethbridge mayor David Carpenter that Danielle Smith can not be trusted to manage your pension?
Are you aware how the Grassy Mountain coal project could impact you? When Lethbridge city council agreed to hear Atrum Coal’s plans to develop coal mining in the Crowsnest Pass in June 2021, we were advised by city engineers, that the Lethbridge water treatment plant can remove agricultural waste and bacteria from Oldman River water to create potable water for drinking and cooking, there is no known technology for removing excess selenium, a common by-product of coal mining.
British Columbia is still struggling with this issue. Teck Resources has spent close to a billion dollars trying to remedy the issues. In 2023 Teck Coal was fined $16 Million for contaminating Kootenay waterways. This past August, Teck was again fined for unauthorized waste spills in the Elk River that contained substances that are harmful to the health of humans and aquatic life.
If you use Lethbridge water for drinking or cooking, or are employed by a food production company in Lethbridge you might be concerned about the Alberta governments efforts to encourage coal mining at Grassy Mountain in the headwaters of the Oldman River.
Students may consider whether the increases in tuition under the UCP at our institutions of higher learning are justified or whether a government with multi billion dollar surpluses each year could be helping with more of the cost.
Danielle Smith promised to fix healthcare in Alberta within 90 days of being elected. Are you satisfied that your family’s health care needs are being attended to appropriately and that you can access the health services you require?
Everyone will have their own set of issues that will determine how they vote.
If you live in the West Lethbridge constituency, please make sure you set aside the time to vote and have your say based on your own issues and priorities.
It’s your opportunity support the current direction or elect a voice for change.
Chris Spearman
Pincher Creek
14-13
I will give you the concern over the coal mine and all should that all should make sure they vote, but I am tired of the fearmongering over the change of the CPP to an Alberta Pension. Please stop this fearmongering.
The rules of the referendum clearly stated that there must be a MAJORITY of votes and the Alberta Pension Protection Act clearly states there must a referendum held before any action is taken. Do you really think that a majority of Albertan’s will vote for the APP?
But then again, while you were Mayor of Lethbridge, you Rob Miyashiro and a couple of other Councillors forced the SCS on us and if I remember correctly then you and Rob Miyashiro voted to defund the LPS by over $1 million at a time when Lethbridge was seeing its highest crime rates in Canada on the Canada Crime Severity Index.
Not impressed!
There is no question these Reformers are getting geared up to have Poilievre as their Federal prime minister and they will destroy us by destroying our healthcare and education systems by forcing us into privatization which has always been their mandate. It got Danielle Smith fired as a School Board Trustee in 1999 by the conservatives. How many young parents can afford $1,000. Per month per child to send their children to school?
The big question is why did these ignorant seniors give Smith the opportunity to force us into this situation in Red Deer?
In case you haven’t kept up, the UCP has refused to make the referedum results binding. Why would they refused to agree to follow the referedum results?
It’s obvious why the UCP would attack higher learning and Science , they are counter to their values and goals .
At the same time , I gave SW a thumbs up because valid points were made…
As this article points out Coal Tech was fined $60 million for polluting rivers and streams in B.C. So why would these Reform Party fools in Alberta be willing to allow them to do it to Albertans? Are they being bribed to do it?
We have hoping the people in Lethbridge show them whose boss and vote against them but if it is mostly seniors voting I bet they won’t, they don’t care about the future, do they?
This:
“Stephen Harper’s appointment today as chair of AIMCo board ends pension management company’s ‘arm’s length’ status. AIMCo must now be seen as the investment arm of the United Conservative Party.”
http://www.albertapolitics.ca
Reading the whole blog may explain why we do need to be concerned about our pensions, even CPP. And, if, there is never a referendum re: an APP, don’t be surprised. There have been murmurings that the UCP might just plow ahead without one, which would be no surprise. The UCP are not to be trusted.
There is also mention made in this article re: the ‘untimely’ date that the UCP called the Lethbridge-West by-election and why.