JUST KIDDING!
I would sooner eat glass.
Today I'm eating crow. My last post declared my loyalty to Daniel Smith and her new party. I'm not sure anymore.
Some might want to criticize me for switching allegiances before and now possibly switching again. That's fine. I'm not running for office. I can switch allegiances as many times as I please. I
will switch allegiances based the information I have and so should you.
The idea that an effective opposition is an essential part of democracy is something I agree with. But there is another essential aspect missing from democracy in Alberta. Albertans need to choose their vote based on policy, not party loyalty.
Too many people, Wildrose, PC, Liberal, NDP, all of them treat politics like its a sport. They cheer for their team like a bunch of Toronto Maple Leafs fans regardless of what their party actually stands for. It's all "rah rah go team" nonsense.
If people were a little less loyal and a little more reasonable Alberta would not be so deep in this mess today. We would not have had Allison Redford. The budget would have been balanced while the economy was booming and we would still have the full Sustainability fund and the law protecting it too. Prentice would not have left his cushy bankers desk to run the opposition now would he? If only Albertan's were less loyal to the PC brand.
Folks: Democracy only works if you choose the best option on election day! Never mind an effective opposition. You'll get an effective opposition if the parties are actually afraid they will lose your support for Pete's sake. That's Democracy! -not this phoney and pointless back and forth in the Legislature.
Anyway, Danielle Smith said we had won. The PCs were being colonized by the heart of Wildrose. That was my hope and I had no reason to doubt it at the time. I also had no reason to doubt Rob Ford either. I'm not a mind reader. I listen to what people say and if they lie to me
then I have reason to doubt them.
I'm sure I won't vote for tax hikes, now or ever. Prentice has said that Alberta's flat tax is harmful to the poor. Perhaps, but then he proposed to raise taxes on the poor and everyone else as well. Justin Trudeau, knowing nothing, can be given a small modicum of pity for being able to say any nonsensical thing. Prentice should know better as a former banker. The lie of a competent man is that much worse that the lie of a fool.
Today Premier Prentice said he would slash Alberta's budget by 9%. An interesting promise from a man preparing to spend millions in a snap election. Perhaps Wildrose has indeed colonized the PC Party? -after exploring every other alternative.
In any case, its hard to trust any of them. I would vote Wildrose today, but I can't shake this suspicion that there is something rotten there. I just don't believe the narrative we've been given. Nine Wildrosers, the best of them, all went suddenly insane? -Or they were under a spell cast by the evil power hungry Danielle Smith? Put your emotions aside. Put aside your foam finger and your lapel pins and think for a minute. Is there no problems inside a party that would drive out their best and brightest?
Maybe that's just how its done in Alberta. Didn't the same thing happen to Allison Redford in a way? Didn't that happen Ed Stelmach and Ralph Klein too? It's all just backroom politics in this province. Election day is just a day that the government thinks it can find enough drones to be walked into an election booth to re-affirm loyalty to that government. Until people start asserting control over their own vote the sickness in this province and its democracy will continue.
