I have several issues to discuss (potpourri): 1. Premier Kenney disallowing a UCP candidate from running in the Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre riding. 2. Senior housing 3. Unpaid taxes. 4. RCMP versus provincial police force. 5. Charter and private schools versus public education. 6. Opinions.
Mr. Kenney has decided to prohibit a candidate from the Eckville area, Tim Hoven, from competing against Jason Nixon’s job by using unsupported evidence (rumours) that Mr. Hoven is a white nationalist (racist). Where are the facts, Mr. Kenney? If you truly believe in representative democracy, then let the people of that riding make the decision.
If you don’t, then you are an autocrat who believes in making unilateral decisions despite the concerns of the public on this matter.
Just like you did with the secret negotiations with the coal mining interests in the West Country. Just like you did with usurping the management of the teachers’ pension fund. Just like you continue to do with privatizing health-care services. Just like you have done with negotiating with the doctors, the nurses and with the teachers. You basically negotiate with yourself.
Alberta municipalities continue to suffer from unpaid taxes by the energy companies. Where is the premier and his energy minister on this matter? How come millions of taxes go unpaid by the energy companies? How come our provincial government which is wallowing in surplus capital, thanks to the war in the Ukraine and a pent-up demand by Canadian motorists, doesn’t come to the aid of our local governments?
We elect people to office to manage our money wisely, yet we have a government that is wiling to overlook unpaid taxes, and then, adding insult to injuries, pays private businesses to clean up “orphan wells” using our tax dollars. He adds another bureaucratic department (the War Room), using our tax dollars, to fight those folks who criticize the energy companies.
Our municipal leaders are calling for a referendum on the replacement of the RCMP by a provincial police force. Despite opposition from the majority of our citizens and our municipal governments, Mr. Kenney continues to support this idea. Why? Maybe it just another diversion from the many problems that plague Mr. Kenny’s leadership, eh?
We have a problem in Canada with private businesses running senior housing facilities. We should see a national standard for governing such facilities. During the early days of the pandemic, we saw so many cases of senior citizens getting ill and dying from COVID-19 in such facilities. Where is Mr. Kenney on this issue?
Mr. Kenney is planning to expand charter schools and private schools in our province and he is using “public money” to finance these institutions. Where did he get the mandate to do so? We should have a referendum on this matter.
He claims that, “Albertans support school choice”. Prove it. Let’s have a vote, eh? I am all for choices as long as those choices do not come from taxpayer’s dollars. If I have a choice to fly on WestJet or on Air Canada, should the taxpayers pay for my decision? How about paying for my choice of vehicles? Or paying me to eat at an expensive restaurant instead of eating in a fast food establishment?
Bottom line: If folks want their children to attend charter schools or private schools, they should pay for those decisions. Society should not pay for someone’s private choices.
In response to Letter: In support of the right to protest legally, I suggest the author of that letter wait to see what the courts decide against those who participated in those convoys in Ottawa and in Coutts. Two, it’s not illegal to “hobnob” with pro-Nazis or KKK, but, if politicians do associate with them, then they should be “called-out” since those organizations are not pro-democracy.
Here’s the questions: Why has so much of the funding for those convoys been frozen? Where did the money come from and why? We will have to see what evidence is produced by the RCMP, the federal government, the Ontario government and U.S. authorities. There is an old saying, “If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, smells like a duck, and talks like a duck, it must then be a duck."
Lastly, for the person who talked about “real freedom” (“Hopefully real freedom will continue in Canada," letter on page 35, March 15 Albertan), maybe he should compare our Charter of Rights and Freedoms to those non-existing rights in Russia’s fascist government. Or China’s. Or North Korea. Or Iran. Or Saudi Arabia. Trying to compare our system of constitutional government to dictatorships is like comparing apples to oranges. Or comparing evil – Satan, Ivan the Terrible, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Putin – to angels.
Claiming that Canada is a dictatorship like Putin’s Russia flies against facts and common sense.
George Thatcher,
Trochu
