Alberta Robbed of Important Debate

Well folks, less than a week to go until Albertan's head to the polls and decide the direction of the provinces future.
What concerns me about the elections in Alberta is the amount of voter apathy in the province. From 1993 where we had a 60.2% voter turnout to 2008 where we had a 40.6% turnout one has to ask why. I have thought  about this a lot lately, and in the end I think people get sick of the games that get played on the political trail. Now I expect it from the political parties, but many of us rely on the media to form our opinions.
Nowadays in our busy lives we don't take the time to go to each parties websites to inform ourselves on party policy, for those of us that do we can't understand much of it. All of their policies are worded to resonate and appeal to all Albertans. This leaves us to decide on our vote based on what we get through the media. The problem comes in here because the media does not report on policy or direction, rather they choose to focus on sensationalism and the fear mongering that each party spews on one another to sell a story. Maybe that's what journalism is these days, and I am naive in my thoughts of what I thinking they should cover.
The Alberta Progressive Conservative Party has been the governing party in our province for the last 41 years. This election will be almost historic in the fact that it is the first time they have been challenged on the conservative side. What I find disturbing is media buying into these party tactics to sway the vote away from political issues, rather than doing the investigative journalism one would expect. One should expect it when it comes to opinion columnists such as Paula Simons, Don Braid, David Staples, and Rob Remington. The issue comes when the media reports the same way as these columnists do.
In my watching of the news both nationally and locally the issues of the election trail boil down to a pretty grimm picture for our province. The highlights that stand out to me from the media this election are:
1) The Wildrose coaster campaign.
2) The Danielle "Boob" bus
3) PC party staffer and a tweet on Danielle Smiths reproductive system
4) Danielle Smiths 10 year old columns on abortion
5) Endorsements from Lougheed-or Colleen Klein
6) Edmonton Pastors religious blog from 2011 discussing homosexuality and "Lakes of Fire"
7) Calgary Pastors inability to communicate that his being "Caucasian" not putting him at a disadvantage in his riding. A PC candidate commenting that in his riding that people in his riding want to see people "Like Them" in the legislature.
8) Thomas Lukaszuk fighting with constituent
These are just a few of the main focus topics the media has placed in this election race. How in the hell are voters to make an informed decision with this kind of nonsense highlighting the vote? It creates apathy and people don't vote based on issues. Far be it from me to ever be a fan of CBC, but Charles Rusnell is probably one of the few investigative journalists left in the business. An example is the media spreading the fear mongering when it comes to conscience rights the Wildrose would bring in. Not one news outlet challenged Wildrose in the fact that they were in place already. Nor when Redford claimed they frightened her. Reality is this was an irrelevant topic that took 3 days of headlines for NO reason, but it made an impact on the decisions of voters. When media gets caught up in the partisan HYPE of an election, Alberta gets robbed of important debate.
   

Redford puts no priority on education

Education is an issue in this Alberta election as I have three children in elementary school and one starting post secondary this year. When I look at the priority the Redford PC's have placed on it I am thoroughly disgusted. What kind of government plays these politics with our children's future?
 When the Premier announced that she would finally repair the 70 schools and commit to building 50 new ones over the next 4 years, I thought she finally figured it out. Who could possibly argue with the importance of this? In a very quiet way it came to light through Scott Hennig and the Taxpayers Federation that, according to Stephan Carter, it would only be delivered if there were surpluses. What? How can you make a promise this over the next 4 years and base it on surplus? Yes I have heard them claim that Budget 2012 delivered a balanced budget. The problem is they committed to spend billions in campaign promises since the budget that wasn't included, plus the PC's have not run a balanced budget since 2007. So does a government that gives big oil $3Billion with no restrictions and makes schools contingent on surplus really care about education?
After following the proper channels requesting funding for a new school from the PC government, Holy Family Catholic School Division's superintendent, Betty Turpin was shocked to receive an intimidating letter from the PC MLA warning they would not get the school if they angered certain people by speaking out. Here are some photos of the dilapidated school. The school is so run down that the students have to wear winter jackets in order to stay warm. Really should they have to wait for a government that has not been able to balance a budget in 5 years to do so in order to get some repairs done?  When "Teachers and Parents decry conditions" isn't it an appropriate time to act?
Then there is the contentious Bill 2, otherwise known as the education act. Like the act or not it could have been a key platform piece coming into the election. Had this PC government not been playing games with our children's education, it would have been passed. Apparently swiftly passing Bill 26 was of bigger importance, even though the PC's had no plans to implement it until later this year.
When a government places this little emphasis on education, it is time to change them out, after all it is our children that will be paying for the $3Billion given to her oil cronies.

A Divisive Premier

True leadership will bring together a province, the current Premier Redford is doing anything but.
After a stunning collapse in the polls to the governing PC party went from a campaign of hope and change to a campaign of fear and divisiveness. It is crucial to elect a leader that will place the needs of all Albertans above political partisanship, something that Redford has failed miserably at. Her own government is playing political games dividing the province for her own political gain. This is why Albertans have grown tired of the PC Party, bullying, intimidating, and having no morals when it comes to political gain. Here are a few examples:
1) Alberta Tories play race card in campaign Really? How sad is it when you resort to calling down Old white males? Well I am sure this won't gain support from the old white male voters that left her party.
2) Not your Fathers PC Party Wow, quite a slam on the fathers that supported the PC party throughout my generation. Wonder if they or their children agree. How many votes here? Good enough to accept a Lougheed endorsement though from my Fathers PC Party. Wow.
3) Attacking previous Premier  Although Ralph Klein may not have been her favorite, he is still adored by many. For Lougheed and her to go after the former premier when he is not well enough to defend himself is inexcusable. Once she saw the divisiveness in her own party causing one of her board members (also served on Kleins board) to quit, she quickly backpedalled. Too little to late.
4) Conscience Rights Redford has played this one to the fullest extent possible. Claiming she was "afraid" and later "frightened" Wow. Wildrose may have been incorrect by not noticing they are already enshrined Pg 49. Fear mongering by her, will she take these rights way now? After all they are frightening she claimed.
5) Religion After writing a blog as a religious pastor, Hunsperger quickly came under attack from the premier and her PC party. Now I do not agree with the Pastor on this (because I am atheist) however he is entitled to his personal religious convictions. If one were to look at the book of Revelations in the bible, this is where it is from. Does it have a place in politics? NO. He never brought it into politics though, it was a drive by courtesy of the PC party. With her shock of how the religious community is, will she also throw their vote out the window in order to gain a few?
It continues on. What one has to wonder are these the issues this Alberta Election will be decided on?

"FRIGHTENED" by Alberta's Premier? Vote carefully!

Well folks, one more week and the Alberta Election 2012 is all over and the province will chose who will represent them in the legislature.
For the last week the Redford Progressive (PC) party has failed at providing Albertans with a reason to vote for a party caught in scandal after scandal in the last 6 months. The PC party feels we should again elect a Premier that since elected has proven she is not the leader that is best for our province. She has time and time again deceived Albertans and shown her complete lack of knowledge when it comes to policy and workings in government. Quite sad for a person who has served as a Justice minister and premier.
When you have nothing to offer a province as a party it is quite common to spread lies and fear monger to the public as a last resort. The once proud PC party has been reduced to just that, aimlessly throwing anything they can to raise the concerns of our residents, trying to scare the public back into their party. This is the exact reason I would not elect them in as bullying, intimidating, and fear mongering is how they have ended up where they are in the polls. This may be a long post, but it is important to take a good look at why not to stick to the DEVIL you know. Over the next week I will try and write a blog unveiling the reasons we need to do a double take before voting.

HEALTHCARE:
1) Conscience Rights- The PC party used conscience rights as a FEAR card this election, telling Albertans if the Wildrose was elected that we would lose the right to receive health care and be discriminated against. The Premier herself said this "SCARED" and "FRIGHTENED" her. Well I suppose again she will try and bully doctors out of the rights they already have. If the Premier ever took the time to read, the College of Physicians and Surgeons "Standards of Practice" already has the rights on page 49 (4). Of course our media would not pick up on it, but one must wonder if Redford is elected Premier if she would ban the rights and overpower the college? Would she bully them into her way of thinking? This is a concern with all of the intimidation and contempt this party has shown regarding our health care system.
After all of the fear mongering she has done when it comes to conscience rights, I wonder if she remembers 6 years back to where her own PC party introduced Bill 208? The only reason it was not passed was because the filibustering by the opposition. 75% of the PC govt. in the legislature backed it. Was she scared to work with her own government? Her Minister of Energy, Dr. Ted Morton has publicly posted on his election website (para.5) he fights for "freedom of conscience and religion". A premier afraid of her Energy Minister? No she is just plain fear mongering.
2) 140 Clinics promise made by the Redford PC party was slammed by the Alberta Medical Association. Once again the Premier has said she is right and will ignore the people who know and deliver health care. She also claims there is NO COST to open these 140 clinics....you decide if you believe her.
3) Fast tracking wait times: Another of the Redford pledges to fix health care that shows her government has no understanding of how health care works. A feel good pledge that was put in place and has already existed for years, which Dr.'s have repeated since her announcement. We call it "Triage".
4)Stealing from our Healthcare through illegal donations back to their political party.
5) Dr. Intimidation: After promising a full judicial inquiry into health care, Redford once elected...backtracked on her pledge. Intimidation by the government on our health professional needs to be stopped.
  I could go on much more, but I think you are getting the hint of how well this government does with our health care portfolio. When our own premier makes promises that our medical community doesn't agree with, how can she fix it? Yep, now I am "FRIGHTENED"  

Baring Teeth

Well we are past the halfway point in Alberta Election 2012 and in my opinion it certainly hasn't been as exciting as I had anticipated.
After ending the session in the Alberta Legislature in heated debate, I figured all the parties would come out baring their teeth. Not so. Sure we have had a few things such as TV ads and robocalls that stirred a little controversy, but nothing of great substance. We have seen the normal promises of "We will buy your vote with your money" from the PC Party. The same old social policy from the NDP. The Liberals, well....you tell me what they are campaigning on. Finally the Wildrose and a campaign of reform.
The polls suggest that the Wildrose has a commanding lead to date in the election, although they are polls not votes so really quite irrelevant. What it may show is that people are ready for change no matter what policies are. Now I am no political expert, but the PC party has been in power for over 40 years uncontested. The question I have is did the Wildrose under Danielle Smith's leadership bring it down, or did Alison Redford single handed bring it down in her 6 month term? Rumours are that PC members wanted to go to the polls when they had a 20 point lead on the Wildrose. Stubbornly she resisted and felt it was essential to deliver her budget. The problem with the session was the Wildrose ended up with a 13 point lead. As for the budget, with all the new spending promises the PC party can not run on it anyways.The CTF certainly is not impressed.
As of this week the PC party has tried to bare some teeth, needless to say doing nothing more than losing the respect of "old.. white.. males". Then they proceeded to try and go after referendums, same outcome. How can you go after democracy. Earlier they struck a quick nerve touching on conscience rights, gay rights, and abortion. It never took long for the elegant Danielle Smith to shake that one off as fear mongering. The PC's tried policy announcing 140 new health care clinics, AMA stepped in there. Next was the reduction in wait times, Raj Sherman stole that thunder immediately  saying that “fast-track” emergency rooms already exist in every major hospital in the province — it’s called triage. Then came her announcement of $600 + Million in post secondary a mere hour before her debate at Mount Royal University. Cheers rang out on her arrival, of course $85 Million to the school in her home riding would buy that. Everyone could see through that one.
So where does that leave us in the election? No ones numbers have drastically changed since week 2 of the campaign. The Wildrose has sat back, simply deflecting anything the PC party tries to throw at them. The PC's are out of ideas and have no real time left, unless they are sitting on a hydrogen bomb waiting, and the other parties are not even close in support numbers. Policy and good government is not on the voters campaign radar, for me the only place I see any baring teeth is in #abvote on twitter.