An open letter to the premier of Alberta:
Premier Jason Kenney,
Although I am a journalist who has with great dismay observed this categorical train wreck of a dysfunctional government that clearly could not care any less about the roughly two thirds of Albertans who never voted UCP in 2019 (of the fewer than 70 percent of eligible voters who actually cast ballots, almost half voted NDP—not even close to the landslide victory you claim), I write today as an Alberta taxpayer and resident of Sundre to express how profoundly disappointing and uninspiring your so-called leadership has been.
And considering how so very low my expectations already were based on your election campaign’s empty populist policy proposals, that’s saying a lot.
Your party ran on a promise, among others, to make life more affordable for the average Albertan—wasn’t killing the NDP’s homemade carbon tax, which ended up replaced with a federally imposed one anyway, supposed to help restore the so-called Alberta Advantage and send us all soaring into financial freedom? That certainly was the impression your campaign rhetoric left me, and I’m sure many others, with.
Yet just about every action this government has taken is to do the precise opposite of making life more affordable for the average person. In fact, life has never been more expensive. I can only imagine that trend will under your leadership continue unabated, as the wealth gap continues to grow and the path is paved toward privatization, leaving even more people behind.
Whether introducing new fees to access our own backyard—a move that makes a mockery of Peter Lougheed’s admirable legacy—downloading one cost after another like policing onto small and already cash-strapped municipalities, or lifting caps on insurance and tuitions, your government has made life harder for many of us, who are now farther behind then when your party took power.
Of course, I’ve no doubt your corporate donors are quite happy.
You have a lot of gall to pretentiously lecture on about how broke Alberta is and how bare the shelves are while you gambled away and lost more than a billion dollars on a risky pipeline that was far from certain, and waste millions more on a highly secretive “public” inquiry built on a mountain of lies and deception (perhaps you heard, Vivian Krause recently back tracked her fallacious claims that many of us knew were nonsense to begin with) as well as tens of millions on a taxpayer funded industry propaganda machine that might resonate with your base, but is otherwise disconnected from reality and has served only to render us an international laughingstock. A total embarrassment. How such egregiously monumental misallocations of public dollars is supposed to be considered fiscally responsible conservative governance, is completely beyond me.
And now, another $10 million will go down the drain on your shameless political theatrics to hold a meaningless referendum that serves only to fan the flames of division and separatist sentiment. But do go on and tell us all how Justin Trudeau plays the politics of division, an art you’ve clearly mastered, along with projection.
Another half century from now, Lougheed will still be remembered as a visionary conservative whose forward-thinking policies sought to strike a careful balance between the economy and protecting our environment for future generations.
I wonder, Mr. Kenney, what you will be remembered for. Always blaming everyone else? A total absence of transparency and accountability, despite preaching the exact opposite? Giving handouts to corporations who take the money and run, while telling us serfs to sacrifice? Funding a taxpayer sponsored industry propaganda machine? Denying, dismissing, deflecting, gaslighting and projecting in the face of criticism, stubbornly doubling down to defend the indefensible, only to suddenly flip flop and offer a fake apology a week later? The least popular premier? The list could go on. At best, you’ll be lucky to just be a historical foot note.
I knew from the day you farcically drove a blue pickup truck around this province while still collecting your Canadian taxpayer funded paycheque as a Harper government MP, that the best interests of regular Albertans was the absolute last thing on your mind. That you were yet another opportunist career politician more concerned about power and his gold-plated pension than regular people like me. An elitist who unironically scapegoats elitists.
You've said a government cannot tax its way to prosperity. Okay, fair enough. But a government also cannot give everything away to the wealthy and hope to prosper either.
Industry knows that healthy, educated, and happy people are the most productive and therefore desirable. But creating such an appealing workforce requires substantial investments in our public institutions. And unlike tax breaks for billion-dollar corporations that don’t create jobs while depriving the government of crucial revenue, investing in Albertans’ futures actually pays off dividends down the proverbial road.
You made a sport of accusing the NDP of embarking on ideological crusades, yet yourself continue to peddle the long-since thoroughly debunked and heavily ideological supply-side, trickledown economics, which have since former US president Ronald Reagan swindled the American middle class almost half a century ago never—not even once—benefited anyone at all. Except, of course, those who already have everything they could possibly ever want, but for some reason still crave even more.
And greed, by the way, despite what corrupt men like Reagan and Trump claim, is not good. In fact, I seem to recall greed being counted among the list of seven deadly sins.
I’m frankly fed up with condescendingly being told to do more with less and to squeeze my financial belt, which I’ve done for some 15 years, while politicians like you bend over backwards giving even more to those who already have the most.
On that note, Steve Allan is not worth a quarter million a year. That money would have served this province’s taxpayers immeasurably more by hiring a few extra teachers or nurses.
You never had my vote in the first place, and your time at the helm has only solidified my conviction. So, I don’t imagine any of these concerns will even be considered.
But if you truly want Alberta to prosper, as you claim, do this province a favour and call an election immediately after resigning. Show us that you have a shred of integrity and respectability.
Let’s see if you still maintain that so-called landslide electoral mandate you once not so very long ago proudly bragged about. Say, isn’t pride also on that list of sins?
Or you know, just continue to double down and dig your heels even deeper into your ideological trench, and single-handedly hold this entire province back.
Just know you’ll only be able to keep fooling your base by blaming Notley, Trudeau, and environmental activists, for so long.
Hoping—albeit doubtful—that you’ll own up to your role and act as an esteemed leader who cares more about his people than clinging so desperately to the reins of power,
Simon Ducatel,
Sundre, AB.
Comments