Health and money.

Health and money.

We trust our leaders, doctors, teachers, mechanics, and many other people who specialize in things we can’t all know. I say it quickly, but my life depends on trusting the right people. When the people I trust disagree, I don’t have the expertize to determine who is right. This is the case now, and the walls are closing in. I am facing a situation where the medical profession and others who sustain me are on a collision course with the government, and all choices are grim.

There is a deadly virus knocking on the door and I am at the top of the high-risk group. I am desperate to retain or even improve the available medical care. The world’s economy is breaking down thanks to a lack of leadership from the one superpower in the world and “when the parents are away the kids play.” Saudi Arabia and Russia are flooding the world with cheap oil and bankrupting everyone else including Alberta.  

I have only limited knowledge of economics. All I know is that when many people are producing things and selling them to each other everyone is doing OK. Places that have many people doing it are most prosperous. If we stop the economic activity and it's not replaced, we end up with a great depression. Our productivity is just as important as our consumption.

Even before the health scare, we were heading in the wrong direction. In my desperate attempt to figure out what is going on, I turned to an article by a University of Calgary professor, Lindsay Tedds. She has been noticing the effects of the reduction of exchange with China causing a slowdown. Now, with the “oil wars”, she calls the situation a blood bath. She says we need leadership from Jason Kenney, which we haven’t seen. This is surprising when it comes from the heart of the Conservative bastion, Calgary.

I attended a public meeting about Health Care here in Blairmore. This is rural southern Alberta. The same sentiment was expressed by all who commented aside from one. People are upset that basic government services are being cut and that they gave the money from it away as tax cuts, which didn’t come back as investments. Even the editor of this newspaper suggested that we must fight back and spread the word “to five more people.” I felt elated. The wonderful community that I chose to live in is sticking together ready to fight for its life.

Austerity can be a good thing if governments go overboard spending tax dollars without providing services to people. Here we are witnessing the opposite. Billions of dollars were given away as tax cuts and are made up by shrinking services. Physical Responsibility means governments acting business like and providing more for less.

I would like my MLA to take the following message to our provincial government. Dear Honourable Premier. We all know that privatizing any aspect of our health care will cost more and leave the poor with less care. Please finance our good system adequately so we will not lose any more much-needed health care professionals. By reducing staff,  you can not provide more jobs. You will receive help from the Federal Government, ensure that it goes to those who need it, not to investors and corporations. The bulk of caring for Albertans will naturally fall on the women, so we want you to help them if they stay home.

The drop in oil prices will have an adverse effect on many Albertans, mostly on young men. We will need to sustain them through a period of retraining that your government is most likely going to implement soon. Please negotiate with Ottawa to provide both.

If we don’t maintain activity in our economy soon, the negative effects of losing health care workers, oil workers and education staff will spread throughout Alberta. We have worked hard and suffered a lot to build this province, (before your time) and we don’t want to see it becoming a ghost province. You and your team are our chosen leaders and we hold you responsible to get us out of the present crisis. This is your chance to come up with creative solutions and show true leadership. We can’t afford leaders who only specialize in fighting other leaders. It is time to build, not to blame.

At a time like this when a pandemic may come, I expect my leaders at all levels, to show preparedness. Nothing may happen or something could. Do we know what to do if people get sick and electricity, internet, water, and food chains stop working? I searched for information from my premier. One message said that he will delay the medical layoffs and reduction in doctors pay until after the pandemic scare. Really? Another Tweet talked about hereditary chiefs and a BC gas pipeline. Am I imagining this? Do we have enough beans and rice and a way to get it to isolated people? Are we ready to take care of the oil workers who will be out of work when our oil is sold for $5.00 a barrel?

Above all Mr. Premier, please realize that oil is on its last legs and not because of environmentalists but because of capitalist dictators using the market.

People suspect that viruses, including the coronavirus, thrive in warmer temperatures. That is why they go for warm human bodies.  People are concerned.

If and when the ‘stuff’ hits the fan, are we just going to give speeches about how Trudeau failed us?  

Sir, roll up the rim, and you see, angry farmers, ranchers, miners, seniors, mothers, and all who are not “investors” which you value so much. We are all investors who invested their lives in this province. We all must live even when crude prices hit bottom, when the Market dictates that it will.

Dear elected leaders, we need to see leadership. My next column could be full of praise and good news. There is always hope.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.