Seniors, Rebellions, and Politics.

Seniors, Rebellions, and Politics.

I don’t watch TV aside from a bit of news off and on. When I turn on “the Tube” I see great turmoil engulfing the glob looking downright dangerous. What is most obvious is that everywhere people are on the move. Millions of desperate families are migrating, looking for a place to live. Millions of others are demonstrating obviously unhappy with their respective governments. Many others are simply trying to hang on to some rights which are being threatened or taken away from them.

Hong Kong citizens are trying desperately to hang on to the shreds of democracy that China is trampling wholesale. Russians are fighting against all odds to keep Vladimir Putin from becoming dictator for life with the help of Oligarchs. Palestinians running up to get shot by snipers on their imaginary borders. British people desperately attempting to stay in the European Union. Franch people demonstrating against raising their pensionable age. Australians demanding that the ruling party will take steps to curb global catastrophes that cause the whole continent to be on fire. High school students all over the world demanding a reduction in pollution which will make their lives miserable. Americans fighting for publically funded Health Care and higher education. Ontarians fighting to keep some degree of quality in their public schools and we are dealing with trouble in Alberta. I will get back to it shortly.

The list above names only some of the places where people are mostly peacefully demonstrating for change. It doesn’t mention the serious wars around the globe where large numbers of people are getting killed. Look at Syria, for example. Isis was taking over the country and America, Turkey and Russia all entered the fray. The Americans and a few Canadians had air forces involved but for political reasons no “boots on the ground.” They struck a deal with the large minority Kurds to be the ground forces in exchange for protection from the “big guys.” They did their share and now are abandoned to die. Similar stories are happening in many other places but I will stick to Alberta.

Our economy was hurt greatly in 2014 when oil, our main commodity, lost half of its value and we discovered to our great surprise, that we have no way to sell it to anyone but our now main competitor the USA. Immediately we began demanding that the Federal Government will provide a pipeline they are trying to build but can’t do without committing political suicide. Our once-booming economy, based on oil and gas tanked. We watched helplessly as corporations left and the economy seized growing. Other provinces without oil are doing much better than us.

Instead of learning from those who make do without oil, we began an expensive campaign to try to bring oil revenues back and to lower our own standard of living to save money. I watch billions of dollars drained from provincial coffers in exchange for promises to develop more oilsand projects, oil that we can’t get to markets. I fear that I and other middle-class Albertans will be forced to make up the difference, and I am not wrong.

The morning news shows the Mayor of Calgary saying that Provincial election promises have been reversed and the city is suffering a serious blow at all levels. It will cost jobs and services which will affect city tax revenues. I look at my own local tax bill and the mill rate increase is reasonable but properties are being taxed at new rates. Searching more, I see on the Premier’s tweet account that they are actively privatizing surgery units. That means that Pensioners like me will have to wait longer or pay privately while public money will pay in part for the upper-class folks. I am discouraged.

I am hearing from pensioners who support dependants, either mates or grandkids raised by older folks. They will have to find in their budgets money for private insurance. What next? Probably people with company pensions will lose the government Blue Cross coverage for medications, dental and eye care. I never thought that in my retirement age I will have to demonstrate with a sign in front of provincial buildings, but it's coming to it.

I am in good company. I love to be with the nurses, teachers, young mothers who lost daycare and teens who work for less than minimum wage. I don’t mind being on a picket line with AISH recipients and laid-off provincial workers; I want to support them, anyway. I see their faces but I don’t see the promised projects in the far north which I probably wouldn’t enjoy looking at. I don’t see the promised jobs, nor the provincial debt being reduced. Our credit rating is down and we pay higher interest.

Is it all a bleak forecast for the rest of my life? No, there is a silver lining on every cloud. In the US the “Primaries” are coming and the Progressive candidate is leading. That is an old and proven candidate who intends to bring them Health Care and end the “endless wars” which they never win.

In Canada, the Conservative Party is selecting a new leader who may just happen to be the last Progressive Conservative leader in existence. If he wins, and the US turns back to democracy as it used to be, I may have nothing to protest. The political mood will change.

If it doesn’t happen I guess I better look for a place in BC. My son already moved there. They don’t have huge fertile prairies and oil, but they mostly seem to be happy. Their biggest problem is that investors from outside buy all their homes. We cry over our lost pensions and services, lamenting about how great it used to be when we spent, gave away our resources and never saved for the future.

 

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