Defacing Election Signs.

 

Defacing Election Signs.

The official campaign for the provincial elections is on and on the first day, I see a sign at the entrance to town. Would be great if people voted for the issues, but signs and advertisements influence many. I went home and looked at my social media account, and here it is. A person wrote complaining that the NDP has a sign at the entrance to their town. He or she said that we are a coal town and we will not tolerate people who are supporting “rich ranchers” who are against coal mining. The whole long letter looked like an invitation for “someone” to vandalize the sign, which to my knowledge is against the law. We are in Canada, not in China. It is a democratic country here and obviously, one political party was ready for the campaign on time with signs ready to go.

I am not the best authority to ask, but to my understanding, this whole hype about coal is really not about prosperity for the Pass. The coal is not in our municipality. People considered the workers will reside here but we are full as far as I know. The hills around us house many people also, and businesses are doing well. If we want more people to pay taxes, we will have to build, but I don’t see much effort toward building condos so far. Looking at the political campaigns so far is a lesson in itself. One side is promising improvements to things I care about. Health care is my number one concern. The other day my young grandchild in Calgary had an appendicitis attack. The Children’s Hospital had a fourteen-hour waiting period at emergency. My daughter took him to the Rocky View, where waiting was only four and a half hours and they misdiagnosed him. Going back soon after he was diagnosed correctly and sent to the Children’s. Finally, he is being treated, but they can’t do the simple surgery until all the fluid is gone. It may be weeks or more. The waiting time endangered him, caused much pain, lost work for the parents, and will be much more expensive to fix.

I am disappointed. I worked since I was seventeen and paid to have a reasonable level of health care in our province and look where we are. We were warned in meetings with the doctors a few years ago, but didn’t act. Now the government is talking about placing some of our extra money into a saving account while Albertans are facing death for lack of medical attention. Show me a corporation that will move here if we don’t have good health care, education, and the rest of what people care about.

My next concern is increasing taxes. That can push me out of my home, which I worked all my life to have. The provincial government is talking against increasing taxes, leaving more money in our pockets, they say. Yet I see them deciding to remove government assistance from important services such as policing education and more. They forced the municipalities to pick up the slack or people end up with additional out-of-pocket expenses. I know seniors on government pensions who had to cut going for coffee with friends once a week to pay the increase in taxes. They live hand to mouth in the richest province of Canada. Some chose between lettuce and Tylenol. They built our towns by working underground, but now they are impoverished.

The pension funds are also under threat. If the government takes them over and invests in oil sands instead of things with high returns, those seniors may be on the streets. We fought all of our lives and now we face losing the pensions we paid for with our blood, sweat and tears.

A friend was arguing against transfer payments. He believes Quebec is stealing our money and their citizens live better than we do. I pointed out that the French province has done more for its people. For example, they built hydroelectric power stations while we will have to catch up, which is very expensive but now is necessary. He answered we can build them if we have more time. I pointed out that Alberta’s forests are burning while we produce more pollution, which causes many fires. He left me and went to listen to some “news” by a news outlet that I think even the Federal Conservatives quit calling news. Now they say that the fires are being set up by “environmentalists.” I highly recommend that people should keep in mind that any goof can publish fake news on the net.

We went around and viewed a well-attended opening of an art show in the gallery in Frank. Wow, our towns are becoming an art hub. On the way back, entering Blairmore, I noticed another NDP sign. A big black X defaced it, sprayed across it. To me, it signified that some people are desperate. They know they can’t win the elections fair and square, so they get a can of spray paint. It is against the law. Living in a democracy means a lot to me. At least every four years we can fix our mistakes.  I want a good government watched over by capable media.