Wake Up Call is the polite way to describe Jim Dinning's "admonitions" to the elite in the Progressive Conservative Party.
To my mind he is right on in his comments. The next leader may end up being the Harry Strom equivalent of the PC Party. Mr Strom was the Social Credit leader at the time when Peter Lougheed captured the new mood of a young Alberta and swept into office in 1971. I was there and a door-knocker, phone-caller, foot soldier type for the emerging Lougheed government in those days.
Now I smell the democracy of dramatic change in the air again. The problem is the lack of acceptable choices. Citizens of Alberta are almost universally disgusted with the PCs. Most of us are terrified of what the Wildrose would do to Alberta, especially after seeing what their soul mates the Harper Conservatives have done to Canada.
As for the Liberal, they are just too boring to get behind and they seem like a one-man show. The NDP have been effective opposition parliamentarians but seem just too biased and ideologically focused to grasp the complexity of the next Alberta.
The next Alberta government has to have a servant leader culture capable of governing an comprehensive integrated balance of a prosperous economy, environmental stewardship and social well-being and inclusion in the face of rapid growth and change.
There is god news and bad news for Albertans as they choose their next government, not just the next leader of the PC Party who gets the job temporarily and by default. The good news is we have a prosperous foreseeable future with some bumps on the way no doubt. The bad news is that it will not happen by any autopilot public policy approaches. We will have to create that future ourselves.
Time is now for Albertans to pay attention and take stock of where we are, where we want to go and what it will take from all of use to make the changes needed to get there.
That still does not answer the question of what are the political options out there for us if not the current crop? I think the bad news is, it currently does not exist so, once again, just like Peter Lougheed did in the late 1960s early 70s, we have to create the option we want.
For me that is a socially progressive fiscally prudent and environmentally engaged political movement of citizens. We need a movement of citizens to get behind a group of their fellow citizens who want to serve the public interest through the greater good...with a long term view and not just helping those on "their side" and only up to the next election.
There is the embryo of such a movement as that now in the Alberta Party. Small but serious and all of a sudden growing leaps and bounds as Albertans have started thinking about the real changes they want. So if you are curious as to if the Alberta Party is for you, and you for it, click on Politicalmatch and take five minutes to check it out. I think you will be glad you did.
Here's a few posts I posted on facebook about this...
ReplyDeleteSome of the questions are greatly disturbing me. Sounds like the Alberta party is VERY liberal
One of the questions was "I believe that all children should have the opportunity to pursue their interests and receive an excellent education in Alberta's public schools, regardless of the income level of their parents. Private schools should receive little or no taxpayer funding."
This statement is completely and totally a violation of my freedom. If this were to happen, I should also be able to stop paying school taxes entirely, because my kids are seeing no benefit from those taxes.
With home schooling, we are essentially a *private* school. We are funded, and we should be. We pay taxes to the school system, just like anyone else; both municpal and provincial taxes. I'm okay with this view, if my taxes towards the school system are completely removed.
The private sector, and private homes, should receive *equal* funding. The kids going to those schools are still Albertans, and their parents still pay taxes. And that is currently what happens. Our school board receives the exact same amount of money as the Athabasca school board would for each of our children. We then receive a portion to pay for some of the schooling supplies like textbooks, just as anyone else would. I would be very upset if that were not the case.
This mentality is a VERY EXTREME Liberal mentality, and it's completely wrong.
Yeah, I despise that liberal mentality, of stealing my money, and giving it all back to someone else, when I do not benefit at all (and never will). How dare someone try and remove a benefit that I pay taxes for. Like HOLY CRAP. -1 for Alberta Party.
The same thing happened in regard to child support federally. The Liberals wanted to fund day care, but not give anything to stay at home moms. How dare they take taxes from us then!