Lloyd Snelgrove's "Fudget".. Alberta Deserves Better.

Well.

Alberta, the once king of budget restraint, has given us yet another budget dripping in red.

And while Albertans look forward to an uncertain future based upon a resource economy that can't last forever, what we are delivered is, really, the same old, same old.

We are given a budget that promises to turn around when oil and gas revenue turns around.  The lack of imagination shown by our government is staggering.  The "plan" is no plan at all.  Things will get better when oil and gas prices get better.  And then things will get worse when they drop again.

And, probably, with the conflict in Libya and rising oil prices, things will get better in Alberta - as they will in most of Canada.  But there is a dream in the middle east that seems to be coming true - where citizens rise up peacefully and seek out democratic government.  And as that becomes a reality, oil prices will again drop.  And as alternative energy becomes more and more viable, oil prices will drop.

And we will need new ideas.

And the Alberta government is fresh out.

And when new ideas come forth from opposition parties, as they did this week, our current government makes childish puns, Lloyd Snelgrove holding a press conference to criticize the Wild Rose Alliance budget, referring to it as a "fudget".

That's what we get in times of stress.

Word puns.

"Fudget"?  Really Mr. Snelgrove.

That's all you've got?  "Fudget"? 

The citizens of Alberta cry for leadership and guidance in times of great stress and uncertainty - where our Province has become the punching bag of the western world.

Please tell me the treasurer of our Province hasn't pinned our hopes on childish playground taunting.

And think about this - as pointed out in today's Edmonton Journal.  Since when does the Alberta government hold a press conference to respond to an opposition party alternative budget?

Since they began to see the writing on the wall.