..turning our blue eyes red.
Ok.
So I'll admit it.
I attended the Lethbridge East Liberal.. err.. Progressive Conservative Nomination meeting last night.
As a favor to a volunteer who continues to toil for the PC Party, I offered to act as a Notary to take Declarations of Residency for people who did not have sufficient identification to confirm their address in the constituency.
The race was between long time County of Lethbridge Reeve, Lorne Hickey, and former Liberal MLA, turned PC convert, Bridget Pastoor.
And it was nice to see a lot of faces of people I haven't seen in a long while.
And it was disconcerting to see a massive number of tax-consumers coming out in droves to a Progressive Conservative meeting.
Just to give you a little taste..
The meeting began with Lorne's speech which was, well, workmanlike, if not really all that inspiring or moving.
Then we moved to the Bridget's speech. For someone who professed to have been shocked that candidates gave speeches before the polls opened, she had no problem filling 10 or 15 minutes essentially telling everyone who was a Progressive Conservative before last month that they were thugs and neanderthals. That while she may have been a bag lady for former Progressive Conservative and master of Machiavellian politics, Dick Johnson.. the party wasn't worthy of her until the election of Alison Redford as leader.
Now.
Following the speech, there was a shocking increase in the numbers of what I would call "tax-consumers". You know. The opposite of "tax-payers".
Seniors.
Teachers.
People who GET money from government, but, on a net basis, pay nothing.
So. No shock. We later are advised that Bridget was successful.. ho hum.. and we see the clear and obvious progression of the former small "c" conservative party to something a little left of Tommy Douglas and Jack Layton.
Which is fine, I guess... that's how democracy works. But, I think it's somewhat instructive of what we might expect in the days and months to come from the PC Party's new leader.
Continued deficits.
Continued profligate spending.
Continued "big brother" expansion in a Province that, at one time, lured me from British Columbia because I sought a place to do business in a predictable political climate.
Those days are done.
7 comments:
Hope she is defeated by the WRA candidate. Will the liberals have a person running, will liberals vote for Pastoor or their own person.
Public service unions have realized they have no future with the NDP or Liberals in Alberta. So they are taking over the PC Party. Same thing happened with the Ontario Liberals and the BC Liberals.
In BC our Conservative alternative is gaining ground to the extent that polls show an NDP majority in the next go around. However there is no fear of that in Alberta.
Wildrose is a viable alternative in Alberta with a great leader. Time for PC Party members to defect and support a conservative alternative to the new Redford Liberal Party.
Take a look at your 'tax consumers' - seniors. Most of what they're living off is money they have put aside over the years for their retirement. Only OAS is genuinely a 'freebee' and it is clawed back. So your classification of them as parasites is totally unfair. You might just as well classify anyone who gets Workers' Compensation, Child Tax Beneft, GST Rebate, etc., as 'tax consumers'.
Why did you see a lot of seniors? They're still mainly the pre-boomers, the generation who put their money where their mouth was. I'm willing to bet those men and women have been involved in things political for many years - also things community, school, and church even while working and bringing up families. So their interest isn't new. But their available time is. It's no coincidence that the phone rooms, sign committees, etc., of any election campaign are largely staffed by older volunteers: they're the ones who are available. That is, when they're not running the hospital gift shop, delivering Meals on Wheels, driving cancer patients to appointments, etc., etc.
Instead of bitching about those you think should not be entitled to have a say in the political process, maybe you should take a hard look at those who consider themselves too 'good' and 'pure' to contaminate themselves by participating in the political process, unless it is to disrupt meetings and chant mindless slogans. It's so much easier to affect cynicism as an excuise to avoid engagement (except of a disruptive nature), instead of rolling up the sleeves and becoming involved.
So instead of complaining about 'tax receivers' actually participating, be glad they're interesed enough to come out. Otherwise the political process would be even more prone to being taken captive by one-issue groups and those who seriously want to subvert the democratic process.
Blah, blah, blah.. Fracis, I'm not for a moment suggesting that seniors haven't worked hard during their lifetimes, and truth be told, as an employer, I tend to prefer hiring people over 40 to those under 40 because I think the commitment and work ethic is not the same with younger people..
However.
The province has a huge problem, which is a burgeoning deficit.
And you are exactly right that many seniors are very active in their communities.
But here's the thing.
Firstly, the story that seniors have paid their way is so much bullshit.
CPP levels have increased dramatically in the last 10 to 20 years, so people who are over 65 right now did NOT pay to carry their way. That's a fact.
Canada Pension was going broke and as a result, significant reforms took place under former Liberal governments to significantly increase premiums paid by employers and employees from the levels they were in the 60's and 70's.
So let's start with that.
And then lets also note that the cost of health care has expanded exponentially since the 60's and 70's.. such that the people who paid for health care 20 or 30 years ago were, cumulatively, paying a fraction of what they are paying today.
So pardon me for throwing up in my mouth just a little bit over the tired and worn addage that "we've paid our way". You haven't, actually. At least have the honesty to admit it.
And let me tell you.
I'm 50 years old this year.
There will be a day not too long ago when I'll be looking to retirmement.
And I'm more than understanding that it will likely be the case that I'll be collecting my CPP years later than seniors today - after paying significantly more into the system than they ever did.
And I'm good with that.
Because - there is no free lunch.
And that burden needs to be shared between tax payers in a fair and reasonable fashion.
But when I keep hearing about the complaints that we're not doing enough for education and seniors, well, it makes be gag just a little, because this province is going broke, and someone is going to pay for that.
It probably won't be me - but I sure as hell don't want it to be my children.
Which is the way it's lining up right now.
That last paragraph of Frances was a real howler!
The sad truth is that a “one-issue group” has taken over the political process. It’s called the “Me Generation” and it’s made up of all age groups and classes.
They have a special ability to zone out everything except their own self centeredness. We have massive government debt and continued deficits and the implications of that just don’t register with these people, not even for a second.
We are all seriously screwing over the next generation and they absolutely refuse to see it that way.
Then we have the PC Party, who really should be renamed the PST Party. It’s no big surprise that they’ve been infiltrated and taken over by the Gimme Class. They had become so corrupted that the bureaucrats, who knew where all the bodies were buried, were able to start dictating what their policies would be. For example, allowing anyone with five bucks to buy a membership and then vote for the leader two minutes later.
Anyone with any common sense could tell what the results of that would be.
And now we get to see if the people of Alberta are going to go along with being duped by these self absorbed shysters.
Another former cabinet minister, ignored by redali resigned last week and will sit as an independent. I think he was unsuccessful in his renomination battle. That makes at least 6 who wont be running again.
He has talked to Danielle but no decision was made. I think there will be a lot more who wont run.
I can't understand why there was not a caucus revolt over some of her plans. I hope our riding goes back to WRA, as the sitting mla lost his bid for nomination.
I see that a school principal has won the PC nomination in Calgary Currie.
The Calgary Sun has the story and a picture of her beside a sign that reads like it was written by a flaming Liberal, which of course makes a lot of sense, seeing as how being a leftist public sector employee are the prime qualifications for the PST Party.
This article also mentioned two other riding that nominated PC’s. Calgary Hawkwood was won by a City of Calgary “manager of non-profit sector funding” (Who knew there was such a thing!) and Calgary Varsity was won by Donna Kennedy-Glans. You can read about her here. http://ezralevant.com/2009/03/donna-kennedyglans-liberal-sab.html
I think you can chalk up these wins to the public sector takeover of the PC Party.
They may consider that good news, but it’ll be a disaster for the rest of us.
Post a Comment