Alberta Election

[cowman]

Pretty soon Alberta will have an election. No question about who will get in...Ralph...in a big way!
Thorenstein(leader of the Alliance) has actually declared he will be running in my riding and I believe he might actually have a slim chance of getting in! Not because he's the second coming or something, but because the incumbent is such an incompetent!
Now here is my dilemma: Do I vote for someone who has a slight chance of breaking Ralphs monopoly or do I vote for the candidate I truly believe in(Alberta Seperatist Party) who hasn't got a snowballs chance in hell?
Thorenstein has made things interesting! In all my years of voting I never really got a chance to vote for someone who had a chance...you see in Alberta you could run a dead dog for office and as long as he was a Tory, he was in!

[greybeard]

cowman, do either of these parties have any concrete planning done on how they would govern if they were elected ? I do think that we benefit from living in Alberta, debt free, resource revenue managed so it is used to benefit all Albertans.
Sure, I realize new ideas are good, and change is good, but change just for the sake of change is not necessarily always for the greater good.
We know that Ralph Klein will win the upcoming election, but we, the citizens are responsible for letting our government know how we want them to govern.
No matter what folks think,this government does listen. In my area when the public petitioned the Minister for an inquiry into the conduct of our council, the Minister ordered that inquiry, and his Deputy came to our county office and met with the citizens group that had iniatied the petition.
This is just one example of how the Klein government does listen. If people have issues that they feel are not being addressed or taken seriously, there is always the opportunity to sit down and write to the Premier. I know it may sound like I bleed Tory Blue, but I have worked with this government and I know they do listen.

[cowman]

emerald: Well the Seperatist party has one goal if elected, obviously? Both of these parties are also right of center types and would basically continue a conservative agenda?
The fact is any elected official doesn't really govern much anyway? In reality it is the beuracracy that basically runs the show. Now I say that for one reason...it is the senior civil servants who understand how things work and can get things done while the politicians...well they are politicians!
Politicians come and go but the civil servants just go on and on?
Has the Klein government managed our resources well? Alaska gets an $8 royalty on every barrel of oil, Norway gets $11...Alberta gets $4!
Just the other day I got a little pre-election flyer from my local MLA. In it he bragged about how much money the Klein government was spending. Why we spent more on education than any other province. Our teachers are the highest paid in the country. We spend more on health care than any other province.
Why would any government brag that they spend more of your tax dollars than anyone else? This is good government?
I guess this is what buys the votes. Buy me with my own money? I would prefer a government that bragged about how they were keeping costs down.
On top of that we are starting to see some rather sleazy corruption deals coming up...the Gary Mar deal? I suspect the old federal Liberals could learn a few tricks from our provincial Tories?
Ralph is not some old down home idiot! He could sell ice to the eskimos in January! He pulls out his old redneck suit whenever it suits his purpose and he can get up on the stage and bawl with the best when he needs to. As I said he is a slick politician but that does not make him a good manager.

[cowman]

I am willing to bet that the Gary Mar issue has caused some real fur to fly behind closed doors in caucus, and I am also willing to bet that MR. Mar does not have a front and centre cabinet position after the election.
Of course Ralph is a good politician, he also surrounds himself with advisors who are supposed to be in tune with what works best for government.
My point is that at this time I do not see any alternative to Ralph and his Team, and until one comes along, I don't intend on throwing my vote away.
The public continues to yell about more funding for education and health care, I don't mind that happening as long as those dollars are funneled into the areas where there is the largest need.
The Government continues to throw money at health care, but Health Regions decide where that funding goes. I continue to see added staff in Administration and Admin support in our local health care centre, more offices being built, but it seems that beds are still closed, and long waiting lists for long term care.
I for one, do not think the Health Regions are doing what was intended that they do, waiting lists are longer, patient care is sometimes questionable etc., but health care costs continue to rise.
School Divisions have a large input into where their dollars are spent as well. If education dollars are spent to hire good teachers that will give their 'all' to kids that want to learn, I have no problem with it.I do think that there are a number of teachers that should not be teaching, period. That is a scary thing to say because the ATA has so much power that incompetent teachers seem to have a God given right to stay in the classroom.
When you look at all the billboards and listen to the ads concerning more funding for Universities and the education system, are they there for make work projects to keep more teachers employed or will more dollars injected help may a university education affordable for any student that has the marks and the desire to get a post secondary education ?
It isn't going to matter how many dollars are thrown at either of the above, until there are some stringent guidelines on how it is circulated through the system, I doubt that any amount of money is going to solve whatever crisis exists.
Again, I repeat myself and say that if people aren't happy with decisions made by government, let your MLA know. Make an appointment and sit across the desk from him or her and state your case.
I meet with my MLA several times a year over lunch or coffee. All I ever need to do is call his office and ask for an opportunity to chat.

[Muttley]

I wish I lived in Alberta just to vote for Ralph. Debt free alone is a reason.
When ever there is announcments from Ottawa for the provinces Sk. takes awile to join the programs or not at all.
I travel to Alberta extensively with my job. I am heading to Red Deer next month for the trade show and am allready seeing our phone ringing more from Alberta then anywhere.
As I travel your province what you folks call a bad highway I call a great one. In Sk. I take gravel roads in some areas to stay off the pavemant. Towns you folks think are struggling would be welcomed out here where you travel in some areas you would hate to break down.
I enjoy my trips to your province, it's not that I don't love Sk. but it's hard to see a province so close to us thrive.

[Muttley]

muttley, thank you for reminding us that we are indeed fortunate in Alberta.
Visit us often, we always enjoy having folks from Saskatchewan drop over. You have a very diverse province as well,and although the economy may not compare to Alberta, you have a lot to be proud of.