One Alberta Voice

My lack of posting the past couple of years was not for want of some opinions; there has been plenty going on with Redford alone to warrant posting. Which is why, as I come back to this blog (having finally found the email account tied to it *rolleyesatself*), my first thought after the Wildrose-crossing-the-floor mess was: Where is Redford now? To be honest, my online searching has resulted in me having to say: I don't know. Where she could be sometime in the future is dealing with court and repercussions for illegal activities. The most recent news article I could find was this http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alison-redford-could-face-criminal-charges-review-finds-1.2821834 I suspect there will be enough found to press charges, but not knowing enough about the criminal system and what constitutes worthy evidence, I can't do more than suspect. Well, I can hope, too. While her political career is over and her acts have probably closed many doors to her, it ju...

I just watched this video http://on.aol.ca/video/former-alberta-wildrose-leader-urges-other-members-to-join-tories-518565518  . While I understand this decision was not something done on the spur of the moment, I'm still left scratching my head at why the two parties couldn't work together without the Wildrose having to cross the floor? Danielle Smith is asking Wildrose to switch, which really means that she's asking for the party to become defunct. Is that what Alberta needs? (I'm really asking this for myself.) She does make, I feel, a valid point in having conservatives stick together, but do they all need to be in the same party? Is it really that hard for them to work together if Wildrose is the official opposition? Perhaps I'm naïve or just politically too ignorant; I'm willing to consider those possibilities. This still just sits wrong with me.

Well, well, well. I woke up this morning to the radio hosts talking about Danielle Smith having crossed the floor to the PCs, as well as other Wildrose MLAs. They are not the first to do so. Before I get into my specific thoughts about Wildrose's leader and these other MLAs crossing the floor, let me say that within the past few weeks, I actually said to my husband that I like Prentice as our Premier, that he has brought back "conservative" to the PCs and if he keeps going as he is, I would probably vote PC in the next election (assuming he will still be at the reins). Why? Because I really do feel he has brought back the conservative side of the PCs. Redford was not a conservative. Not in the least. I am not the only one to say it and I thought it before I read others' comments to the same effect. Conservatives tend to "conserve", to keep things the same, to stick to old-fashioned principles, making changes when the population in general is wanting ...

Remember the $83 800 trip that Redford and 5 others were taking to the Olympics to promote tourism and industry? Ah... Well... First, it actually cost just those 6 over $87 000. The full cost of the trip was over $500 000 (yes, you read that correctly, over 1/2 million $) because they for some reason paid the way for artists and performers and chef (why a chef? no clue)--all told, 29 people. Not only that, but because they decided to not send another 18 people who were originally slated to go--the 29 alone is questionable given it's all taxpayer money, isn't it?--they saved some money, but could not "get rid" of some of the hotel rooms, supposedly, which means they ended up paying $113 000 for rooms they did not use. Can we do the math for a second here? $113 000 divided by 18 (let's pretend they all get individual rooms, which would be ridiculous imho, but anyhow) is $6277.78. For 5 days. So let's do more math, let's say it's 6 nights: $6...

Another article has passed by me today: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/edmonton/Redford+dismisses+concerns+about+Alberta+budget+woes/7181495/story.html I'm so sick of Redford and the PC government. I recall well before the elections that the budget was criticized by non PCs for being too generous with estimated revenues. And here we go--those criticizing were correct! And then you have this: Redford also defended her government’s controversial decision to report the first-quarter fiscal update in a new format that makes virtually no financial projections, omits capital planning and financial assets, and dramatically reduces the number of raw figures available for public scrutiny. Critics, particularly the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, blasted the move as undemocratic, non-transparent and a violation of the Government Accountability Act. It is so infuriating! To brush things aside like they don't mean anything and then be blatantly non-transparent. I do hop...

There has been so much this summer... Here's some of it, including about the $3 billion deficit : http://www.globaltvedmonton.com/premier+redford+weighs+in+on+summer+of+controversies/6442707420/story.html

I just saw this article: One in Four Canadians Ready to Kick Quebec Out Frankly, it doesn't surprise me. With the on-going protests by students, I've noticed more and more people looking at Quebec as a province that really doesn't know what it's doing, has "spoiled" people and really doesn't have a part in Canada. It's completely unCanadian behaviour. Back when I was in school, we were learning about the then-impending referendum: do we allow Quebec to separate? I was completely against them separating. Even after learning more at the post-secondary level about the deep-seated issues that have led to that desire in their province, I still felt like they should stay. But times change: Consider me now one of those people ready to kick Quebec out. I'm done with them. I could be accused of being one of the English-speaking majority who is done with them, but, guess what? I'm also one of the French-speaking western Canadians, married to a Fr...