I had a “Rip Van Winkle” experience recently. The story about Rip was written by Washington Irving in 1819, and it concerns a man named Rip who fell asleep after drinking some brew from a stranger. During his 20 years nap, he missed-out on the American Revolution and he didn’t recognize the people in his community.
I thought I had a similar experience. Alberta was no longer a province but a state in America. The governor of North Texas was issuing new executive orders, by-passing the wishes of its citizens and its elected municipal officials.
With Bill 18, the municipal governments could not obtain financial assistance from those nasty eastern politicians in Ottawa unless the governor (a.k.a. premier in the good old days of Confederation) approved first. Even if the local government were in dire need for financial assistance to keep their governments running, they had to “kowtow” to the wishes of the governor/premier and her party.
If they didn’t accept her dictates, Bill 20 would allow her government to fire mayors and municipal officials. Yes, autocracy would run our lives. Forget about having elections.
Furthermore, she wants to interject partisan politics into municipal governments (just like in America).
Heck! Even the GOP conservatives in America are fighting each other for control of Congress and for control in several state governments (Georgia and Idaho for example), and some are fighting each other over abortion rights, civil rights for women, voting rights, censorship in the schools, banning books in schools and libraries, and instilling prayers and dress codes in the public schools despite losing court cases in the 1960s and 1970s.
So much for partisan politics solving problems except making it easier for our provincial government to control local governments.
Ironically, our premier/governor claims that Ottawa is trying to intervene into local governments (with grants to infrastructure, health care, education, etc.), but she doesn’t mind interfering in local elections.
Her government has already intervened in Canmore’s decision to control urban development and it has fired several municipal officials in southern Alberta. And it’s going ahead with coal mining operations on the eastern slope of the Rockies despite opposition from a host of concerned citizens, farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, and “pinko, commie tree-huggers”.
Of course, interjecting partisan politics in local governments forces elected officials to “tote” the government’s policies. Can you imagine a “conservative” mayor in Calgary or Edmonton going against the wishes of the governor/premier? What about county councillors opposing her? If they object, will they be deported to Ukraine to fight the Russians?
Our government claims it doesn’t have the money for operating costs for municipal governments, but it has $9 million for a “proposed” study for a provincial rail line. It has $30 million for sports complexes, and It has money for private schools and for other private business, but no more money for public schools, health care, emergency services, RCMP, pensions, etc.
And, it continues to spend money on a proposed provincial pension plan, a “war room”, on a provincial police force, and on more money for private health alternatives to our public health system (even though private health care is a failure for many Americans).
However, I woke up this morning (after drinking too much milk) and discovered that Alberta was still a province. Hallelujah! We still had our CPP funds and Old Age Security. We still had the RCMP and we still had non-partisan politicians running our municipal governments.
Question: How did I manage to grow a beard to my navel and grow my hair down to my posterior?
George Thatcher,
Olds
