Don’t be fooled by a new paint job, as the rust is still below the surface.
As Premier Jason Kenney leaves provincial politics, I’m both scared and cautiously optimistic. On the one hand, there will be a period where Albertans will not be under his divisive, aggressive, tyrannical, and ineffectual rule. I’m cautiously optimistic that perhaps a balanced approach to governance might now occur.
But I’m also scared that people have short memories and seem hopelessly addicted to the PC brand. Mr. Kenney and his MLAs clearly supported the following:
• spending 10s of millions of tax dollars per year on private shell companies with no ability for oversight, (yes, I’m talking about the ‘War Room’);
• losing billions of dollars in ludicrous pipeline spending that no other lender would finance because of the extreme risk;
• providing tax loopholes to the rich and supporting a ridiculously low corporate tax rate that diverts billions of dollars away from Albertans to multinational corporations;
• supporting a health minister who threatens doctors and/or makes personal threats to regular Albertans;
• abandoning environmental protection and taking steps to privatize our parks;
• implementing a regressive school curriculum to indoctrinate children towards their political objectives;
• implementing ‘U.S.-style’ health care; and
• having one of the worst records among Canada's provincial governments for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are already into an election year. There will be millions of dollars spent by the UCP to rebrand with a new leader and carefully worded misdirection will be used to distract the public from one fact – that Kenney did not act alone and none of his actions would have been possible without his MLAs' votes.
I should note this letter is not an attack on UCP core principles, many of which I support. It is a statement of facts that I would argue are agreed upon by most Albertans.
Please make an informed choice when you vote next year. As always, I would have the same comments for any political party in similar circumstances.
Dan Cunin
