Am I the only person in the county who feels betrayed by our members of the legislature?
Many of the people in the county as well as other constituencies in the province had enough of the Progressive Conservative antics and sent our money and vote to what was called the Wildrose Party and were happy when they became a force in Alberta.
Then of course we had Danielle Smith jump ship and now we have a bunch of these MLAs have a meeting in Fort McMurray and have a vote to get rid of our Wildrose Party and they even were able to prevent the people of Alberta from using the Wildrose name.
Now say, isn't that theft by conversion when you accept money for one thing and have a private meeting and do something else with your support and money? Wouldn't it be proper for all of these Wildrose MLAs to resign before jumping into the Conservative ship and run in the next election and find out honestly if we want the same old bunch back?
Do any of you people remember when Ralph Klein gave Li Ka Shing $50 million of Alberta money to set up the Lloydminster oil refinery? Wow, that really created jobs for Alberta.
The deal was that the 50 million was a loan, but out of the goodness of his heart Ralph forgave the debt. Good old Ralph.
Ralph could have set up a car manufacturing plant in Alberta and even a steel making plant at Hines creek on the Northern Alberta Railway line, where we have some of the largest iron ore reserves in Canada and we would have only a few miles to go to get the coal, but although the ore has been staked forever I guess we shouldn't dream of any manufacturing and industry in our province.
Ralph was a jewel in the rough when he gave contracts to the oil giants to have the oil at one per cent royalty at Fort McMurray until they paid for their plants and when the plants were finished the royalty would be 25 per cent.
Look at the millions of people who flocked to Alberta to get the jobs created by good old Ralph. Well folks, the plants are finished and now the 25 per cent royalty must be flooding into our coffers. Thank you Ralph, only somehow we never got the 25 per cent but we did have a great crash. All by accident my friends.
Alberta had its own refinery at Fort McMurray in 1952 and the oil was coming to Edmonton by tank car on the NAR, and even the bridge at Medicine Hat was paved in 1925 and then the roads of Jasper were paved in 1929.
Doctor Carl Clark at the University of Alberta worked on separation of oil for 40 years and all paths of the university were paved. He was the foremost bitumen scientist in the world. Shucks folks, Albertans are just not very smart.
Mr. Lougheed made generous loans to Ontario Hydro of millions of dollars and of course we were paid back with interest, or were we?
Why didn't Mr. Lougheed put the money into Robin Nodwell's company in Calgary like the Canadian government put money into Bombardier? Why didn't it go into a tractor factory like we had in Calgary in 1935 or a truck factory like we had at Redcliff in 1917? Why must our treasure always go to someone else?
Remember that guy Stephen Harper who was going to get an equal elected Senate and stop transfer payments? Mr. Harper had a majority, but being a good Tory did nothing. His immigration minister was a fellow named Jason Kenny, so if you're happy with the immigration situation be sure to vote Conservative. We are only $38 billion in debt so be sure you vote the right way for unchecked immigration.
The price of wheat in Alberta was $6 a bushel in 1915 and gas was 15 cents a gallon. Wheat is $6 a bushel now and gas is $4.50 a gallon.
I would bet that every invention by our farming students at Olds College over the last 80 years went to Eastern Canada, not to a machinery company in Alberta.
The world has gone through the industrial revolution, the computer revolution, the microchip revolution and the robotic revolution, but not in Alberta. Our farmers have been cheated forever.
If our government would tell the farmers they would get double the price for their crops but they would have to cut production by half our Alberta world would change.
Our federal government has the right and duty to balance production with money, but they don't.
Farmers have a trick to stop bulls from jumping the fence. I think that would be too drastic for our MLAs who jumped the fence, but they should be forced to quit as they have betrayed us. The standard reply of Alberta people to this mess is, "oh well."
Dennis Combs,
Olds
