Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Election Day on Cinco de Mayo!

The future of Alberta is being shaped today by your votes; but how is this one different than previous elections?  This is the first time in 44 years that we can realistically expect a changing of the guard… or at least that’s what the polls would have you believe.  I personally don’t take too much stock in polling information because the results don’t typically represent the voting demographic.  This election even has the media (who is supposed to be impartial) banding together against a possible NDP win.  The problem with polls and media support is that it has a tendency to influence the results.  It’s like the “time travel paradox” where your knowledge of the future can alter the outcome of a situation and be the very cause of the event you’re trying to stop from happening.  Too nerdy?

If the predictions are correct and we end up with a minority government, the result is likely a difficult 4 years ahead of us depending on who the winner is.  If the NDP wins, the PC’s and Wildrose are likely to band together and oppose any changes the NDP will try to make because of the fundamental differences in their politics.  If the PC’s or Wildrose are victorious, they will likely see years of opposition from the other parties simply for the sake of opposition.   The most likely outcome is another early election that costs millions of taxpayer dollars.  And that’s what's frustrating about our system of government, the party politics really don’t allow individual MLA’s to vote their conscience on decisions that they feel are best for Alberta – they must “tow the party line”.

Imagine, if you will, a collaborate system of government where your elected representatives will advocate and even vote on policies and legislation that are in the best interest of your region rather than advancing the agenda of the party.  I believe that if the Wildrose Party provided reasonable opposition to the PC’s in the past and showed support where agreement was possible, they would have garnered way more support during this campaign.  Instead, their focus was on personal attacks that centered around the character and ethics of their opposition.  These are important matters, but they failed to show us a better path on the big ticket items.  On issues that they could have supported, many instead chose to cross the floor (allegedly) and change parties rather than simply voting in favour.  How is that ethical?

Why am I calling out this system of government?  Well, if municipalities (towns, cities, MDs and counties) are children of the province, then we have a very dysfunctional family here… and it starts from the top down.  They’ve created a very adversarial system and they wonder why there’s so much conflict in the province.

I want to bring the spotlight onto the Alberta Party for a minute.  They are the only party who says they’ll allow their representatives to act independently and vote their conscience.  There is something very appealing about that prospect which seems modern and progressive for politics.  I believe that if this movement grows, we would be a much more productive province and be representative of what people really want.  I think I’m drawn to this concept because I don’t agree with everything any one party is calling for.  NDP is wanting to raise corporate taxes too high to pay for services and is threatening changes that could slow our economy; PC’s aren’t spreading out the responsibility to pay and are showing themselves as being too arrogant to listen; Wildrose are too extreme in wanting to stay out of the way; and I can‘t tell what the Liberals want outside of vague generalities.  The Alberta Party is being somewhat vague as well, but this is because they want to have local MLA’s represent local issues.  I guess I’m being a little greedy because I want the best of all their worlds.

There are worse things that can happen than having a minority government.  It sends a strong message that people want things to change.  Who knows, this may force the parties to work together on the individual issues, however, I’m not holding out too much hope of that happening.  The last election created an overwhelming majority PC government and that wasn’t great for our province either.  I’d like to continue to see a strong PC party with a strong NDP opposition and enough Alberta Party, Liberal and Wildrose seats to make a difference.  If the balance worked out just right and a few seats became swing votes that would be incredible for Alberta.  That would mean the power could shift with just a few seats and theoretically, the policies that are debated would have to stand on their own merits.


Regardless of what I believe, I just want people to go out and vote based on their own principles, research or gut feelings.  No vote is wrong except the one that you don’t cast.  As the campaign says, “don’t let others decide for you”.

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