I’m Calling You Out Mr. Premier

2010-06-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

A little Background. As you know, at the beginning of the year,
MLA RobAnderson, crossed the floor to the Wild Rose Alliance.
Since then, the City of Airdrie seems to be getting the shaft
when it comes to receiving a fair share of funding, services or
programs. Some of us think the PC government is punishing this
riding because of Mr. Anderson's decision. The perception is
that they want to starve us of infrastructure and services until
an election is called, and then promise us everything that we
need RIGHT NOW. This is the editorial I have written that was
originally intended to be published on the front page of the
June 24th issue of "Here's the Scoop", a community paper serving
the population of Airdrie and surrounding towns. Unfortunately,
my publisher felt it was too strong and controversial to be in
our publication, so I've decided to post it on the
internet with hopes that everyone will forward it to everyone
they know in the province of Alberta.

Warm regards,
Al Jones

I’m Calling You Out Mr. Premier

First let me qualify what you are about to read by saying that
I am not seeking any elected position, nor do I have any
allegiance to any political party. I challenge your judgment
and actions, not as an adversary, but as a tax payer. Our city
hall won’t say what I’m about to say, nor will our school
trustees. Why? Because you control the provincial purse strings.
They watch their words carefully, and therefore pose no real
opposition to your actions. But I have no such restraints Mr.
Premier. I am free to speak as I feel. I have spoken to many
others who feel the same. Perhaps with all of the political
dancing involved so as to avoid the appearance of disrespect,
you are not aware of how the majority of us, the voters of our
community, feel. It is with those thoughts in mind that I pen
these words. I want to enlighten you and your caucus, of the
perception that many of us have in this community.

It’s nice that you sent Health Minister, Gene Zwozdesky to
our community to pay lip service to our Mayor. But actions
speak louder than words Mr. Premier. The fact that you have
decimated our cost effective system of integrated ambulance
and EMS services, tells us that you care not for what we the
taxpayers want. To separate the two makes no sense, either
practical or financial. So we find ourselves trying to
understand the rationale behind such an unpopular and
impractical move.

A few months ago, I had the privilege of having lunch with
Minister Luke Ouellette. Our local Chamber of Commerce
expressed concerns they had regarding needs in our community.
Local business owners at that time, expressed concerns over
infrastructure, ambulance and EMS service as well as the need
for more schools in Airdrie. Luckily, although none of us had
contacted the media regarding our meeting, the media somehow
knew about it and was there to interview the Minister on what
a successful meeting we had and how our government is indeed
listening to our concerns. I don’t want to imply that this
meeting was nothing more than a PR exercise paid for with
taxpayers money and orchestrated for positive press, but to
this day, no one in our community is aware of any of us
inviting the media, nor has any of us been interviewed in a
follow up to see if any of our concerns have been dealt with.
The one minister we would all like to see pay us a visit is
the Minister of Education, Dave Hancock. Despite Minister
Oullette’s assurance to us that he would be passing on our
concerns with regards to a shortage of classrooms and teachers
in our community, Minister Hancock has yet to visit us. We are
facing the possibility of having to bus students outside of our
city Mr. Premier. There may be a need to bus students from the
City of Airdrie, into the City of Calgary. Even you must see
this as an unreasonable expectation of parents to accept. I know
of no parent that looks forward to worrying about if the school
bus gets stranded on the highway during a blizzard with their
child on board. There is land set aside in our community to build
new schools. Your government is laying off 170 teachers in Calgary,
so we know there are teachers available to teach our children in
the Rockyview School District. When I quiz government officials,
they say things like “There was no way we could have projected
the kind of growth that has occurred over the past several years
or the increased demand on our education system”. With all due
respect Mr. Premier, I call Bull KaKa. There is a census taken
every year. The data collected during the census, tells our
government how many more children will need education in future
years. A three year old today, will obviously be going to school
two years from now.

So how is it that concerns such as infrastructure, health,
emergency services and education are not being seriously dealt
with in our community Mr. Premier? I’m going to tell you what
it looks like to us. I’m going to say what our local city hall
and school trustees can’t, for fear of you cutting their budgets.
To the voters in this community, it looks like you are punishing
us because our MLA crossed the floor. The perception within the
community is that you think that the way to win this seat back is
to starve us of infrastructure, health and education. Our
community feels like it is being bullied Mr. Premier, and we don’t
like it.

Your government received over 90% of the vote in this constituency
during the last provincial election. We want you to remember that
Mr. Premier. We want you to acknowledge your promises of doing
what’s best for our community. You say there is no new money for
schools. We say the fastest growing City in Canada should warrant
you finding the money. We don’t want lip service Mr. Premier. We
don’t need studies, round table discussions or reports. It’s cut
and dry. It’s obvious what needs to be done. Build us some schools
and staff them with competent teachers. We are obviously facing a
crisis, help us fix it. Do that, and I’ll call a media scrum for
you and give you all the positive publicity you want.

To summarize Mr. Premier…. We the people of Airdrie, did not
cross the floor. We expect to be served according to our needs.
If you have a personal vendetta against our MLA, it should not
affect the fulfillment of the services your government is supposed
to provide our community. We don’t give a rats arse about politics.
Parents of EVERY political view are very united when we say, please
don’t play politics with our children’s futures. We need schools,
and we need them now.

I suppose you can ignore these words. You can tell people that I
wrote them because of an imaginary axe to grind. You can accuse me
of political grandstanding to further the cause of the NDP, Liberals,
WAP or any other political flavor of the day. But I assure you that
no political spin doctoring will be acceptable to the people of this
community. I am a taxpayer, not a politician. The same can be said
for many others whom share these views. And it is in our view that
you and your government are using us as political pawns. Prove me
wrong Mr. Premier. Give us a couple new schools staffed with
competent teachers. When you do that, you can point your finger at
me and tell others in an indignant tone that I have no credibility
as a public source or journalist. Because if you quit playing
political games and give us what we need, I'm willing to accept
that label and the public humiliation that comes with it. I would
actually look forward to shaking your hand at that time and issuing
a public apology.

Actions speak louder than words Mr. Premier. I'm calling you out.
Now prove me wrong.

The Jones Standard

I’m Calling You Out Mr. Premier