Alberta right isn’t what it used to be
Apparently George Lyster has lost sight with what the Wildrose Party has become (re: May 24 letter to the editor). I was asked to run as their leader in the 2004 election. I declined, knowing my wife was retiring shortly and we planned to travel.
As George suggests, they were all about trying to put a stop to what Ralph Klein was doing to this province, and I certainly agreed. However, shortly thereafter the Klein supporters got control of the Wildrose party and now they are all about bringing back Klein’s destructive policies. They have nothing but praise for what Klein did to us. If that wasn’t bad enough, now the Reform Party boys have got control of both parties and, as they have shown, they will do anything or say anything to try to regain control. Being loyal to their supporters is something they don’t care about.
My family proudly supported and volunteered for the Progressive Conservative Alberta Party under Lougheed and Getty prior to Klein. We had known Klein since the early 1960s and certainly weren’t going to support him and we certainly aren’t going to support these Reform Party boys with their promise to continue to give away our oil wealth and give tax breaks to their rich friends, scrap the carbon tax and continue polluting the water and soil in Saskatchewan and Manitoba while oilmen tell us it will lead to lawsuits for our children to face. They claim we shouldn’t go farther in debt to create jobs, build schools and hospitals, let the people do without. Who cares what lives might be lost.
They claim they will fix everything thing by cutting billions off government spending by dumping the cost of health care onto the backs of the people with a two-tiered health-care system, like Klein tried to do with his Third Way. Doctors tell us it’s just another way for them to help their rich friends, by giving them first priority to our health-care system while creating a nightmare for the rest of us. Why would anyone support that?
I can assure George that all the true-blue conservatives I know voted for the NDP and have no intention of changing. The NDP have been a lot more like the Conservatives we proudly supported. They are listening to the people and are putting through policies to protect them and they aren’t treating us like morons, like the Wildrose and Conservatives are doing to their supporters. Alan K. Spiller
Edmonton