Moderate conservatives are still around
By Letter to the Editor on March 21, 2019.
Re: “Tilting right, to society’s detriment,” Feb. 16 Where have all the moderate conservatives gone?, Lyle Weis asks. They haven’t left. They are all around you. You’re just not looking or listening. Your column attempts to connect all conservative parties with Donald Trump. Please, sir, this is Canada and that’s a hatchet job. Do all lefties love Marx, Engels, Stalin or Mao? Do you see who is running our provincial and federal shows right now? Is their job performance OK with you? Somehow I feel your answer would be yes. I, too, am concerned with the military industrial complex in the U.S. The writer mentions “slavish adulation for tough guys, political dictators and corporate capitalists.” Do the names Fidel Castro, Communist Party of China and SNC-Lavalin ring a bell? It is to the Canadian conservative community’s credit that there are so many moderate conservatives still alive, and ever patient, all across this great and beautiful country. Moderate conservatives do not “reject environmental concerns.” Many do question the science, knowledge base and motives of those pushing the environmental agenda. Many also question the practicality of the solutions offered. Many conservatives want to re-open a line of dialogue on the issue. And please explain exactly which minority rights are being rejected, Mr. Weis. I also never realized my taxes were an investment in democracy. Wow! I feel so much better. You can never borrow your way to prosperity but you can borrow your way to bankruptcy. Bankruptcy lives next door to slavery. That’s simple math, the truth and a big problem. How do you know, Mr. Weis, that Peter Lougheed would not be welcome in the United Conservative Party? Almost every UCP member I speak to has great respect for the late premier and his legacy to Alberta and Canada. Figuratively speaking, when you bring a knife to a gunfight, you lose. The left brought a gun a long time ago because they were not getting ahead with the knife. It is to moderate conservatives’ credit they still choose the less bloody means of politicking – dialogue, reason, proven results, past experience and a solid understanding of basic math. The left blasts away with borrowed money, failed dogma, pseudoscience and political correctness in an effort to stifle debate and dialogue. Free speech, if you will. Why? Because that’s all the left has. Be patient, Mr. Weis. You will see many moderate conservatives in 2019. Maybe one will even buy you a coffee. Leath Johnston Medicine Hat 15-14
So Leath if many of these UCP supporters have so much respect for what Lougheed did why are they hell-bent on electing someone in Jason Kenney, a former Liberal, turned Reformer, has never been a true conservative who has made it crystal clear he will bring back Liberal, turned Reformer Ralph Klein’s destructive policies that put this province in financial ruin? The true conservatives , many of which volunteered for the Lougheed and Getty governments, like our family did, have no intention of supporting this phony conservative who will make our situation a lot worse as he is promising to do.
Watching our fellow seniors go around bragging about what great conservatives they are while they support anyone who attaches the word conservative to their name and believes every lie they feed them doesn’t make them look very smart in our eyes. Why would it?
Even former leader of the Wildrose Party Brian Jean is pointing out what a liar Kenney is, which we already knew. Despite what you and your friends may think you can’t fix this “Horrific Mess” as Lougheed called it without spending billions of dollars like Notley is doing and you certainly aren’t going to repay the huge debt that it’s creating by watching Jason Kenney continue to give away billions in royalties and by slashing taxes from 12% down to 8% for his rich friends while he forces us into a privatized health care system, and a privatized education system , which Reformers always promote, like they did under Danielle Smith and you saw how she was defeated.
Maybe you would like to explain to this former banker how his policies will help rural Albertans when he is promising to destroy their health care services with privatization and destroy their banking services by selling off the Treasury Branches, like he is promising to do? Doctors and nurses will not remain working in rural Albertan when they can make a lot more money working in the private-for-profit clinics and hospitals in the cities his plan will create. As doctors point out “What hospitals does he plan to sell off, at a fraction of their value like Klein did” . We know the Treasury Branches have been a huge benefit for rural Albertans providing banking services where big banks won’t go or have pulled out of and of course their staff will all lose their jobs, and like Klein he doesn’t care who gets hurt in the process and it’s us seniors who will be hurt the most.
I think these ignorant seniors who are believing every lie Kenney feeds them have a lot of explaining to do to those of us who know the difference between a true conservative and one who is thirsty for power and will do anything , or say anything to get elected. We aren’t dumb enough to fall for their lies, so why are you?
One more thing that I should mention. The Peter Lougheed our family knew never felt welcome in the Klein government either and refused to appear anywhere in public where Klein was. He despised Klein. Klein refused to listen to any of the intelligent advice he tried to give him. We would not be in this mess today if Klein had. Klein’s own daughter Angie was trying to vote her father out of office like we were trying to do, so why didn’t these so-called conservatives help us?
Maybe they had better read ” Daughter of former Alberta premier Ralph Klein supports NDP in upcoming election”. Not only does she confirm her dad was a liberal she points out what a disaster his flat tax was for the province and Kenney is promising to make it even worse and these ignorant seniors are more than willing to let him do it, why?