Letter: Vacations show we’re not ‘all in this together’

By Letter to the Editor on January 12, 2021.

Dear editor,

A letter to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney:

We are a senior couple living in our own home. We have not seen our children and grandchildren for over a year because travelling would be required. We are not allowed to meet even one couple outside or go for a walk with someone we don’t live with. We have had no one in our home. We spent all of the Christmas holidays at home by ourselves.

We did this to protect ourselves, to protect those around us and to do our part to contain COVID-19. We followed all public health protocols. We did the right thing because we were told by your UCP government that “we are all in this together.”

Clearly, we are not all in this together. The same public health restrictions apply to all Albertans. Some UCP MLAs decided those restrictions did not apply to them. They chose to take a family holiday. In doing so, they broke trust with all Albertans. The danger now is that others will see the actions of those MLAs as a licence not to follow the COVID-19 restrictions, and the virus will surge in our province.

You and your government have shown a serious lack of leadership, and a lack of character and ethical behaviour. Those caucus members who engaged in non-essential travel must resign. Since you have taken responsibility of their behaviour, you should also resign, both as Premier and as leader of the UCP.

George and Nikki Crisfield

Lethbridge, AB

White Rock, B.C.

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