Letter: Notley’s NDP was effective in management, did not burn down pillars of industry
By Letter to the Editor on August 4, 2022.
In response to Marty Malmgren’s July 13 letter to the editor. Dear editor, I would like to point out a few misleading arguments, hysterical language and downright misinformation. A sad and weak argument of some (maybe only a few at this point) conservatives. Mr. Malmgren bandies about the title of socialism in contemptuous tones in a way that suggests it is only one step away from communism. Absurd argument! Fact: all political parties in Canada (especially if they want to be elected) must offer social responsibility to citizens. There are varied levels of social responsibilities and advanced societies have a social contract with citizens. Should we not take them as an example for our own conduct? If I were to suggest that conservatism is all far right, it would also be absurd. We all pay taxes that permit us to provide a social safety net and provide the amenities and services in which we partake. Rachel Notley and her colleagues were elected during the Orange Wave to replace the mismanagement of the PCs. It was also for those who crossed the floor from the Wildrose Party to the PCs for political gain. Notley’s government proved to be effective in management and did not burn down the pillars of industry as might have been feared. She and the Alberta NDP today recognize and openly promote the value of the oil and gas industry for the financial benefits of the province and the nation. However, as oil is a boom-and-bust industry, the transition to cleaner energy sources is the wave of the future. All nations are getting on board with practical and measured transitions, not only to become part of the solution, but to participate in the new revenue-generating opportunities. Even some oil companies are frustrated with the snail’s pace of transition and diversification by the UCP. Furthermore, terms like “gender politics, social engineering and fringe activist initiatives” are just fabricated hysteria, and suggesting a minimum wage increase of 50 per cent is additional misinformation cited by the now ousted Kenney in another misinformed rant. Truth is that the wage was gradually increased to $15 an hour over a period of three years, and small businesses received a 33% tax cut to offset these costs and help their businesses. The NDP also re-established, originally initiated by the Lougheed government, the STEP (Summer Temporary Employment Program) program for small business that gave them $7 of that from the government if they hired students. Therefore, more money for people available to spend helps to boost the economies. What has the UCP done to help small businesses? All in all, Mr. Malmgren’s letter is merely trying to dupe readers by using words representing false arguments and misinformation. P. Auger-Iannattone Medicine Hat 13-12
Boy have you got it right. Notley campaigned on praising the Peter Lougheed conservatives for what they had done for the people of Alberta and promised to get us back up to his level of collecting proper royalties and taxes and that’s what she set out to do. However she took office at a time of an international oil industry crash and couldn’t just blindly do it. It had to be done over a period of time, yet Albertans expected her to fix in only four years what these fake conservatives created in twenty five . There is no way Lougheed’s royalties and taxes should have been destroyed in the first place and we can all thank the Ralph Klein government for doing it. It didn’t happen in Norway and Alaska.