By Letter to the Editor on December 21, 2016.

Re: “Politicians: Nothing of substance,” Dec. 14

Ian Parkinson’s letter certainly rings true with a lot of us former Conservative supporters. It’s become all about looking after their own well being and those of their rich friends, and who cares about anyone else. Seniors have been the biggest losers in Alberta. My late parents and two sisters spent countless hours volunteering for the Lougheed and Getty governments. A brother in-law voluntarily flew the government plane for them. We were all proud to support the Alberta Conservative Party and watch them run this province properly while they built up our Heritage Trust Fund for our children.

Then along came Ralph Klein , a well known Liberal, a guy my family had known since the early 1960s and we certainly had no intention of supporting him and we were right. By slashing Lougheed’s royalties, taxes and with privatization he put this province and many of its citizens in financial ruin. Thanks to his privatization we now have a family member, in a nursing home, at a cost of nearly $11,000 per month and know of another family that was paying nearly $14,000.

In 2003 I was asked to run as leader of the Wildrose Party in the 2004 election. I declined, knowing my wife was retiring shortly and we intended to do some travelling. Since then the Wildrose has changed from wanting to put a stop to Klein’s destructive policies to one wanting to bring them back.

As they and their conservative friends ignore what Lougheed created for us by collecting proper royalties and taxes, and what Alaska and Norway is accomplishing with their oil wealth they want to be our heroes and cut billions off our government spending by dumping the costs of health care onto the backs of the people, like their hero Klein did with the power industry. How stupid do they think we are? As doctors will tell you, not only will it give their rich friends first priority to our health care services it will destroy health care service in rural Alberta, putting many lives at risk. The big question they have is how are they going to keep doctors and nurses working in rural Alberta when they can make twice as much money working in private clinic, that they will create, in the cities.

Before we go running the NDP government into the ground all of us had better look at what they have planned. First off Bill 6 that the Wildrose claimed would put family farms out of business is working well, just like it has in Saskatchewan since 1970. Farmers rushed to sign up and we are told 36,000 farm workers are now protected, not to mention that it helps protect farmers from lawsuits if someone is injured or killed on their farms. Secondly the carbon tax is fully supported by the oil industry and has worked well in B.C. since 2008. It’s also well known that the NDP fully intends to raise taxes and royalties back up towards what Lougheed was getting for us and many of the costs of converting the coal fired plants to natural gas should be covered by the government’s additional revenues. As Lougheed promoted, before his death, we have to get control of our pollution. It’s no secret that Alberta has the highest percentage per capita, in North America, of children with asthma.

Of course if you enjoy being treated like a moron go right on believing all the lies the Wildrose and Conservatives are spreading like “Notley is responsible for the loss of 100,000 jobs in Alberta, the escalating poverty, sky-rocketing crime and young people being trafficked into the sex trade.” Really, those of us who had ties to the oil industry aren’t that stupid.

Alan K. Spiller

Edmonton