Genevieve Simms

Could there possibly be a more desperate-looking government anywhere in the world than the one right here in Alberta?

Our very own government, led by a premier who manages to mangle almost every sentence he utters, has been trying to smooth talk us with our own money. Billions of dollars for roads, bridges and trains. Millions for schools. Millions for long-term care. Millions for starving artists. Millions for the disabled, and let’s not forget the “new” green plan. The list goes on and on. Day after day. And that was just one week. Who knows what else they will try and seduce us with during the election campaign?

It all brings to mind the image of an errant husband who knows the game is up; his wife is so fed up with him, her bags are packed and ready to go. But he keeps promising to be good. He offers her diamond jewelry and a new car. Talks about the big new house they could buy in a few months, the trip to Paris. Trouble is, his record speaks for itself and she has no reason to believe that he will change. Besides, she earns most of the income in the family, not him. It’s just more of the same old blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

If it weren’t so funny it would be depressing. However, it just gets harder and harder to take this government seriously. At least former Premier Ralph Klein has admitted that he didn’t have a plan to counter the fallout from the rapid expansion and development of the tar sands. This government would have us believe it does have a plan, even though all the projects, promises and priority lists look as though they were written up in the men’s room during an Oilers-Flames game. As in: gotta get back to the game, wouldn’t want to miss anything; but here’s a few ideas that might work.

Maybe the Conservatives think we are all too stupid to figure out that these promises don’t have much substance to them. Maybe they believe that if they keep mouthing the words “millions of dollars” we will all be hypnotized into agreeing with them; seeing them as the great sugar daddy from whom all good things flow.

Let’s take a look at some of these promises. The climate-change plan will cut projected green house gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2050. 2050? That’s 42 years from now. There’s a good chance Premier Stelmach and most of his cabinet will have left us for the great beyond by then. Projected emissions? That means the tar sands projects can keep upping the amount of greenhouse gases they emit into the atmosphere and then somewhere along the line they’ll have to cut them in half even if that means there are more GGs going into the atmosphere at that future date than there are now. Do they really expect us to swallow this stuff?

And then there are all those schools that are going to be built. After years and years of listening to parents and teachers complain about overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated buildings, we are getting new schools all over the province.

New schools are a good thing. However, let’s not forget many of these new schools are P3 projects (public-private partnerships). They will be built and owned by the private sector even though it’s been shown over and over again that P3 projects always cost more than if the government financed them. So we’ll be getting badly needed schools, but we will end up paying much more than we need too, and the government will have less control over these important assets. Why does the government want to waste our money this way?

The Stelmach government has also promised more money for long-term care beds. Who can argue with that? What is also needed is more oversight and enforcement of standards of care in long-term care facilities, so we know that the money directed to those facilities is being used for the best patient care possible. Details, details.

Perhaps one of the funniest announcements was increased funding for the arts. During the Klein regime, writers, actors, dancers, musicians and painters fumed and fretted about the lack of funding in a province as rich as Alberta. A lot of them actually turned out for this announcement and applauded the Conservatives. Are they turncoats or just good actors? Will they actually vote for the Conservatives? Or will they take the money and vote Liberal, ND, Green or Wildrose Alliance? Do the Conservatives actually believe they can turn around 15 years of resentment with one announcement? Surely they can’t be that shallow?