Dear Editor:
The PC government continues to fail Albertans, and to diminish our province's national and international reputation. Between the destructive royalty framework, the record deficit budget, removal of property rights and increased regulatory burden, this government has destroyed Alberta's well deserved reputation as the best place to invest, work and do business in just a few short years.
Now, they have done it again, this time tarnishing Alberta's proud role as a leader in federal democratic reform.
The PC government’s recent decision to extend the terms of our current senators in waiting, whose term expires in October 2010, is an affront to democracy and undermines Alberta’s tradition of democratically electing Senate nominees. In the same week that the federal government urged other provinces to follow Alberta's example of electing senate nominees for terms of six years, the premier unilaterally eliminated the opportunity for Albertans to elect new representatives to fill several imminent Alberta vacancies. He did this by arbitrarily extending their six-year terms to nine — a decision the senators-elect themselves have criticized as undemocratic. This is no way to demonstrate Alberta's 20-year commitment to an elected, equal and effective senate, and is no way to ensure that our province's interests are represented in Ottawa.
Albertans should see this damaging decision for what it is — a crass political move to escape an electoral challenge from the Wildrose Alliance Party, which recently launched a nomination process for selecting Wildrose Senate candidates. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised, though. This government has ignored numerous opportunities to institute democratic reform initiatives that Albertans widely support, like fixed election dates, citizens' initiated referenda and recalling MLAs who break their election promises. Now the government is compromising and discrediting senate reform by appointing candidates beyond the mandates they were given by the voters. This decision has unequivocally shown just how little this government believes in the principle of electing senate nominees, and how willing it is to destroy our province's reputation as a leader on the national stage.
I urge this government to get it right and hold the senate election in October in conjunction with the municipal elections. (The cost last time was 80 cents per eligible voter.) But, sadly, Albertans know this government doesn't listen to ordinary Albertans.
So, instead, I invite you to join the Wildrose Alliance, and help build a new vision for our province.
Come hear Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith June 2 at 7 p.m. at the Lacombe Memorial Centre.
Dean Chessor,
president, Lacombe-Ponoka
Wildrose Alliance Constituency Association