Skip to content

Time to bring back accountability to Canada

After watching Premier Allison Redford lose all credibility, all the media coverage of the endless financial abuse

Dear Editor,

After watching Premier Allison Redford lose all credibility, all the media coverage of the endless financial abuse of their positions by senators and by our elected officials at all levels of government, plus the partisan muzzling of real debate in our provincial and federal legislatures, I thought I would look up the definition of democracy and see where Canada rates and after looking at a couple of dictionaries, I found the following:

Democracy is a form of government in which supreme power is vested in the people, exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of elected representatives usually involving periodic free elections. Most democracies today are representative, and the concept of representative democracy came about largely from the ideas and institutions that developed during the European Middle Ages and the Enlightenment and in the American and French Revolutions. Democracy has come to imply universal suffrage, competition for office, freedom of speech and the press, and the rule of law;

Is a form of government in which people choose leaders by voting: So when you consider that four out of every 10 Canadian citizens don’t even bother to vote, this tells us something about how disenfranchised voters are today with our political system;

A country ruled by democracy: There’s endless examples of the slippery slope we Canadians are on, away from true democracy, as showcased by the endless abuse of their positions by politicians and civil servants at all levels of government;

A country in which everyone is treated equally and has equal rights: This statement reminds me of the famous quote by George Orwell referring to Communism, that “everybody is equal, but some are more equal than others”. A very true reflection of the sad state of affairs here in Canada and all around the world;

A society without hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges: Unfortunately we live in a society that fawns over actors, musicians, celebrities, etc. and allow them and our elected politicians to get away with the endless abuses their positions afford them. We have endless examples of government waste but contrast this with how we treat our veterans and the families of those who gave up their lives.

Some simple questions that I have as a tax payer:

What’s the justification for things such as the over a million dollars in severance pay to Allison Redford’s staff?

How do senators rationalize that it’s OK to screw taxpayers, when they are already overpaid and have endless free or well subsidised perks?

Why do we need multiple levels of high priced management with Alberta Health Services, when we’re short of frontline people to provide to the type of care Albertans deserve?

Why does resource rich Alberta have a deficit when tiny Norway has a multibillion dollar rainy day fund?

Why do schools, hospitals and other needed infrastructure projects get delayed, or worse, have huge cost over-runs because of abysmal planning?

The list goes on and on, so it’s time we all said enough of this!

It’s time for a major change to bring back accountability at all levels of government and make these people realize that they are our employees and as such can be fired. So to do this, we all need to get involved in the democratic process, to understand the issues both here in Alberta and at the federal level and get out and vote in the next election, for MLAs or MPs who will stand up for their constituents' best interests.

Respectfully

Peter Boys

A very disgruntled taxpayer