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Party politics hurts, rather than helps

Party politics hurts Albertans, as discussed in this week's editorial.

Party politics is doing more to hurt this province than help.

By the time you are done reading this, half of you will agree with me while the other half will totally disagree; and therein lies the problem with party politics. The very nature of the system is divisive, creating fissures in the fabric of our society.

Whatever happened to leaders taking care of their constituents?

Looking at Alberta’s political landscape it appears there is a decent chance we will have a new government at the helm. One has to hand it to the Wildrose Party; it has been an effective opposition putting forward numerous press releases stating where the NDP government has gone wrong and listening to Albertans upset with NDP.

The party has to be tread carefully, however. With so much negativity and uncertainty in the financial landscape in Alberta the Wildrose needs to ensure it isn’t seen as the Wildrose-with-lots-of-thorns Party. That negativity has a way of clinging and leaving a lasting legacy.

I guess when it comes to the potential of being the ruling Alberta government, then some negativity must be seen as a strategic advancement of one’s goals. I’m guessing if the NDP group were in the same position they would do the same thing; whatever it takes to get followers angry enough to go out and vote. Yes, let’s make everyone angry everyone else, that’s a great solution to the problem.

One group looks across the chasm at the other thinking, “Those guys are nuts.” While other side is doing the exact same thing. Whatever happened to meeting in the middle and finding some common ground? If this is our venerable leaders’ ideas of conflict resolution, then they have failed Albertans.

I use the recent announcement of Alberta’s Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower) Act as an example of that failed system. A multi-party committee came together to determine ways to make this act better. Now this seems like a noble cause, how to protect those who work for the province including contractors from losing their jobs when seeing wrongdoing. Very noble.

Sadly, shortly before the recommendations were made a kerfuffle about infighting within the committee took the wind right out of the sales of the committee. Its announcement and recommendations were an afterthought. This was a disservice to Albertans.

Their and I include everyone in this immaturity and willingness to fight, rather than work together leaves a lot to be desired. What’s worse for Alberta is that this discord fuels anger, which has led to people calling up MLAs and threatening their them. At their home. Seriously. On both sides.

Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Take away the party name and it’s easy to see that a majority of our MLAs are fairly new to provincial politics. It takes time to be good at any job and neither the Wildrose nor the NDP are actually so amazing that they can unite the province and bring people together for a common vision. Albertans need to look at each of their MLAs and ask, can they lead their community and bring essential supports to constituents. The rest is just pontificating.

Something tells me both the Wildrose and the NDP both have ideas to bring to the table. Why can’t they work together to make good things happen for residents? Oh right, I forgot, it’s party politics; one can’t be right if the other is.