Dear Editor,
Integrity. Accountability. Transparency. As voters, we expect that the individuals charged with representing us embody these aforementioned qualities fully and completely. Our MLAs should be able to paint a clear picture of what choices they have made as a government, why they feel those are the best for the future of our province and how we, as citizens, can expect to be impacted.
This is not what we have gotten from this UCP government. Rather than transparency we see elected MLAs sharing small parts of the broader budget in order to deny or diminish the true impact of the funding allocations that have been made. Where we expect our officials to account for their fiscal choices, instead we find them shifting the blame for citizen impact to other levels of government. Instead of being honest with voters, municipalities and school boards, we saw funding guarantees broken.
We might not agree on how to best bring prosperity back to our province, but we deserve MLAs with integrity. We deserve MLAs who remember they must be accountable to the people first and their party second. At the very least, we should be given a clear idea of the budget choices being made with the tax dollars we generate. Poor communication creates distrust and fosters the spread of misinformation. We deserve to have representatives who seek to build up our social capital; which is the trust and connection we all feel with our communities and with the institutions that serve us.
Our current government seems to want Albertans to believe there is simply not enough to go around; that our only choice is ‘us or them.’ The UCP share contentious opinion-based columns over whether the various services that support our citizens are acting responsibly, while they themselves spend tax dollars frivolously. We deserve better representation. We deserve integrity and community builders in our provincial government. We deserve a government that represents us, all of us.
We need to stay engaged. Contact your elected officials. Comment and refute false claims on social media. Connect with the community, no matter what the political leanings. Ensure our elected officials are held to account.
Alex Luterbach
President, Alberta Party Airdrie-East CA
