Dear editor,
I'm mad, and it's beyond politics at this point.
Albertans all over the province gave up much of their lives last year and cancelled many traditions they normally would have at Christmas, when stricter COVID measures were put in place.
Like many Albertans, we did the right thing. We set aside our traditions. My kids, for the first time in their lives, did not see their grandparents over Christmas. Our tradition of a family meal was put on hold while we did the right thing and stayed home.
But then, over the last week, we learned that many of our elected officials, including a cabinet minister, decided to travel internationally over the break, taking trips to tropical destinations. In one of their words, it was a "family tradition".
I'm sorry, but it reeks of privilege and entitlement for a politician to decide to go on a tropical vacation – one that many Albertans would consider a once-in-a-lifetime vacation – in the middle of a pandemic, when the very government they are part of is telling people to stay home, and in a year when many Albertans are suffering financially.
It flies in the face of the financial struggles many Albertans are experiencing, the efforts we all are putting in for the greater good and the pain many families felt this year when giving up holidays and missing out on their final goodbyes with dying loved ones.
The real icing on the cake is that Premier Jason Kenney said initially there would be no repercussions for those in his caucus who decided to laugh in the face of Albertans and run off to Mexico, Hawaii, or the United Kingdom. There was no accountability, a refusal to admit wrongdoing and it took serious backlash before there were any consequences for his colleagues' actions.
The entitled, tone-deaf, disrespectful, and inexcusable actions of these MLAs make me feel ill. They should all resign.
Steve Durrell,
Aspen Mews
Strathmore
