Shortly after Ed Stelmach was selected to lead Alberta’s Conservatives, I had problems with certain statements about health care that bothered me — so I wrote the premier a letter about it.
My question was about whether the government would be delisting certain procedures and changing its drug policy when health premiums were discontinued.
The typical reply left the door open to do anything they wanted to do and as you can see, they are doing what they want to do.
Is Health Minister Ron Liepert being instructed to make these changes against his wishes or is it that he doesn’t know what to do?
I feel our local Red Deer North MLA, Mary Anne Jablonski, is not carrying out her duties.
She is the minister for seniors affairs and I haven’t heard one word from her or seen any articles in the paper stating she is against the double whammy delivered against seniors with delisting of services and increases in drug costs.
To me, the letter she wrote to the Advocate a few days ago just indicates that there are more changes coming to our health-care system.
As George Bush put it, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.”
Is Jablonski going to fight for the seniors’ health and drug plans or is she going to put more lead in the boat, trying to sink it?
Back in the mid 1940s, Ireland had the Irish Hospitals Sweep Stakes program that used the money from horse races several times in a year. This profit nicely funded their medical system, which was one of the best.
As far as I’m concerned, our Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission, through the Wildrose Foundation and others, is wasting millions of dollars of lottery funds to fund ridiculous projects instead of putting that money towards our health-care system.
I have just spent half a day on the Internet studying the Liquor and Gaming Commission’s site and there are more than 500 pages detailing where the money went. With about six beneficiaries per page, that makes about 3,000 beneficiaries getting money from the Alberta Lotteries and Gaming gold mine.
Just imagine how much good this would do for sick Albertans if most of this money was directed to the Alberta health-care system, improving the system substantially for us all.
It seems like every time we elect a government, we are electing a one-man dictatorship with the rest of our MLAs following along like little sheep.
I’m sure that all of these governing MLAs have different opinions but toe the leader’s line as they like their positions.
The MLAs were elected to represent the people and not the premier. They should do their jobs.
To those of you who read this article and feel that I’m a left-wing Liberal or something like that, I’ll explain myself. I am a renegade redneck who has voted Conservative in Alberta all my life, but the way things are going with this government, I will be a protest voter and vote for another party.
I’m sure there are thousands of other people with the same opinion.
Tom Skoreyko
Red Deer