Rant #1
Growing up, I loved watching Rick Mercer’s rants. Seeing how he would march through graffiti-filled alleyways while combining his trademark wit and sarcasm made for great television - but it also made for great reflection opportunities.
In that spirit, I find myself needing an outlet today to simply rant.
On CTV Question Period, Premier Danielle Smith was having a conversation about oil production in our province. The premier responded to an observation that Alberta crude has seen record production levels in each of the last four years, she retorted that Alberta wants to double that production and that we could already be producing 6-8 million barrels a day.
When Vassy Kapelos said “I’m just countering the idea that things are destitute or that nothing is being developed or production is extremely capped,” Premier Smith responded with a shocking claim.
“Vassy, we’ve got the lowest living standards in the world.”
No, Premier. You’re simply wrong.
Forgive me, but the willingness to say such a ridiculous statement on national television when she has said many, many times that Alberta is “the best place in Canada to live, work, and raise a family” tells me she is more interested in saying whatever she thinks will help her win a debate than operating in reality with the rest of us.
Let’s say this clearly - no, Alberta does not have anywhere near the lowest quality of life in the world. In fact, Alberta has been regarded as one of the best places in the world for quality of life as recently as 2014.
Even if you want to quabble about how things have gotten worse since 2014, I would invite you to compare Alberta to any war-torn region where kids deal with air raid sirens like recess bells and tell me how bad we have it here. I would invite you to compare Alberta to countries with average life expectancies in the 50-60 year range and tell me how bad we have it here. I would invite you to look at nations facing food crises and famine in 2025 and tell me how bad we have it here.
But I digress.
Alberta has always been one of the best places in the world to live - it always will be. And we can make this province even better if there is the political will to do so.
But with this government, it is always someone else’s fault when things to downhill or get worse. Even though they’ve been in power for six years now, it’s always the fault of the federal government or the Alberta NDP for why things are the way they are today. Just watch any question period in the Legislature and you’ll quickly see what I mean.
At some point, you have to accept responsibility when things get worse under your watch.
Skyrocketing youth unemployment doesn’t make our province better. Tearing down our health care system doesn’t make our province better. Increasing auto insurance rates doesn’t make our province better. Underfunding our education system doesn’t make our province better.
If you truly believe that Alberta is the best place in the world to work, live, and raise a family, you owe it to the people who live here to maintain and improve that quality of life in every decision you make - don’t throw it in the gutter on national television to score political points.