I've not been shy about my love of the concept of parliamentary democracy. I love it. I think it has the potential to be the best flavour of democracy going. I frequently regret that there is insufficient altruism in politics to make it work.

It is a simple premise: The room is not big enough for everyone to sit in the legislature at once, so we elect someone to go sit there on our behalf. Those elected representatives go to Edmonton with their local biases to make good law for Alberta. A bunch of those people will be "The Government" and will propose laws. The rest will be "The Opposition" and they will oppose any flaws in the laws and propose changes to the laws in the hopes of making a better Alberta.

Note that the job of the Opposition is not to say, "The Government is wrong" it is to say "We believe this part of the law would better serve Alberta with these amendments."

Then, the coolness happens! Parliament.

It's why we read the bills 3 times and debate them. To talk about it. Not brag or nay-say, but to actually find and create the best law available.

Please, newly elected Government and Opposition, take our diverse and elected members and use them ALL to our best advantage. We live in a great province, so let's keep it that way.

I am emphatically saying.

Promises, Promises

So... Today I will focus my attention one little detail about the Alberta PCs.

Their campaign, for as long as I can remember, is based on "We've been doing well so you should vote for us." It has even been peppered with the occasional "We did what we said we were going to do!" but those are usually to distract us from other things.

In my research for this election, I was reading through old budgets and found this gem of a promise from April 7th, 2009.

"The Pharmaceutical Strategy will redesign drug coverage for seniors. When it is implemented on January 1, 2010, it will lower or completely eliminate prescription drug costs for about 60% of seniors." (FISCAL PLAN 2009 –12  SPENDING PLAN,  Page 31)

This is rapidly followed up by a press release on April 23rd, 2009 announcing details of the plan that will come into effect July 1, 2010.

Then there was a new budget passed in February 2010 that declared "Under the Alberta Pharmaceutical Strategy, drug coverage for seniors has been redesigned . When it is implemented on July 1, 2010, it will lower or completely eliminate prescription drug costs for about 60% of seniors." (FISCAL PLAN 2010 –13 G SPENDING PLAN, Page 31)

In a press release on March 31st, 2010 it was announced that "Proposed changes to Alberta's seniors' drug plan scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2010, have been delayed in order to address necessary legislative and regulatory changes and align with other government programs for seniors. Meanwhile, the existing seniors' drug program will remain available to all Albertans 65 years and older." (This coverage has not been updated since July 2010).

"In 20 years, Alberta's seniors' population will have doubled from 400,000 to more than 800,000 - an increase from 11 to 21 per cent of our population," said Gene Zwozdesky, Minister of Health and Wellness.  "As a result, a comprehensive approach is needed to address the needs of an aging and rapidly expanding population, and that simply requires more time to get it right."

How much time?

Budget 2011 Announces "The 2011-12 budget provides over $1 billion for these benefits, including
$595 million for prescription drug benefits for seniors." No mention of the redesigned drug coverage plan.

Budget 2012 Announces "There is over $1 billion budgeted for these benefits in 2012-13, including
$552 million for prescription drug benefits for seniors." Still no mention of the redesigned drug coverage plan and notice that prescription drug benefits for seniors is now decreasing despite the increasing number of seniors in Alberta.

This is just one example of "Look how well we (actually) did." There might be more examples. There might not. But, if we're not paying attention, we won't know what else is promised but not delivered.

Be informed. Do some reading. Ask some questions. Make up your own mind. Democracy works better that way.

I'm just saying.


p.s. I'm keeping copies of the platforms so that I can track the winners promises against performance. You should, too!

p.p.s. I was able to download PC, NDP, Lib, Alberta, & Evergreen (as PDF). I was able to download Separation Party, Alberta Social Credit, &  Communist Party of Alberta (by copy and paste),... but for some reason, WR won't let me download their policy documents... Maybe they don't want it thrown back in their faces?

EDIT APRIL 18, 2012
With some digging I found http://www.wildrosecaucus.ca/issues/  There are 14 issues there each with what looks like a policy PDF. I'll have to see if it matches their platform Scribd thing.