Jeff Burgar
Four Lesser Slave Lake governments are supporting their MLA, Scott Sinclair. He was bounced out of the United Conservative Party several days ago.
UCP, led by Premier Danielle Smith, just doesn’t want him in their midst anymore. Sinclair still sits in the Legislature. But he is now an Independent. Like the NDP, he is not part of the machine making, changing or withdrawing, laws, rules, regulations and spending in Alberta. Like the NDP, he gets to criticize, and that’s it.
Of course, all UCP Party members can also criticize. Just don’t be too loud about it. According to UCP Party leadership, Sinclair crossed a line when he threatened to vote against the new Alberta budget. The nuances of this vote are supposed to be important. The UCP says so.
As far as governments in Lesser Slave Lake are concerned, the real matter of importance is the fact of what is, and isn’t, in the actual budget. In a nutshell, way too much money for Alberta major cities. Way too little for northern Alberta. Way too little, by extension, all of rural Alberta.
I could go on about how rural Alberta gets run over by provincial governments bent on chasing votes in Edmonton and Calgary. Cities get billion-dollar ring roads, sports arenas, and bumps in freeways from four lanes (each way) to six lanes. Northern Alberta barely gets money for another load of gravel on some of its goat trails.
But this isn’t just about better roads and bridges in the north.
Few politicians anywhere spend much time thinking about things outside their particular interest or area of expertise, if they have such. Community councillors, or school trustees, pay little attention to lab equipment in schools. Or even the level or quality of courses being taught, like mathematics, compared to cities. Councillors usually leave it to a dedicated member to worry about people travelling sometimes hundreds of kilometres for cancer treatments. Or what shape an arena is in.
According to the decade old Starke Report on Alberta healthcare, rural Albertans want more local input into health decisions. Well, we had that once upon a time. Then we got local health boards centralized. Then centralized again into one big “superboard.” Run out of Edmonton, of course. We all snoozed. We all lost.
This is the inevitable consequence of big centres growing. Already vote rich, they do indeed get richer. Little guys stay even or get smaller as they lose influence.
Many people say turfing Sinclair was the right thing to do. “Uppity.” Not a “team player.” Doesn’t he know his rightful place and the proper time to speak his mind? Silly man!
The “powers that be” might pretend they have their hands full these days juggling Donald Trump, Ottawa, and those pesky voters in Edmonton and Calgary. Sinclair, and rural Alberta, just fell through the cracks.
We have a few, but we need a lot more Sinclairs, and a lot more rural governments, speaking real minds.