Pat Rehn,
MLA,
Lesser Slave Lake
I’m hoping the onset of spring and all the sunshine it brings has lifted the spirits or everyone in Lesser Slave Lake. Spring is a famously beautiful time in our constituency and it is best spent among family and friends.
The legislature wrapped up its spring sitting, which will be its final one ahead of the general election in May, and I was supremely pleased to be able to give my final members’ statement on the final day of the sitting. Honouring those who came before me and established the legacy my family continues to live to this day. Lesser Slave Lake is an incredibly remarkable place full of hard-working and inspired Albertans who never ask for an easier life but instead ask for stronger backs. They have been my inspiration and it has been a true honour to be able to get to know many of the constituents in Lesser Slave Lake over the term and call many of them friends.
While my time in office will soon be over, the last four years is a record of recovery in jobs and the instinctual optimism in Alberta that has driven our unprecedented economic success since the end of the pandemic. With our economy having magnetic growth, Canadians across the country have noticed and voted with their feet. By this account, Alberta leads the pack in attracting Canadians from around the country interested in having a better life. Alberta is truly back and this is something everyone in Lesser Slave Lake can take tremendous pride in. The heart of our community is its interest in a better future for all.
In the most recent release of inflationary numbers by Statistics Canada, it shows that Alberta continues to maintain the least inflation in the country, standing at the reasonable rate of 3.3 per cent. This is because of prudent inflation-reducing measures by our Alberta government, such as the electricity rebate and fuel tax suspension, which keeps more money in Albertans’ pockets. Our government will continue to proactively focus on ensuring affordability remains a key attribute of the Alberta Advantage.
As I finish this article I’s like to conclude with the Poem If by Rudyard Kipkling.
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
Any yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same:
If you can bear to hear the trutn you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop to build ‘em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a man, my son!