While this newspaper is being issued on April 17, this column was written on April 5. With the election being scheduled for April 16, any forecast I make has 11 days to be proven wrong. As a result, I’m not making any forecasts! However, I am going to provide you with some information. According to Elections Alberta (www.elections.ab.ca) there are 13 registered political parties in Alberta, including:
1. Alberta Advantage Party 2. Alberta Independence Party 3. Alberta Liberal Party 4. Alberta NDP Party 5. Alberta Party 6. Communist Party 7. Green Party of Alberta 8. Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta 9. ProLife Alberta Political Association 10. Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta 11. Reform Party of Alberta 12. Wildrose Party 13. United Conservative Party.
I must admit I was surprised to see four parties I’ve never heard of, and three (Reform/PC/Wildrose) that I thought were extinct. In fact, I only see two to three parties that I think are even capable of winning at least one seat in our legislature. There are a total of 87 seats in the provincial legislature, so any party wanting a majority will need to win a minimum of 44 seats. If no party does win 44, then we will have a minority government.
As far as I can tell, there are no animals (other than human beings) running in this election, which seems unfortunate. I know our idiot American cousins are arguing whether the constitution applies only to people, or whether it also extends to other life forms. Lately, as would be expected, activist U.S. judges seem to be coming down in support of all animals being covered by the U.S. Constitution. Assuming this pattern continues, we should soon see pigs, sloths, jackasses and crows running for U.S. offices. The only problem I see with this is how will the average voter tell if the candidate is a human jackass, or a real one? (Or is there even a difference?).
I know the NDP has portrayed all UCP voters as Nazi-like barbarians full of hate for all other races, women, the poor, other religions, etc., but I think the attack by New Democrats tells us more about the NDP than it does about the object of their attacks. In fact, I’m fed up with these constant comparisons to Nazis – I hear this continually. I hear this in Canada and the U.S. – and I’m sure the comparison is not limited to these two countries.
The Nazis were a flood of evil that cast its hatred and poison across most of Europe and a huge section of Russia. They murdered millions of innocents, including Jews, priests, members of the LGBTQ community, intellectuals, political opponents, prisoners of war, physically and/or mentally challenged individuals and countless others. Beyond the murder of millions, their war machine also caused the deaths of additional millions of soldiers, sailors and civilians.
To compare any person, of any particular party, to a Nazi is absurd, and it diminishes the true, monstrous evil of all Nazis. Doing so is adding evil to evil. Surely, we should expect that all political candidates in our province can live up to a higher standard than this pathetic name-calling.
While I can’t explain the platforms of all these parties, I do know I want to vote for the party that stated “if elected, every new school built in Alberta will have at least two floors, as we believe in higher education.” Yes!
Brian McLeod is a St. Albert resident.
