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Edmonton Journal

Thursday's letters: UCP bias seen in Alberta Next survey

I have been a lifelong Conservative and have supported the Conservative ideology while living in Ontario and for the last 30-plus years since moving to Alberta. Article content I have just completed the Alberta Next online survey and I am greatly disappointed and frustrated that there is no option to say 'no' to the first two questions regarding an Alberta police force or exiting the CPP. The wording and possible choices for these two questions have been devised so as to skew the survey results in favour of the position of the UCP government. Article content Article content Article content There has already been a survey that has rejected the idea of an Alberta pension plan, so why does the UCP continue to ask? Is it the UCP's belief that if they keep wasting our tax dollars on these surveys that sooner or later the public will tire and just give up? Then all that remains is the minority that are in favour of these changes. Article content Article content Every day, I take a bone-jarring drive down Victoria Trail and I am reminded of the poor road maintenance in this city over the past 10 years, and I wonder where my tax dollars have been spent. I turn down Hermitage Read and I am reminded of the millions spent on bike lanes that few if anybody uses. I then hear how city council wants to spend millions more on bike lanes down 96 Street, which is a quiet residential street with enough room for parking on both sides and a single lane down the middle and what little traffic there is rarely goes more than 30 km/h. Article content Article content I get mailouts from city council members saying how they are fiscally responsible, and how they save hundreds of millions. I don't see it. I did see my taxes go up by about 50 per cent over the last few years, and except for high consulting fees, million-dollar bike lanes and white elephant projects, there have been few benefits of value for my tax dollars. I think it is time for a new city council. Article content It is interesting to see political opponents of the new government in Ottawa taking Mark Carney to task for cancelling the Digital Services Tax on online companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb despite their taking billions out of Canada. Article content For some, this seems to be more of an opportunity to try and take down a Canadian political opponent than fighting back against the continually more aggressive and erratic actions of the president of the United States. Canadians should be uniting to primarily oppose what the United States is doing, not what Canada is doing. This is not the time, or an issue, for the playing of petty politics.