Letter to Editor

LUCY’S BACK

In the Peanuts Comic, Lucy constantly offered to pin a football for Charlie Brown. That way he’d be able to give it a kick. Each time, as Charlie ran up to the ball and was just about ready to connect, Lucy would snatch the ball and run away. Charlie Brown always ended up on his backside.

Poor Charlie got repeatedly sucked into the ruse. In one follow-up cartoon, Lucy turns to Charlie and sweetly says, “Hey, Charlie Brown, I’ll hold the ball while you come running up to kick it.” In the next frame, Charlie Brown is alone with a thought bubble over his head that reads, “She sounds sincere. If a person sounds sincere it must mean they are sincere.” Charlie believes her. In the final frame he’s on his backside once again.

I have to confess that there are days when I feel like the government is Lucy, and the rest of us are Charlie Brown. The Edmonton Sun recently counted promises made by the PC government in its so-called capital construction plan. According to the Sun, the PCs promised to build or rebuild 120 schools. It goes on to state that only one school has been built.

Three years ago, Robin Campbell and the PCs promised to build 140 Family Care Facilities. One has been built.

Campbell and the PC government really do treat people the way Lucy treated Charlie Brown. In 2005, the PCs promised to build a hospital in Edson. They didn’t follow through. Seven years later, in April 2012, Campbell publicly promised that the hospital would be built by 2014. It’s 2015, and the hospital still isn’t finished. Can you hear Lucy calling out, “Hey Charlie Brown, c’mon over here and kick a field goal.”

Recently, Campbell promised that the government would provide funding to complete what is now a partially constructed hospital in Edson. When I heard the announced promise I had to ask myself, “Why do they keep promising that over and over?” I couldn’t help but think of Charlie Brown.

Now, despite the fact that the PCs have promised to build 120 schools and have actually built one, Campbell is promising to build the A.H. Dakin School in Edson.

Schools and healthcare facilities are important. We need them. Yet, why, when, and where the government builds these facilities should never be left to the arbitrary whims of politicians who run around at election time saying, “Vote for me and I’ll build you a school,” or “Vote for me and I’ll get you funding for a hospital.” In 1994, the PCs promised to build a new hospital in Whitecourt. It still isn’t built.

This helter-skelter approach to capital construction is where professional analysts always point when they explain why Alberta’s infrastructure system is unreliable and expensive. Albertans deserve better. We deserve a system where capital decisions are based on measurable criteria, identified priorities, and regional consultation. Half-empty political promises won’t do the job.

In all seriousness, as a tribute to the unreliable and totally untrustworthy manner in which Campbell and our PC government approach these major construction projects, maybe someone should recommend that a picture of Lucy with a football be added to the sign at the Edson Hospital Construction Site.

It would certainly be a timely and appropriate addition.

Stuart Taylor
Nominated candidate, West Yellowhead Wildrose