Thursday, September 15, 2005

Ralph's Imagination Is All Used Up

King Ralph has demonstrated yet again why it's time for Ralph to go.

Today, he is complaining because municipalities in Alberta are now looking for monies to rebuild and upgrade infrastructure that is creaking under the load of 15 years of decay and increasing population.

This after musing out loud about a "prosperity dividend" to individual Albertans. Hello, Ralph! Is there anybody home, or has the brain been vacated by stupidity?

If you've got billions to waste on a "dividend", why not redirect those funds constructively - into public infrastructure? Schools, water/sewer treatment facilities, transportation, wind power generation - I can think of dozens of uses for that money that will do a lot more long term good than a couple of hundred dollars in everyone's pocket.

Ralph has gotten so hooked on preserving his public popularity that he has lost all sight of what the public needs are. While Ralph was microfocusing on eliminating the province's deficit and then debt, he had a semi-plausible argument to work with - the big ticket projects were simply "out of reach". Fine - I disagree, but I'll grant the argument as having at least a superficial validity. Today, he engages in buying votes in the most blatant of ways - gas rebates, and now a "prosperity dividend". Give me a break - that is pissing away money, when we should be investing in our futures while the money is available.

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