Jeff Burgar

There is much whining and opinion spouting to be heard about our provincial government.

Premier Rachel Notley is roundly picked on by just about every coffee-shop expert. Almost all of whom have missed the message in his or her upbringing – “If you can’t say something nice about someone, then don’t say anything at all.” Apparently, when it comes to politics, the gloves can come off. That’s about as far as it goes for most.

In fact, as reported a few weeks ago in these pages, only four folks from the west end of Lesser Slave Lake constituency troubled themselves to travel to Slave Lake to what might be called the first official meeting of the United Conservative Party for our region. Only four!

Despite the moaning and groaning, most folks around the west end must be very happy with MLA Danielle Larivee and Premier Notley. Isn’t “don’t fix it if it ain’t broken” a sign of a certain amount of happiness and contentment?

Yes, it certainly is!

Despite that contentment, the topic of running the NDP out of office is often on the table. Interestingly, we haven’t heard much from UCP leader Jason Kenney on his plans to wipe out the carbon tax. Probably, because he really has no such plans.

And will he be rolling back the minimum wage levels raised by Notley? Not a peep.

In fact, there doesn’t seem to be much at all in the UCP platform except, “We gotta get rid of the NDP!” “Oh, and that Trudeau is horrible, too!”

Such lines might play well in Lower Armpit, Alberta. You know, places where voters have little intelligence and even less ability to understand when they are played for suckers. Hence, we wait for real news from Kenney Headquarters what they plan for us if they get elected.

In any event, there will be an election next year. There will most likely be a UCP candidate running against Larivee in Lesser Slave Lake. Who that candidate will be has yet to be decided.

If the four west end people who toddled off to the meeting in Slave Lake is any indication, the UCP will be fielding a Slave Lake person. That isn’t particularly bad. Larivee makes her home in Slave Lake. The NDP head office for this riding is in Slave Lake.

But at least, Larivee has ties to East Prairie. She also makes a sincere effort to include all of this big riding in her visits and work, north south and west. So, despite the slow progress on west end items such as kidney dialysis, and even doctor attraction [there are three new ones reportedly heading to Slave Lake] Lesser Slave Lake as a whole could easily do much worse.

That does not mean UCP, or in fact Liberal or Alberta Party supporters anywhere, should forget about putting a candidate up against Larivee. Voters should have choices. Whether the choice be in which party, which candidate they want, or what policies they want pursued.

So far, except for Larivee, there are no candidates for any party, including the UCP, announced to seek the nomination or carry their flag. One can bet there will be bids from Slave Lakers. Will anybody from the west end step forward? Even if only to show the world the west end actually cares?