One of the most common concerns I hear from folks is that our governments are getting away from the core values that once made our province and our country strong.

This is of great concern to me, because we didn’t come by our values the easy way. They are a reflection of the struggles we have faced and the lessons we have learned over three, four, and five generations. We have faced harsh winters, drought, floods, and prairie fires, not to mention two World Wars and a Great Depression. Our legacy is the values that we learned from our parents and teach our children.

As the old saying goes, the truth will out.

Jason Kenney’s dirty little secret hit the front page this week, as yet another ratings agency downgraded Alberta’s credit rating.

S&P Global found that Alberta’s deficits are the highest of any local or regional government in Canada, not just for this year but last year as well.

Freedom requires leadership

One thing that defines our society is our commitment to economic freedom. The freedoms we enjoy today didn’t come about by accident, and it takes real leadership, generation after generation, to maintain these freedoms.

In an economically free society, the primary role of government is to protect the individual’s personal choice and property rights, ensure the proper functioning of free markets, and ensure all individuals can enter and compete in the markets. The government also has a duty to keep taxes low, remove barriers to trade, and trust people to make the right decisions for themselves and their families.

Is it a revolt? Not really. More like a common-sense revolution, Mike Harris style.

So far 17 United Conservative Party caucus members in Alberta have signed a letter in opposition to lockdowns. To Premier Kenney’s credit, he has publicly encouraged debate over the province’s latest pandemic restrictions, and that’s exactly what my constituents expect me to do.

I can tell you with certainty that in my constituency and across my region, the public has very real concerns about the government’s latest measures

I don’t think anyone disputes that there is rural-urban divide in our society, and over time it has grown more polarized.

Both economically and politically, often it seems like rural and urban folks live in two completely different worlds. This divide is not new, but over the past several years I think it has become increasingly pronounced. The real danger for our society is not the differences between rural and urban life, but in the power disparity between these two worlds.

With the historically rapid urbanization of the past 50 years, rural folks are losing the ability to determine their own future, and are more disconnected from our society’s power structures. You can see the disparity every day in a thousand different ways.