True Lies

A decidedly tongue-in-cheek look at truth and rumor in education and politics

David Flower

Are we being taken hook, line and sinker?

How much money did the government lose when it sold its liquor stores to the private sector? The longer I watch the government's privatization process, the more skeptical I become and the more I question what the private sector pays for facilities built with my tax dollars. One such question relates to the amount paid by the Health Resources Group to rent space in Calgary's Grace Hospital. I'm talking about the actual rate per square foot compared to the current going rate in Calgary. I suspect we're being taken!

Reformers are out beating the bushes

I hear that some Reform MPs are wandering about the province espousing to their constituents the virtues of the New Zealand experiment and praising the benefits of a voucher system for education. I think they should look at the facts. Peter Wilby, writing in The Times Educational Supplement, says that it is time teachers and students get angry because they "have been the victims of an elaborate, expensive and utterly misguided experiment."

The "market nonsense" has failed education. In Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the United States and Canada, restructuring and reforming is failing in its attempt to improve education for children and is succeeding only in playing economic games to the detriment of all. The "self-righteous proponents of common sense," as they call themselves, have merely sold their souls for money. Contrary to the religious principles that many of them propound, it appears they have chosen "mammon" over God.

Lost and found

Lost: Somewhere in Alberta, "democracy." If found, please return to the Alberta legislature.

Found: Somewhere in the Alberta legislature, the voice of the people (finally!). After much protest from the media and the public, the government withdrew Bill 26 (The Institutional Confinement and Sexual Sterilization Compensation Act) the day after it was introduced March 11. Unfortunately, many more examples still exist in which the voice of the people is never heard.

Found: The voice of western separatism (again). On March 5, the provincial treasurer referred to the colonial status of Alberta—a colony of the central government in the east. The separatist voice has not been raised much since the election of Gordon Kessler, Western Canada Concept (WCC) Party, who won a by-election on February 3, 1982, in the constituency of Olds-Didsbury. The WCC failed to win a seat in the November 2, 1982, election even though it ran candidates in 78 of 79 constituencies. After running in only 20 constituencies in 1986 and receiving a mere 4,615 votes, the party did not field candidates in the 1989 election.

Private school funding issue isn't "closed"

I found it interesting to hear the premier telling us that as far as he is concerned the private school issue is "closed." I doubt it is closed as far as private school advocates are concerned; after all, they won't be satisfied with anything less than equal funding.

Tolerating the ATA

In the March 10 Edmonton Sun, one of the regular political commentators again brought up the "anti-professional" and "anti-intellectual" approach of this government, an approach that trivializes intellect and culture. The author suggested that among other things, the government only just tolerates the ATA.