Thursday, May 7, 2015

An Open Letter to Rachel Notley

An open letter to Rachel Notley:

You don't this yet, but one day you and I will have a conversation sometime in the future.  We'll talk about Cinco de Mayo in the year 2015 and how that day forever shaped Alberta.  On that day, you had your own unlikely victory over insurmountable forces.  Although your battle against the Alberta conservatives doesn't quite compare to the Battle of Puebla, one can't dismiss the historic results of the NDP against not one, but two conservative parties.

In our conversation, I'll ask you about that victory and how you felt during those first years.  We'll celebrate the great province of Alberta and its many splendors under your government.  We'll look back at the headlines and social media posts that were filled with cynicism and you'll tell me what it was like to become Premier during one of the hardest times in Alberta.  I'll raise the topic of women in politics and how the public had felt betrayed by their government and disappointed by a former female Premier.  You'll tell the world that as one of the first women to be in such a position, you had to work twice as hard, be twice as careful and operate with integrity above all because everyone was waiting to see you slip up. You'll tell stories about how you were tested many times throughout your career and never once gave into temptation or became corrupt with power.  We will be unhappy to see you step down as leader of the province, but it will be by choice:  to give others like yourself an opportunity to excel and to leave before you lost your passion for the job.  Your story will be a great example to the next generation and you will be credited for restoring our faith in political leaders after so many of them had let the public down.  I'm not talking about all of them, but enough that it made a difference.

We'll also talk about your achievements for the Alberta NDP.  We'll be impressed by how you took a group of mostly inexperienced MLAs and taught them how to run a province better than people who had been doing it for years, even decades.  You will rise above your predecessors who demonstrated injustice by ignoring the voices of people who were represented by someone with a differing perspective.  Your party will be known as the government that listens and respects all points of view.  You will show the world how a "leftist" party became a leader for businesses and took the energy sector to new heights.  And most importantly, you'll explain how you got our education and health care system back on track, cleaned up the environment, reunited municipalities, and repaired our economy while ensuring that Alberta was once again an affordable place to live for the masses.  You will continue to be good to our province long after we had forgotten how bad things had become and had started complaining about trivial things.  In short, you made believers of us all.

I'm writing this to you because I represent the optimistic Albertan - one who was fed up with a government with deaf ears and a dictatorial style.  I am not a Conservative, a Liberal, a New Democrat or loyal to any party.  I simply believe in fairness for all, I stand up for what's right and feel that we need to leave this place better than we found it.  There are those who are afraid of what Alberta will become because they've seen what has happened in other provinces in the past.  I'm not worried because I already know what our future has in store.  You will read this one day and you'll know there are people out there that understand your vision.  Many of us have the same vision, but very few have the opportunity and the ability to pull it off.  In 2015 I was inspired by your victory and filled with great hope for Alberta.

Sincerely,

A faithful Albertan

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