Dr Norlaine Thomas (She/Her) Profile picture
May 20 21 tweets 4 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
I know that there are a bunch of Albertans who look at what Danielle Smith and the UCP want to do, even the parts they don't want to talk about, and they agree with all of it. There are Albertans who think the healthcare system should be privatized.
#AlbertaElection2023 1/21
Maybe they feel somehow that sick or injured people should have to pay to show them the error of their ways so they smarten up and don't do whatever it was again. Maybe it galls them to think that some of their tax dollars are helping someone else, maybe even
2/21
someone they would disapprove of. Albertans secure in the knowledge that they, and those they care about, will never be in the position of being denied medical treatment because they haven't got enough money. Because those things only happen to bad people, right?
3/21
And there are a bunch of Albertans who don't believe in public education. They feel children should be educated at home, whatever their parents feel they should learn (because parents know best about everything, right?), and not be exposed to any ideas or people the parents
4/21
disagree with.
There are a bunch of Albertans who are happy to put their retirement savings at risk by pulling out of CPP, because the UCP knows what they're doing, and boy! It will feel good to stick it to the rest of Canada.
5/21
There are a bunch of Albertans who are completely unconcerned with what negative impact the UCP may have on democracy in Alberta, because they don't really approve of democracy. Democracy means there is a risk that someone they don't agree with might get elected.
6/21
Better to just shut that right down. They don't really want there to be other parties, or other points of view. We are seeing evidence all over of this in the form of vandalized NDP signs. And rumours that TBA is training their followers to be scrutineers and challenge
7/21
voters they think might not vote the right way.
There are Albertans who are comfortable with the UCP directing the police and the justice system. With people without homes, people who use drugs being rounded up and taken away. Probably also with people who don't "fit",
8/21
or are critical of the government, being rounded up and taken away too. We don't need all that divisiveness, right? It would be so much simpler if everyone just embraced the natural order, where men are men, and women are women and know their place. And people of colour
9/21
also know their place. And everyone thinks the same way, and knows how to keep their heads down and work hard and not ask questions. The good people, people of faith, would run everything. And the poor would be taken care of by charities where people could
10/21
donate if they wished, but no one is forcing them to, like they do with taxes.
And there's a bunch of Albertans who think it would be dandy if Alberta just seceded from Canada. Maybe form our own country or, you know, join the US.
11/21
Then there would be fewer gun laws and people could carry their guns anywhere they want, and no one would dare trespass or steal anything because the homeowners would have real rights and they would shoot anyone they didn't want near their house. And then
12/21
it would be so much safer. Like it is in the US.
If this describes you, you may as well stop reading right now. I'm not talking to you. Nothing is going to change your worldview.
I am talking to those who haven't really been paying attention and vote blue out of habit.
13/21
It's time to think long and hard about what voting blue means this time around. These are not Lougheed's conservatives. These aren't even Klein's conservatives. Some say they aren't even conservatives at all. These are people whose primary goal is not the well-being
14/21
of Albertans. Their primary goal is to harvest everything of value from this province, from our eastern slopes to our personal savings, and hand it over to oligarchs. RStar, a program to give $20Billion of public money, YOUR money, to profitable corporations
15/21
to get them to do what they are already required by law to do (and once they have the money, what makes you think anything will change?). Privatizing healthcare through the back door, paying public money to for-profit corporations who charge more and provide less.
16/21
Privatizing education, or putting the education of the future of this province into the hands of parents with no training in education and, possibly, little formal education themselves. Cutting social services, letting schools collapse, allowing the healthcare system to
17/21
implode while doctors and nurses flee to other provinces where they won't risk extreme burnout.
This is not hyperbole. Look at the UCP record. Look at what Danielle Smith has consistently said, what UCP candidates are saying, what the TBA mob is saying...
18/21
This is not the election to just go and vote blue because your family always has. It's time to think carefully about whether these goals align with your values. It's time to think about what 4 years of UCP rule could do. I know, you've been told the NDP
19/21
will "destroy" Alberta. You've been told that by the UCP, the TBA, the APP, and the corporations that stand to benefit from a UCP win. Isn't it time to think for yourself? Because they don't care about you. You have to figure out what will be best for you and your family.
20/21
And you have to vote. Bad governments are elected by people who don't bother to vote. Just look at Ontario. This election is about trust, leadership, and accountability. Who do you trust?
21/21
#FireTheUCP

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More from @Norlaine

May 18
"Food quality is down and the price is up" This was the news this morning about how privatizing AB hospital cafeterias has impacted food delivery. This is the exact and predictable effect of adding a profit motive to anything. Minimize costs and maximize revenue.
This works the same for healthcare. The profit motive means that for-profit companies will do things as cheaply as possible and charge as much as possible. They are in the business of making profit. That's what they do. And it doesn't matter if they are manufacturing tires or
replacing hips, or providing food. The profit is the point. Not traveler safety, or patient wellness, or making sure medical staff working long shifts have something good and nutritious to eat to help them get through the hours. It is all about the profit.
Read 7 tweets
Apr 20
In December 2018, the NDP Government of Alberta passed the Mental Health Services Protection Act to ensure that counsellors and people providing mental health treatment were certified. Prior to this, just anyone could take people's money and "treat" them. 1/9 #abpoli
The Association of Counselling Therapy of Alberta came into being. However, the UCP stalled the process of accrediting the professional organization, so it is still the case that anyone can claim to provide counselling services, without oversight. 2/9
cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…
People have puzzled over why the UCP hasn't acted to prevent charlatans from taking people for a ride while claiming to treat mental illness and addiction. And now, perhaps, we have the answer...
3/9
Read 9 tweets
Apr 20
So, Stephen Harper has issued a video statement wherein he urges Albertans to vote UCP. One must assume he is onside with the TBA agenda. He has never liked Canada, but it seems almost traitorous to urge Albertans to vote for a separatist group. As we have discovered 1/6 #abpoli
the Take Back Alberta organization is, and as we have also learned, TBA pretty much controls the UCP from the inside. The UCP is effectively run by the same people who blocked the border at Coutts and occupied Ottawa. And Harper thinks they are A-OK. This speaks volumes 2/6
about him. I always suspected he was a corporate raider, back when he was PM. His job was to break Canada up so corporate interests could swoop in and harvest whatever might be of value. Oil, lumber, minerals, water. Even the cost of healing the sick. And now, with his rabid 3/6
Read 6 tweets
Apr 14
Our dystopian neighbour, summed up. Canadians, we must guard against this from becoming our reality. There are forces here who want this in our country too. Look at the conservative party platforms, federally and provincially. They call for unfettered access to guns, 1/
Minimum wage reductions, privatized health care and education, erosion of workplace/consumer/environmental regulations (aka "cutting red tape", or "eliminating gate-keepers"), fewer social programs, 2/
Control over women's bodies, pay to play politics, reduced immigration and othering of the BIPOC population, free speech but only if they agree/it flatters them, control of the media, theocratic governance... 3/
Read 5 tweets
Apr 13
Something that really bugs me is how politicians on the right, and their various spokespeople and media affiliates, can brazenly lie about things and get no pushback. Right now in Alberta, Danielle Smith is robocalling all Albertans to say the NDP is lying about her 1/7 #abpoli
thinking about privatizing healthcare. She basically says it never crossed her mind, obviously, because that would contravene the Canada Health Act. And yet, she wrote a policy paper in 2021 for the U of C that says exactly that. And then, while campaigning for the UCP 2/7
leadership, she says it again, over and over, on video. And, even since she won the leadership race and became premier, she has said it, again, recorded. These artefacts don't cease to exist just because she was suffering in the polls and decided she needed a different 3/7
Read 7 tweets
Mar 27
I watched the Waco documentary on Netflix. Then I went and scanned the Twitterverse for commentary. I don't know anything about the filmmakers. I finished watching with the feeling they were very sympathetic to the Branch Davidians and very condemning of the FBI.
1/16
And, certainly, it is clear that the situation was handled very badly. But the lack of communication and co-operation by federal agencies, and the weird screw-ups they made along the way, does not make what was happening at Mount Carmel right.
2/16
Yes, the authorities bungled the operation from day 1. Yes, there was terrible loss of life in the end, including many children. None of this makes David Koresh or the Branch Davidians heroes in this story.
3/16
Read 18 tweets

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