Thread by @RKSAlberta

🧵I was a longtime @AlbertaParty supporter and member, Regional Organizer for #yeg and Chair and VP of Comms.
During my time with the party we grew into a semi-serious party, elected an MLA under the banner, attracted floor crossers from both the NDP and UCP. #ableg #abelxn23

I contributed thousands of dollars and hours to help build the party along with many other smart, capable, and caring Albertans - full time in my case for 3 years, in addition to a full time job.

Despite missteps, and strategic errors on the part of our board, our leaderS (plural), and candidates - we had our best vote share in 2019 - getting the second highest vote share without electing an MLA in two generations.

But politics is about being electable and achieving

Policy objectives. It's not enough to do ok, and it's not enough to be nice people with good ideas. You need to be able to get a seat at the table.

Every election, we hear this is the most important election, and while that may feel true in the moment, it's a scare tactic to

Force people into a binary choice, typically.

This election is no different. But the binary choice isn't a choice between team blue or team orange.

It's a choice between team democracy and decency and a team of authoritarians with no respect or understanding of our democratic

norms and institutions. It's a choice between a party that will remove candidates/MLAs who are even suspected of breaking the law, and one that is full of people who have broken the law and been elevated to the senior echelons of power instead of their careers ending.

It's a choice between a premier who has admitted when she has made mistakes and is committed to listening and consulting to be better, and a premier who when she breaks the law and interferes in and undermines the integrity of our justice system and democracy, hides, lies,

And misleads about the conclusions of investigational findings.

And so while I have immense respect for many people in my former party, there is so much on the line with this election, and you need to decide what kind of society we are prepared to exist in.

Are we prepared to have a Premier and Deputy Premier who have both been found to interfere or attempt to interfere in the justice system?
Are we prepared to allow MLAs that dehumanize children, comparing them to literal pieces of shit?
Are we prepared to allow candidates

Who suggest that black people are bad parents, relentlessly addicted to drugs and have a victimhood complex, that can't escape ghetto culture?
Are we prepared to be lied to about basic verifiable facts? Are we willing to have a Premier who thinks that religious extremists are

Above the law and that police who are doing their jobs enforcing those laws should be fired and arrested for acting in good faith?
Are we prepared to have a government that turns its back on people in crisis, including wildfire ravaged communities - so that they can attend

A high end partisan fundraiser before accepting offers for help?
Are we prepared to allow ourselves to be compared to Nazis who are brainwashed and mentally ill because 90% of us rolled up our sleeves and protected one another in arguably the worst pandemic of our life?

I'm not. And I can't support anyone who risks that for us.
So while I am not a member, and my next vote may be up for grabs again, right now, as @LukaszukAB says, I'm lending my vote to the @albertaNDP and @RachelNotley.
Wherever you are, I hope you will too. #ableg #abelxn23

And then I hope that Take Back Alberta and the UCP get the message that Albertans are not extremists, and we need an option that will be reasonable and pragmatic, not one that tears at our social and democratic fibre in order to try and win.

And if they can't or won't, I hope either the Alberta Party or the @GreenPartyAB take up the mantle to do the work, starting without delay, to present those options for Albertans, in the interest of a healthy democracy with intelligent opposition.

There are three primary questions I have for you as you consider your vote:
1) who do you TRUST, even if you disagree on policy, will act with integrity and put forth a best, HONEST effort to represent all Albertans?

2) Has life been better or more affordable for you in the last

four years?

3) If you know someone who is gay, trans, Indigenous, POC, disabled, has a learning disability, is a senior, or a member of another marginalized community - which leader will help raise all boats, not just those who can donate and are already living enriched lives?