Alberta is NDP

So, last night, the province next door, decided they wanted a change, after umpteen years of a "progessive Conservative" government.
  Now, as old as I am, I remember vividly what happened in our province when the NDP got into the driver's seat. Fair warning, it was NOT good. In fact we are paying dearly for all of their changes even today..remember ICBC and how it was going to make it fair for every single driver in the Province? Yeah..how has that one played out? We are already overburdened by carrying those who either can't work, or chose not to. Those who can't, well, I am all for giving them support. Those who chose not to, because they refuse to cut the pot out, and can't pass a pi$$ test, or don't want to move to where they can support themselves and their families, I am not for supporting them! NDP, has always had the stigma of being bleeding hearts, and gouging those who work damn hard to try and get their sh*t together, to hand their hard earned dollars over to those less fortunate. They have a reputation of putting a stop to industry. Hey, again, I am old, I remember! I remember the logging and the mining going down the toilet, and tourism suddenly the "industry" that was going to make all of us happy. I remember every little dink a$$ town getting a nice new "clinic" that never ever was utilized.
  So...I see Alberta within months, reeling from the changes that will occur. They have made a mistake, there is no doubt in my mind. What was one of the richest provinces, will find themselves progressive again, progressively poorer. One of the first things out of the leader's mouth is the fact she wants to raise the minimum wage to $15. Hey, that sounds lovely, but....in my mind there is no reason to raise the wage. Wages are needed to survive the cost of living..maybe instead of simply pushing the wage rate up, she could sit down and perhaps figure out how to lower the cost of living? Guess that is much harder than upping the amount employers pay, which in turn, most folks know, will cause prices to increase. The cost of paying employees has to be offset somehow, and...hey, the price of whatever they sell, or provide, will have to go up, so they can continue to make a profit, right? Wages do not come out of thin air, folks have to look outside the box. Oh, people are silly, they are just hearing that Joe Blow making burgers at Micky Dee's will be making $15 an hour, hummm..how is Micky going to pay that? The burgers will become costlier, and in my mind, they are already far too pricey for "fast food".
  So, do I blame the folks in Alberta for voting PC out? Not at all!! They didn't have a choice. We, as a country, don't have a choice! Our neighbour's in the USA don't have a choice. Our countries have nothing decent to choose from, so Alberta voted something different in, because they were totally fed up with the ones they had. I am totally fed up with the ones we have, I am totally fed up with our federal government, but....there is nothing out there that I feel is any better.
 I realize when the "big" election happens here, the party will change. There is no doubt in my mind, provincially or federally. This will happen, because what we have, is not working. There will be many who feel Pierre Jr. will fix things, or maybe Thomas, but, not me! I think we are totally F*cked! Our governments are no different than those in the "undeveloped" countries. Once they get to the top of the tower, and see what they have to work with, they focus on the top of the tower, and give no thought to those in the middle. Thoughts center on the top, with some consideration of the very bottom, they forget about the middle, they use the middle as the source of all.
  Here is a question...if indeed Alberta raises the minimum wage to $15, who is going to be in the middle? Middle Class is how our countries survive. I was raised middle class, I have always been middle class, but it is getting harder and harder to remain middle class..and it is not because after all these years I have almost made it to the top..it is because those at the bottom have managed to catch up to me, without the hard work, and struggle. I simply pay bills on the stuff I "own", I don't get GST rebates, I lost the child tax benefits a year after they began. I apparently have enough money that I have to pay for my GST, and we had to pay to raise our children, oh,and we certainly didn't get any help with medical premiums.
  So..over time, our governments have created a brand new class, they have caused middle class to almost disappear, and now we have what we can call "the working poor". Those folks who work hard, to simply pay their bills. Those folks who look behind themselves and see a minimum wage group, that suddenly gets a raise. I don't see a nice fat raise coming our way, to help combat the extreme cost of living. I simply see each and every one of those folks who we get to pick from to run our country, checking out the stats, to see what they can suck out of us, in the middle!