Enough is enough … I'm not going to take this anymore!

I really don't give a rat’s ass if Gordon Campbell gets the Order of BC or not.  Why??  Because whether he is given this award of not, I know that ‘at this moment’ he does not deserve it!

Province newspaper columnist Michael Smyth stated what many of us think, and believe, when he said:
“ Campbell's appointment to the Order of B.C. was rushed with unseemly haste. While the written eligibility rules are fuzzy, the unwritten traditions around these type of recognitions stipulate a waiting period. That's why it took former premier Bill Bennett 21 years to receive his Order of B.C., while other ex-premiers are still waiting … Campbell's appointment was rammed through faster than the HST. The fact that Campbell's ex-deputy, Ken Dobell, who pleaded guilty to illegal lobbying just three years ago, was appointed to the order along with his old boss only makes the timing look worse.”

I do not wish to join the other loud chorus that says. 'he does not deserve it, period'.  That's because I will readily admit that while I TRY to do my best, I often fail miserably … but then I get up and try again to accomplish the things I am trying to do.  I want to think that of others as well … including the man many are at the moment demonizing – Gordon Campbell.

BUT given what I believe ... and what others are saying and thinking … there will perhaps come a time that we may wish to consider if Gordon Campbell is deserving of this award … but then again we will also need to take a look at others including former BC NDP Premier Dave Barrett.

Okay, you know what I DON’T care about … what do I do care about? 

Well I care about something that has been in the news a lot lately, and that’s the moving of long-term mentally and emotionally challenged people from smaller group and family styles homes they have been in … basically because the government no longer wants to allocate the money needed for these facilities.

“But Alan”, you say, “you’re a fiscal conservative … how can you take that point of view?”

I care because I am a fiscal conservative with a social conscience --- as I believe are most small “c” conservatives.

I like what my friend Sandy McDougall wrote on his Facebook wall this morning.  He said,

“It's true that we will be judged as a society based on how we treat the less fortunate among us and B.C. isn't doing well. The province has decided to battle its deficit on the backs of the community living employees of the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society. This will not be the last attack on these people. We must stand as a united community to tell the government this madness must stop and that we will not allow these people to become the symbol of our failure to do the right thing”

A second later posting had similar comments, although it included more:

“As a society we will ultimately be judged on how we treat the less fortunate among us. If that is true, a terrible judgment day awaits us if we allow funding cutbacks by the province to continue to wreak havoc in the lives of clients and employees of community living groups and group homes in our community. Ongoing attempts to reduce, consolidate or eliminate some very successful group homes is devastating to the residents of those homes and the dedicated staff members who struggle from month.”

Those are important things he had to say -- and I agree with him.

I also care about the fact that this BC Liberal government, led by Christy Clark, is taking money from classrooms and hospitals, passing it on to the Pacific Carbon Trust, who then shovel it out to corporations like energy giant Encana and forestry companies like Interfor.

I care about a government more concerned about the here and now and seeing immediate unsustainable results.   That is happening in family services and health programs where more and more government is going to the immediate knee-jerk reactive action … rather than working on long-term pro-active solutions with measureable targets to be achieved over the length of action being initiated .

I care about a government that despite the words they say about being a government of free-enterprise and financial management – are simply being a lighter version of the NDP – a government that continues to increase debt and deficit on a daily basis.

I care about the $5 to $6 million dollars a day being spent by this government to service the costs of that debt – instead of going into new schools in places like Surrey --- or textbooks and other resources right here in Kamloops.

I care about the $5 to $6 million dollars a day being spent by this government to service the costs of that debt – instead of going into medical facilities to provide new modern equipment … to finding ways to provide for more family doctors and other needed medical professionals.

I care about the $5 to $6 million dollars a day being spent by this government to service the costs of that debt – instead of going into finding ways to keep emergency medical services open in smaller communities like Princeton, Chase, Logan lake, and elsewhere … instead of those community health centres hanging “Sorry We’re Closed” sign on their doors.

And finally, I care about government that is not accountable or responsive to the people that elect it --- and party politics that insist MLA’s toe the party line, rather than listen to the will of the people they are elected to “represent”.

Today I’m ticked by all of the crap that has being happening recently, and like character Howard Beale in the movie Network, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops … and these are the thoughts of one conservative … a conservative with a social conscience.