Political language is “designed to make lies sound truthful … and give an appearance of solidarity to pure wind,” wrote George Orwell in his 1946 essay 'Politics and the English Language.'.The 1984 author also opined that “political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible.”.Nowadays it’s called doublespeak..One trick is to heap whipping cream (promises) on top of something, without saying what you’re saying (the endgame) really means. Bait and switch?.Which brings us to Monday’s Alberta election and the NDP..It’s not so much the stuff NDP leader Rachel Notley promises if she wins..It’s what Notley intends to deliver in the package of goodies that she’s not telling you about..Former prime minister Stephen Harper recently summed up Notley’s record as premier 2015-2019 when he endorsed UCP Premier Danielle Smith..“We’ve seen what (the NDP) have done before — job-killing, tax-hiking, anti-energy policies that lead to mass layoffs.”.Alberta’s debt was $11.9 billion when Notley took control. Four years later when those Albertans who hadn’t fled the province in broke despair booted her out, the debt had soared to $86 billion..No wonder she doesn’t talk about her record. Just like she didn’t talk about introducing a carbon tax during the 2015 election campaign. It’s better to keep agendas that wouldn’t get you elected secret. It was a gross betrayal..The NDP is worried too many Albertans will remember and fear she’ll pull another devastating trick on them again..That’s why the NDP’s campaign strategy keeps hitting the replay button as candidates chant “Rachel Notley is a leader who says what she means and means what she says.”.Uh-huh. But what’s under the whipping cream?.Crime and safety are big issues across Alberta. The NDP promised to hire 150 more police and 150 more social workers, mental health and addictions counsellors and outreach workers for “integrated” teams..But, several NDP MLAs have hollered about defunding police and some in fact seem to despise them. Meanwhile, they have a soft spot for criminals. The NDP’s Comprehensive Public Safety Plan emphasizes “addressing the root causes of social disorder.” Notley hasn’t said who’ll be calling the shots on the integrated teams. Seasoned cops or social workers? The ‘safe streets’ pitch emphasizes monitoring offenders on bail, not keeping offenders behind bars. .Bait and switch..In Building a Better Future for Edmonton, the NDP promises $1.87 billion which will allegedly include creating 7,800 jobs. Well, that’s a little dent in the 183,000 Alberta jobs lost when she was premier. “Our downtown has thriving businesses, exciting restaurants, a world-class arena, and access to Canada's most beautiful river valley,” reads the NDP plan. The NDP blames COVID, a housing crisis and the UCP for Edmonton’s woes..Nope, nothing about the devastation Notley wreaked by hiking the minimum wage to $15-an-hour, a big factor in driving many thriving businesses into bankruptcy. She didn’t listen when experts warned her not to do it. She hasn’t said if she’ll listen to them this time when spending that $1.87 billion on Edmonton and $1.2 billion on the Better Future for Calgary promise. Now the NDP, the party that insists it can lure all kinds of investment to Alberta, is considering implementing a 38% corporate tax. What Notley doesn’t say is that is an industry-killing plan. Bait and switch..The NDP said Alberta is uniquely positioned to be a leader in the future economy. But the energy industry that actually is a leader now?.Says Notley, “Our province's best resource is not what is under the ground, it’s the people walking on top of it. With the right policies in place, we can address the challenges of today and set us down the path to prosperity.”.The right policies? Not energy. “Our energy sector has provided good jobs and prosperity for our province for generations, but we aren’t seeing the benefits of oil price booms of the past…We need to keep looking ahead to the future and continue moving our economy forward, while building on our strengths,” says the NDP..So, they bait you with a new and undefined industrial strategy that will make us all rich and good-looking. But they actually mean to switch to Trudeau’s Just Transition zero-emission green energy push that will make us into truckers and janitors, according to federal documents. Nothing against truckers or janitors, but you can be either right now if that's what you want. It wouldn't take a new set of 'right policies.' Meanwhile if you kill Alberta's energy industry and lose the tax base, how do you pay for all the bait?.Well, it was just bait..The NDP promises to hire more teachers and introduce smaller class sizes. Who could object on principle to bait like that? But, what are they going to be teaching in these smaller classes? Some party members seem obsessed with sex-ed — including graphic reading material and secret clubs — for all Alberta’s students, and it is these members that seem to be driving party policy. Many anxious parents have put their children in alternative schools, private, charter or home. The NDP is coy about what it intends for these education alternatives. Certainly, Rachel Notley has stated that the NDP would focus on public schools. What does that mean for the rest? Frozen funding? Cuts? Total elimination?.The NDP’s Commitments to Anti-Racism sounds noble but is dangerously racist and Orwellian. The NDP would legislate “anti-racism and race-based data collection and establish an anti-racism office to help identify and address racial inequalities.” It figures. It also fits nicely with Trudeau’s divisive talk about racists here, there, and everywhere. No, Notley doesn’t talk about how she’ll protect the wrongly accused. Or that the hunt for racists, real or not, will be on. But that's the ultimate bait and switch: When you're noisily virtue signaling over here, you can be quietly up to all sorts of unpraiseworthy things over here..Notley should explain why if racism is such a problem, Alberta remains so attractive to visible minorities, for their numbers have grown exponentially. (Since 2006 the proportion of visible minorities has risen from 20% to 35% — of a much larger population.).Rachel Notley promises all kinds of taxpayer funded goodies. She recently called on conservatives to come into the NDP fold..What about those that don’t, like the Wildrose folks, now UCP supporters, those her A-Team member former deputy premier Sarah Hoffman compared to sewer rats in 2017? Hoffman’s running again in Edmonton-Glenora. “We must stand together and defend the Alberta we know and we live in. Inclusive, welcoming, welcoming, anti-racist and pro trans rights,” said Notley recently..All buzzwords for the radical woke agenda embraced by the NDP. She doesn’t want equality – she wants people who disagree with the agenda to be silenced..The NDP tries to portray itself as a party of the people. Speeches at election press conferences are delivered with an air of moral superiority, pauses for dramatic effect and applause, and sprinkles of ‘emotion.’ They are contrived and rife with dishonesty and shameful fearmongering. Toss in this and that fib — Smith’s going to make Albertan’s pay for health care and steal pensions — to frighten, demonize the opponent..But Notley proclaimed: “I’ll work every day to earn your support, to earn your confidence, and most of all to keep your trust. And I will do that by doing the things I say I’m going to do.”.What she doesn’t say is ‘whether you like it or not.’.”Socialists cry “Power to the people” and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean – power over people, power to the State.” — Margaret Thatcher..There are too many other NDP issues to address in one column but here's the bottom line: Nothing the NDP promises can be taken at face value.
