Why I voted for Shannon Phillips

There has been a big "Anti-Wildrose" push on Facebook lately. While I am glad people are seeing the danger this party represents for an equitable society in Alberta, I'm not really a fan of the campaign. When I go to vote, I don't want to vote AGAINST somebody, I want to vote FOR somebody. And I'm very glad that in this round of elections I have a great option.

I voted for Shannon Phillips in the advanced polls because she's even more than just an alternative to the Wildrose. While she IS an absolutely fantastic and totally winnable candidate for Lethbridge West as an alternative to the Wildrose, Shannon and the Alberta NDP have a lot more to offer than just that.

Here are some of my reasons:
1) She's a rockstar. I met Shannon at the beginning of my university career when she led a media workshop for LPIRG. I was super impressed at how articulate, intelligent and all around savvy she was. She has continued to live up to that fantastic first impression.

2) She knows what she's talking about. Shannon is no new comer to politics and it shows. She's young but not naive, she gives her colleagues run for their money - anyone who has been to any of the forums this election knows what I mean. She calls out the other candidates with hard facts and with the experience she already has under her belt.

3) She has a great platform. Again I reiterate, in elections, I don't like to vote against someone, I want to vote FOR someone who will stand up for what I believe in and for what I want in my province. Shannon and the Alberta NDP will do that. They're plans for environmental sustainability, education, health care, resource management and Indigenous relations all reflect the values I hold myself.

4) Have I mentioned she's a rockstar?

5) She has the energy this city needs in a representative. Lethbridge is an exciting, growing city with a lot to offer, and Shannon knows how to represent that. You can see it in her campaign so far - she has been non stop. She's been talking to people in person, on their doorsteps, at their favourite events showing her support for US as Lethbians, not just asking us for OUR support.

Basically Shannon is just one of the most intelligent and articulate and high energy women I've met and I am so glad she's a candidate in my riding and that I get the privilege to vote FOR a great candidate like her rather than thinking I have to vote AGAINST someone else.

If you're interested in finding out more about Shannon's campaign, check out her website or her facebook page.

Polls are open tomorrow from 9am to 8pm. Find your polling station here and go exercise your right to vote!

Federal Budget 101

Alright - so I'm a little slow out of the gate, but I wanted to share a couple Federal-Budget 101 pages I saw and found pretty useful in explaining the recently revealed budget.  Click the picture to see the full page.

Above is the first page of an infographic from the Globe and Mail, and it has a few more graphics that explain a lot. For example, in the "departmental cuts" section we can see something that really freaked me out. Health care and national defense spending got a similar cut - just over 5% each. BUT. Health care's budget lost $309.9 million, while defense lost over a BILLION. With a B! Meaning - provinces get a little over 5.4 billion to pay for doctors and hospitals while the army gets almost 20 billion dolllars, more than three and a half times more... Excellent.

What I was disappointed not to see in the G&M highlights was how the budget affects Indigenous communities in Canada.

The Huffington Post was also on the ball and added pictures to their interpretation of the budget as well - click the picture to see their highlights, which do include the budget changes for Aboriginal education.

Among some of the high profile cuts/gains you may or may not have heard about

• Yes, they're getting rid of the penny. Costs more than one cent to make it, so they've scrapped it. My sister is not pleased.
• Katimavik is cut. As someone who believes firmly in getting youth involved in their communities, and providing opportunities for them to learn through travel, I am not impressed. Shows the Conservatives don't place a value on all the service these youth provide to their communities. And since communities program funding is also getting cut left right and center, not sure where the organizations that get help from Katimavik volunteers are going to get all those hours from. While I don't know the specifics of how Katimavik's money is being spent, I'mm sure they deserve at least a review of their expenditures, rather than being cut all together. I'm not opposed to more efficiency in these kinds of programs, I encourage it, but they weren't even given a chance to do so.
• CBC lost 10% of their funding. Not as bad as some had feared but not good.
• The Community Access Program (CAP or C@P) which provides free or low cost internet to Canadians through community centres, libraries and other access points has been cut abruptly, cutting off low income Canadians from things like job posting, tax information and forms and basic things like email. Only 54% of homes with an income of $30,000 or less have access to internet, yet the funding was still cut. 
• Canada is going to stop policing nutrition claims on food labels. Better start learning what all those ingredients really mean and stop believing claims of "low sodium, high fiber, low fat, organic..." (but really, those really should never have been our guiding lights when purchasing food.)
• Canada's budget for development assistance was cut drastically as well. An amount equal to CIDA's "basic education budget, immunization budget and the funding to fight tuberculosis" has been cut - a change from 2010, when the government capped the spending. Was that supposed to ease the people around the world into not expecting more help from the privileged nation of Canada? Well, now the cuts have come, a detriment not just to our reputation but to our ability to fight the causes and consequences of extreme poverty around the world.   
• And finally, in the gains column - a new national park in Toronto. Maybe next time the G20 comes to town, they won't have to build a fake lake...