We're paying for what?

So Ed Stelmach is busy running around the province making campaign announcements using public buildings. First we have Stelmach thinly disguising his campaign kickoff speech as a throne speech, then using the legislature media room for his "comment" on the "throne" speech. So in other words, the Stelmach Tories used taxpayer dollars to kick off their campaign. Next we have Stelmach making an announcement using the Capital Health Region's boardroom. When pressed by reporters about the issue, the CEO of the Capital Health Region said that requests are made on a case by case basis and then stormed off. Want to bet that if another party had wanted to use the board room it would have been unavailable? Neither the PC's or the Health Region would comment if the Tories had rented the room or if the Health Region had just given it to them.

It's bad enough when politicians use our money to buy our votes with last minute election spending announcements. It's even worse when it seems that they're campaigning using the taxpayer's dime. At the very least, the optics of using government facilities for partisan reasons goes to show the level of arrogance the Tories are at. In any other province, there would be outcry at public dollars being used to finance the campaign of the governing party. Not in Alberta of course, with much of the provincial media not much more than a PC party newsletter. That is where the shame lies. Not only will the Tories use public money for their campaign, but the media and the voters will let them get away with it.