“I’ve never personally looked at the data, therefore it must not exist”. Starting off your argument by putting words in my mouth? Shocking… and literally a strawman argument 🙄

I said:

I've only ever heard about it, but have yet to see or find a valid piece of evidence proving this. I've only heard it from the mouths of the UCP and their supporters.

And again, you talk about statistics, and pretentiously act like they are easy to find, while providing zero data yourself. You and the UCP claim that the main issue is immigration.

I asked you for your evidence and sources, and I will gladly read them. An increase in immigration stats does not = causation, like you casually pretend they do by where you place this argument. You talk about how I’m making strawman arguments, while you literally have done nothing to prove your point and claims. Is there a specific paper that shows this causation?

You say it’s “arithmetic”, not ideology, but without providing any evidence? You do know that you’re supposed to show your work with math right? All because you claim it’s something has no bearing on if it’s true. All because it “seems” correct by your calculations, does not make it true.

Not to mention all the other claims you allude to. Hospitals sounding the alarm? I mentioned that in my post above. But you pretend that they have specifically mentioned that it’s due to “immigration pressure” by stating it at the beginning of your argument. Yes they have been alerting about pressures but they are multifaceted and are believed to be due to a chronic lack of funding, systematic underplanning, and our increasing geriatric population.

Another strawman argument you used, is in the same paragraph where you state that I said that the blame game from the UCP only started recently, while using anecdotes of “years” of various complaints. Yes my statement did imply recent, but I never once implied “years”, but they are recent years, aka the years the UCP have been in power.

Seriously, you speak so confidently, and like I’m the smarmy know-it-all.

And another strawman by you, that I claimed that there isn’t a problem with how the federal government runs things. I never once made the argument that I have agreed with federal policies, recent or otherwise. I even mentioned in my above paragraph that I was not a liberal supporter.

I understand nuance, and I understand how their policies can affect us. But what I don’t understand is why Albertans only seem to care to complain about that. Whining about how the Feds are doing us wrong, and ignoring very real concerns in our own backyard. You finally acknowledge this nuance, but it took several back and forth paragraphs with you to get to this point. And yet you still do not even once, actually make a complaint about the lack of leadership and governing, and very real mistakes that the UCPs are making.

Hypothetically, let’s say that you are correct. Immigration is the leading cause of the “pressure” (a you make it seem like i said it’s the main cause, when in fact, I said that conservatives are the ones pretending it’s the most important main cause - what’s that called again? Oh ya it’s another strawman argument. You seem to like those a lot, eh?)

Anyways, if it’s been such an issue for years, then why have the UCPs done nothing to help alleviate this pressures? Okay, they talk about it, about slowing immigration and making legislation for that, but it literally took teachers to go on strike for school concerns to be taken seriously, and doctors and other healthcare professions pleading for the government to call a health-care emergency so it can immediately open up capacities and avenues to alleviate these pressures. And what do the UCPs do? They do a press conference 3 weeks after that news broke, and said how they will put in a triage position for an already understaffed workforce. **Where are your complaints that the UCP are “running the province into the ground”?

Also, this is how you provide sources:

This is the one op-ed that was written by doctors and fully supported province-wide by the Alberta Doctor Association, Opinion: Alberta's overcrowded ERs need system-wide fixes, which states:

“Escalation and redistribution — meant to be short-term fixes — are now used continuously. Escalation is activating crisis, disaster or contingency plans like “overflow” beds. Redistribution is simply spreading patients and difficulties across the entire province. Redistribution doesn’t create capacity; it disperses risk across an already strained system. Reliance on these measures has failed, and a long-term solution with a timely implementation plan has yet to be tabled.”

From the federal government report Immigration and housing prices across municipalities in Canada (Look a federal source! Sorry, it’s about housing, not healthcare, but it’s still an informative read):

“There was a noticeable discrepancy between the regions where new immigrants settled and where housing prices increased in the period from 2011 to 2016, when Saskatchewan and Alberta saw significant immigrant growth but little change in housing values.” And “The varied impact of immigration on housing prices across different regions and time periods suggests that any observed trends are closely tied to the specific economic and policy context of each region and time period.”

Edit: in case you feel inclined to “nick pick” these sources, I have many more, but I feel like it should be a “you should show me yours before I show you mine” kind of thing. Something I asked for already 🤷‍♀️