We need to stop letting history repeat itself

Let me tell you about my struggles as a low-income single mother.

My employers and province keep letting me down, taking and taking. I am only a name on paper. I am just a pathetic low income earner who struggles to balance my expenses and wonders what will come next. I mean, really, what else can they take? How else can they hurt me?

I do my part for my province. I work, pay taxes, I invest in my local economy, I conserve, recycle, I even compost! If the future of our environment looks bleak due to illness, global warming and drought it’s certainly not because of my actions. I don’t fly to a 30 minute meeting in Ottawa every other week.

Yet me and my children will suffer from the frivolous acts of the rich and wasteful. The stresses of my day-to-day could be made that much easier by turning to social assistance. I’m weighing the pros and cons of working versus welfare. My employer wants to know how we can cut costs so they don’t have to cut jobs. Is this for real? That was not part of my job description! Isn’t that your job, elected MHAs? If you can’t figure that out then maybe your job should be cut.

I didn’t support Muskrat Falls from the start; pathetic little me knew it meant debt for me and my province. But now I’m paying for it — something I didn’t sign up for.

Times are changing and we need to stop letting history repeat itself. Oil burns, dries up. Wind and solar energy would never let us down like our government has. Let’s stop letting greed and ego cloud the vision of our future. Because I am a giver, because I am honest, because I care about the well-being of my neighbour — that makes me an easy target. When you think about the hounds of the Confederation Building, do any of these attributes come to mind? When I think of the characteristics of our provincial government I think: dishonest, greedy, disloyal. You know, kind of like “I want to sell you this piece of crap car so I’ll tell you what I think you want to hear so I can make the sale…but I hope you don’t do much highway driving.”

The economy? It’s just a thing. Our ecology and our environment its the very bane of our very existence, of the future of our children and many many to come after. So why not invest in that? Because that’s not the quick-fix, get-rich-quick kind of government thinking we have. Where would we be if we did not invest in Muskrat Falls? Where would we be if this project were never to have come to light?

Enlighten me, someone.

Andria Edison / St. John’s

Read The Independent’s ongoing coverage of austerity and Budget 2016: