[1678] Parliamentary Campaign Thread

[Alfonso Velez]

VELEZ CAMPAIGN KICK OFF, PUNTA SANTIAGO CONVENTION CENTER

Citizens of Alduria,

It's an honour to stand before you again as the Liberty & Democracy party submits itself once again to the will of the Aludrian people. In the upcoming election, you're going to hear from a lot of people about what they want to do. We'll be sharing in that message--but we also will be proclaiming what we have done. Over the past 5 years, we have lead the way in making our great Republic better. We ask you to return your trust to us once again and give us another 5 years to build on that success to make our Republic even stronger.

What have we accomplished? First and foremost, we have stepped up to ensure that our great Republic is protected. This Government has invested unprecedented amounts of money into our armed forces. Through our serious investment in our armed forces, we are ensuring that we are protected from all threats--and that our military is armed with the best technologies which they need in order to do their mission. The National Defense Authorization Act that we passed will ensure that this great Republic is safe from threats for many years to come. We also lead the charge to ensure that our brave men and women in the armed forces receive a free college education--the least that we can do to thank them for their noble service.

What else have we accomplished? We lead the fight and won to ensure that every person in our Republic has the right to marry the person they love no matter what their gender is. We also fought against and won the battle against the National-Liberal Alliance to ensure that we don't politicize our bathrooms and that no person ever feels excluded or uncomfortable based on their gender or sexual identity. We enshrined important rights and liberties into the Constitution to ensure that every citizen has a right to basic liberties no matter who they are, no matter who they love, and no matter what their life circumstances may be. We also provided protections in the Constitution to make sure that extremists in the Aldurian National Alliance won't be able to roll back those protections without a significant majority of Parliament ensuring that our victories for the rights of all citizens will be protected throughout time against extreme far-right views. We also fought and won to ensure that no one will ever be incarcerated for smoking a harmless plant.

What else have we done, you ask? We addressed and solved a water crisis and enacted legislation to ensure that we will never face this crisis again. We took decisive action to deal with the security situation in Corrada del Rio. We created a criminal code for the Republic, and we also fulfilled a key pledge of our party to increase power to local and provincial governments to have more power to Govern themselves. We've also passed legislation to protect and foster Aldurian culture and ensure that our history and values are shared and spread within our Republic and in the world at large. 

In short, we have used these 5 years that you have given us well to help develop and sustain our Republic--and with 5 more years, we will be able to make our Republic even stronger than before! What, then, is our vision for the next 5 years? Largely, it is building on the success and stability that the Liberty & Democracy party has fostered.

First and foremost, we will continue to address our number one priority--building up our military and our national defense. We have lead the way to strengthen our military in this short amount of time, and our efforts here have ensured that this Republic is safer than ever before. We will continue to invest heavily and make our military and national defense a top priority to ensure the safety of our citizens, our Republic, and our trade routes.

We will also take steps to help promote public health through programs designed to increase education about public health issues, tax credits to encourage medical companies to do more business with Alduria and to advance our health care system into the next stages of cutting edge technologies. We will also take steps to ensure our health insurance markets are closely regulated, while also promoting vibrant free-market competition to ensure that you have access to affordable insurance plans that also offer quality services. We will ensure that you will have unprecedented control over your healthcare options to find plans that work best for you and your family.

We will also take steps to continue to build and strengthen the economy of our Republic. Our policies over the past 5 years have helped strengthen our economy, and 5 more years of L&D will only continue this upward trajectory. We will place a greater emphasis on supporting and encouraging the growth of small businesses which form the backbone of our society by providing tax credits and removing red tape that prevents so many small businesses from succeeding. We will also promote greater trade relationships with other friendly nations which, in turn, brings money into our Republic and strengthens our economy. We will always put Alduria first--but we will also look to work in cooperation with our friends throughout the globe on mutually beneficial trade arrangements that help Aldorians.

Education will be a critical focus of the next L&D Government. We will look to encourage citizens to pursue higher education, and will look to create private-public partnerships to help educate the workforce of both today--and tomorrow. We will introduce legislation that will help train workers to adapt to ever-changing technology, and will partner with businesses to connect these workers to jobs upon graduation. We will also give more power to local and provincial governments to tailor basic education to suit the needs and strengths of their specific population. Our commitment to education and strengthening small businesses will also help create jobs. Through jobs and wage growth, Alduria will continue to grow and prosper.

We will continue to welcome immigrants from all corners of the globe! This great Republic has been built by immigrants from all places and all walks of life. We will not shy away from this strength as others have, but will encourage its continued growth. We will particularly encourage immigration by people with specific skills that are needed in our workforce but where there isn’t a sufficient number of qualified applicants. These people will help fill the vacancies today and train citizens on how to take these jobs for the vacancies of tomorrow. We can not and will not look at immigration as a problem, but rather as a great strength of our great Republic.

As our economy improves, we will also invest considerable amounts of money in infrastructure. A booming economy can only sustain itself with proper infrastructure--ports, roads, bridges, ferries, airports--all of these things are essential for a society to grow. We will take fiscally responsible steps to help build up the services that this Republic needs to serve its citizens and its economy. We will also ensure that the Water Crisis that threatened us several years ago will never be a problem again and that all citizens will have easy access to safe drinking water.

My friends, in the days ahead I look forward to taking our message of success and growth throughout all corners of our great Republic. In my stops and speeches throughout Alduria, I will go into even greater detail about how our party is best equipped to lead this Republic for another 5 years and present our citizens concrete proposals--not vague hopes or fears. Together we can and we will build on the successes that we have created over these past 5 years. I look forward to the opportunity to share my vision with this Republic in greater detail, and I humbly ask you to give this party and myself 5 more years to advance Alduria even further. 

Thank you my friends, may God bless you, and may God bless our Republic!